The Rat Scroll
This is the artist statement for the Rat scroll, one of 12 paintings that make up the artwork series “The Audacity to be Asian in Rural America: we owe you no apologies” created in May of 2021 as a part of Springboard for the Arts’ Artists Respond: Equitable Rural Futures.
The Rat Scroll is about home and belonging.
The Rat Scroll
The painting itself measures 27” x 40”, but in its final form mounted to silk brocade, it unravels to 3’ x 6’. This painting depicts a rat with a swirl in its belly from a side perspective with its head turned as if it's looking backward. From the ear and neck down, the rat is outlined in green; and, in the background are faint ghostly pointed arches.
My family raised me to believe that, of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, the Rat represents the attributes of resilience, fertility, intelligence and wealth. The story in this scroll is about my and my mother’s immigration to the United States.
I was conceived as the second child of a family residing in Lanzhou, Gansu during the era of China’s ‘One Child Policy.” This meant that my conception was illegal and once the government would become aware of this, their coercion efforts toward my mother to terminate her pregnancy would commence.
My mother told me that my father moved mountains to make it possible for me to be born.
Having been born in Iowa, my father was a US citizen. Prior to moving to China to marry my mother, my father owned a small one bedroom cabin on Wall Lake just outside of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. When my parents realized the only way I could be born would be for them to relocate to the US, my father booked a return flight. He got to work on all of the networking and paperwork necessary for the US government to allow my mother and brother to step foot on American soil and, miraculously, in February of 1992, they finally did.
This was miraculous for many reasons, but mostly because they arrived in the US just 10 days before my Chinese government-appointed abortion date.
I can’t imagine or empathize with any of what my mother had felt or experienced during her pregnancy because, having been born in the US, I am far too privileged. This painting is not about summarizing or trying to communicate her lived-experience. This painting is about the reverence I have for my mother because she sacrificed her life to give me mine.
The Payne’s Gray ghostly arches are painted in a repeated pattern across the background to represent the commonality amongst a community that can foster feelings of familiarity and belonging. The swirl positioned in the belly of the rat represents me during my fetus phase in utero; I incorporated the color green to represent new life through the next generation. The gaze the rat holds is one meant to communicate a state of ambivalence.
My mother conceived me at the age of 30 and didn’t know a word of English when she landed on US soil. At the time I write this, I am 30 years old and I only now know how many lifetimes can be lived in those three short decades.
This painting speaks to the common thread of ambivalent feelings amongst immigrant mothers when they sacrifice the lives they knew in order to give their children the opportunity of having better ones - but from the perspective of the children of these immigrant mothers.
Nancy X. Valentine is a fiscal year 2022 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
