Held Together By Thread reflects how the identity and experiences of Asian Canadians, and BIPOC in general, are a complex culmination of various factors and experiences of joy, trauma, and everything in between held together.
Specifically, these patchwork pants, created from torn and worn-out denim jeans, scrap fabrics, and a thrifted kimono, were created to tell the story of second-generation Asian immigrants, especially those of mixed Asian ethnicities, who experience a conflict or questioning of identity. The various fabrics, colors, and prints patched together reflect the multitude of emotions and experiences that transpire as one navigates through the influences of both one’s culture and current environment. This includes everything from carrying different cultural values and practices than peers to feeling “not Asian enough” to encountering increasing amounts of racism against Asians during the pandemic. The result is an array of miscellaneous, contrasting pieces that create one’s fabric of identity. Yet, when held together by thread, one can make sense of these pieces through a patchwork that becomes stable and even beautiful.
Personally, this unifying thread in my life is my family and community, which holds me together and keeps me sane. The floating origami flowers, also held by thread, are representative of this, as I remember folding these flowers each year with my family at our local mall, where they would be hung alongside the many others folded. In fact, the flowers in this series were folded together by my whole family. My life and identity as a second-generation Asian immigrant has been and continues to be a mess of different pieces that I am attempting to patch together, though the one certain thread continues to be my family and community.
