Hidden Immigrant Series
Abstract:
Experiencing multiple cultures between birth and adulthood deeply impacts the formation and understanding of personal identity. It is no surprise that many Third Culture Kids (children growing up outside their passport country) and Cross Cultural Kids (children who grew up around two or more cultural environments simultaneously) wrestle with an unidentified orientation toward home and self. As a Third Culture individual and an artist, I combined animal hybrids, drawing similarities to cultural hybridity to visualize how it manifests itself in real people. I used the authoritative methods of scientific illustration to render abnormal, hybrid creatures. I also discovered visual means to refer to cultural hybridity through the use of symbols and images, and borrowed and used visual notations directed toward making or forming. It is my hope that the work from this series would cause people to be introspective and ask questions such as: How does one find identity? Is there an identity humans can find that transcends self and place? The work, through its depiction of hybrid identities, should lead to understanding and stimulate dialogue that could move us toward greater cultural sensitivity.
The Process:
I started this piece by rendering the illustrated creatures below.
Final Work:
In the piece below, I combined the two creatures above and collaged colored transparencies to symbolize a surrounding environment of overlapping cultures. Like the way colored transparencies act as a colored film, culture likewise, can tint the lens through which we see reality, our underlying values, and the surrounding world.
Close up View
"The Chameleon"
An account of a friend who's diverse cultural backgrounds and shifting school environments, frequently left her revealing the skin she believed others wanted to see.
