​我的 Rotten Mandarin

​我的 Rotten Mandarin was photographed over the course of 2016 and 2017 while living and working in Shenzhen, China.  The series explores my personal experience as a foreigner and my attempt to comprehend my new surroundings.  The photographs were made in my apartment and of the surrounding area.  As I moved through the space over and over again, I witnessed minute to grand transformations of my environment. As I saw my world differently, I saw myself differently.  While the interior of my apartment was changing at a slow rate, the outside world was changing rapidly.  In this series, the building of a new city is seen from my apartment complex as the mountain view became dominated by the construction of new skyscrapers.  I explored my transitioning perception of myself and my surroundings in the still lives that I constructed.

Chinese Knot 中国结

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 I collected dozens of cigarette boxes found on the streets of Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Beijing.  I meticulously deconstructed the boxes and hand-wove them into a 10 meter long ribbon. Half was woven while I was living in China and half once I returned to the United States.

 Ground Picture 地图

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While collecting cigarette boxes, I also collected transportation receipts from bus, taxi, ferry, and train rides in Shenzhen and Beijing.  Made in a similar method as Chinese Knot, Ground Picture (地 图), is inspired by city development and is woven starting from the middle and working outward.