This series of vessels attempts to recast my experiences of being a new immigrant in this country into personal monuments. The monument then serves as a meditation on the idea and history of displacement.  These works play with the materials response to g + Enlarge
Basket/Caudron #1 2018 Woodfired stoneware 13*18*12 inches
This series of vessels attempts to recast my experiences of being a new immigrant in this country into personal monuments. The monument then serves as a meditation on the idea and history of displacement.  These works play with the materials response to g + Enlarge
Basket/Caudron #4 2019 Earthenware, underglaze, slip, glaze 15*20*15 inches
This is a mid-fired porcelain basket/ vessel that is built by extruded parts like bricks or building blocks. This series of vessels attempts to recast my experiences of being a new immigrant in this country into personal monuments. The monument then serve + Enlarge
Basket/Caudron #6 2021 Mid-fired porcelain, glaze 15*18*13 inches
Purchase
This body of functional works involve an investigation into the potential of ceramic vessels as a means of metaphor and storytelling utilizing different ceramic processes. The body of work is a kind of collage, merging historical ceramic forms, glazes, an + Enlarge
Cabbage Vase 2021 Mid-fired porcelain, glaze 11 * 6.7 *6.7 inches
This body of functional works involve an investigation into the potential of ceramic vessels as a means of metaphor and storytelling utilizing different ceramic processes. The body of work is a kind of collage, merging historical ceramic forms, glazes, an + Enlarge
Cropped Vase #2 2021 Mid-fired porcelain, glaze 12.5 * 7 * 6.6 inches
This group of new work opens up for possibilities to fail. Residues of failure, produced during the process, can inspire as much as a finished object. By paying attention to the shards, the leftovers, the underlying structures of the ceramic process, the + Enlarge
Landscape #4 2022 Mid-fired paper porcelain, glaze, staples 5 * 11.5 * 5 inches
This group of new work opens up for possibilities to fail. Residues of failure, produced during the process, can inspire as much as a finished object. By paying attention to the shards, the leftovers, the underlying structures of the ceramic process, the + Enlarge
Wave #2 2022 Earthenware, graphite 2 * 18 * 7 inches
Statement

My work plays with the material’s responsiveness: its ability to be built and to break, to respond to gravity, to succumb to heat. Form is built by stacking material like bricks, like layers of sediment, which are later suspended on stilts and fired. Tools of the process become the artifact; objects are shifted through different material lenses.

Blown up, splattered and squashed. Kiln loads full of crazing. Exploded bits stuck to other pieces. Heartbreak and tears. Failure is not desirable. We are told to aim for a singular destination, to get everything right the first time. We are discouraged when we don’t.

I have found instead that the residues of failure, produced during the process, can be the central axis of the work. By paying attention to the shards, the leftovers, the underlying structures, the approach of making has become more fluid and malleable. Clay allows us to have the opportunity to fail.

The ceramic process also acts as a metaphor for and a reminder of my position as a young immigrant. Driven by anxieties of failure, I often find my American experience far more complex than what I thought it would be, stuck and lost in between two different cultural realities. Within my work, I allow the process to rearticulate and explore this space of being “in between”, to embrace its potential.

The process of clay is a process of migration, where every step is a unique way of moving forward, where to be lost is never to be wrong, but simply more.

Ceramics (BFA) Students