In recent work, the mulberry tree and the process of making paper from its bark act as conduits for exile and Chinese diaspora. They are also engagements with Orientalism, anti-Chinese feelings, and the complex repercussions of colonization and Imperialism. I often travel to faraway and distinct locations to make monumental, site-responsive paper. These terrestrial journeys reimagine the experience of border-crossing, as well as Xihe and the sun-birds' voyages across the sky. The paper is a surface where atmosphere, sky, soil, sun, the marrow of trees and the hands of a single being touch and intersect. Someone I love once wrote, “Any object that directly relies on the spinning of the earth in order to fully form, contains some version of truth.”
