The TAG Project: re:Thinking the Artistic Process: Wendy Maruyama at TEDxSanDiego 2013

New Perspectives
Born with a severe hearing disability, Wendy Maruyama found early on that art was a powerful channel for her self-expression. Throughout 35 years as an acclaimed artist specializing furniture design, she found inspiration in a progression of experiences, places and pre-conceived notions that begged for re:THINKING.

But it was not until she delved into her own Japanese-American family's history in a World War II internment camp that she found the muse of her most profound self-expression. In this dark part of American history, every man, woman and child was issued a tag with name, a government-assigned number and the particular camp to which they were destined, 120,000 American citizens.

This inspired Wendy to embark on the re-creation of each and every one of these tags, to be assembled into a powerful art installation called, "The TAG Project/Executive Order 9066", after the law that spawned the de-humanizing internments.

This is the emotionally-charged—yet at times hilarious—journey of an artist to perhaps her greatest calling.


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