CRAFTING
IDENTITIES
CLIENT
Personal projects
MEDIA
Paper cutting
PROJECT SUMMARY
This series of projects were created using the technique of paper cutting to illustrate different identities, groups, and communities. I have long been fascinated with paper cutting as it is often found in traditional Chinese art. The precise lines allow room for depiction, whereas my inclination towards abstract patterns gives room for interpretation and emotion. I love using this technique for projects that involve the concept of balance, as cutting away pieces of the paper invites a careful dance between positive and negative space. In each of the following projects, I invested a lot of time, energy, and passion into the cause (as you can read about in the description).
The Hive Team Gratitude Cards (2018)
My first job out of college was a design job as part of a wonderful team of staff alumni, and students. For our final staff meeting of the year, I designed an activity around paper cutting. For this project, I did a cutout card for each person on our team of 20. The cutouts of each person’s card were inspired by qualities that I had observed and appreciated about that individual, drawing from their personality, my interactions with them, and the projects that they had worked on that year. During the final staff meeting of the year, I laid the cards out on the table in the shape of a hive (our company was known as “the Hive”). I wanted to visually express that the hive is created by all the amazing individuals that work there.
The cards all had the staff member’s names on the back and we each wrote one word that we loved or appreciated about the person on the back of the card. By the end of the meeting, each staff member had a custom cut card with positive words on the back to remind them of the positive impact that they are making in our community at the Hive. I used the bigger scrap pieces from each person’s cutout to create a collage that showcased the kind of energy that the staff created in 2018. This piece now sits in the possession of 20 amazing individuals whom I had the extreme pleasure of working with. This piece was exhibited at the Chan Gallery at Pomona College.
Mixed Identities Postcard (2016)
This set of 4 x 6in cards was created for a community of culturally and racially mixed people; everyone in the group identified with either more than one race, more than one culture, or both. Being raised in Taiwan but attending an international school and attending college in the United States, I had a few different cultural identities that I struggled with, and found myself very interested in people with mixed racial/cultural identities. In this community, we read theories and stories from others who share the experience, discussed current events, and broke down our beliefs and perceptions of identity.
This set of postcards that I created for each individual in the group visually represents two key takeaways from our time together: being okay with flowing outside constrained societal views of race/culture, and the right to identify differently in different situations. The patterns on the cards connect to each of the other cards to form this community that we had created. Each individual chose and took one of the cards with them after our last meeting. This piece currently sits in the homes and hearts of fourteen individuals whom I had the honor and pleasure of being in community with.
Asian American Voices Poster (2015)
This piece is inspired by Angel Island, the immigration station that processed immigrants from 84 different countries, but primarily the Chinese (approximately one million). Located in the bay of San Francisco, this immigration station was used to inspect and disinfect asian immigrants travelled across the ocean. People’s racial identity and social class often determined their treatment at the site and how long they were detained for. Times ranged from two weeks to two years. Time at the station was so limiting and dehumanizing that individuals started to carve Chinese poems into the walls. Some of these are still preserved and available for view on the island (now turned state park). These poems reference loneliness, sense of longing, entrapment, and identity.
The use of the paper cutting technique, reflects that of etching/carving into the wall of the immigration station. There is a permanence and determination in both types of craft. The cutout imagery reference Chinese symbols, including bamboo, lanterns, and floral motifs. The twisting patterns depict the struggle and internal grief that was experienced by these individuals. The Chinese characters on each of the pieces have the same structure with 囗 as the root, which means ‘enclosed’. The characters, translated to english are: country, criminal, struggle, depression, return, image, and surround. This piece now sits in the office of Dr. Kathy Yep, chair of the Asian American studies department, associate dean of faculty, and my dear mentor and professor at Pitzer College.
