Chip On My Shoulder (2023)

This series reclaims the phrase “having a chip on your shoulder,” a term often used to shame people for carrying resentment or anger tied to their struggle or background. I realised these “chips” are not flaws but markers of resilience, a response to forced inequality. The idea came from a conversation where someone advised me to hide my “chip” to fit better in professional art and academic spaces. Instead, I decided to embrace the absurdity of hiding genuine frustrations born of systemic struggles. The idea is that feeling angry or frustrated about something put upon you by forced inequality renders you difficult and unrespectable. Imagining these chips as tangible objects, literal crinkle-cut chips stacking up, each representing an unspoken burden, frustration, or social barrier. Humorous yet poignant, transforming a source of “shame” into something to be openly acknowledged.