Artist Statement

My artistic practice explores what home means in a continually evolving globalized world as an immigrant that is part of a queer diaspora. To explore issues of self, community, and connection in our troubling times, I have dedicated myself to using, manipulating, and transforming everyday materials. I work primarily with plastic, altering their form to challenge how they are perceived. I use upcycled materials to tell stories of belonging, resilience, and identity, reflecting on themes of immigration, environmental sustainability, and queerness through the transformation of these objects. I aim to explore how mediums, by shifting from their original functions, can challenge systems of consumption and identity, transforming into extraordinary expressions that question the boundaries of familiarity and provoke deeper reflections on sustainability and belonging. The process is a continuous exploration, reflecting consumerism and environmental decay. I begin with a material—plastic, wire, or other industrial remnants—and engage in iterative experimentation, uncovering its potential while considering its implications as a symbol of excess and waste. I create works that embody the tension between transformation and decay by combining pieces and techniques. Each piece becomes an opportunity to reinterpret these materials, layering new meanings and challenging their role in cycles of consumption and environmental degradation. By engaging with these methods, I uncover their hidden potential and invite viewers to reconsider their relationships with everyday objects, questioning how familiarity and transformation shape our understanding of materiality and self. This continuous chain of work reflects my interest in the fluidity of identity and the idea that objects, like people, are constantly evolving. Just as materials can be transformed, identities are shaped by ongoing interactions with culture, society, and personal experience. My work emphasizes the malleability of both the material and the self, suggesting that nothing is fixed but is in a perpetual state of becoming. Each stage of my process reveals new aspects of the material and the work, emphasizing the potential for endless transformation and reinterpretation. My work explores how materials evolve from their origins into new forms while staying grounded in their roots. It reflects the ongoing transformation of identity and the potential for endless reinterpretation and growth, using the lenses of immigration, queerness, and environmentalism. Ultimately, I aim to become proficient in exploring the interconnected themes of immigration, queerness, and environment. I aim to embed these lenses so deeply into my practice that they become as intrinsic as my own perspective, guiding my artistic evolution.