J Sakaguchi

Sophie and I decided to go with a Madagascar reference when we saw these cabinets. The reference comes from a scene in the movie when they find themselves in boxes being shipped to Africa. When prompted to hit something deeper, we connected that idea of being confined and almost mistreated in a way to foreigners/immigrants in different countries, through adding humans into these spaces or boxes. This piece invites people passing by to step into the boxes, imagining what the experience could be like. Contemplation within the boxes and watching people look at you while walking through the hallway could also play into feelings of discomfort that foreigners and immigrants feel. 

  For this project, I decided to explore and experiment particularly with mark-making by means of folding paper, using a pencil for the marks on the wallpaper, silver paint/pen marks on the money bills, and I made some abstract lines with glue. I'm from two countries, familiar with both cultures, but wanted to integrate them into something unusually pleasing to look at. I feel overall satisfied with the project; however, it took some time for me to get going.  As I was making marks and thinking of how to collage different pieces of the bills with the bark, wallpaper, or normal paper, I thought about the idea of how sometimes we let the money shape us. I think that money has power, but we should be the ones who shape and decide what we will do with it. That is why for the first project, I had folded an entire bill of Japanese 1000 yen bill into a collared tee with a tie. So often are we decieved by outward appearances, and especially in a consumeristic society, it's hard to not...

  Lost Childhood Project      For this project, Dustin had described to me the object that he wanted me to recreate. It was somewhat easy to imagine in my head, but because he said it was specifically a Pirates of the Caribbean boat, it was hard to think of what to make in the time given, and the available materials. It was also cool to see how someone else interpreted my description of the object that I had a vivid memory of in my mind. It came out very differently from what I had thought of, but it matched the description I gave, so that was also pretty interesting to see.