The Mangoes, They Wanted to Go Home

slip cast porcelain, wood, twine
9'h x 6.5'w x 0.5'd
2011

Mangoes are ubiquitous in Taiwan, my mother’s homeland, where I spent many summers. In the United States, mangoes come mostly from Mexico and Asia, and for me, the fruit became representative of the two largest immigrant populations here, reminding me of their struggles and successes in assimilating with American culture.

There are no mango fruits in this installation, only mango pits, their honey-sweet flesh sucked away. They are spent—tired and longing for comfort and a place where they can be themselves again. But they have changed, and it is impossible to go back, only forward. For now though, they’re suspended in between places, like immigrants in a new country, ready and waiting for the potential of new opportunity, with the indomitable determination of a seed to grow.

- Elaine K. Ng