Shirley Tse

Lives and works in Lompoc, CA, USA

Artist statement

I practice philosophy through sculpture-making. Looking back over more than thirty years of art practice, I see how my multiple “identities,” past and present—as a woman sculptor, educator, multi-job worker, caretaker, immigrant from then-British Hong Kong, mental-health patient, queer person, and student activist—have allowed me to perceive the form of the power dynamics in this web that we are all enmeshed in. For me, the most fundamental thing of contemporary art is relation and value: what value we assign to which relation. My work seeks to model forms of relation that feel beautiful to me—relations grounded in greater equity and greater justice.

Artwork