Home(-) and Garden
2018 | Socrates Sculpture Park. Long Island City, Queens, NY
Steel, drinking cans, aluminum, copper wire, Plexiglas, flooring, paint, perennial woodland plants, annual plants, bulbs, woodchips, compost. Each tent-assemblage 18 x 32 x 32 inches (24 tents). Planting dimensions variable (11 planted beds).
The woodland sculpture-garden installation forms a place to contemplate the proliferation of homeless encampments surrounded by screening vegetation as socially produced landscapes that emerge in designed, culturally produced urban landscapes. The work connects New York’s thriving luxury real-estate market with broader urban planning issues, and the active role that these factors play in generating and perpetuating chronic mass homelessness.
winter site view
Threshold
Fabrics, reclaimed wood, hardware
7 feet x 119 linear feet x 5-⅝ inches
June 2019
Brooklyn Public Library’s University Open Air at Prospect Park
Photo courtesy of Gregg Richards
Four installations activate entrances as Points of Entry and reflect hurdles, anxieties, opportunities and dreams of migration and education. Extended paths lead visitors through meditative, immersive environments. The space within evokes State control and monitoring while its colors, patterns and textures celebrate the beauty and richness of ethnic diversity. The horizontality of the installation echoes a broadening and expansion of horizons intellectually, culturally and geographically, while participants are exposed to glimpses of the interior beyond-- an obstructed view layered with complexity and unknowns.
detail view
Between Flagships
2022
7 feet high x 90 x 90 feet area covered
Fabrics, steel wire mesh, paint, wood
Summit Public Art. Summit City, New Jersey
From Summit City demographic data, I chose colors, shapes, and patterns from twenty national flags corresponding to migrants’ countries and reported ancestries. Each soft barrier references several flags as hybrid identities that are blended through generations as a common characteristic of migration experiences and of being between worlds.
detail view
Fabric piecing and appliqué techniques relate to hybrid identities assembled by migrants over generations. I borrow colors, patterns and shape sequences from twenty national flags to collage multiple imaginary new flags.
view of second path out of three paths
Photo courtesy of Brian Carpenter
The main subject of the textile installations Beyond Flagships and Threshold is the experience of migrating. This subject resonates with me because I have already migrated to different nation-states five times in my lifetime. My grandparents had each internationally migrated three times, and my parents four times during their lives. While grouping migrants as a cultural community might be a generalization, my personal identity and family background set the cultural conditions that drive me to create works that touch on characteristics of migration experiences, aspirations, and difficulties.
Collaborate with Nature. Recycle!
2007 | Plaza Molina, Barcelona, Spain
Recycled materials from the adjacent construction site, painter’s tape. 8 x 10 x 3 feet
An impromptu installation in a square undergoing renovation that accessibly encourages passersby to participate in everyday resource conservation. Unknown individuals participated by placing construction debris and other recycled materials at the base of the installation.