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Casey Taira | dental & art

@dental.kc

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Doodling my way through dental school🦷
🎓BA in Studio Art
🥼umsod 28

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Part of the joy of creating, I have found, is that I never know what the final product will look like. I take an idea, and work on it, and what emerges at the end is a culmination of seemingly unconnected building blocks. It’s a collage of ideas that somehow creates a coherent whole. This is the pattern I’ve observed in both last year’s honors thesis as well as this semester’s “The Commute”. Much like how I couldn’t have predicted the form my doors would take last year and how their structure would impact the viewer’s interactivity with the work, the same can be seen in this new piece. The expansive length of the work resembles a road, and the swooping nature and collection of 13 haikus on the underside make the viewer bend and crawl beneath the work to view it in its entirety. The haikus represent the weeks I drove to and from school, each its own story.

I’ve gained a stronger understanding of the necessity of flexibility and spontaneity balanced with intention. I began this piece with the intent to connect human form with abstraction, but when I hit a roadblock, flexibility led me to a new interpretation of human form, connecting myself to my work as the figure creating these whole-form markings. I was examining how the body communicates, finding a bridge between music, dance, and mark-making. My spontaneity allowed me to tap into my subconscious reactions to the music, but my intention with my mediums, time-frame, and space set healthy limitations which provided me direction in creating variation within the work.

However, despite the success in conveying music and dance visually, it felt like there was a disconnect between my medium and the form it would take. I wanted the viewers to be surrounded by the work, enclosed to experience music visually, however it was not physically feasible to carry this out considering the large paper medium. I believe I was influenced by my work last year, in which I created an enclosed space for viewers to be immersed in my work. I had limited my perception of immersion to be literally “within”.

But, the more I worked on the piece, adding a layer of color, the work began to take a new form. Stepping back, I… by @dental.kc

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Big big thank you to all the friends & family who came to see my honors thesis exhibit! 🤍It’s the largest installation I’ve done so I’m beyond excited that I got to share it with you all 🤍

It will still be open for the next couple days before 5 pm until May 6th @ 4pm!

📍 lowest floor gallery of UMD’s art-sociology building

~more pics & reflections to come by @dental.kc

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Journey.

Everyone’s journey with their family history is unique. But across cultures and generations, we similarly experience moments of creation, destruction, and reclamation.

For me, when I think of my family, and I think of creation, I see my great great grandparents and their ancestors who lived in Guangzhou, China and in Okinawa. I think of their culture, and what life must have been like when so connected to their roots. However, I also think of my grandparents, born in America, and I see creation in the network of family they've crafted within the states, starting anew.

When I reflect on my connection to my family under the context of destruction, I see how pressures of assimilation during WWII stripped my family of things our ancestors held dear. I see loss. It’s in the silence of my late grandfathers as they took their stories with them. It’s in forgotten tongues, as neither myself nor my parents speak Toisanese or Uchināguchi. It’s the way I can’t read the family tree passed down to my paternal grandmother. This distorted connection to my heritage is a heavy thing to grapple with. But, not all distances are mourned, for I also see a relieving destruction in the dismantlement of generational trauma as my maternal grandmother succeeds in being different from her father.

When I consider reclamation, I see my great Aunties and their civic activism for Chinese-Americans and Japanese-Americans. I see their fight against assimilation-driven erasure and their determination that our voices be heard. And I also see myself, my siblings, and cousins who are the culmination of this journey. I see how we embrace reconciling the patchwork of American and Asian traditions that have trickled their way down. I see how we chase after the legacies left otherwise unknown. I see how we gather the puzzle pieces and make it our own.

There is no singular pathway, or order, but wherever you may be in your journey, the simple truth holds that you have the autonomy to determine what happens next.

I’ve shared my story. It’s time for you to choose a door, and share yours. by @dental.kc

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Enjoying the journey with my fellow blueberries🥼🫐💙 White Coat Ceremony for DDS Class of 2028 taken in University of Maryland School of Dentistry by @dental.kc

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Despite my lack of posting and my song choice, I swear I’m still in dental school & it’s going great by @dental.kc

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8 months ago

My 2 week camera roll dump! My first exam is next Friday so wish me luck. I’ve been told by the upperclassmen that my happiness ends here💖

I’m sure they were mostly joking🕺🫡 by @dental.kc

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Now a D1! And by the next summer Olympics I’ll be a DR. ;)

I love my classmates already and I’m glad we can all cry thru the exams & practicals together 🫂 taken in University of Maryland Dental School by @dental.kc

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Brought flowers to mom after work💅🏼 Happy Valentine’s Day! by @dental.kc

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My sister graduated from college last month and is now working on the office with me! 👯‍♀️ by @dental.kc

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Do you see the hidden ladies?

Reclamation, Deconstruction, Creation, and a collaboration between my installation’s visitors:)

My art has been uninstalled (ty @glenn.tha.don for the pics & for saving me like 4 hours of work) and now my doors will be chillin in the garage until I display them somewhere else. I thought about sectioning them and selling the bits since I don’t think anyone would wanna buy the expensive whole door, but then the hidden ladies would REALLY be impossible to find & I wouldn’t be able to build my installation again 😵😵‍💫

WELL! Cheers to the end of the semester & my completion of the art honors program. This summer I’ll be studying for the DAT, shadowing, and working by @dental.kc

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