Jenny Shi presents themes on immigration, border crossing and displacement stemming from personal experience going through the Canadian immigration process. She works with cut-out, layers and transparency to convey the experience of shifting self-perception when navigating multiple cultural perspectives.

“My experience in the liminal space between cultures is an overarching framework for my practice. I see an overlap between the configuration of individual identity and pictorial space: the formal language that dictates a composition and everyday experiences that help shape individual identity.

With this in mind, my work deals primarily with the pictorial relationship between human form and the surrounding space. I am interested in the ways in which an arrangement of figures can be rendered repeatedly through various combinations of mediums. I tend to synthesize mediums and techniques as it brings to mind the experience of deciphering my sense of self within and between cultures. This way of working allows me to explore how the human figures construct narratives within a pictorial space, and how the interaction of line, colour and shape changes the way narratives are perceived.”