‘Tree Lady’ is part of an ongoing project which documents the voices of residents living in Woodberry Down, a large estate currently undergoing regeneration located in North-East London.
The graphic story on show is based on an interview conducted with a resident who has been living at the estate for six years. Throughout the interview, the resident reveals what she has learnt about the history of the local area, the changes in the community and in particular the transformation of the natural environment during the different stages of regeneration.
The project aims to preserve and share the stories of residents, documenting the history of drastic change that occurs throughout the process of regeneration and working with those whose lives are directly impacted but voices less heard.
I am a Chinese-born Illustrator, currently based in London. Drawing lies at the heart of my practice, which has taken on the form of life recording – using graphic novel formats to convey individuals’ stories of social, political and economic change.
Recently, my dissertation ‘A Fragmented Journey’ was published in Free Associations, a journal focused on non-clinical aspects of psychoanalysis and related psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy, politics, media and culture.
In a broader sense, my practice is drawn towards presenting experiences and memories in the most factual, honest way possible and attempts to answer the questions that arise when trying to understand truth.
My work involves an inward reflection exploring memories of my childhood experiences in China, the family unit and, in particular, the ambivalent reality of mother-daughter relationships. For my most recent project I have looked outwards: documenting the living experience of a transforming community in the UK. For this project, I conducted a series of interviews with residents living on a large estate in North-East London currently undergoing regeneration. The work explores the subject of transformation and the social and ecological impact of shifting environments.Throughout my time making the work, I’ve thought deeply about how to communicate the voices, testimonies and dialogues I have collected in a visual manner, exploring different modes of storytelling and how to allow a narrative to naturally unfold.
