“Pulau Bidong Island,” 2004, MFA thesis, “Orange Alert,” Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford, CA
Gelatin Silver prints, videos, and chlorophyll print and resin in various dimensions
In 2002, my mother and I traveled to Pulau Bidong, an island off the coast of Malaysia that once served as a Southeast Asian refugee camp—one we had lived in years earlier. Through photography, we documented the site, while my mother shared stories of our journey and survival.
The most powerful moment came when we stumbled upon fragile, timeworn artifacts: letters, testimonies, and official documents. Some were partially buried in the earth, with plants growing through them; others lay scattered across the crumbling buildings. It felt as though they had been waiting—quietly preserved—for someone to find them.
We gathered as many as we could carry. As former refugees who had once left everything behind, we understood the weight these objects carried. They held people’s stories—fragments of hope, longing, and resilience—and for us, they were too precious to leave behind.
I used these found artifacts as the foundation for my chlorophyll prints, suggesting that the words and voices of these refugees still linger, echoing through the landscape like memories rooted in the land itself.
