2024

Refugio de Luz investigates the idea of shared wisdom– specifically the ancestral wisdom of building shelter. At the basis of human existence, is our ability to manipulate our surroundings to create refuge. For millennia, humans have used materials from their immediate environment to construct enclosures in an effort secure a sense of safety. Using clay, stone, branches, sand, vines, or animal hides, we have always found ways to protect our interior world from the exterior. Deep in our DNA, we all share this knowledge.

Refugio de Luz is my effort to tap into that wisdom.

The structure of Refugio de Luz is both a physical manifestation of this deeply embedded wisdom and as well as a metaphor for how our bodies hold it– in our hands, in our bones, in our blood. The pink sinewy branches are both structure and body. the light emanating from them– our shared wisdom. As these branches connect, flow, and support one another, this piece reminds us of our deep relationship with nature as our provider, the undeniable strength of community and the insistent internal inertia we all share that pushes us to create “home.”


This piece was the created during my six week residency at Koik Contemporary during the Summer of 2024.

2023

Wood, steel rod

2022

This series entitled 'seeking vastness' was originally inspired by questioning how I could make a small space feel vast. I started with sketches and my goal was to see how many different spatial variations I could make within a 1" x 1" square. I thought I would choose one or two of the drawings to create paintings but I actually liked the matrices better.

Seeking Vastness Matrices No. 1-6

acrylic on canvas, soft maple frame

12" × 12"

Seeking Vastness No. 2-5

acrylic on canvas, soft maple frame

8” x 8”

When I walk around cities, I'm looking up, hunting for shadows and praying for angles.

These are paintings inspired by images I took while living and working in Mexico City in 2020.

Edificios No. 1-5 (2021)

12"× 12"

transfer, acrylic, pen on raw denim

Bridges 1 & 2 (2021)

60” x 48”

Acrylic on canvas

2020

Golden Hour a series of ‘illuminated paintings’ that tries to capture some of that gritty golden hour bliss that is so unique to Mexico City.

**I lived and worked in Mexico City in the fall and spring of 2019 & 2020 before moving back to West Virginia due to COVID.

2019

My graduate thesis project, entitled The Providence of Space, was an exhibition that investigated arguably the most common phenomenon in human culture— the home. Much more than just a shelter, the home serves as a refuge for our thoughts, a vessel for our memories, and a sanctuary for our dreams. The home cradles our identity and offers a reflection of our past, present, and future self.

Through photographs, objects, and audio interviews, The Providence of Space functioned as a story telling device, recontextualizing the “poetic images” belonging to the homes of five residents of Providence, Rhode Island. The exhibition consisted of separate clusters of stacked light boxes, some of which showed imagery taken from each space, while others acted as plinths for objects belonging to the residents. As visitors moved through the exhibition, recorded audio from interviews with each resident was incorporated within each cluster to give visitors context.

2018

Wood, steel tube

“Rungs of Freedom” is a site specific installation at Fort Adams in Newport, RI. The piece functions as a critique of the United States’ long history of foreign military interventions. The installation consists of a series of charred wooden ladders, hoisted 10 feet above the ground on one end and lodged into the ground at the other. Placed in chronological order beginning at the elevated end, each rung is engraved with a country and the date in which the U.S. military has officially exercised its power and presence since 1776.

2018

MDF, pine pegs

“RISD Global presents Shared Languages, an exhibition of works in progress from the studios Centre de Formation et Qualification des Métiers de l’Artisanat Al Batha and Fés (CFQMA) as well as RISD students engaged in Crafting the City, a multi-year pilot program focused on the role of craft in the built environment of Morocco. The exhibition focuses on the languages of making, materials and process shared by the artisans and art and design students while also celebrating their diverse approaches to craft and design.”

The design of the exhibition uses the form language and material quantities of the library’s existing conditions to create a modular intervention that engages visitors while not distracting from the space as a whole. The “peg and shelf system”, while in dialogue with the bleacher panels, was also used as a solution to an ever-evolving list of objects.

2018

Plywood, Rice paper, LEDs

These lamps were produced for a project entitled Illuminating Prayer. Our class was given the First Congregational Church in Newport, RI as a host structure and we were to design an installation/exhibit based on the life/work of John La Farge, the designer who redesigned the space in 1877. I was interested in the patterns and symbols he used for the murals and ceilings and was thinking about the connection between symbols and prayers. Why are these symbols used here? Are they sacred? What do they mean? This project was an effort to take the symbols used on the walls of the church, research and evaluate their meaning and significance across cultures and religion, and to illuminate them, both metaphorically and physically, in order to better understand the power of prayers, symbols and their connection to us.

