BENEATH A PAPER MOON
BENEATH A PAPER MOON is an in-progress photography and writing project that considers unresolved tensions within America's still young storytelling tradition.
The idea of belonging — the desire for it, the threat of it — wends its way through every American story ever told. In her brief history under the name America, this country has wrestled with every manifestation of belonging: how to belong to a new land, a stolen land, how to stake a claim of ownership of said land; how to belong to oneself, how to belong to belong to others, either by brute force, subtle coercion, or by open-hearted, willing choice.
America's storytelling tradition is expansive, born out of countless colliding, merging and overlapping storylines. As an immigrant — and an artist in the midst of a deep creative shift — I find myself at a strange intersection, keenly aware of the tangled storylines, the distracting kitsch, and an American stage littered with countless discarded identities. This project is a way for me to try to make sense of the stories of my adopted homeland.