Arlan Huang
b. 1948, Bangor, Maine
Shark Fin Tong Parts, 1992
Glass, silicone, wood, stone
John Brekke (glass blower), Tamio Spiegel (stone base plate)
Courtesy the artist

In A New World Order III: The Curio Shop (1993) at Artists Space, Huang presented his blown-glass vessel sculpture in which a monstrous severed hand covered in shark fins and fish scales is preserved in liquid. Underlining racist fascinations and commodification of ethnic curios, the odd-specimen object escalates the perceived abjection of the foreign other.