Trust me

My project blends uncanny cinematic scenes and metaphors, reflecting my personal alienation as an outsider between cultures. Using symbolism and absurdity, I provoke reflections on oppressive social realities and hidden tensions shaping our interactions.

My work addresses the psychological tension that underpins relationships between individuals through a series of uncanny, cinematic tableaux. Drawing from my personal experiences of alienation as an outsider navigating between different cultures, I use symbolism and an atmosphere of the absurd to provoke reflections on what I perceive as an oppressive social reality.

By exploring these psychological dynamics, I aim to highlight the often-invisible pressures that shape our interactions, with particular attention to how cultural and social structures influence personal and collective experiences of isolation. This tension is expressed through fragmented, disjointed scenes, where characters are placed in unsettling, confined environments, prompting viewers to question the boundaries of normalcy and the subconscious forces at play in our everyday lives.

Focusing on intimate and oppressive scenes, I create images resembling film storyboards, where characters are often compressed or fragmented by the composition. This instinctive portrayal of oppression reflects my experiences as an Asian woman and sexual minority grappling with oppressive gender norms and alienation. Drawing from Hegel’s discussions on subjectivity and Hannah Arendt’s concept of “the banality of evil,” I explore these themes in a modern context, using symbolism to express them in my photographs.

I’ve titled my project “Trust Me,” which features a series of portraits of Asian women arranged in a specific order, creating a theatrical representation of self-doubt and spiritual crises faced by women. In confronting the implicit institutional violence of contemporary life, I see myself as the child in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” revealing uncomfortable truths. “Trust Me” is both a call for individuals to reclaim their own subjectivity and an invitation to open a dialogue with a broader community in times of crisis.