Fish TalesFrom the Artist My art has always been centered around relationships and how memory and context shape those relationships. Although my art, at first glance, seems innocent and slightly offhanded, upon closer study it reveals a sublime message of form and content. It belies the idea of a two dimensional view of traditional Asian American assimilation andchallenges the notion of art by an artist of color, as well as being marginal. From Brandywine

Willie Cole's work uses contexts of postmodern eclecticism and combines references and appropriation from African and African American imagery

the connection between presentationon skin (signs) and the pattern-detail of sign used on the dress

the recorded and the imagined pressed against each other until the boundary between them becomes the subject

—and parallelism

sitting very upright on the couch

public art commissions

She gave us ideas that were drawn from African folklore

All my work is centered by what Allen Ginsberg called"the dearness of the vanishing moment

My ideas come from seeing everything possible in the outside world

in my mind

of watching helplessly as age and disease slowly take away the vitality and essence of life from those we know and love

broadwayworld