"I completed this piece in a state of artistic euphoria, feeling it was a breakthrough in my ongoing exploration of the domestic fragments and maternal influences that shape my work. Afterwards on the same day, I learnt of my maternal grandfather's passing.

The profound convergence of events changed how I see the painting. What began as an investigation into my mother's curated world now also feels like a subconscious tribute to the lineage that created it. The physical process of the piece, building up and accumulating layers of colour and mark, allows the history of its own making to remain visible. These accumulated traces, each layer a decision and a gesture, now speak to a deeper resonance of inheritance and memory.

The work has become a permanent, unintended record of this pivotal day. It is a testament to how personal history irretrievably intertwines with artistic practice, sometimes revealing meanings retrospectively. It is named after him: Yang Mucen."

I am a British artist (b.1997, BFA Slade School of Fine Art, 2021) using the visual language of my domestic past to map my present self. My work investigates the curated fragments of my maternal environment, transforming them into a broader exploration of contemporary identity, beauty, and autonomous desire.

The mixed media processes of painting and monoprint, with acrylic, charcoal, soft pastel and inks, allow me to physically build up and scrape away layers. This is both a technical and conceptual act of reworking imprints of the past into a new, self determined narrative. Patterns from childhood domestic settings are recontextualised as a stage for current desire. The work is an invitation to consider the active and ongoing construction of the self."