Why this artist wears a hijab and a 328-foot-long garment that looks like a millipede

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred At the opening of “The Buddhist Bug” at the Vincent Price Art Museum on Saturday, guests will see a 328-foot-long orange insect.Its body will coil around the museum’s gallery, lobby and atrium, and poke through the walls.

The bug’s head, covered in a hijab, will be in one room, and its feet, which some might be tempted to tickle, will be in another.The creature is occupied and controlled by Anida Yoeu Ali, a Cambodian-born artist who lives in Tacoma, Wash.Ali’s numerous performance-based exhibits explore her Cambodian-American identity and Buddhist and Muslim religions.

The bug is her “totally humorous take on hybridity.”As the bug, Ali doesn’t speak.She mostly stands or kneels and makes facial expressions in reaction to her surroundings and passersby.

But she likes to engage with visitors, who can either touch her elaborate garment, talk to her, take pictures of her or simply observe her.“I get a lot of people who ask for a photo or they’ll ask for a hug,” says Ali.“There’s so many stories that get whispered into my ear.

A lot happens when you can hold someone’s attention with just your eyes.There’s a vulnerability that happens when you make eye-to-eye contact without any words involved.”Ali likes to use expansive spaces and incorporate fabrics and textiles, whether it’s a red, sequin-covered chador or a tubular-looking worm made out of polyester, Lycra and spandex.

Such things make the petite artist feel “taller and larger than life.”Ali will appear in the suit for only two hours during the show’s first and last days.But for the rest of the exhibit’s run, the museum will display the bug in its entirety, in addition to sculpture, photographs and video that document how Ali has spent the last 15 years becoming her creature alter ego.

Entertainment & Arts Th...