The design for the first lamp in the series comes from a symbol found on a Muslim prayer rug painted on the ceiling of the church called an Elibelinde, which is Turkish for “hands on hips” and is a motif of a female figure. It is widely used on Kilims (flat tapestry-woven carpets) and occurs in many variations. The Elibelinde is a symbol of fertility and motherhood.

The second lamp in this series borrows the form language of the Iris flower. The Iris symbolizes, among many other things, hope, faith, and divine protection. In Ancient Greece, irises were said to have been planted on top of graves to summon the goddess Iris who would guide and protect the dead on their journey to heaven.

The third and final lamp of this series uses the eight-point star, which is a symbol that appears in spiritual traditions across the globe. It symbolizes regeneration, renewal, fullness, and resurrection. In Islam, this particular eight point star is referred to as khatim or khatim-Sulayman, meaning “seal of the prophets.” In Christianity and Judaism, the eight point star is symbolic of the “eighth day”or the first day after God “created” the world. In Hinduism, a version of the eight-point star is known as the star of Lakshmi and represents the eight forms of wealth.

2018

Steel wire, plywood, mirror, brick

Investigating Interiority was the 2017 Graduate Biennial of RISD’s Interior Architecture Department. A team of five graduate students were charged with designing, fabricating and installing the exhibition. We didn't want to show the work in a conventional way so we came up with this idea to hang our models from from the ceiling in plan view. Underneath the models, we fabricated platforms with mirrors so that visitors can see the elevation or section of each model. On the back of each model, a question is posed that challenges our assumptions of interiority and pushes us to think more critically about the spaces we inhabit.


This exhibition was designed and installed by:
Yoo Jin Kim
Jinhee Hyun
Liujun Liao
Ning Ding 
Wesley Sanders*

*Lead Designer

2018

MDF, spraypaint

I hurt my neck/back from hunching over my computer all day so I decided to design this laptop stand that keeps my eyes straight ahead and my neck perpendicular with the ground. An added fin supports a usb dongle and a shelf provides space for papers. The stand locks snuggly into place onto the existing desks in the studio.

2018

Black and white film prints

Millennial Homes investigates how we Millennials build our sense of home and how much of what we build is a reflection of where we've been/where we come from and how much is a reflection of where we're going. Our home is the stage for life's most complex practices and arguably plays the most central role within human culture. But it's only been within the last 100 years or so that young people (without partners and children) have started to leave their family homes to build one of their own. So how do we do it?

 2017

Concrete, plywood, nylon rope, video

Untangle seeks to metaphorically dismantle some of the most developed systems of oppression (racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism, white privilege, rape culture, toxic masculinity, patriarchy, transphobia, and xenophobia) through the meditative act of untangling. The installation primarily focuses on a long cluster of tangled rope which meanders out from behind a screen playing a recording of hands knotting the same rope. Entangled in the rope are cement plates which name these systems of oppression. As the participants enter the space, they will be prompted by signage to engage with the rope and to untangle the cement plates. The signage will also prompt the participants to take the systems/plates over to a wooden platform and to smash them with a hammer. 

It is not the intent, nor is it within the scope of this installation to directly dismantle these systems and it’s important that participants understand this. Rather, Untangle serves as a metaphorical platform for a cathartic envisioning of how it might feel to, one by one, identify, purge, and destroy these systems of oppression from existence.

2017

Concrete, bluetooth speaker, headphones, glass spheres

This piece is a response to the prompt "conversation". The audio that is played from within the concrete cube is made from snippets of voice recordings that I've taken on my iPhone over the past three years of random conversations and encounters. I never really knew what to do with them but I think this is my effort to artificially fossilize them or make these moments less fleeting and more "concrete."

WAVES

2015

Light from Smartphones, DC motor, 3D Print, Monofilament, glass, mirror, water

Waves is an interactive installation which uses the flashlights on visitors' phones to create an immersive environment of dancing light. There are eight phone cartridges which visitors can drop their flashlights in to, each with a distinct projection. Thus, in order to see the entire piece together, eight flashlights/smartphones are required. This piece challenges the visitor to give up their property in order to view the piece and prohibits a single visitor from simultaneously experiencing and taking a photo of the work. 

2015

Chopsticks, 3D print, plywood, burlap

This intent of this project was to upcycle an everyday object into a design object. Using 3D print and chopsticks, this lamp intends to subvert the hyper technological process of 3D print and the simplicity of the chopstick. The identity of both the chopsticks and the 3D print are obscured by their respective coatings, asking the viewer to investigate the piece further in order to categorize the materials in order of preciousness as viewers most often do.