a language of my own
a language of my own, 2026
digital photomontage - personal photo archive
This series consists of six photomontages assembled from self-captured images drawn from my personal photo archive. As referenced in the title, each piece is an experiment in building a visual language of my own. I mix photographs containing textures, environments, objects and iconography that resonate with me, pulling fragments from different moments of my life and layering them together, at times in harmony and others in tension. Together, the six form a full expression, making visible the themes that continue to echo through all of my work — body and land, ancestral aesthetics, the ancient, the everyday and the personal. These images are an early representation of the visual languages I want to continue further exploring in my work.
Protection Blanket
protection blanket, 2026
mixed-media quilt - found and self-sourced archival objects, textiles, beaded tassel, red tufted yarn
This is my rendition of a traditional baby carrier blanket. This form in Iu Mien women's garb stands as its own distinct layer within a larger garment tradition. I made it to reconnect with younger versions of myself, using objects pulled from my own life and my family's. Dried bean pods from my Guv Maa's garden are worked into the piece alongside my graduation tassel, worn a decade ago - the day I became the first in my family to survive higher ed and obtain a bachelors degree. A malachite stone sits among them, a symbol of protection, transformation, and healing. The bundle of feathers are a few from my ever-growing collection, gifts from above reminding me I'm where I'm supposed to be. Across the top panel are five round femme faces each looking in a different direction. Traditionally, this blanket is worn on the back to carry a child. Here, the faces take on that same role, watching in every direction, guarding and protecting my back the way I know my ancestors do. The pouch in the middle holds a note to self, a prayer to ground my spirit and keep me tethered to who I am.
soft and heavy
soft and heavy, 2026
wearable sculpture - yarn, acrylic beads, archival family photographs printed on cotton fabric and stuffed
soft and heavy is a wearable sculpture built from tufted red yarn, inspired by a traditional practice and foundational aesthetic of Iu Mien women. Archival family portraits printed on fabric and stuffed hang from silver bead strands, becoming something that my body must carry in addition to the mass of yarn on my shoulders, covering my chest and upper back, reminiscent of a mantle armor piece. The title I’ve chosen names the tension within my relationship to my culture and my family – soft and familiar in some ways, yet heavy to wear, protective yet burdensome.
Five Decades dreaming in diaspora
five decades dreaming in diaspora, 2025
haiku collages - found text and imagery
I assembled these haiku collages by repurposing National Geographic issues featuring Laos. These works, for me, are material reclamations of narrative as a child of diaspora often forced to shape my relationship to home, land, and ancestry through the lens of U.S. imperialism and voyeurism. The five collages each honor a decade marking 50 years since the “end” of the wars in Laos in 1975.
free palestine, free the world
free palestine, free the world, 2025
wall quilt - found, repurposed textiles
Creating this piece was meditative for me. I assembled it with primarily reclaimed materials, working with what I had, in honor of the people of Palestine and my own indigenous refugee lineages. Without glorifying or romanticizing the horrific circumstances of imperialist violence, the process of putting this piece together grounded me in the memory that creativity and innovation have always been innate to our peoples' historic resistance and ongoing survival. I gravitated toward the red bandana and various paisley prints as a nod to a common item historically utilized by working class peoples, and allowed the colors of the Palestinian flag to guide my fabric choices throughout. The running text printed in the center of the tapestry loops almost perpetually as a reflection of the inseparable relationship between The Land and The People -- from Palestine to many other indigenous, Black and brown communities all across the globe.
Summer 1996
Summer 1996, 2025
mixed media sculpture - reclaimed and repurposed materials, papier-mâché, and acrylic beads
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This piece blends iconography from my childhood, raised in an intergenerational household reliant on food stamps and public assistance programs to survive. It shows an orange juice concentrate tube melting across a kitchen counter. The tube reads “[agent] Orange Juice”, a critique and a nod to the war violence that contributed to my family's poverty and displacement as Southeast Asian refugees. Beaded ants sit in the spreading juice, making home in our already full house, becoming beneficiaries of our refugee sustenance—the parallels between our shared existences in the eyes of the powers that be, is not lost on me. Underneath, soaked through, are food stamps rewritten in my own words giving context to this distinct memory.
round like the moon, ancient as my ancestors
round like the moon, ancient as my ancestors, 2024
mixed media sculpture - tufted yarn, sculpted and painted clay face, star spangle embellishments, wood embroidery hoop
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submerge me in softness
in deep celestial divinity
when I close my eyes
I sink into the expanse of my inner infinity
from emergent to ancient, every prism of possibility
reflecting the endless universe within me
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This piece is an homage to myself, spiritual,emotional, physical, and every form in between. Aface modeled after my own rests at the center, eyesclosed, surrounded by a ring of deep red tuftedyarn. I imagine my round moon-face is an extensionof my ancestors, primary material evidence thatthey are still here. The repetition of roundnessthroughout the piece for me symbolizes fullnessand the act of forever returning. My connection tomy ancestors runs through this piece unsevered,held in the shape and stillness of the face and inthe slow and cyclical work of tufting.
Rice Water Reflections: a collection
Rice Water Reflections: a collection by Nyingv Jae Saechao
chapbook, 2024
Rice Water Reflections: a collection is a self-published chapbook containing a curated compilation of my most beloved poems and a select few visual art pieces that are foundational to my artist life and creative journey thus far. This body of work calls on memory, documenting diasporic yearning while grappling with the frictions of life and intergenerational legacies as fuqc jueiv hnaangx namx.
Me 4 Me
Me 4 Me, 2023
Digital Illustration
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*image is watermarked for copyright protection
Me 4 Me is a speculative piece that speaks to my connection to myself and my infinite spirit. Inspired by an article from The Atlantic on scientists finding ripples in space and time, I was moved to imagine my divine place among the rhythmic waves of the Universe. This scene portrays Jae from Jupiter, my higher self engaged in prayer and deep rest submerged among the stars-our collective, eldest ancestors. Me 4 Me was created as a transcendent reminder of the expanses that I and everyone/everything universally originates from and my agency and responsibility to my energy in the vastness of it all.
Matriarchal Messages
Matriarchal Messages, 2023
multimedia collage - found and self-sourced archival images
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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 his 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.