my creations

Firefly castle

I was first captivated by the fireflies, believed to be the guiding light of the soul and spirit. The existence of fireflies determine the abundance of nature because they would choose their habitat according to the water system. Since they do not settle in a single place, they learn to adapt to any surrounding environment. 

This piece imagines a harmonious habitat for the fireflies, and attempts to embody the inspiring qualities of the fireflies. The shape resembles their pupa stage where the firefly constructs a mud chamber around itself. On top, I embroidered the Sonneratia flower as a pattern to portray the firefly’s preference of the flower.

50cm x 30cm

Wire sculpture and embroidery

Hinghoi Fence Project

Community Service

This is a project I initiated in collaboration with my AngelTea and Hinghoi project. After various visits to the border police patrol school, I noticed the lack of safety protocol along the hill next to the primary school student class room. I decided to design fence panels for the kids that also function as interactive toys. I used local materials such as bamboo and rattan that would not produce waste to the community in the long term. I also aim for this interactive toy to be a teaching medium for the kids to learn about sustainable energy. Each one of the designs represent different sustainable energy:solar, hydro and wind.

digital prototype

real product

My Princess

20cm x 10cm

Resin and Plaster

I was determined to challenge the beauty standard set by the image of princesses by the media. Therefore, I made the mold out of a princess toy from my childhood and cast 18 sculptures from resin and plaster. The first few ones are still pristine to represent the unspoiled mindset of a naive child. I later added elements from my childhood like, gummies, beads, glitters, and tiny toys. Toward the end of this series, the appearance of the princesses becomes more ‘gruesome’ from both inside and out to represent the unrealistic expectations placed upon young girls.

The Gaze

A popular saying states that the eyes are the windows to the soul. After watching a movie where a woman is overly sexualized and judged for that sexualization, I painted  hanging orchids to cover parts of a figure of a woman. Orchids are the symbol of grace, elegance and strength in femininity. The part of her eyes is purposely left out for the audience to glance in and see with their own eyes. As such, the audience could see the beauty adorn by all the orchids, but the emotions are projected from the audience’s own perceptions.

55cm x 25cm

Oil on mirror

Preservation

25 x 60

Acrylic, printmaking

Nothing lasts forever, no matter how hard you try to preserve it. People seek their own way to preserve certain memories. I painted these Thai desserts on a banana leaf; they work like a timestamp that brings me back to my childhood. Putting paint onto the banana leaf is a way of short-term preservation. Knowing that one day it would perish, I used paper for some part of the piece and printed the texture of the leaf onto it. Banana leaves are also used to wrap food in Thailand as a way of preservation. As the banana leaf dries out, the paint cracked; this reminds me of the ephemeral quality of life.

Akira

This piece is derived from my black and white film photography print where I explore the idea of memory through vast spaces and brutalism architecture, particularly focusing on the negative spaces. Memories are fragmented and humans are the one who pieces them together. We added our own interpretation to the way we chose to remember it. On the bottom layer, I made a stencil of the stair from my black and white photo, since it is the most recent memory. I then transfer a scene from my favorite part of childhood which was when I  celebrated my birthday with my sister. I stamped birthday cakes around the canvas to evoke the idea of lingering memory. I then silkscreened different uncontinuous scenes from our birthday celebration onto sheer fabric before layering them on top. The process of constructing this piece consists of different transferring methods to link back to the idea of fragmented memories.

Mixed Media

Printmaking, stencil, transfer, acrylic, silkscreen 

50cm x 70cm

observational on paper

35.6 cm x 43cm

Beauty Corner

This is an observational drawing of a corner of my own room. I intentionally chose this corner because of the challenging details like the glass, the water, and how the objects overlapped and reflected light. 

Bunny Shaker

In my Introduction to Engineering Design class, I was tasked to design a salt and pepper shaker for people who struggle with grip strength. After some research, I found that the squeezing motion is not only easy to use, it also helps exercise the weakening muscles. The form of the shaker I designed is of a bunny, whose ears are used for gripping. I designed the ear part to curve down and fit with the user’s hand size for a more controllable action. During the process, I made many adjustments to the internal system before deciding on a two rotating wheels system. The final prototype was 3D printed out with the bunny design painted on it.

