Things are always lost in translation, whether between the speaker and listener or between the past and present. Intention and interpretation is another example of loss. How can a concept be wholly understood by someone if the presenter is simultaneously learning the language? My pieces aim to tell the story of my life in the context of an ancestral history that would have erased facets of my existence.
Using painting, woodworking, and interactive sculptural forms, I examine objects loaded with historical weight—thrones, bodily artifacts, domestic forms—and reconstruct them to reflect a fractured but persistent sense of self.
Installed as a part of the 2025 VCUarts MFA Thesis Exhibition exhibited in The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Curated by Misa Jeffereis (Associate Curator, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis), Egbert Vongmalaithong (Assistant Curator, ICA at VCU), and Chase Westfall (Head of Gallery and Exhibitions, VCUarts Qatar), the 2025 exhibition reveals a cross-section of emergent practices that are rooted in collaboration, experimentation, and the urgency to make meaning in an ever-changing world.
