![\"Mel](\"https:\/\/artorg.info\/wp-content\/files\/MR_1.jpg\")
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Video Installation at ArtOrg\u2019s Moving Walls Gallery: \u201cA Moderate Immigration Story\u201d <\/p>\n
Between the sensational accounts of sneaking groups of \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d across the border and the relative ease with which people of wealth can enter the U.S. lies another story \u2013 the \u201cmoderate\u201d immigration story. This more temperate immigration account is told by video installation artist Mel Racho in \u201cWhy are you here? (And where is your accent?),\u201d opening at ArtOrg\u2019s Moving Walls Gallery (200 Division St. South, #140 Northfield) on Friday, July 14. \u201cWhy Are You Here? (And Where Is Your Accent?): The Moderate Immigration Story\u201d Dates: \tJuly 14\u201323 Video Installation at ArtOrg\u2019s Moving Walls Gallery: \u201cA Moderate Immigration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gallery","category-general","category-primary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pyxFx-27","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artorg.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAt the center of Racho\u2019s piece is her family; middle-class people in the process of a first-generation immigration to the U.S. from Jakarta, Indonesia. Part Brady Bunch, part INS interview, \u201cWhy are you here?\u201d utilizes video and custom electronics to create a \u201cconversation\u201d between parents and children. On six screens, the Racho siblings, Allen, Aron, Alex and Mel, respond to video of their parents, Alberto and Elena, who ask them question<\/a>s about their experiences of immigrating and living in America.
\nThis is the story of the Racho family \u2013 a middle class family of six \u2013 dealing with the slow process of immigrating to the country. It is neither rife with the hardship of illegality nor the relative ease of affluence, yet this particular story paints no less a relevant picture of what it means to immigrate to America today. There was no Ellis Island and no exceptional turn of wealth. For Racho\u2019s family, coming to America could not even be called a calculated, life-long plan. Rather, it was a process that evolved gradually from a desire to create a permanent home. Because of its tempered nature, this story is one that is often overlooked in favor of either more extreme immigration narratives. It provides a crucial perspective to the immigration dialogue currently at play in the local, national, and global dialogue today.
\n\tRacho, ArtOrg\u2019s Summer \u201906 Artist-in-Residence, was born in the Philippines and raised in Indonesia. Moving to this country when she was 18, she earned a BFA in Studio Art and English at Grinnell College. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art and Media at Columbia College Chicago. Working through an interdisciplinary framework, she combines video and sculpture with narrative text, exploring the themes of reconciliation and reconstitution in terms of how parts \u201csalvage\u201d or retain the whole within them. She often employs fragmentation as a means of telling a story.
\n\t\u201cWhy are you here?\u201d will debut at ArtOrg in Northfield before it moves to galleries in Chicago, Ohio, and New York. <\/p>\n
\nA video installation by Mel Racho, curated by Lisa Otte<\/p>\n
\nOpening Exhibition: July 14, 6 p.m. \u2013 9 p.m.
\nLocation:\tArtOrg Moving Walls Gallery, 200 Division St. South,
\nNorthfield, MN 55057
\nContact: \tLisa Otte \/ lisa.otte@gmail.com \/ 612.239.4105\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"