The Journey, 2021.

Artist William Kentridge inspired me in the way that he was able to display the rich history of his hometown Johannesburg, South Africa. In this piece, I aimed to emulate his unique art style through the use of drawing and erasing images on the same paper; I also wanted to tie this into the rich history of my father - a refugee of the Vietnam war who sought asylum in the United States. While drawing the images, I made sure to keep the erasures somewhat visible; this would leave traces of the first drawing on the 2nd drawing and so forth. The details of including my hand, the ripped notebook, and the framing of the pictures all contribute to the intimacy and specificity of this piece that I hoped would show that it's organic, authentic, and raw. I chose to display the history of my father’s refugee experience through this project, just as William Kentridge aimed to convey the history of apartheid through his work 10 Drawings for Projection (1989 - 2011).