How is it possible to miss someone you cannot remember?
on twoness
This work questions the notion of missing someone you cannot remember through my personal lens as an adopted and displaced Chinese American. Specifically, I began this work with a focus on my biological sister who was raised in China with our biological parents. Due to China’s former one-child policy, we were separated at birth and have yet to meet. In 2014, I discovered my sister through mostly luck and being in the right place at the right time, and we were finally able to connect after 20 plus years of separation. When contemplating what our reunion will look like, I consider stories I would like to share with my sister as well as notions of cultural hybridity and materiality.
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I create objects and prints stemming from this notion of “two-ness” from paper-based materials that are reminiscent of Chinese culture. I primarily use unryu paper and mulberry paper which both papers have strong fibers yet hold a fragility that speaks metaphorically to my work. By making objects in the multiple, I am able to process through tedium and fantasize about the reunion with my sister (and biological parents).
Fortune on Yearning, double sided screenprint on mulberry, 8.75” x 32.75”, edition of 2
Lucky Garment (For Two Sisters)
Stitched unryu paper & madder dyed silk
56” x 18” x 148”
Double Hangers
Porcelain
5.25” x 14” x .25”
OBJECTS:
Pacifier (for two sisters)
Unryu paper & braided hair
1.5” x 2.5” x10”
Soup Spoon (for two sisters)
Unryu paper
1” x 11” x 1.5”
High Chair (for one daughter)
Unryu paper
14” x 16” x 18”
Lucky Knot (Intertwined II)
Etching on mulberry paper
9.5” x 9.5”
Artist Proof
Folding, hand drawn animation, 2:48.
Photos by Bridget K. Rodgers