New art exhibition explores what it means to be ‘here’ for immigrants in America

Mee Jey was six months pregnant when she and her husband took a leap of faith and left India in 2017. The young couple were St. Louis bound after Jey earned a scholarship to pursue a master of fine arts from Washington University.

“It was an incredibly hopeful yet an incredibly risky move that we made,” Jey said. “But in some part of our heart we knew we’d make it through.”

Much of that transition is a blur for Jey, but what she does remember is the many identity shifts she experienced after moving to the U.S. She went from being viewed as a woman, wife and accomplished artist in India to a mother, student and an immigrant in America.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I am Indian,’” Jey recalled. “Because all of this while being Indian was not a thing for me. It wasn’t part of my identity — my active identity as such. But only when I came to the U.S. did I realize that I am an immigrant. Not a priority of the U.S. government. Those things when they strike in it’s like: ‘Oh my God. I am so vulnerable. It’s more like you are here. You are different. You are the other. You are the alien.’”

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public Radio

Mee Jey

This newly realized identity of “becoming an immigrant” even changed how she saw her own family. Her oldest was no longer just a child. He was a brown child. Her husband, the former social media editor at the BBC World Service in New Delhi, was not allowed to work in the U.S.

“It’s like being somebody so powerful,” Jey said of her husband. “Being somebody so affluent in his profession and then not being allowed to do anything. Those things dawn upon you when you leave your own country for whatever reasons and then you come to this world and then you’re like, ‘Oh my God, all of the parameters have been shifted.’”

The realities of being an immigrant in America are something the now mother of two prominently features in her work. Jey, alongside several South Asian artists who emigrated to the U.S., will be featured in the new art exhibition — ATRA. The exhibit at Webster University’s Cecille R. Hunt Gallery shines a spotlight on the challenges immigrants face living in the U.S.

Her latest work — Endless — will be front and center at the exhibition. The piece is in two parts: the first depicts a camel hidden in a vibrant yellow, gold and brown desert made out of repurposed fabric. The second part of Endless features an ocean like rough water crafted from rich blue repurposed fabric. Jey said the pieces are something all immigrants can relate to.

“You feel like it’s an endless turmoil that you have to go through and through and through and through,” Jey said. “Like one ends and before that ends there’s another one to deal with.”

Mee Jey

Her intimate home studio holds several large and small handcrafted pieces that further explore that endless turmoil and the truth behind the often long, hard-fought and taxing journey of getting to America.

“There are so many resonances,” she said. “Our stories reverberate in different tones, but we all have similar stories. Honestly, even I cannot speak [about] how I feel about things. But when you hear somebody else express those words in visual format or in performance that I do in the text-based installations that I create, it comforts communities, it comforts people who are going through similar struggles as me.”

Jey said when she was approached to be a part of the exhibition she was thrilled the theme was Atra. In sanskrit, the word "Atra" means "here." In a time where many immigrants in the U.S. are living in fear and uncertainty, for Jey, the reality of being “here” at this moment is rooted in her own strength and courage.

“For me, being here is believing in myself, in my ability as an individual, [and] as an artist,” Jey said. “It’s also setting an example for myself, my children that difficult times test your strength and I am strong.”

The ATRA art exhibition is open to the public from March 21 to April 19 at Webster University’s Cecille R. Hunt Gallery.