archives

My research examines the use of archival imagery, written word, and various methods of organization to identify facets of personal history. The photographic works I create exert an overarching umbrella of control, and employ organizational structures to do so. These actions allow me to have the feeling of control over the past, present and future by reordering my environment. My thesis explores the culmination of these themes, using it as an opportunity to explore systems of management as I experience life events. The work explores an interest in the visual passage of time through order, often times contrasting moments at rest and moments of tension. In processing these periods of tension I explore mechanisms for privacy and actions of work. An overarching discussion of creating as a form of escapism emerges.

This essay is in two parts: first, is the Thesis Essay, and second, is the Reflection on the Thesis Exhibition. In the Thesis Essay, I cover the motivations that influenced my Thesis research and production. This focuses on the stuffed animals I create as objects to which viewers might connect through a tactile experience, in order to understand and appreciate the hand sewn stitch which came to me as an inheritance from my Japanese ancestry. This work begins to describe my experience as a Japanese-American separated from my Japanese family and home country, and touch upon the larger themes of cultural abandonment and post-War trauma. In my Reflection, I speculate upon how the deliberate repair of objects which have been worn through use can mirror the ways in which careful acts of maintenance can mirror neglected and broken interpersonal relationships. These works model how traditional inherited legacies of craft may chart a path forward in a world marked by immigration.