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Tony Le-Huynh’s piece, “The Devil’s Own,” revs up the FOB art exhibit now on display in the Kerckhoff Grand Salon Art Gallery.

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Vivian Tran’s “Buddha’s Fingers” is an image of a monk who set himself ablaze to protest the Vietnam War. Cultural issues are at the forefront of the FOB art show.

Lots of stereotypes come with the derogatory term “fob.” For some, it might bring to mind a confused immigrant wearing a rice paddy hat and speaking in broken English.

Whatever the superficial notions may be, the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association and VSU.Voice intend to challenge those ideas with the Multi-Art FOB Show, which includes a visual art exhibit in the Kerckhoff Grand Salon Art Gallery as well as film screenings on Wednesday and live performances today in Haines Hall 39 at 7 p.m.

The live show will consist of poetry readings, a one-act solo play and a skit called “Fox Demon,” performed by veteran actors from Club of Noodles, an Orange County-based Vietnamese theater troupe, as well as UCLA students Jenni Trang Le, Taylur Thu-Hien Nguyen and Anh Dao Le Do.

The word fob is literally an acronym for “fresh off the boat,” which usually applies to immigrants assimilating to a different country. In deciding on the fob theme, the show’s curator Tram Le, project director for VAALA and co-founder of Club of Noodles, wanted to find a common bond that all Vietnamese people could share.

“Whether we came here in 1975 or just arrived in the United States yesterday, I realized we all have the connecting theme of being immigrants,” Le said.

The term is typically used to stigmatize immigrants as old-fashioned, culturally dense, silly and poor. To combat this stereotype, the show asks all artists to substitute different words in the fob acronym. “Fighting Occidental Bullies” and “Freak of Beauty” are some examples of the artists recreating a different identity for themselves.

“I wanted to take back that term and not allow it to be derogatory anymore. I wanted the word to be empowering,” Le said.

Though the word has been specifically applied to immigrants, the theme can reach across racial – and even occupational lines – relating to anyone who has felt alienated for being different.

“I realized that artists are fobs in our own Vietnamese community because we don’t fit into what they have considered their standard of success – that money is the only standard,” Le said.

The exhibit will include all ranges of expression: painting, sculpture, photography, installations and comic drawings. Presenting creative and sometimes bizarre ways of interpreting the word “fob,” the artist often uses shock value to prove a point. For instance, the exhibition will feature an installation of a man hanging by his genitalia, which happen to be a miniature head, as well as the painting of “Bolsa Girls,” a portrait of an Orange County gang-related female.

The show’s film component will take place Wednesday in Young Hall CS24 at 6 p.m, presenting a number of short flicks like Victor Vu’s “Firecracker,” Ham Quang Tran’s “The Prescription” and Van Phan’s “Wildcard.”

By displaying the work of Vietnamese artists under 40 and living in California, the show represents a distinctive youthful Vietnamese voice. According to Huong Ninh, the chairwoman of VSU.Voice, the show allows the artists to confront issues of today’s youth in the Vietnamese community such as the generation gap and homosexuality.

In questioning identities and what it means to be a fob through various media, the exhibition hopes to reach out to all types of people and to change their perceptions.

“I’d like to expose not only Vietnamese American students about issues within the Vietnamese American community but also to educate the UCLA campus,” Ninh said.

SHOW: All events are free. The art exhibit will be in Kerckhoff through Nov. 1. Live performances begin in Haines 39 tonight at 7 p.m. Films will be screened Oct. 30 in Young CS24 at 6 p.m.