My body of work expresses moments in time; interior scenes with objects that people placed sentimental value on, but are now left to simply ‘gather dust’ due to the constant sense of urgency in society which forces us to abandon these things and pursue what capitalism deems to be more worthwhile. The clock, antiques and other ordinary items represent the substance of the subject who is absent from the scene. The vintage aesthetic further references the concept of time passing. Gathering Dust explores the lingering human imprint of stillness and reflection without the actual presence of people.

Over time, our world has been modernised through innovations and industrialisation which burden and disregard the natural environment. My body of work, Gaia Blossom, uses both organic and manufactured materials to explore the intricate balance between the natural and industrial worlds. My intent is to bring attention to the presence of industrialisation in our society, and how it affects the beauty of the natural environment and society’s connection to nature itself. I have woven the colour green through each piece to represent the natural world in contrast to the cold metallic elements. A delicate nature is still retained.

I am interested in drawing both film noir gangster films and birds, so my body of work combines these interests. I have inserted birds into various film noir scenes, dressed as characters from those scenes. I have used different lighting settings in the scenes, with environments ranging from well-lit to almost completely dark. In this work I focused on improving my tonal drawing skills. Over the course of creating my work, my skills and knowledge around effectively creating tonal drawings progressed much further than I expected.

In my body of work I explored the internalised emotions associated with bereavement. My innate and deep desire to come to terms with the death of my father (in 2008 when I was 5 years old) inspired my investigation of this concept. Each teapot, through form, surface texture, colour and relative scale, represents a single or a combination of emotions and feelings experienced in grieving, such as anguish, devastation, frustration, guilt, loss of innocence, collision between parental nurturing and the brutal reality of death.

Scent is the most complex, powerful and precise sense we have, always attached to emotion. One whiff of my mother's perfume brings dormant memories back to me. My body of work uses still life bottles of perfume to represent the intricate identity and nature of the intimacy I have with those closest to me. As the audience engages with my work, smelling the perfume strips, they are offered an intimate insight into my relationships while triggering their own associations and memories. The work also references COVID-19, an early symptom of which is loss of smell, depriving us of intimacy.

The issues and ideas I explored in my body of work were inspired by the video game Journey. This is the classic hero’s journey that is found throughout our culture. My intent was to represent a 2D fantasy world in 3D form. Fantasy and science fiction themes in mediums such as video games, books and movies have always fascinated me. I am currently developing a video game so this informed my practice in the handbuilding of City of Clay. My intent is to give the audience a unique experience as if they were a part of this virtual world.

My body of work expresses a personal disillusionment with conservative Chinese values that are, in my own experience, too polarised to reconcile with my experience as a second-generation immigrant. I have explored the resultant profound anxiety and self-hatred through the appropriation of religious imagery, using the division between ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’, and the image of Confucius, whose teachings are engraved on the consciousness of every East-Asian person. The work represents how the traditional values that emphasise societal conformity and filial piety, resulting in the unambiguous distinction between ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’, become a condemnation of individual expression.

My intent in my body of work was to explore how plant-like structures can be manipulated to shape and bend their directional growth. Using the malleable properties of wax I melted and shaped ‘branches’ supported with wire bones to build abstract structures that defy nature’s normal patterns, then incorporated elements of wire and bindings to restrict and encourage altered growth. The direction that each branch takes is affected by these constraints just as experiences alter one’s path in life.

I have explored an expressionist form of portraiture in a non-conventional medium to represent how the influence of the subconscious governs our individual perspectives. For my body of work I followed impulse and instinct, rather than predetermined design. Doing this allowed me to create characters whose features, expressions and personalities were determined by my own subconscious desires. For each viewer, each face will hold a different meaning, disposition and temperament. My intent was to demonstrate and critique the power of our own subconscious and pre-existing dispositions, beliefs and values in creating bias when confronted with ‘the new’ and ‘the different’.

On the cusp of the scientific discoveries of the 18th century, cabinets of curiosities were a precursor to what we now think of as modern museums. They were personal collections of exotic objects (botany, antiquities, astronomy etc), gathered from around the globe that told a story about the world and its history. Grounded in my love for order and categorising, my body of work is a stand-alone interactive sculpture that invites the audience to explore the almost forgotten art of collecting and presenting objects. While it references the scientific method, it also tells a story through themes that resonate personally.