Camellia sinensis var. assamica V, 2024 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. assamica I, 2023 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. assamica VI, 2024 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis VII (Collage), 2025 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis III (Collage), 2024 // Sea of Troubles series "Sea of Troubles" is a series of photographs, developed during my year-long residency at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, drawing inspiration from the 17th century—a period defined by civil wars, colonial expansion, and the rise of tea as a cultural and social phenomenon in England. My research into magical thinking in relation to Wunderkammer collections from the early modern period led me to explore tasseography, or tea leaf reading, a practice that flourished when tea was introduced from China to Europe. Reimagining tea as a symbol of novelty and exclusivity, I was intrigued by the idea of tea readings amidst the turbulent backdrop of 17th century England—a time when the Tradescants were curating their botanical collections for England’s first public museum, the Ark, which later became the Ashmolean’s founding collection. The photographs were created through a slow process of ironing, painting and arranging teabags on sheets of glass, allowing light to filter through creased fabric and scattered tea leaves. The result is a series of abstract, shadowed landscapes where light struggles to break through. These images were then printed on delicate rice paper, which I manually creased and crinkled, adding a sculptural quality to the work. "Sea of Troubles" is an ongoing exploration of tea’s complex history and its colonial associations, reimagined through the lens of the Tradescants' botanical collections. Using teabags as a medium, each image becomes a miniature landscape of turmoil—winds howl, floods rage, and horizons darken, evoking the unsettled spirit of the era. This work reflects both the rituals of the past and the unconscious drives of the creative process, bridging the analog and digital worlds while connecting the everyday object to its broader historical context.
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis VI (Collage), 2025 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. assamica II, 2023 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis V, 2025 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. assamica III, 2024 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis IV, 2023 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis II, 2023 // Sea of Troubles series
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis I, 2024 // Sea of Troubles series
Aspalathus Linearis III, 2025; Sea of Troubles series