held in place, 2024
held in place examines socio-political confinement and immobility through the visual and material processes of painting. These concerns are rooted in my ongoing experience of immigration and the gendered social constructs that regulate and restrict both physical and social mobility. Women's experiences are rarely foregrounded in immigration studies and are often excluded from dominant narratives. In opposition to this omission, this thesis does not separate gender and migration into distinct concerns, but instead fuses them into a singular conversation about spatial difference.
In my work, I explore space by painting and stitching both inside and outside the picture plane. I reference architectural forms that function simultaneously as barriers, entrances, and exits. Cut-outs, tears, frays, and loose threads of canvas spill outward from the fixed boundaries of the picture plane. I incorporate bold, saturated Tojik textiles alongside Victorian floral wallpapers found in Tojik homes, allowing these visual languages to clash, merge, and coexist. Space here is shared, contested, tight, heavy, light—and, at times, so thin. Space here pulls you in, pushes you out, and holds you tight.
March 18 - March 22, 2024
George Caleb Bingham Gallery
University of Missouri