I, CYBORG

THE ARTWORK AND THE ARTIST — WE ARE ONE

The I, Cyborg series and related works are a psychoanalytic endeavor that excavates buried emotions, traumas, and desires through reimagining the self as an otherworldly creature.

In her 1985 essay “The Cyborg Manifesto,” philosopher and feminist studies writer Donna Haraway describes the cyborg as a “a cybernetic organism” that hybrids machine and organism— “a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction… a condensed image of both imagination and material reality.” By associating it with attributes like fluidity, hybridity, and otherworldliness, she thus infuses this symbolic creature with the power of reversing dominant historical narratives—in particular, the traditional western male-centric framework in fields like science and technology.

Inspired by Haraway’s writing, I began envisioning this being that exists in the in-between. In between this world and another dimension; in between organic and mechanical; in a liminal space whose essence cannot be accurately described, only felt. It simultaneously acts as a portal: a pathway or connection that permits communication across the two worlds. But what’s more—I start imagining myself morphing into this creature. I wish to possess the powers this creature embodies: a fluidity that mends borders, a force that disrupts space and time, an intrinsic confidence that allows it to exist where nothing else does.

The Cyborg Me(s) embraces a fluid dualism—an ambiguous, murky in-between space that defies command, control, and perfect communication. They roam in an off-world realm where structure, logic, senses, and experiences deviate far from reality. I am gradually constructing this world with each piece—a space inspired by Haraway’s vision of the future. There is an element of escapism in this process; in this realm, I am unbound by conventional rules and logic. Existence here is free and strange, defying norms.

I, CYBORG PT. I

"It roams in this liminal space, to and for, across the boundary of machine and organism. This creature is some sort of futuristic chimera. Its head, made simply out of wire bent into a rounded-rectangular shape, features the signature long hair strands of the artist. To any familiar viewer, they become immediately aware of this insertion of her own identity into this Frankensteinian creature. The creature is the coupling between the artist and the material, the thinker and the concepts.

With the frame constructed out of malleable wire, it shape shifts with ease. The metal represents the mechanical aspect of the cyborg, yet its flexibility simultaneously defies the usual associations of machines as being rigid and inorganic. Intertwined with the metal are soft, flowing wool, representative of the naturalness of organisms.

Utilizing techniques like knotting, tying, and felting, I pay tribute to crafting practices with long histories of feminine associations. This feature extends from my previous work Eye, where I too aimed at defending the idea of the “woman’s hand” in the work."

— exceprted from the I, Cyborg PT. I Artist Statement

It confounds the viewer with its half-child, half-dog form—both organic and unsettling. Its silicone skin has a disturbingly flesh-like quality, while the cold metal evokes a sense of futurism. Fluid metallic lines coil around the rigid inner structure, growing like rampant vines. This act symbolizes the rejection of control and structure, embodying the essence of this cyborgian identity as it inhabits and subverts a preconstructed society still rooted in rigid dogmas.

This being does not merely exist in opposition to conventional structures—it dominates and reshapes them, reveling in its paradoxical nature. It lives in a space that resists classification, embodying Haraway’s vision of a cyborg that is both rebellious and transformative.

— exceprted from the I, Cyborg PT. II Artist Statement

I, CYBORG PT. II