I grew up navigating between a traditional Chinese immigrant household and the unsympathetic digital landscape of the late 2000’s internet. Within this liminal space, I found myself drawn repeatedly to certain themes and images: red knots, deer, apples, so on. My work identifies the intersection of the symbols in my parallel digital and physical childhood cultural narratives. I focus on objects that represent an overlap of my multicultural backgrounds and accumulate them to create a personal iconographic lexicon. In doing so, I work to unravel my complex lineage of influence to discover what draws me to these symbols and also reach out to those similar to me—digital natives in diasporic communities.
My practice consists of handbuilt and thrown ceramic objects supplemented with the usage of advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing, CNC milling, and CAD software. The physical forms of these objects develop from a merging of childhood digital media and pop culture with folklore and tradition from my cultural heritage. Craft serves as a grounding process, helping me concretize my composite symbols into the tangible world. The hand, and by extension my lexicon of images, becomes immortalized through each fired, permanent piece. The intentional addition of modern fabrication processes helps elevate this work in scale, accuracy, and detail. By merging craft and new technology, the objects I create reflect the tension in my simultaneous upbringings.
Most recently, my work focuses on mazes as intricate metaphorical and physical forms of entrapment and protection, requiring not only a creator but a participant—or victim.
Presently, my non-fiction writing investigates the idea of digital folklores, in which the Internet changes and amplifies the impact and trajectories of classical folktales. In my off time, I write about the weather, the gutters, and the internal turmoil of anonymous nomads in vague spaces.
I am currently at the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA Ceramics, Theory and History of Art and Design, C/O2025).
Contact at kfu01@risd.edu, katherinemfu@gmail.com