she/her

My practice has been a way for me to explore my cultural identity. As a woman of mixed Singaporean and British heritage, my work explores the relationship between these two cultures, looking to how this has been reflected historically through furniture design, objects and architecture. Through this, my work has come to focus largely on the 18th-century design trend ‘Chinoiserie’. A trend through which elements of Chinese design were recreated and imitated to conform with European aesthetics and tastes. In my own work I attempt to reclaim and re-imagine this practice with a more conscientious approach. My sculptures often draw inspiration from specific cultural styles or processes. Both ornamental and functional designs are blended together in my larger and smaller scale works. Over the last year I’ve been looking into a range of Chinese literature focussed on enchanted creatures, objects and mythical storytelling. These include the Classics of Mountains and Seas and Pu Songling’s Tales of a Chinese Studio. I’ve been attempting to interpret and respond to these texts, that are often coded with layers of philosophical and cultural meanings, by developing a practice of sculptural storytelling, that explores my own journey of identity searching.