MEDIUM: Digital Collage, Digital Illustration, Digital Imagery
DESCRIPTION:
Used digital layers, tears, and shadows to highlight migration, struggle, and familial history. Sketches explore layout, layering, and tone to build the foundation for a visual migration story. Two unedited portraits side by side, capturing quiet emotion and generational connection.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
In “Between The Pages,” I transform a quiet, stubborn corner of legality into something almost tangible. I digitally recreate my grandparents’ original passport photo, with layers peeled back to reveal immigration documents, the language of law, and important dates: “September 1980” and “June 13, 1991.” These tears, while representing steps taken, also represent the rhythm and movement of a slow and careful transition from one place to another, and the time and weight behind them. These digital tears are symbols of struggle and triumph, and the body of Chinese immigration law provides a human context to this journey, emphasizing its legality in the face of politics and stereotypes surrounding it. I explored this piece as a visual case study, using cultural studies and old archives to blend historical fact with family memory. Shadows under each flaw in the image give a sense of depth and time, so that the viewer can feel the sacrifices that have been pressed into this image that might otherwise be static and at a distance. This piece is not about immigration as politics, but about a very personal and intimate process that affects who we are, where we come from, and where we belong. It is about honoring my family’s struggle and inviting others to look past the surface of immigration politics to what is beneath.
