thai time: I’m dreaming for you too
(2023)
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These images represent part of my ongoing exploration of immigrant familial memory, echoes of legacy and expectation, and how unknown and unspoken generational traumas shape our present sense of Self.
I’m making an attempt at moving forward in my life, through a studied consideration of past and present. It’s one uncomfortable and necessary survey out of many, looking to see where you exist in that place between ancestral histories and present day. Perhaps we find more of our substantial truths in the basic questioning. Who? What? Where? Why? When? And How?
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The Installation:
Through the active compilation of new photographic prints, images from family albums, personal artifacts, and connected via representative Thai-Buddhist sacred threads, I hope to rediscover connections of what was, what might have been, what is, and how it all could be.
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selections from this set of images were included for the " THAI TIME: I’m dreaming for you too " exhibit
which initially displayed at the golden belt artist studios main gallery, in Durham, NC, september 4th-30th, 2023
Captions of thoughts and observation adorn the spread of images to show the beauty of the past, the heartbreak of regrets, and the echoes of those questions which drive us forward headlong into the present moment and shape who we are. I’m asking the past for help, for information, for answers.
I’m asking the present for a forgiveness of behaviors born out of not knowing, for a permission to be more whole, more myself, more understanding, and more patient with not knowing it all.
The patterned geometry of white string signifies good luck, protection, blessings, and mark perimeters where evil spirits may not cross. The lengths of red signifies a healing tether from memory to memory, and embodies the power to dispel negative energies.
This use is an interpretation of Theravada Thai-Buddhist “Sai Sin” sacred threads, and an expression on my part of what I don’t know. It is a lost-in-translation attempt to pay homage and respect to my Thai-ness.
