YOUTH IN ASIA (1982–92)

YOUTH IN ASIA (1982–92)

“Back in 1970, I was sitting in a café with my cousin. The waitress came up put a bowl of peas on the table. These are just green peas, right, but my cousin suddenly disappears – I mean, he just literally dove under the table and wouldn’t come up. I didn’t have any choice but to crawl down after him. ‘I don’t wanna look at any dead eyes!’ he said. ‘I don’t want to see anymore dead eyes!’ he kept saying, and I just sat down there with him, trying to coax him back unto the world and gesturing like mad for the waitress to get those damned peas away from us. 

“That’s what Youth in Asia is about – that kind of residue and those kinds of experiences. In one sense, they’re incredibly intriguing and horrifying events – specific traumas, you know – but at the same time, they’re really just stories about the consequences of betrayal – about a culture that betrays its children. You don’t have to be the veteran of some war to understand that.”
– Terry Allen

“Back in 1970, I was sitting in a café with my cousin. The waitress came up put a bowl of peas on the table. These are just green peas, right, but my cousin suddenly disappears – I mean, he just literally dove under the table and wouldn’t come up. I didn’t have any choice but to crawl down after him. ‘I don’t wanna look at any dead eyes!’ he said. ‘I don’t want to see anymore dead eyes!’ he kept saying, and I just sat down there with him, trying to coax him back unto the world and gesturing like mad for the waitress to get those damned peas away from us. 

“That’s what Youth in Asia is about – that kind of residue and those kinds of experiences. In one sense, they’re incredibly intriguing and horrifying events – specific traumas, you know – but at the same time, they’re really just stories about the consequences of betrayal – about a culture that betrays its children. You don’t have to be the veteran of some war to understand that.”
– Terry Allen

“The text stamped into the lead is a direct copy of a newspaper article about a man who usurped the war. He told horror stories about serving in Vietnam, saying often that he hated the sound of sneakers on the floor in his house because it reminded him of the sound made by the shoes of his guards when he’d been made a POW. He wouldn’t allow anyone in his family to wear sneakers. He treated them badly but constantly begged forgiveness, saying it was due to the mental damage he’d come back with from Vietnam. They always forgave him. He was treated for years by VA psychiatrists and was in veteran support groups for post-traumatic stress. When he died, his wife contacted the army about his receiving a full military funeral. They could find no record of his ever being in the war or even in the military service.”
– Terry Allen

“The text stamped into the lead is a direct copy of a newspaper article about a man who usurped the war. He told horror stories about serving in Vietnam, saying often that he hated the sound of sneakers on the floor in his house because it reminded him of the sound made by the shoes of his guards when he’d been made a POW. He wouldn’t allow anyone in his family to wear sneakers. He treated them badly but constantly begged forgiveness, saying it was due to the mental damage he’d come back with from Vietnam. They always forgave him. He was treated for years by VA psychiatrists and was in veteran support groups for post-traumatic stress. When he died, his wife contacted the army about his receiving a full military funeral. They could find no record of his ever being in the war or even in the military service.”
– Terry Allen

China Night, 1985
Collection of Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

China Night, 1985
Collection of Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles