A Long Walk into the Past - MFA Thesis

A Long Walk Into the Past is a collection of mixed media sculptures. These sculptures use a mixture of metals and textiles to explore the complications of care while serving as evidence of the creation of a home that nurtures safety and strength. This mixture of tenderness and tenacity is represented through the use of traditionally gendered materials and techniques. By combining
soft, comforting textiles with the structural stability of protective steel, I reflect on the tension and harmony within women’s labor of care.

As a fifth-generation mixed Japanese American woman and mother, I look to photographs of my female ancestors to better understand both myself and them. As I try to imagine their spirits and experiences, I found myself thinking of them as leaping koi fish, on a journey that requires strength and resilience. The koi of my great-great grandmother, Yetsu, sweeps down to tend to her daughter, Masa, in an image of two souls in motion. In memorializing them, I painted their portraits on household linens, that I sewed within the scales of these mythological koi. In this combination, I show that they are both: both the soft linens of the home and the stable structural framework. In a world that overlooks and deemphasizes the care labor of immigrant women, this monumental sculpture the highlights the importance of memorializing care and motherhood.

In my exploration of care and memory within family, I reproduced family photographs in metal and textiles. As well as memorializing the connections between the individuals depicted, these pieces examine ideas of permanence, identity, and memory. The selective inclusion and erasure of individuals in the collages creates an inquiry into whose memory endures and why. The use of textile, paper, and steel layers further this inquiry by providing a material query into what details are more likely to retained, and which are fragile or prone to being lost by time. While I want to preserve, appreciate, and memorialize what I can from the care of my ancestors, I wonder if some loss can ever fully be prevented.

In these sculptures I see my own family members, but I also see many mothers and daughters, fathers and grandparents, nurturing each other and striving for a brighter future. For my ancestors and for the meek among us, my sculptures stand in memorium of those whose care and creation is often unsung. This act of memory is a gift for my unborn daughter, so that she
knows the generations of care that she comes from, and the love that she is being born into.