Before the River
Becomes the Sea

Rachel Hsu

My mother has lived away from her homeland for 30 years and I now live 2,800 miles away from mine. Why do we yearn for a place we rationally know is not the same as in our memory or imagination? From the soft blue of retreating horizons to the illusory, deep blue of the ocean, the color is emblematic of the permanently unattainable.

Inspired by absence, relational ruptures, and slippages in translation, my work engages the yearning that emerges from distance and displacement. Loss and longing are intertwined, and to fully experience both requires time and endurance. Whether it is the labor demanded by language-learning and cultural assimilation or the acute pain that healing necessitates, my work urges mental exertion and emotional endurance to be felt in one’s body.