Submerge/Hapa Confessions Octagonal Tiles

Natasha Jong
Submerge/Hapa Confessions
Ceramic Installation
2023
Elements for sale:
Octagonal tiles $100 each
Ducks $40 

 These pieces are inspired by the artist’s complicated experience with race. As a half-white, half-Chinese American person whose ancestry in California dates back several generations, she has often grieved the fact that her knowledge of Chinese culture is that of an outsider. These pieces are made of porcelain and hand painted with a dark blue underglaze, inspired by Ming dynasty Chinese ceramics.

Submerge taps into the feeling of powerlessness in realizing that her sense of self has been stolen from generational trauma that never allowed her to learn about her own family and ancestors. The corners of the piece denote four aspects of the artist’s experience: (from top, clockwise) home, family, self, and death. The piece itself is made of four tiles as a nod to the Chinese numerological association with death and unluckiness. In the artist’s exploration, however, the corners cut the composition into an eight-sided portrait of herself, in turn transforming grief into prosperity.

Hapa Confessions is composed of three tiles decorated with motifs inspired by Chinese ceramics, which together present the sentence “I never learned Chinese.” This piece pays homage to ABCs whose families no longer speak their native language due to generations of internalized xenophobia and cultural genocide.