Reclaim Series | Ceramic Sculptures 2025

Reclaim is a body of work shaped by survival -- through heartbreak, chronic illness, and deep personal loss. While still carrying these burdens, I have found peace in working with clay.

Clay holds memory: it can bear the imprint of trauma, transformation, or be broken down, rehydrated, and reshaped into something entirely new -- just like the self.

Every piece in this exhibition is made from reclaim clay: a labour-intensive process of reviving dried and discarded clays to make them usable again.

This material is unpredictable, containing remnants of its history-- various fibers, oxides, and dusts. These hidden traces introduce flaws, surprises, and challenges. Yet when fired, reclaim clay often reveals a story that new clay cannot-- one as unique as the self, shaped by memory, tension, and transformation.

Through both sculptural and functional forms, I explore how clay-- like the body-- can hold carry and endure.

Reclaim is not only about material transformation, but personal reclamation: of voice, presence, vulnerability, and strength.

To reclaim is not to return to what once was.
It is to gather what remains, and shape it into something that endures