Text, pattern and the image are fused into works stretching the definition of ethnicity.
My work is an exploration of cultural roots through a strategy of self-imposed mismatches. The expression of my Filipino American heritage remains a constant, but I manipulate and remix this identity though new contexts. I intentionally work far from home to find new geographies, histories and languages. My attempts at assimilation force both a change in perspective as well as a reinforcement of held beliefs and values. The tension between the inherited and the constructed activates my work.
In recording the experience of these artificial insertions into foreign cultures, the work takes the form of a book. By using glass as the medium upon which the information is printed, I am able to compose and rearrange content to create new visual statements. Complex readings of the graphic image are made possible through fusion, transparency and optics.
Through the collection of language, culture and history, I express the density, richness, and growth of my experience.