Weaving Patterns

rhino models

This is a project I produced from my time at the architecture program at Carnegie Mellon university. I started by tracing distinct patterns I see from Jeffrey Gibson’s work. I was intrigued by the repeating diamond shape and how the sharp lines connect with each other. I then render it on rhino and extrude it to 3D. After that I made study models of the different shapes weaving with each other. I experiment with different ways the elements from the pattern would look like in 3D form and weave them together instead of just attaching each piece. I aimed for the models to have no distinct dimensional orientation and represent the verb ‘weaving’ from all directions.

Paper model

15cm x 13cm

rhino models

Verb Chair - To Crawl

In Introduction to Architecture  class, the prompt was to choose a verb and make a sculpture that interprets the given verb. I was given the verb “to crawl'' and was assigned to make a chair. We started by performing this movement on the floor to understand different components to this motion. Next, I sketched out my interpretation of crawling. Then we made a sculpture crawling down a pole to understand the three dimension form of crawling. My partner and I decided to focus on the crawling movement of toddlers. The silhouette of this chair is of a toddler crawling sideway translated into an organic form. The negative space in the middle is the front view when a toddler is crawling. This whole chair structure was constructed without any tape or glue but only with dowels and rubber bands.

Cardboard Model with wooden dowels

60cm x 100cm x 80cm

HingHoi Library

Shadowing the work of a professional architect at my family’s company, I observed the way they approach design works. After visiting the site and measuring all the measurements, I also got to see the meticulous details of design. I took the prompt of designing a library for primary to elementary students at the school with a limitation of space. Inspired by the organic form of water whose shapes create a calming effect, I took its form to provide a comforting kid-friendly zone.

Foam model

30cm x 60cm

LilyLove

Subtractive plaster sculpture 

10cm x 15cm

This work was inspired by the relationship of motherhood and nature. Love from a mother is a limen between the natural process of growth and nature. 

The form of the sculpture represents the shape of a womb with lily petals emerging out from the center. The womb is a space where you experience the world for the first time through your mother. While lilies symbolize purity and rebirth. The lily is growing out of this hollow negative space before entering the outside world with the wall of the womb supporting their flow. 

I started by sketching out lilies from different angles. Then, I continued on to sketching out various organic forms of a womb before refining the choice into an egg-shaped womb structure. I chose to use the method of subtractive carving to align with the idea of the natural decay process of life.

observational sketch

Phuket Old Town

Strolling around Phuket Old Town, I was captivated by the old colonial style architecture which is called the Chino-Portuguese style. I created a series of drawings that documented this little vacation consisting of my five favorite spots. I chose to use this line technique to show the lighting and details of the buildings while capturing the liveliness and animated spirits of the streets. 

Micron Pen sketches

14.8cm x 21cm

Anatta

As a member of the school’s Art Council, I wanted to raise more awareness on arts from different cultures. This project titled ‘Anatta’ curated art from local artisans in Asia and sold the works to the school community. 

I designed the branding of the project. The logo is inspired by flowers with water droplet-shaped petals to represent growth and fluidity of cultures. The petals fall down before merging into the leaves which are in the shape of two hands holding up. I was inspired by Indian block prints and the rich decorative patterns. 

Parametric Dream

Intrigued by Antoni Gaudi’s work, I explored his architecture method of the hanging parametric model to create his catenary arches. The vision of the upside down hanging model reminded me of the idea of dream, how it is vague, ambiguous and unpredictable. I draped fabric around the hanging chains to create the dreamy and cozy ambience of sleep.

Chain Model and fabric draping 

60cm x 120cm

Portraits

  • Shahin

  • Ishaan

  • Reid

  • Elspeth

Firefly and Orchid life cycle

Even though fireflies have a long life cycle for insects it is fairly short compared to other living things. Using their light as a language of love, sometimes synchronizing their flash, they lit up the dark sky. After lighting up the darkness, they vanish from the earth leaving only their existence behind. 


I was inspired to create a work exploring the life cycle of fireflies. I started by etching out the body of fireflies before stamping them on top of each other into the shape of an orchid. The overlaying of the fireflies represents their unison existence. Once the light fades, the prints of those fireflies remain.  

Printmaking, Light Work 

130cm, 70cm