Audrey An American, b. 1994

 

 

My work explores the condition of being a 1.5 generation Korean-American, an ‘in-betweener’ who is not quite first or second generation enough. I examine this in-betweenness, the embodiment of emotional oscillation to seek balance. My recent works examine how curation within homes can explore conversations about my transcultural upbringing: moving between South Korea and the United States. Furniture in the domestic space shapes our identity by serving as objects for which memories accumulate. I am interested in how furniture can be used as a means to create a hypothetical space: a space to embrace an emotional state, to reflect on life, and to personify self. By creating objects and artifacts from the past and physically collaging them, I use the act of making as a strategy to investigate self-identity, and ground my sense of belonging.

 

Similarly to the way I move fluidly between two languages I speak, I approach my studio practice as a form of "code-switching" between physical and digital work, as well as between clay and other materials such as plastic, wood and foam. My ‘thought-objects’ are either shaped through analog handling of clay or digital fabrication techniques such as 3D scanning, 3D printing, and CNC-milling to achieve varying degrees of visual aesthetics and resolution. Scaling, copying & pasting, mirroring, and merging & fracturing objects and their randomized mix of organic and mechanized tension reflect the complex and fragmented, but essentially harmonious feelings that transcend the cultural oscillations. I aspire to create reflections of my identity to speak about my experience from the boundaries of cultural convergence. This trans-processing style of making is the reminiscence of the transcultural making of me.