Artwork Details
- Title
- Tiger Banana
- Artist
- Date
- 2023
- Location
- Dimensions
- 15 3⁄4 × 13 1⁄2 × 4 in. (40.0 × 34.3 × 10.2 cm)
- Copyright
- © 2024, Jiha Moon
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase through the Howard Kottler Endowment for Ceramic Art
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- stoneware, underglaze, glaze, and synthetic hair
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Abstract
- Object Number
- 2024.12
Artwork Description
"While [my art] might look Asian, it is all about America." --Jiha Moon
Peaches, bananas, Angry Birds, and moon cakes--Jiha Moon's sculptures blend references from Korean and American culture to challenge stereotypes about race, age, identity, and beauty.
The title of this work, Tiger Banana, combines two racist slurs targeting Asian Americans: the first attacks mothers as having ferocious parenting habits, and the second disparages people as Asian on the outside ("yellow") and White on the inside.
Moon uses rich glazes to give the ceramic bananas and peaches the mottled look of overripened fruit, offering a humorous critique of society's obsession with youth, beauty, and sex.
Label text from The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture November 8, 2024 -- September 14, 2025