Objects given to my mom because she is Asian

“Objects given to my mom because she is Asian” was exhibited at the Emily Carr Interim Graduate Exhibition in 2019. In this artwork, I exposed and presented the objects that people gifted to my mother from 1970 to present day. A large-scale photograph showcased a display of objects and beside the photograph was a vitrine holding the actual objects placed on the floor both haphazardly and carefully.

​Prior to the exhibition, I requested that my mom to send me any objects that were gifted to her that fit the criteria of my project. In response, my mom sent me a photo of the objects arranged in a display so I could take a visual inventory of them before proceeding with the project. The arrangement of the objects in my final photograph is a re-staging of this photograph . The manner that they were displayed expressed the objects having some value and yet evidently there was a distaste for them. This indirectly expressed my mom’s sentiment around the objects. I wanted to keep this exact affect, transferring the relationship my mom had with the objects onto the final work.
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My artwork “ Objects Given to my Mom because she is Asian”, is not about my mother’s or my own personal history, nor is it an autobiography. I am addressing the hidden aspect of discrimination and bringing it to be decontextualized and framed for others to be faced with. I am disclosing what is commonplace, familiar and repeated in the everyday, that which circumvents and hides what is racist. These actions exist in multiple epochs similar to my mother’s experience and therefore her story connects to a greater perspective outside of her own and my life and narrative. The reading of my work encourages people to contend with their own behaviours and tendencies that are unknowingly racist, and leaves them with questions about how they conduct themselves. ​

"Objects given to my mom because she is Asian"
installation and photograph 2018

What Are You ? 

A collaboration with photographer Geoffrey Wallang around the intrusive question of identity. 
This Project was developed with long-term friend and photographer Geoffrey Wallang after numerous conversations about how people inquired about both of our identities. Participants agreed to get photographed and were asked which cultural identities they have been labelled as by total strangers. This created a dialogue around the right that people feel they have to categorize people who they view as culturally ambiguous. 
 
​On April 28th  2019, Geoffrey and myself held a social engagement gathering, artist talk and exhibition presenting a slide show of this work and facilitated discourse and conversation around the themes of opacity, identity and belonging.
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