Announcing the 2024 Collectors’ Collaborative Acquisition: Jarod Lew’s 'Finger Trap,' 2023

In June 2024, representatives from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s curatorial team joined members of the Collectors’ Collaborative for a visit to the studio of photographer Jarod Lew. During this event, Lew shared examples of his expansive photographic practice, which explores intergenerational encounters with diasporic loss, displacement, memory, race, and identity. In addition to showing recent and in-progress work, Lew presented photographs from Please Take Off Your Shoes. This series examines the experiences of Asian Americans in Western societies and tackles issues of stereotyping, representation, masculinity, and community. It was shortlisted for the Aperture Portfolio Prize in 2021, and selections were featured in Kinship: Photography and Connection (May 20–November 26, 2023), an exhibition at SFMOMA.  

Lew also discussed In Between You and Your Shadow, a project with deeply personal ties. Through a series of intimate family portraits taken at his childhood home in Detroit, Lew meditates on intergenerational trauma, the instability of memory, and, ultimately, healing. Lew explained that he made many portraits of his mother, an initially hesitant subject, after learning she had once been engaged to Vincent Chin, a Chinese American draftsman who was brutally murdered at his bachelor party by two White men in 1982. The racially motivated crime galvanized a new generation of Asian American civil rights activists.  

Collaborative members were particularly intrigued by Finger Trap, 2023, a photograph from one of Lew’s more recent projects, Long Time No See From Somewhere Far Away. Lew made this photograph on a beach in Connecticut while earning his MFA in Photography from the Yale University’s School of Art. In the image, two young women rest on a towel, one attempting to lure the other into a “Chinese finger trap.” These gag toys can be used to play a popular practical joke: When an unsuspecting individual places a finger in each end of the tubelike trap and tries to remove them by pulling outward, the woven bamboo cylinder tightens and prevents them from freeing themselves. Lew’s fascination with this puzzle game stemmed from the fact that, despite its name, it is likely not of Chinese origin. Rather, the toy emerged in Europe and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the term Chinese finger trap first appearing in a 1953 newspaper advertisement. To Lew, this terminology exemplifies how Asian culture has been misrepresented in Western society, even in seemingly innocuous and obscure manners.  

In many ways, the photograph is carefully staged: Lew positioned the two women and used a large format 4 x 5 camera and strobe light to maximize the cinematic character of the image. However, as he shared with the group in his studio, many elements were serendipitous: the dramatic light of the sunset and the appearance of a man in the distance were unexpected accidents. Lew explained that he embraces such “happy coincidences” to reinforce the paradox of authenticity and inauthenticity of identity, place, and even the photographic medium. The Museum is thrilled to announce that it will be adding Finger Trap, 2023 to its Permanent Collection with funds generously raised by the Collectors’ Collaborative. At the BCMA, it will join a growing group of modern and contemporary artworks by Asian American artists and enhance the institution’s goals of developing a global and inclusive collection that explores diverse narratives, experiences, and artistic traditions.  

Established in 2007, the Collectors’ Collaborative comprises a group of Bowdoin alumni with an interest in the visual arts. Led by co-chairs Ellen Grenley McKernan ’06 and Isabel Taube ’92, in partnership with the Museum’s curatorial team and with input from a planning subcommittee, the Collaborative organizes twice-yearly gatherings at artist studios, galleries, and/or museum exhibitions. During these visits, Collectors’ Collaborative members can meet with an emerging artist, view examples of their work, and learn more about their practice. In the summer months, Collaborative members who contribute to a designated fund in any amount can vote on a work of art by one of the artists the group engaged with during the year. This exciting initiative allows the Museum to engage with Bowdoin alumni and learn from their artworld connections and expertise. 

We are thrilled to add Jarod Lew’s Finger Trap, 2023 to the Museum’s collection as this year’s Collectors’ Collaborative acquisition. Moreover, we are immensely grateful to the Collectors’ Collaborative co-chairs, planning subcommittee, and general membership for their ongoing support of the Museum. We look forward to sharing this beautiful and compelling photograph with the public soon!