Kirstyn Hom

Meiguo is an installation of sculptures and textiles based on memories and mended objects from my grandmother’s home. Attempts to grasp the past becomes a departure for new sensibilities of (be)longing. By blurring relationships between inside and outside, I hope to frame the in-between spaces that I occupy within culture, time, and place. Fabrics soaked with pomegranates, onion skins, lemon juice, and rice are joined through long durational sewing methods. Building up the textile with repetition and pattern explores practices of writing, erasure, and remembering.

rootless yet

combed cotton voile, pomegranate, thread

sau pin glow

lac, linen, home video, wax dressmaking paper, wooden box

"I have proposed a different understanding of melancholia that does not see it as a pathology or as a self absorbed mood that inhibits criticism. Rather it is a mechanism that helps us (re)construct identity and take our dead with us to various battles we must wage in their names, in our names." 

-Jose Esteban Muñoz, 

"Disidentifications Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics" 

Chair Tear

wooden chair, hair

Sour Mouth, Crimson Bite

onion skins, lemon juice, cotton polyester voile, cotton batting, thread 

let the spirit out

combed cotton voile, cotton polyester voile, lac, pomegranate, iron, rice glue, pattern hooks

"The body is the ultimate witness to love. And I learned that right away. We don't say 'I love you.' If we do, we say it in English as a sort of goodbye."

-Ocean Vuong

Acknowledgements 

This show is dedicated to my poh poh, Sheu Ping Low Quock, whose memory is a generative seed and compass to the work that I carry as an ancestor today. Her story gives me deep humility and connection to first generation, working class immigrants who continue to shape and transform my understanding of America.

Thank you to...

Kevin Vincent for his loving support in making this show happen, from imagining ideas to overcoming moments of failure. 

Ava Sayaka Rosen for helping generate the text for "rootless yet" through a collaborative poetry exchange last spring. 

Dillon Chapman and Lauryn Smith for finding and transporting materials as well as helping me work through the process of this show. 

My committee, Professors Anya Gallaccio, Ricardo Dominguez, Page duBois, and Janelle Iglesias for their mentorship, support, and guidance in developing this body of work. 

Professors Lisa Cartwright, Nicole Miller, Michael Trigilio, Monique van Genderen for helping with resources and research material during my time in the program. 

Lucas Coffin and Justin Tuerk for their assistance and help in making this installation possible 

The Visual Arts graduate students, who have given me generous feedback, encouragement, and place in this community. 

Funding for this project is supported by the Russell Foundation Grant