M A R Y   O ' M A L L E Y

As and extension of 燒烤設置 (Barbecue setting), Beer Pong Diplomacy is a work inspired by my time at JiaoTong University as a Visiting Artist Scholar. I continued to witness the appropriation of American culture, particularly by University Students and decided to continue to play with this idea of cultures getting lost in translation through appropriation. Because I was at a university, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce an unsophisticated yet ubiquitous element of American university culture, Beer Pong. The contentiousness between the USA and China inspired this work as well. It is a reference to Ping Pong Diplomacy, which was an event credited with being the beginning of the end of the cold war.