‘Reverie’ is an (on-going) series of medium-format color film photographs exploring the interior spaces and liminal childhood daydreams inspired by various Asian grocery stores in suburban North Texas. Growing up as an Asian-American child, I recall feeling dwarfed and engrossed in these maximalist and chaotic environments on our weekly grocery trips, which have since been replaced by orderly, beige and uniform big box retailers after my family moved further out to the newer suburbs. I revisited many of these mini supermarkets, fascinated by what incomplete memories I have left and filling narratives in the spaces of organic messes, ongoing transience, outdated lighting, and anachronistic decor of the mid 2000s. I remember conjuring fictions of going on an adventure, imagining myself as an explorer as I walked through shelves of novel products (that even my parents are unfamiliar with), boxes left out in the open, hearing multiple languages besides my parents’ mother tongue, and pondering the origins of various kitsch paintings and cultural trinkets all in this enclosed diorama. It was so much easier to daydream and play as a child, when the ceilings appear higher up, the large paintings on the walls appear more expansive, forklifts appear like an inviting playground, and the little paintings on the packaging design of sauces and snacks invite you into another world.
My selective style of composition, cropping and color grading intends to create a sense of curiosity and story-telling in each individual photograph contained within itself. I do not intend to recreate a snapshot of the past; rather, purposeful untruths. Purposefully surreal, like walking into a mirror maze; I invite the viewer to revisit their expressive unfettered imaginations. I am capturing the nostalgia of my interpretations; as a child I was traveling and as an adult I am translating that fantasy and wonder from memory
Cinéma vérité but make it a ~psychedelic slide show~
