Artist Statement
I make installations that work across writing, video, sculpture, and software to ask: who is recognized as human, and how is that recognition shaped? The form of each work varies, but each amplifies the acceptance and rejection of humanness. I write stories, assemble readymade materials, modify existing technologies, and place them in relation to one another. These elements form characters and power dynamics that structure the viewer’s interaction.
My practice is grounded in my witnessing and participation in technology development, where access to its design is uneven. This produces frustration, as design decisions shape who is included and deepen differences between groups. Informed in part by Eastern philosophy, including Daoist animism and Tibetan Buddhist non-attachment, I understand recognition as shifting and relational, shaped by the systems we move through.
This construction of recognition takes place across specific systems: screens that reduce presence, tools built without certain users in mind, borders and policies that define belonging, and laws that both protect and exclude. In each case, recognition is not neutral. These systems operate differently, but they share a common effect: some people are left out or not fully seen as human.
I approach these questions by creating encounters. Through storytelling, CGI animation, and interactive systems, I build worlds that inhabit screens and extend into curated space. Each world operates with its own premise, defining who is included and how they are understood. Within these worlds, I develop characters that stage humanness as a form of performance, where identity is enacted rather than fixed.
These encounters place the viewer within these built worlds, shaping how they are recognized. They also engage the body. Through spatial arrangement and interaction, viewers become aware of their own presence, expression, and relation to others. In these moments, recognition is not only observed but felt. Through these encounters, I focus on how recognition happens, how it can fail, and on what other forms of connection might be possible.
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