Kenneth Tam

March update: Don’t miss MMoCA’s new installation, Kenneth Tam: Silent Spikes, opening Saturday in the Museum's newly expanded Imprint Gallery on Nov. 6. Organized by the Queens Museum in New York by Assistant Curator Sophia Marisa Lucas, the exhibition travels to MMoCA after its recent presentation at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Don't miss a virtual artist talk with Kenneth Tam on Thursday, January 13, 2022, at 7 PM on Facebook Live.

In this solo exhibition, Tam reflects upon the underrecognized connection between the histories of westward expansion and immigration in the U.S. The artist brings attention to the role of the Chinese immigrants who worked on the construction of the treacherous western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad (1863-1969), and explores archetypical expectations of masculinity in relation to intersections of gender, economics, and race. Tam’s two-channel video reimagines the iconic trope of the cowboy, and juxtaposes this figure against the backdrop of little-known histories of immigrant labor in the American West.

The exhibition’s title refers both to railroad spikes, the large nails used to secure tracks, and the over 20,000 exploited and silenced Chinese laborers without whom this most arduous segment of the railroad would never have been completed.

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