Arts Thread

bronze, synthetic stone, skin copper, enamel, homemade incense This work is the second installation in my series 'Objects of Care'. I query the relationship between body and object, considering whose body it is and where that body arrived from. For diasporic bodies where does the sense of otherness acquit? Is the longing to return to an unplaceable homeland purely a feeling of fantasy or a feeling that can be satiated through connection and care for community? I want to embed Cantonese practices into my artistic practice as an embodied process of relearning and reclaiming. Working with traditions I grew up practicing with my mother; I appreciate these rituals as personal ceremonies but also a way to encode a collective experience. Within this work I turned to Gua Sha (stone scrapping therapy) and Chinese knot tying to build my visual language. Creating prosthetic like objects, I used this work to manifest an imaginary armour growing out of the back. It is as if engaging with cultural practices with gentleness and care create a transformation to a person’s self, growing into community and strength. I appreciate these practices as both a personal ritual and a way to encode a collective experience. I hope to create networks of care for our bodies who are othered.