Welcome to Allostatic Load.
This project traces the subtle, often unseen erosion of the body over time—shaped by stress, emotion, environment, and lived experience. It’s a visual exploration of how life leaves its mark, gradually and profoundly.
Sketches
Sketching occupies a central role in this project and is intentionally integrated into the research process. As a form of visual inquiry, drawing enables the emergence and development of a visual language that articulates the core themes of the work.
These sketches serve not only as exploratory tools but also as conceptual markers—charting the progression of thought, form, and narrative over time.
This approach embraces a methodology of purposeful wandering, allowing space for intuitive responses, associative thinking, and the organic evolution of ideas. Through this, the research remains open to discovery and transformation.
Fascination with Stairs
Visually
I’ve always been fascinated by how drawing stairs can play with perspective to reverse the sense of depth. Depending on how they’re rendered, stairs can appear to rise or fall, shift orientation, or even disorient the viewer. There are endless ways to depict them—each method offering its own distinct visual intrigue. I’m especially drawn to how stairs can be suggested with minimal detail: a few well-placed lines or the clever use of shadow is often enough to evoke the form. Even a simple stack of lines can imply the presence of a staircase, conjuring space and movement from near abstraction.
Conceptually
Beyond their visual appeal, I’m intrigued by stairs as exclusively human-made structures. No other animal, as far as I know, builds them. We construct stairs to reach higher ground—both literally and metaphorically. I often associate them with pilgrimage, effort, and elevation. Stone staircases, in particular, have a longevity that can span generations, and there’s something inherently beautiful about that endurance.
There’s also the physicality of stairs—how they demand effort from our bodies, especially as we age. At the same time, they too wear down slowly over time, shaped by the elements and by the repeated weight of passing feet. In that way, stairs seem to operate on a different kind of timeline: slower, steadier. To me, they are a quiet visual reminder of the labor involved in moving forward or upward—of the connection between place, time, and human effort.
First Idea artwork
I'm looking to craft a collage of stairs using silk screen printing, drawing from my personal collection of stair photographs.
Second Idea artwork
Relying solely on a collage of staircase pictures doesn't adequately convey the physical toll on the body. In the second sketch, dancing figures surround a sort of carpet. For the first time, I aim to collaborate with a dancer to blend 3D and 2D elements. Using the dancer as a reference for keyframes, I'll create sculptures. Throughout this collaboration, I'll delve into what wear and tear mean to the dancer. I want the dancer to feel free, expressing the strain in their choreography. This process will be captured on film.
My initial concept involves sculpting slabs of wax to create molds. Wax allows for intricate negative detailing using a soldering pen. I envision collecting keyframes of the dance, including the in-between frames—essentially, the smears of animation.
What do I want to convey? Why am I making this work?
This project began with a fascination for staircases—structures that quietly carry traces of time, use, and passage. As the work has evolved, so has my inquiry. I don’t yet have a definitive answer to what I want to convey, and perhaps that openness is part of the process itself.
What I do know is that I’m drawn to the beauty of aging—in both organic and non-organic forms. I’m interested in how the body carries time, and how that wear and transformation can be read and felt. My motivation lies in exploring the aging process across different temporal scales, from the microscopic to the architectural.
By investigating the parallel aging of the human body and its environment, I hope to invite a kind of imaginative resonance in the viewer. Through this visual research, perhaps I can offer a new way of seeing—a perspective on time, decay, and beauty that lingers in the in-between.
This project will consist of two parts: the creation of the sculptures and the development of the visual design for the stairs. I will start with the sculptures, as I find this part the most intriguing. I believe that collaborating with the dancer will help establish a clearer visual language, which will also benefit the work on the stairs.
