Un/Shielded

Year: 2021

Dimensions: 35 x 34 x 34 inches

Medium: Umbrella, lace, silicon foam, foundation, porcelain, fishing line

Statement: The Shield consisted of a store-bought umbrella being dedicatedly suspended mid-air using fishing lines, with hand-made life-like rendered teeth hanging from the umbrella made by porcelain. The lace around the big black umbrella is sewn onto the side of it, mimicking an effort to decorate it while gendering the work, based on the experiences of spending massive amounts of energy to uphold the beauty standard of being pale in Asia by constantly holding up an umbrella to shield the body from the sun. The underside of the umbrella is made to look fleshy, organic, and decaying. I seek to investigate the uncanny tension between artificial and organic, the human effort to exert control against nature, and the incessant decay of our bodies. I employ the visual language of a big black umbrella, inspired by the trope of holding up a big black umbrella during a funeral. I also see it as a symbol of human effort to protect the body. The teeth are hand-made with ceramics, soaked in coffee, connecting the viewer to a sense of bodily intimacy, guiding them through the tension between synthetic attempts to battle nature and the perishability of our body.