Lives / works between Brooklyn and Mae Wang, Thailand

My work uses subversive, colorfully patterned objects and maximalist installations to critique State-sanctioned violence in the US. Whether tufted rugs, wallpaper, flocked architectural models, collage or artist books, my interdisciplinary practice employs commercial design language to subvert politically charged content. By toggling viewers between aesthetic seduction and ethical conflict, I aim to implicate them in the systems I critique.

My practice is deeply research-based, exploring forgotten or intentionally obfuscated histories. Judith Butler’s concept of “grievability” from her work “Frames of War” is a guiding principle for this research. The text explores whose bodies become “ungrieveable” in dominant power structures. I am particularly interested in how ideology and consumerism distract certain communities from violences which are deeply felt by others.

Paralleling my studio work is a collaborative bookmaking practice with writer Cara Marsh Sheffler called ¡AGITPOP! Press. Our books satirize mid-century publication formats—whether a Sears Catalog, recipe book, World’s Fair Guide, home improvement magazine or how-to magic book—to explore the violence of American empire in literary form, using humor and wacky mid-century imagery as tools to disarm the reader.

While my work is pointedly Amerocentric, its genesis begins in Thailand. In 2011 I co-founded an anti-human trafficking NGO Daughters Rising working with refugees on the Thai/Myanmar border. Through this ongoing work within marginalized and stateless communities I recognized that structures of power which perpetuate inequality within the US and Thailand operate largely the same. Therefore to parallel the activism I do through my NGO work abroad, it became a goal to use my art practice as a tool for activism at home.