In Silent Stages is a photographic series that explores the interplay between personal memory and self-awareness through self-portraiture and sculpture. Informed by the artist’s experience as a member of the 1.5 generation—those who immigrate during formative years—the work reflects the emotional and cultural fractures that emerge through migration and adaptation. Drawing from her move from China to the United States in her early twenties, the artist examines the fragmentation and reconstruction of identity through a symbolic, introspective lens. Central to the series are fragile plaster sculptures of severed fingers, referencing Jim Dine’s Robe series and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Self-Portrait as a Soldier—using absence, dismemberment, and imperfection to metaphorically extend the self.

The photographs unfold across three emotional stages: concealment, confrontation, and transformation. This progression is echoed in the visual language, shifting from soft focus and shallow depth of field to sharp clarity. Surface imperfections in the plaster casts—such as air bubbles and flaws—are preserved to represent memory traces and unresolved pasts. Through this metaphorical and meditative approach, In Silent Stages offers a personal yet universal reflection on migration, identity, and the evolving shape of selfhood.