Femininity Through A Crosshair.

Vee Hua 華婷婷2 min readMay 25, 2010Add comment

With her newest series, The Babe In The Target coming on display at Augen Gallery (716 NW Davis, Portland, Oregon) this June, Eva Lake uses photo montages and collage to explore the role of strong women in not only society, but history. Targets, circles, and women are recurring images throughout the series, but there is a surprising amount of diversity despite those constants.

Check out her artist statement:

“By the time I was thirteen, I was firmly entrenched in the worldwide craze of ‘nostalgia’ – especially anything to do with the beautiful and complex women of Hollywood and the fashion industry. At the same time I was brought up by a woman artist who loved cosmetics and glamour. All of these things fed into my idea of what a woman artist’s life was like – she makes objects but she’s also the object. The conversation is as much about her, her body, how she looks and how sexy she is – as it is her work.

A high school friend introduced me to Pop and Interview when I was a freshman in high school (1970). Eventually I learned about Jasper Johns and the target. This friend would also take me to the Ashland Police Rifle Range, where we would steal the shooting practice targets. From then on, throughout 40 years of making montages, the target continued to resurface in my work. Now I am doing what was in the back of my mind from nearly the start – focusing completely on both “The Babe” and the target.

I am also maintaining a conversation with art history, citing artists like Delacroix, Fontana, Riley, Davis, Warhol, Hamilton, Gene Davis and John Chamberlain, as well as ‘art throughout the ages.’ The goddess of ancient art history collides with our modern day version. And the back-story of these individual women is important – their power and their very public story, their status as complex objects of adoration as they live through tragedy and triumph. Their power lies in the fact that they were not just beautiful but were also people who worked for every dime and newsflash.

Eva Lake
2010

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Vee Hua 華婷婷

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and artist who splits their time between Oaxaca, Mexico, and Seattle, Washington. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE, Interim Editor-in-Chief of International Examiner, and an Environmental Justice reporter at South Seattle Emerald. They also previously served as the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a key role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences.

Their latest short film, Reckless Spirits (2022), is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy; the feature film version is slated for production in 2026. In 2025, they premiere their documentary short film, Hunt's Trading Post, set just outside of the Navajo and Ute Nations.

In 2017, Vee released the narrative short film, Searching Skies — which touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States — and co-organized The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia.

Vee has two narrative short films. Searching Skies (2017) touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States; with it, they helped co-organize The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia. Reckless Spirits (2022) is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy for a bleak new era, in anticipation of a feature-length project.

Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They also regularly share observational human stories through their storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE!. They have a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota and are pursuing a certificate in Incidencias en Problemas Socioambientales at the Universidad del Medio Ambiente in Mexico.

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