Pictures of Belonging--An Exhibit That Showcases "the Art of Resilience" Practiced by Artists Incarcerated During World War II Because of Their Japanese Ancestry

My book is about Ruth Asawa, but she was not the only artist or even the only female artist imprisoned because of her Japanese ancestry during World War II. Currently an exhibit at the Smithsonian that runs through August 17, 2025 features the artwork of three Japanese-American painters, all of them women: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Mine Okubo. The New York Times carried a review of the exhibit by Aruna D'Souza. 
     I was fascinated by the painting Wind and Dust by Mine Okubo.

This painting was created at the prison she was sent to in Topaz, Utah. This camp was notorious for the bleak, windy conditions, which she captures with the unadorned barracks surrounded by beige sand without a single tree or blade of grass in sight. But what I am drawn to in the painting is the image of the family all holding onto each other, rollled up into a ball while the winds of fortune buffet them on all sides.  The figures' closeness shows the way family bonds functioned to protect people, but simultaneously their defensive postures illustrate the fragility of those bonds under massive duress. The three individuals do not look at each other. They are just trying to survive. 

Ruth Asawa was incarcerated in Arkansas, not Utah. Okubo was already an accomplished artist when she was imprisoned, but Ruth was just a highschool student. Ruth did not create paintings of the camps. However, after being imprisoned behind barbed wire, she chose wire as her favorite medium. With wire she wove her mysterious sculptures that cast mesmerizing shadows on the walls.