Home Fields
“Home Fields” is in reference to immigrants like my grandparents, who planted vegetable seeds native to their birthplace. They simultaneously grew comfort food while diversifying the agricultural palate of the United States, adding their culture to the country’s pluralistic mix.
With my new studio on a working farm, planting the seeds of produce originating from all over the world, I marvel at the mix of ethnic cuisines each harvest brings. The history of the US is filled with stories of immigrants farming the land to provide the ingredients for their traditional dishes. I was further moved after seeing video of thousands of Syrian refugees as they fled through farm fields that looked just like any farmland in the United States.
This series uses my process of holding drawing utensils like hashi (chopsticks), as a conceptual means to express the duality of embracing our cultural differences and similarities, as we seek identity. With two pencils in hand, they are manipulated to work in opposition to each other, while working together to create the drawing.
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