Identity and Ruth Asawa

I’m always on the lookout for elders.

Becoming an adult and becoming a competent human are two different things.

I need guidance from people who have gone ahead.

People like Ruth Asawa.

She was entirely unknown to me when I walked into the first public solo exhibition of her work in Europe.

I ended up visiting the gallery twice in the space of a weekend – bookends to celebrating a wedding with old friends.

So many things inspired me: Asawa’s multifaceted practice and patient observation of nature; her dedication to community work, held in tension with her own artistic autonomy; the choices she made to prioritise her family and creativity in tandem, despite the financial limitations of those pursuits.

For all those reasons, and more, she’s well worth discovering.

But the main thought that has stayed with me – months later – is the designation Ruth Asawa gave herself as a “citizen of the universe”.

Born in California to Japanese parents, Asawa’s suffering in the racially-charged aftermath of Pearl Harbour was a deeply formative experience – causing her to choose her own identity and way to move through the world.

Influenced by philosophers and friends, the capacity to see herself as a citizen of the universe gave Asawa a sense of belonging that transcended the politics and pain imposed on her by other people’s agendas.

That speaks to me.

In this journey to publication, I’ve realised that writing a novel is one thing – bringing it into the world is a whole other ballgame.

The quiet cocoon of my creative process has been punctured by very practical considerations: questions about market and audience, questions about commercial fit.

Questions. Doubts. And rejections.

Ruth Asawa reassures me that – in the face of exclusion – I’m free to identify with a much larger narrative.

I can look to a horizon that extends far beyond the narrow silos of our current cultural moment.

And know where I belong.