TRANSFORMATION CHARMS
2024, Sculptures: 3D Printed Resin, PSP Disk, Cord, 10 x 10 x 3cm (each), Drawings: Pencil on Paper on Board, 3D Printed Resin, 20 x 20 x 3cm (each)
‘Transformation Charms’ explores how videogames and anime create portals into new worlds, which enable the formation and transformation of identity.
Inspired by the artist’s experience growing up watching 90s animes, Sailor Moon and Pokémon the works consider the powerful and personal role this media played in the formation and reinforcement of her own identity. Growing up half Chinese and half British in the UK, she encountered anime as an accessible point of entry for the affirmation of her Asian heritage, which often felt like a secondary or underlying element of her identity.
Drawing from the magical girl alter-ego of Sailor Moon and the transformational powers of Pokémon evolutions the works seek to assert the magical potential of being in between, acting as triggers for transformation. They similarly reference videogames of the same era, as outlets for manifesting and exploring new identities, and for the creation of alternate versions the self. In this way the works seek to embody conduits for change. Like Sailor Moon’s Cosmic Crescent Wand or Pokémon evolution stones, they are talismans, amulets and charms - and like videogame cartridges and disks they represent portals into new worlds. They are precious and potent objects loaded with magical potential.
Aesthetically the works at once emulate gemstones, selected for their symbolic spiritual properties, and the transparent plastic of 90s tech including game controllers, Apple macs and Gameboy cartridges. This deliberate dissonance between manufactured and magical seeks to reconcile the artist’s own questions of authenticity and her ongoing inquiry into her identity.
The works also feature eyes as a recurring motif, as both the fundamental portal into the self and as iconic emblems of the anime aesthetic, they manifest in the haphazard style of absent-minded doodles, sketched out whilst daydreaming. Partly drawn by hand and partly rendered by AI they further reflect upon the artificial vs the authentic, considering the validity of virtual experiences, memories and selves.
Photos by André Skjegstad