A new exhibit at the Arts + Literature Laboratory will bring the works of eight local Hmong artists who express their experiences with displacement, adaptation and healing.
Stitching the Story: Capturing Heart and Resilience through the Story Cloth is a joint effort from the Arts + Lit Lab, the Southeast Asian Healing Center and Lab^4 Community Curation team. It looks to celebrate traditional artistry and storytelling through paj ntaub — which translates to flower cloth — to tell the stories of eight Madison-based Hmong artists and their journeys.
The exhibition highlights the work of Chang Lee, Lou Vang, Mai Vang, See Vang, Kia Yang, See Yang, Thao Yang, and Kong Xiong, whose embroidery bridges generations and geographies.
The exhibit is part of an 8-week series of exhibits by a group of community members in Arts + Lit Lab’s recently started Lab^4 Community Curation Team. The team consists of four teams of Madison-area artists from multiple disciplines and backgrounds. It works to create two summers of programming with this marking its first season and second showcase.
(Photo by Omar Waheed)
Lab^4 plans to have its showcases embody the different facets of home including migration and forced migration, said Jolynne Roorda, co-director of Arts + Lit Lab.
“In partnership with the Southeast Asian Healing Center, the curators chose to display work by eight Hmong artists who embroider their experience of displacement, adaptation, and healing into intricate designs,” Roorda said.
The exhibit marks the importance of Wisconsin being home to the third-largest Hmong population in the United States. More efforts to bring more equitable representation have continued to sweep throughout the state after Gov. Tony Evers signed 2023 Wisconsin Act 266 — which required public schools to include the history and contributions of Hmong Americans in curriculums — in April 2024.
Stitching the Story will expound Hmong history as the eight artists will present works rife with cultural history. Receptions will also be held to speak on works presented with the first on Friday, July 11, 6-8 p.m.
The reception will include Lou Vang and See Vang for “Textiles in Translation: Hmong Women Tell the Stories Behind the Artwork of Their Migration and The Secret War.”
Lou Vang was born in Laos, where she experienced loss at an early age. Her mother died when she was 8 years old and was ultimately raised by her father, Cai Kue Vang, during conflict and uncertainty. She fled to Thailand at 18 years old to escape persecution and later moved to Madison in 2005 with her husband and 10 children as one of the last waves of Hmong refugees.
(Photo courtesy of Arts + Literature Laboratory)
See Vang grew up in Laos and lived through the Secret War, a covert military operation between 1964 and 1973 where the U.S. supported the Royal Lao Government against communist forces and disrupted the North Vietnamese supply lines. She resettled in Madison in 1992 with her husband and six children and currently lives in Mt. Horeb.
Stitching the Story opens today and will remain up until Aug. 29. The first reception will be held July 11, and a second for all other exhibits will be held July 17, 6-8 p.m. No registration is required; the exhibits and receptions are free to attend.
Galleries can be viewed during Arts + Lit Lab’s normal hours, Tuesday-Friday, 10-5 p.m. and Saturday, noon-5 p.m.
