Little Lady
Land Birds
Danhee arrives in the early morning to begin their day trip to the wetlands. Throughout their excursion, Danhee struggles to make conversation with a reticent Miseon. Miseon reveals that the sound of jets—ever present in their military town—keeps her up at night. She also lets on that she does not have many friends in school. Miseon misses Korea and their father, who is still stationed there for his military career. While stopped at a gas station, Danhee discovers Miseon’s backpack packed to the brim with survival tools. Miseon confesses her intention of running away too, and begs Danhee to let Miseon live with her. Danhee rejects her roughly and leaves to pay for gas. When she comes back, Miseon is gone.
Danhee searches the neighborhood for Miseon to no avail. Danhee resigns herself to waiting on the curb, where she witnesses a violent fight among some neighborhood boys. Eventually, Miseon comes trudging back. Danhee chastises her and breaks down. Miseon begins watching some birds in the sky. In the distance, a jet approaches. The two sisters witness the jet collide with the birds.
Pull Over So I Can Hit You
Between These Walls
Lost Time
Tanya finds comfort in her first hours of liberty at a local diner, inhaling burgers, fries and a couple of shakes as though she had never tasted the food before. While digesting, she calls her son, Blake, to deliver the good news of her release but is met with a cold reaction. Hurt and disappointed, she puts together the few bills that she has to call an Uber, with much help from the disgruntled restaurant employee.
Tanya closes the door to her Uber and faces a long drive way that leads to a beautiful home; her son’s. She anxiously knocks at the door and Blake opens it; his expression hard, stony, and a little sad. After a heated debate, Blake slams the door on Tanya’s face and does not give her the opportunity to meet her grandson. Heartbroken, Tanya sobs and yells out to Blake from the porch of the door, but is met with no response.
Defeated, she retreats back to the diner which had earlier served as a safe haven for her but now reduces her to unhappy memories. A happy family passes her table and triggers flashbacks of when she got caught in armed robbery gone wrong and of the last encounter Tanya had with her daughter due to her being angry that she did not want to take a plea deal.
The diner closes up shop and Tanya is forced to leave. Alone and cold, she plops on a curb in the parking lot. After much contemplation, she gathers the strength to dial a number. Time passes and a car rolls up. A warm, but concerned elderly black woman gets out and for a moment the two women stare at each other until Tanya darts towards the car to give her mother a long, warm embrace. After many tears spilled and a motherly kiss on the forehead, Tanya climbs into the car to go home at last.
La Sirèn
The Celebration
I'm Usually Pretty Good At Naming Things
In the summer of 2021, I decided that I had spent long enough making art with pre-ordained meaning. I wanted to see what art-making was like free from that obligation. I wanted to see what would happen if I let the process speak back to me. So I culled through my extensive arsenal of the stuff I make collage and sculpture with, and made a stack of paper about a foot tall. With this as my raw material, I cast aside the idea of outward expression with a specific agenda, and embraced inward exploration with unassigned curiosity.
Subsequently, each collage became its own independent narrative. I was speaking in an intuitive language that perhaps I didn’t have total agency over. It was scary, and it was freeing.
I knew that even if I didn’t fully understand what I was making, there would be two people who would: my kids. To be clear, I don’t mean ‘understand’ in the way one processes a distinct language: I’m not a semaphore; they are not at sea. What I mean is that these pieces might just have a poetic resonance with the two people who know me better than I know myself.
Maybe by admitting that I don’t have all the answers—not by a long shot— in a communication authored for the people who ostensibly look to me for answers, I can become as cool as Joe Strummer. At least to my kids.
Some Kind of Heavenly Fire
The Possible Life
Welcome Home
My Brother & Me
CHICKEN
Chicken features a neurodivergent cast and crew and is written and directed by women.