In the series of self-portraits entitled Scratch, I examine the icon and fetish of the American housewife that originated after the second World War.

In Try It, I am interested in how Asian culture was consumed and, ultimately, digested by mainstream American media. By the 1950s, the American social and cultural landscape was changing with respect to taste. There was a boom in Chinese restaurants following a new wave of Chinese immigrants resulting from the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. American G.I.s returned from their sojourns in Japan and the Pacific with new tastes introduced to their American palates.

Food companies were eager to cater to America’s changing tastes, and the ubiquitous phrase “try it” emerged. Advertisers introduced the American housewife to the exotic foods of the “Orient” by urging her to “try it” in her own household. But who or what was being served to the American household?