CORE 1-12

CORE-(in mining, geology) a cylindrical sample and a central portion of earth, mineral, or rock extracted from the ground by means of a corer so that the strata are undisturbed in the sample.

While carving these 12 limestone COREs, this geological material made me realize that I have carved not only a physical medium but also the result of a long period of time, hidden in ‘strata’ and persisted to carve the inside of stones in order to unearth hidden pathways within the stones, a tangible representation of time’s passage in nature. 

As a first-generation immigrant artist feeling a sense of dislocation, nostalgia, and desire for belonging, this art practice, a trial of revealing the root of things unseen, has been a part of my effort to assimilate into American society, mapping a pathway that is hidden in my own depth, waiting to be discovered and defies conventional understanding, a testament to the complex and often uncharted terrain of the immigrant experience.
And I’ve sought to transform negativity into a path by discovering and revealing a new passage through digging the negative space in a given stone. The very negative space becomes a pathway. Removing superfluity, only necessity remains.
Incorporating the marks of nature, stone quarry, and my grinders in my work, I imitate the coexistence of chaos and order found in nature.. 

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