Work From Home: What Do I Wear (2021)
Mixed Media (Thread, Yarn, Textile)
In “Work From Home: What Do I Wear,” the first piece in the Work From Home; Home From Work series, I paint a portrait of a typical morning in my workweek during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has exacerbated the exploitative nature of capitalism and its hyperfixation on endless production despite death and illness on a grand scale. During this time, patterns of life in a capitalist society have become even more cyclic and meaningless – work, break from work, repeat. Thus, sources of comfort that independent from this toxic cycle are more important than ever. My own house plants are such a source, as they represent safety, healing, and resilience, allowing me to momentarily disengage from my surroundings.
Worn office attire is fused atop cheongsam fabric, as a persistent reminder of how I am perceived in a white, cisheteropatriarchical society, but also as an insignia of pride in my Chinese heritage. Shirts, cheongsam fabric, and soft yarn are ruptured by thin embroidery floss and worsted yarn on needle and subsequently stretched to breaking point. Competing textures and colors disorient the viewer. Superimposed on this cacophonous backdrop are welcoming branches of a chunky knit eucalyptus plant, uniting the disparate components and liberating the viewer from the commotion.
