Displayed as part of the 2019 MICA Undergraduate Commencement Exhibition, Palimpsest is a solo show investigating the generational repercussions of forced relocation through iron oxidation and magnetization, the woven structure and use of water-soluble weft, and waterleaf paper structures. The exhibition was divided into three spaces, to display a suite of works considering each subject. Poetry and supplemental wall text were interspersed throughout the exhibition.

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In the first space, supplementary text introduces the terms "Palimpsest" and "Hyporheic Flow," then posing a guiding question for the exhibition: How do we build from the residual?  

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Excavation is a photographic handweaving made on a TC2 digital jacquard loom, based on an image I took at the site of the Topaz Relocation Center in June of 2018. It hangs above Repository, a collection of smaller artifacts displayed within a converted found table. 

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Repository houses three different artifacts: from left to right, a stack of risograph-printed takeaways with the text of the poem Topaz Relocation Center, June 2018, a found root structure, and a handful of nails cast in stoneware. 

 

Hyporheic Flow utilizes a large ceramic magnet and approximately 850 rusted nails and other found metal scraps in an effort to render each individual piece of metal a permanent magnet.

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In the second space, supplementary text defines the terms "Watari-Dori" and "Magnetoreception," continuing on to posit an alternative understanding of a 'placeless' people as one who is "always flying home."

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Senninbari Study utilizes the Japanese military tradition of the "Senninbari" to align the acts of embroidering and hammering as punctures that both strengthen and weaken a substrate. The handwoven vest, resting on a handmade stoneware hanger, holds 1000 nails that oxidize with the aid of a provided spray bottle.

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Waterleaf Studies explore pulp structure through hand papermaking. Embedding handwoven or netted structures into fermented Thai Kozo paper. Silk paper involves pulp so fine that it allows for the creation of blowouts—stenciled areas where a layer of paper pulp can be misted away to reveal a translucent pattern or image.

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In the third and final space, a piece of handmade linen paper with stenciled pulp painting displays the title of the piece. 

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and we dredge is an 8-yard handwoven scroll with tencel warp and water-soluble weft. The fabric is periodically lowered into a large, handmade stoneware vessel filled with water. The capillary action of the tencel warp draws water into the weaving and progressively dissolves the fabric. The dissolved fabric extends from one side of the space to the other, the dissolved ends eventually wrapping onto another beam. 

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Reconstruction Studies I & II also consider the ephemeral matrix—in one, nails are inserted into a handwoven piece, progressively rust-dyeing the fabric; in another, a blended silk/cotton fabric is printed with a burnout acid paste, dissolving the cotton in the fabric, then weaving the fabric back together with silk thread.