Through immersive installations and assemblage, my work confronts and dissects the contemporary Orientalist gaze. I address the fetishization of inanimate objects, specifically objects from Filipino culture by the West. I question why objects associated with Filipino culture, such as a rice farmer’s hat or a dirty bamboo broom are depicted as exotic and the effect that has. Living abroad my whole life, I do not have a “proper” sense of belonging to either side of my identity. I have learned about my roots in domestic spaces, my homes. When moving around from country to country, my domestic space and culture have remained the same, a mix of foods, languages, and traditions from my Filipino mother and aunt, and my American father. My siblings and I being a distorted product of that, not knowing where we belong in the diaspora. This ‘insider/outsider’ perspective allows me to create my work. My practice reclaims everyday objects from the Philippines through the decorative, emphasizing their ordinary nature while simultaneously transforming them into personal talismans that merge my identities. Visually, I explore these ideas through the manipulation of found objects, such as over-embellishing a chicken feather duster with pearls and gold foil, or coating an old TV frame with menthol infused wax. I take charged symbols, such as the Santo Niño or the Asian conical hat, and reconstruct them by casting the Sto. Niño in sugar or weaving the conical hat from National Geographic magazines. As I try to reconnect and re-learn where I come from, I ask: How/Why are certain cultural (Filipino) objects fetishized in the Western world? and How is this used as a tool to perpetuate the Orientalist gaze today? Figuring out how to answer these questions is what drives my work and my upbringing allows for that.