My multidisciplinary practice utilises found objects and an archive of personal images to create totemic sculptures and objects, that through ceramic and woven interventions reveal experiences of my mixed English Malaysian-Chinese experience.
When I am sculpting ceramics, weaving rattan and engaging with traditional craft practices, I feel a connection to my heritage. With the Decorative Surfaces Fellowship, I hope to learn traditional skills, to further integrate into my sculptures and etchings. I’m interested in authenticity, and manufacturing artefacts to which I can attach personal meaning.
My work can be read with a strong focus on materials, however there are also nuances of the lived diasporic experience and contemporary Malaysia. By looking at traditional faux wood painting techniques, I hope to engage with a conversation around authenticity, performance and value.
Domestic spaces interest me for the value placed on objects. An object of interest to me in particular, is bamboo-rattan furniture. Its presence in the UK, along with large collections of Chinese ceramics is due to Colonial activities. Taking influence from East Asian furniture exports, I want to insert small Japanned panels into my sculptures, featuring images from my travels, creating storytelling from memory.