2019-2021
Valentines
2020 - 2021
Cochineal and inkjet prints on rice paper, faux fur dyed with cochineal, stickers, mylar and rhinestones (varies).
Sizes range: 7.5 x 4 inches to 16 x 15 inches
A series of small modular, paper-based pieces dyed to bright red with cochineal made under lockdown. They are visually reminiscent of both the chun lian paper I would often see at Lunar New Year while living in China, as well as the western tradition of giving small decorative cards to loved ones in February. They are a response to the unique experience I found myself in after returning to the United States in 2019. The COVID-19 germination and subsequent wave was at once both very close and very far. The disjoint resulting from watching scenes familiar to me in China being presented as the alien on American news media, and direct personal communication with family and friends still within the PRC, saturated the already present cultural adjustment due to repatriation. As infection wanes 6,000 miles away and waxes in the here and now, the inversion of the familiar with the foreign, and the old with the new becomes even more pronounced. Valentines are memorials of and gifts to these interceding transitions. Components have been exhibited virtually in Shanghai in 2020, in person at the Fort Worth Community Art Center in 2021, and at the Greater Denton Arts Council in 2022.
Leftovers
2021
Scanned collages and assemblages. Digital, or printed at approximately 24 x 36 inches.
The pieces submitted here form a recent project that is ongoing. Upon the birth of my son, I was confronted with a required change of pace and schedule, and realized I needed to offer a creative response to this, while also bridging my pre-mother and post-mother identities. I began working on quick collages, in between naps, and feedings in July and August 2021. I created a few rules for myself: I use the multitude of scraps and tablescape props sitting in my studio-no cutting or gluing allowed, and they are all digitally scanned. They’re often constructed, scanned and edited in the span of an hour or two. They’re made of leftovers. Through this work, I’m asking myself- can leftovers be as meaningful and just as transformative as the prime cuts?
They constructed of physical materials, but only exist within the digital world, until they are printed, enlarged to approximately 24 x 36 inches.
Heartthrob / 3:00 / 2019
Screened at Cube Art Museum (Shanghai) 2020, Cora Stafford Gallery, University of North Texas (Denton) 2019, Fort Worth Community Arts Center 2021, Greater Denton Arts Council, 2022.
This video returns to a previous installation, Tower of Babel. The fragility of the leaves allowed them to shiver and wave as the wind came across the tower, 11 and a half feet tall.
This is re-approached digitally with an intent to effect motion in the video as well. Layering them one upon another, I created an animation of an entity whose slight digital motions echoed the organic: the pulse of a heartbeat, the schedule of the tides, the turn of the earth, or the growth and collapse of a blossom.
Dark Soils (Animation) / 6:00 / 2019
Screened at CICA Museum (Korea), 2019, Cora Stafford Gallery, University of North Texas (Denton) 2019.
This video returns to a previous installation by the same name and utilizes some of the same imagery to create a digital landscape that slowly shifts over time.
Dark Soils
2019 at Square Gallery, Shanghai
Inkjet prints on vinyl, indigo and black rice dyes on rice paper, faux fur, latex paint and automatic synthetic fragrance machine.
200 x 200 x 460 cm.
Dark Soils is a site-specific installation at Square Gallery, a Shanghai gallery in the shape of a small rectangular cube, in an 18th century lilong house.
Viewers must enter after removing their shoes, and the floor is carpeted in black faux fur. The walls are covered in vinyl digital collages made from photographs from a tablescape in my studio. The ceiling is painted a dark grey. Hidden in the corner is a machine that pumps out synthetic fragrance periodically. Viewers were invited to sit and stay with the artist- some wished to stay for long periods, others needed to leave immedietly due to overpowering sensory nature of the work.
In Dark Soils, I make hazy the distinctions between what we know to be synthetic and natural and push these two polarities together into conflict within the small space. It is through the contradictory sensory experience, combined with the digital imagery that distorts viewer-location and time that I stretch tight the space between perception and experience.
Tower of Babel
Purple cabbage dye, Bloodwood dye, dragon fruit dye, black rice dye and indigo on rice paper, synthetic pigments, acrylic, resin, adhesive stickers, on inkjet prints on rice paper mounted to foam board.
145 cm. x 300 cm. (4.75 x 9.8 feet)
Tower of Babel was shown on the 2019 Paper Supreme exhibition tour, an exhibition of paper works by international artists, curated by Chang Feng. It was shown at Tiantai Art Space (Qingdao), Jilin Teachers College of Art (Jilin), Shenzhen Value Factory Museum (Shenzhen), 798 ST Space (Beijing)
Photographs for Tower of Babel and Heartthrob / 2019
Photographs for Dark Soils / 2019
