Exhibition Concept

“Body, Doorway That You Are, Be More Than What I’ll Pass Through” is a sculptural installation that merges three distinct bodies of work, with a sonic element functioning as an echo chamber. The artist’s initial desire to construct an environment centered around a house structure stems from an ongoing obsession with the subjectivity of "home." Whether it’s a subconscious exploration of the elusive feeling of home or a literal obsession with creating house-like forms, the search for an answer to what defines home persists.

The concept of an identity for first generation Asian Americans complicates itself as one struggles to position oneself in a place where such identity remains undefined. The word, “motherland” evokes a home rooted in the constant effort in remembering, while the word, “home” feels insufficient in describing the complexities of living in a land that has historically erased such experiences. This tension always remains unresolved.

Although belonging, both geographically and sociologically, is subjective, this installation calls forth a collective yearning for "home" that resides in the body and in memories.

Inspired by Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong’s line from Not Even This,

.

“Enough is enough. Body, doorway that you are, be more than what I’ll pass through,”

.

This installation serves as a playground for multiple perspectives on the endless process of fading and recollecting memories. By seeing and using space beyond its conventional purpose, this work acknowledges that our bodies continuously explore and archive the ever changing nature of memory.

“Body, Doorway That You Are, Be More Than What I’ll Pass Through” consists of 4 bodies of work and an audio element, which serves as an eco chamber. A vast metal outline of a house titled Home, Here, an almost ghostly presence—its walls absent, yet its form unmistakably there. Within this skeletal structure rests I Am Here to Listen, For You to Remain, a bronze-cast ear sculpture cradled in a plaster shell. Reflection, gathers 16 stoneware pieces around the four walls of the room, each carrying its own quiet weight of memory. The last body of work, Untitled (I See Myself In You), is a plate lithography print of an archived photo of my grandparents’ wedding. Heart is still beating is a 60 minutes-looped audio of my heartbeat.