Yellow Outside White Inside is an installation that uses 160 Hostess twinkies attached to the wall, which ask, “Is English your first language?” in red vinyl. I identify the twinkie as the modern “banana”, yellow on the outside, white on the inside, and used among Asian-Americans to convey the idea of being American while also being Asian. “Is English your first language?” is a loaded question because it implies so much more than what is being said. It asks other questions like “What are you?” and “Where are you from?” without directly doing so. The idea of the other and otherness is readily apparent.

Directed is three light boxes, which are aesthetically influenced by audience applause signs, and controlled by a series of choreographed 1 second timers. This piece is about interrupting the notion of turn-taking, which is how conversation is ordered. I know when I’m supposed to talk by watching for queues from you, ensuring that we have a proper flow. I made this piece out of a desire to trick this system, so that I never have to speak. I see silence as something that if you’re comfortable with it, you can use it to your advantage. I have always wished to have signs going off during a conversation so that I can feign comprehension. Taking the idea of the quiet, submissive, Asian woman, and framing it as a calculated move.

Each participant was asked to bring a non-white shirt to my studio, as well as a non-transferable statement about themselves. Within 30 minutes of their arrival I would cut their statement out of vinyl, heat pressed it onto their shirt, and taken a photo of them, wearing the shirt, with their face out of frame. I wanted to represent the individual without doing a traditional portrait, creating this collection of identities through statements. The statements they brought me ranged from the frivolous to the dark and the introspective. It was interesting to see what people select as their own unique identifier.

Text Me captures a moving portrait of texting. Today, communication no longer requires face-to-face interaction because we can rely on short terse phrases that ultimately become passive. Have we in a sense become all thumbs?

Watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/18895135

Luminous Deer
White Box Gallery
Portland, OR
June 4-25, 2010

Still Smiling is a video installation that captures a common phenomenon of social awkwardness–the polite smile–and focuses in on it, without extraneous factors.

Influenced by being in-between cultures, I often find myself in situations that I do not completely understand, but yet still must keep up appearances. Over the years, I have mastered this smile, and have successfully feigned full understanding to family members and other viewers alike. Although well-intentioned at first, Still Smiling exhibits the tension that inevitably appears as the muscle strain seeps through my face, and body language dissolves politeness into honesty.

Watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/11959149

Luminous Deer
White Box Gallery
Portland, OR
June 4-25, 2010

Displace is a text piece that visualizes my interior reaction to a moment or a situation of social awkwardness. Displace arises from the words, “space” and “place” and plays upon how language occupies both.

The most poignant example in my life is a family dinner. All at once, family members will talk to each other in Taiwanese, address the waiters in Cantonese, discuss money (and other private affairs) in Thai, and then attempt to include the kids in English, as a good-natured gesture. Despite the intentions, I often feel confused, awkward, and overwhelmed by the multitude of inaccessible conversation swirling around me.

I feel displaced a level below my family, unable to understand all the nuances because my Mandarin skills are not on par with the rest of my family.
Displace is the visual representative of those feelings–the word ‘Displace’ has been sanded into the wall–it does not appear on the same surface level as other pieces in the gallery, but must fend for itself, sanded into the wall.

This series of portraits explores the categorizations of people– judgements and assumptions made that were only skin-deep. The project’s name comes from question number nine on the 2010 census – “What is person 1’s race?” Every person photographed experienced an awkward situation about their race or ethnic group because of a snap judgement based on their appearances alone. Through this series of portraits, custom-made t-shirts correct any stereotypes that might be made, avoiding awkwardness and pre-judgement (almost) altogether. People are categorized by what they are not–and for once, it makes life simpler.

Special thanks to Thomas Martinez for help with lighting and photography.

Copy Cat
John Ross Plaza Studio
Portland, OR
March 4, 2010

With the insemination of computers and the internet into our daily lives, the way we view ownership has been slowly changing. When the printing press was introduced and information was available, for the first time, people were no longer dependent on authority to educate themselves. As such, not only was the common person now literate, people began writing and taking credit for their creative endeavors.

Now we see something very much similar happening. The digital age has created a new sense of ownership. With the availability of handheld cameras, web cams and cell phones with cameras, the common person, has the means of creating. Video work is not longer solely in the hands of a select few. Anybody, anywhere can pick up a camera and film something. We are seeing a familiar trend in information insemination. And in fact, in information multiplicity.

Special thanks to Andrew Parnell for help with producing signs and packaging.

Edge Gallery
Portland, OR
January 18, 2010-February 26, 2010

You know you have done it. We have.

With 77 days in each term, we knew most of these days have and will be spent doing things other than thinking about a project. Some may simply call this procrastination.

We like to think of it more as a way of life. We all have those moments when concentration just isn’t possible, no matter how hard you try or how impending that deadline. We all have to struggle through that block one way or another.

On occasion, we like to take naps instead of thinking conceptually.

Fill out your own at http://toastandtea.org/nap/

For my Bachelor of Fine Arts year, I designed the identity for the class. Using deer antlers and neon lights as my inspiration, I went on to create a logo that referenced the White Stag on the roof of the building.

The Luminous Deer brand collateral includes a website, t-shirts, postcards, final show poster and various vinyl signage. Additionally, I designed and typeset the Bachelor of Fine Arts catalog, which showcases the work of thirteen artists who relocated to Portland for a fifth year of undergraduate study devoted entirely to the research and development of their terminal project.