New Sculptural Work in Ink :
My art allows me to be the initiator of my own history. I choose subjects and materials that reflect my Asian-American female-hood and life experiences rooted in perpetual identity crisis and awakening. My latest body of work in ink sculpture reimagines ancient and traditional calligraphic ink to unexpected ends to explore the body, stereotypes, personal history, and cultural identity.
The ink from my childhood and Chinese heritage is an organic material. Animal protein and pigments are mixed over heat so that I can manipulate them into form. This organic material is fundamentally transformative and impermanent, impacted by heat and moisture. The ink is not just applied onto the surface of the body. It is the body. I use conventional methods and inventive techniques so the sculptures I make in ink can be formed and dehydrated, and still be rehydrated and deformed.
I also use ink as a surrogate for time and time travel so that I can revisit the past (personal and collective) in order to move forward; an active reconciliation and discovery that offers comfort in the multitude of transformations that happen in a fast-growing, shifting, age of anxiety.