work
writing
about
The woman on the left served as a translator during my adoption trip; the woman on the right is an adoptive parent. Mounted on found wood, the portraits reference the construction of a new life and family narrative. The adoptive parent faces the translator, while the reverse of the panel bears a network of scratches that suggests alternate paths and unrealized histories. Stamped dates overlay both faces. The adoptive parent is marked with the date of my adoption, while the translator bears the date that Chinese policymaker Chen Yun proposed limiting families to one child, acknowledging that the policy would be subject to criticism. Faced together, the dates connect my personal history to the political conditions that made it possible.