Artist Talk: Friday, Sept 23, 2022 (6:00 – 7:30 pm)

Collaging together fiber techniques, found textiles, and images from family archives, the exhibition explores phases of acculturation, immigrant identity, and ideas about gendered labor. My decorative fringes are influenced by the Middle Eastern tradition of oya (lace edging on a headdress) and its use of symbolic patterns that serve as a secret language between women to express personal sentiments that must otherwise remain private. Adopting these methods of embellishment and encoding, I create adorned, intercultural portraits framed with oya on bedsheets.