ABOUT THE WORK:

Currently, I feel a disconnection with my Asian identity. Growing up, it wasn’t really conditioned within my upbringing, as this generated my own diaspora culture; My experience is contemporary within my personal moments and ancestry. “plastic climbs” illustrates the multiplicity I am as a mixed-Asian woman, and depicts my body exposed and censored by this interactive plastic. I compare this idea of “hiding” my body with a transparent material with that disconnection with my Asian identity, and the things that make up who I am as a whole that I may not fully understand. A friend of mine once said that it’s okay that I’m still learning about my heritage and that it’s okay that I’m not creating visually “oriental” art because that is not my whole truth.
I'm interested in how this piece connects to feeling displaced, delicate, and how the body interacts with the plastic. Capturing an exposed body was important to emulate that feeling of being seen as “exotic,” feeling sensualized as a POC, and reclaiming ideas of delicacy and exposure as the epistemological outlet; to the ownership of my body.