Diaspora Construction, 2024
Set of 20 hand-stitched zines in a display stand.
As a former asylum seeker, I have a deep interest in the lived experience of immigration, as well as the ideas and narratives circulated by immigration on a societal level. However, as a naturalised immigrant artist practicing on the unceded land of the First Nations people, I am also aware of the enduring heritage of settler colonialism and the challenges it presents to decolonization efforts domestically and globally. Diaspora Construction is a project that combines two lines of artistic inquiry, an investigation of diaspora formation on the one hand, and of the impact of mass immigration on the social, cultural and political landscape of the host environment on the other. To convey the layering of personal narratives in large-scale social phenomena, tracing paper was used for the printed zines. Despite its simplicity, the concertina format offers a system of visual planes that is expanded and elaborated by the material mediating it. The goal of Diaspora Construction is to visually and conceptually represent immigration in a way that invites cross-cultural dialogue and serves as a point of departure for further artistic exploration.