Matriarchal Messages

J. Saechao (b. 1992)
Matriarchal Messages, 2023
Multimedia Collage

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*image is watermarked for copyright protection

Matriarchal Messages exists as a loving reminder from my Mien women + femme ancestors (both future and current) that we are eternally known and loved by them. The phrases “Yie Hiuv Meih. Yie Hnamv Meih.” directly translate to “I know you, I love you”. When I was assembling this piece, I found myself reflecting on my connection with my ancestry, particularly the women, femmes, and non-binary people throughout my lineage. Under generations of cultural patriarchy, those of us assigned female at birth were and often still are, by default, conditioned to act according to rigid gender roles enforced upon us. Whether or not we choose to abide by these expectations is often directly tied to our safety, spiritual protection, community connection, and the overall outcome of our lives. In imagining what it would look like to reclaim our power and agency i was called toward the message that regardless of the decisions we’ve been forced to make out of survival, our beloved ancestors know who we are and love us through all of it.

This artwork, Matriarchal Messages was born out of my searching, with the main image of two Mien femmes rising from the mountains first starting off as a vintage picture I found in my grandparents’ worn box of photos mostly taken by my Ong Dae (grandfather) who has been an avid self-taught photographer + videographer throughout much of life upon arriving in the U.S.

Across the collage I also incorporate images I personally captured throughout my first trip back to my ancestral homelands of Laos. From the blue-green mountains spilling out the rich, clay-red Mekong, to the clouds and steps leading up to the bright blood moon. I am blessed to say I was able to witness these first-hand.

Collage remains one of my favorite art methods. From childhood, I fell in love with the exhilarating, emergent process. I loved the searching—through magazines, books, image archives until I found what felt like treasure. I reveled in the physical feeling of interacting with the varying weight + tangible textures of paper between my fingertips, the challenge of piecing together all of these elements and the joy of repurposing + reinterpreting. This piece offered me the opportunity to do all of these things while giving me a space to tune into my creative intuition and femme ancestral frequencies.