Human Cargo is the first in a series of prints by Michael Hew Wing and Tenjin Ikeda that explore the struggles of those who have come to America by choice, force, or desperate means. Told from the viewpoint of their descendants, the series shows how all have shared the experience of surviving in a country that has not always been kind.

Michael’s portion of the print was inspired by his work at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas on the traveling exhibit Fly to Freedom – an exhibit about the Chinese refugees smuggled into the United States on the boat Golden Venture in 1996 that ran aground off the coast of Queens, New York City.

The print was also inspired by the stories of Chinese refugees being smuggled into the United States and Canada via cargo storage containers around the time of his work on the traveling exhibit (2000-2001). Some of these refugees would perish in their flight due to the starvation, dehydration and sickness within these containers.

Tenjin Ikeda is a Brooklyn born artist of Afro-Puerto Rican decent. He studied Fine Arts at The School of Visual Arts and Printmaking at the Arts Students League. Recently Mr. Ikeda's work was acquired by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. "My work is about understanding the dynamics of the human experience through African culture as seen through the eyes of one of its decendents."