EMBODIED
Embodied is a photographic series that examines the intergenerational cultural transmission that shapes us and influences our values, beliefs, and behaviors. Using domestic objects discovered in my family attic and at flea markets, I create still life that reference the weight of inherited expectations embedded within domestic space. I explore how societal norms, religious practices, and cultural traditions are passed down through generations, creating cycles that prove remarkably difficult to upend.
Recently, I have expanded my practice to incorporate thread, textile, paint, and embroidery hoops, creating visual confusion between what is real and what is reproduced while deliberately unsettling viewers. Through these additions, I break the flat surface of the paper and transform two-dimensional images into hybrid objects that reflect the complex ways domestic space shapes and reinforces cultural transmission.
By manipulating these objects to appear outside their "traditional" function, the photographs generate unfamiliarity and discomfort. This subconscious unease mirrors the resistance we often feel when questioning inherited norms and long-held traditions. The work asks: Why do certain cultural patterns persist with such stubborn resilience? Which traditions should we maintain to preserve our roots and identity, and which should we change to avoid perpetuating discrimination and discomfort?
Embodied ultimately uses photography to explore the invisible but powerful mechanisms that perpetuate cultural continuity, questioning what it would take to break these enduring cycles and imagine alternative ways of being.
THRESHOLD
Early in the morning and late in the afternoon when the sun is low, light penetrates my house and casting shadows. My photographs capture the blend of interior and exterior for brief revelatory moments. Windows become porous, words conjoin, and a tension between restrain and freedom is born.
In his essay the “Uncanny” (1919), Freud investigates the meaning of “heimich” (domestic,familiar) and “unheimlich”. He writes about how the unexpected can render the familiar unfamiliar. My photographs explore this ambiguity by interpreting the familiar spaces of my home in an unsettle manner. I look for the unexpected, staging some of the pictures to create cinematic tension, and leaving undefined what occurred before and may happen after.
This series is a meditation on uncertainty. I explore the beauty found in everyday experience but also anxieties provoked by the unknown, and the reassuring environment we would like to create and control but also the fragility of this ideal.