Toast to My Dead Culture

Artist Statement: My work investigates the forces that have silenced and reshaped my cultural identity, asking what has led to centuries of erasure, distortion, and the loss of untold stories. Through a series of life-size, surreal oil portraits, I construct a continuous narrative that traces the journey of a woman from birth in a male dominated society, through cultural dislocation to a symbolic death, yet not an end. Figures in my paintings exist between presence and absence, often fragmented or faceless, reflecting both historical omission and internal conflict. My work seeks not only to mourn what has been lost, but to reclaim voice, the rebellious spirit that refuses to be buried, and instead speaks through the silence.