2019, The bone is the seed, solo exhibition, SEVENTH Gallery.

Through listening to a Tagalog language learning podcast, I come to the realisation that the word ‘butó’, meaning ‘bone’ in English also has the secondary meaning of ‘seed’. It is through this innocuous discovery that I am reminded of the memory of my mum, a first-generation migrant from the Philippines, referring to the pit and the seed of the mango as the ‘bone’; a frequent error in her speech, which as a child, I would instinctively correct with irritation. By reflecting on the nuances of translation I reconsider my identity and relationship with the languages of Tagalog and English in a series of drawings and photographic prints, derived from the discarded husks of fruit, seeds, and childhood experience.