Artist Statement:
Containing and letting go
My work explores transience, memory, and the search for home. Raised as a Third Culture Kid moving between cities and countries, my practice processes the dissociation and constant adaptation that comes with displacement.
Using abstract compositions, I map the feeling of displacement. Small grey forms depict the isolation of being disconnected, while expansive shapes represent new environments, linked by a tangle of lines and textures that capture the complex emotions in between.
My grandparents’ town in Korea was the sole anchor of permanence in my life for fifteen years. Now facing urban redevelopment, its impending disappearance has forced me to navigate the tension between permanence and impermanence. I explore this shift by painting rigid, enduring architectural forms—walls, alleyways, and stairs—to lock my memories into place. Paradoxically, I apply charcoal, soft pastel, and oil paint with dripping, demolishing textures to capture the reality of their decay.
This obsession with capturing transience extends to nature. Drawn to flora from my upbringing in tropical Malaysia, I document plants across varied surfaces like Yupo paper, hemp cloth, and clay. Suspended between realism and abstraction, these botanical studies explore how memory distorts form over time. Ultimately, my work is a continuous endeavor to ground myself: a process of translating my shifting background and surroundings to better understand my place in the world.