Cheney Studio, MacDowell
This work explores memory, process, and the aura surrounding personal objects and images—the unforeseen influence they exert on us. Using digital images, photocopies, vintage fabric, and silk thread, I examined the material remnants of my mother’s life after she emigrated thousands of miles from her homeland. Black-and-white photographs and fragments of clothing became points of departure for unraveling her story—thread by thread. Loss of country, family, and language left her with only enough “thread” to reconstruct a life elsewhere. In dismantling and reassembling these materials, I sought to understand and narrate her experience, creating a visual tapestry that reflects both rupture and resilience.
Material Memory Studies – Residency Work
MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
Medium: Fabric, silk thread, photographs, digital images
Concept:
Through two residencies at MacDowell, I investigated familial and material memory by reassembling fragments of my mother’s immigrant experience. Using vintage textiles, photographs, and thread, I created tactile visual narratives tracing loss, rupture, and resilience, translating personal history into a layered, meditative visual language.
Iron and Silk – Installation
Cheney Studio, The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
Medium: Mixed media (iron, silk, photographic imagery)
Concept:
Inspired by a black-and-white photograph of my mother as a young girl in Japan—whose exact time, place, and photographer remain unknown—this installation explores the significance of “aura” in photographic images. The work considers how photographs act as stand-ins for forgotten or partially remembered experiences, reflecting on memory, absence, and the traces that images leave in shaping personal and familial histories.
Material Memory Studies
Location: MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
Medium: Fabric, silk thread, photographs, digital images
Concept:
During residencies at MacDowell, I investigated familial and material memory by reassembling fragments of my mother’s immigrant experience. Using textiles, photographs, and thread, I created tactile visual narratives tracing loss, rupture, and resilience, translating personal history into a layered, meditative visual language.
Iron and Silk
Location: Cheney Studio, MacDowell Colony
Medium: Mixed media
Concept:
Iron and Silk reflects on memory, aura, and photographic absence, inspired by a black-and-white image of my mother as a child. The installation layers material fragments and photographic references to explore presence, loss, and the substitution of memory by images. Process and material become a form of dialogue, tracing intimate histories through tangible forms.
Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904), also known as Koizumi Yakumo
One of my mother’s favorite writers, Hearn transported her to fantastic, otherworldly places while simultaneously creating a sense of home and belonging. His stories blend wonder with familiarity, a duality that has profoundly influenced my own interest in memory, narrative, and the interplay between imagination and lived experience.
IIron and Silk, 2014
Location: Cheney Studio, MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
Medium: Mixed-media installation, archival images, fabric, thread
Concept:
Inspired by a black-and-white photograph of my mother as a child, this multimedia work investigates aura, memory, and the photographic image as a replacement for forgotten moments. The installation considers how personal objects and images carry emotional resonance across time, translating absence and remembrance into spatial form.
Installation – Cheney Studio, The MacDowell Colony
Medium: Hand-cut photocopies, accumulated on the floor
Concept:
This installation explores process, object, aura, and the photographic image. By hand-cutting and arranging photocopies directly on the floor, I consider how repetition, accumulation, and material presence can transform familiar images into tactile, immersive experiences. The work reflects on how photographs carry memory and emotional resonance, becoming traces of presence and markers of time.
Concept:
Iron and Silk reflects on memory, aura, and photographic absence, inspired by a black-and-white image of my mother as a child. The installation layers material fragments and photographic references to explore presence, loss, and the substitution of memory by images. Process and material become a form of dialogue, tracing intimate histories through tangible forms.