MIXED MEDIA ASSEMBLAGE
The Anatomy of My Heart
In Canada our cultural geography is just as vast and diverse as our physical landscape. It is in this geography that my current work is positioned. Deeply informed by my cultural heritage, both in subject matter and aesthetically, I employ personal narrative as a vehicle to address the issues of sense of place, appropriation, memory and cultural identity. This is achieved through the manipulation of family photographs, the appropriation of cultural and historical family artifacts and culturally significant materials such as bamboo, rice, gold, pearls, jade and symbols. Jewellery objects are often camouflaged inside the composition layering personal meaning and memory with questions about how cultural identity is or can be inherited, translated, (mis)represented, romanticized, imagined, lost and created. Though thoroughly personal in content I believe that this work speaks to a greater diasporic experience shared by anyone who has ancestral ties to a place other than where they live.
This ongoing series of mixed media assemblages started in 1998 after the discovery of a mysterious photograph in our family photo album. I find working with these photos to be so compelling that I can forsee many more years of working in this direction; unraveling and documenting these stories through my own lens. For me the creation process of these particular works is somewhat cathartic. There is a potentcy in them that has allowed me to come to a deep understanding of where I’ve come from which has been a truly transformative process.
This ongoing series of mixed media assemblages started in 1998 after the discovery of a mysterious photograph in our family photo album. I find working with these photos to be so compelling that I can forsee many more years of working in this direction; unraveling and documenting these stories through my own lens. For me the creation process of these particular works is somewhat cathartic. There is a potentcy in them that has allowed me to come to a deep understanding of where I’ve come from which has been a truly transformative process.
Tales from An Urban Journal
This series is whimsical and full of stories. The new is married to the old in compositions designed to evoke a narrative of the viewer’s choice. Removable art jewellery objects are camouflaged within the compositions. When they are being worn the composition is altered but still complete, though perhaps the story or the memory has changed.
In 2009 I traveled to South Korea on a Arts + Culture Tour with a number of Canadian colleagues. On this trip we were witness to how deeply embedded the tradition of craft is in the culture, which is certainly admirable but also quite restrictive. There is a disciplined system of rules surrounding master and student around the use of technique and imagery. This series was in response to these observations and appreciating the environment I which am able to work, where certainly there are guidelines, but no hard and heavy rules around how or what one is able to create. Its a celebration of experimentation and happenstance. When creating such works the materials and objects I use have gone through a very rigorous selection process in my studio. Whenever another item or texture or color is introduced it sways the balance of the whole composition. It has to be just the right fit.
In 2009 I traveled to South Korea on a Arts + Culture Tour with a number of Canadian colleagues. On this trip we were witness to how deeply embedded the tradition of craft is in the culture, which is certainly admirable but also quite restrictive. There is a disciplined system of rules surrounding master and student around the use of technique and imagery. This series was in response to these observations and appreciating the environment I which am able to work, where certainly there are guidelines, but no hard and heavy rules around how or what one is able to create. Its a celebration of experimentation and happenstance. When creating such works the materials and objects I use have gone through a very rigorous selection process in my studio. Whenever another item or texture or color is introduced it sways the balance of the whole composition. It has to be just the right fit.
The Alembic Series
I've been working with mixed media assemblage even before I knew it was called that. Totally enchanted and inspired by old objects that have lost their use, have been discarded or are literally garbage I insert them into a new context, give them a new life and distill the beauty in them that otherwise goes unnoticed. Take the work below for example. It all started with a rusty washer I found on the roadside. It is framed by a 'precious' sterling silver and gold ring and embellished by additional gemstones of 'value' (turquoise and diamond). Through this contrast in materials I am playing with ideas of value and how we see or consider beauty. The word 'Alembic' means: 1. an apparatus formerly used for distilling 2. anything that purifies.
