Things I Wanted To Say But Never Did

The work Things I Wanted to Say but Never Did explores the materiality and formation process of mother-of-pearl as a metaphor for the absent and unspoken experience of maternal love in my childhood.

Pearls are formed when a foreign object becomes trapped inside an oyster. In order to protect its vulnerable body, the oyster gradually secretes thousands of thin layers of nacre around the irritant, slowly enclosing the source of pain. Over time, what once caused discomfort is transformed into something luminous and precious.

I am drawn to this transformation of injury into beauty. By shaping mother-of-pearl into the form of a bandage, the work reflects on the emotional voids and unease embedded in childhood memory, while also suggesting a slow and intimate process of healing. The layered surface becomes a metaphor for a kind of love that was never directly spoken — quiet, fragile, yet still attempting to protect and care for others.