How is it possible to miss someone you cannot remember?

Madeleine Conover

This work questions the notion of missing someone you cannot remember through my lens as an adopted and displaced Chinese American. Specifically, I began this work with a focus on my biological sister who raised in China with our biological parents. Due to China’s former one-child policy, we were separated at birth and have yet to meet.

Objects and prints stem from this notion of “two-ness” and interest in cultural hybridity. The pieces are all fabricated from unryu and mulberry papers which have strong fibers that also holds a fragility that speaks metaphorically to my work. By making objects in the multiple, I was able to process through tedium and fantasize about the reunion with my sister (and biological parents). Through focusing on gestures, I consider actions stemming from infancy to coming of age to depict what it looks like to make up on missed time.