I Miss Your Hands is a time-based video documentation of my performance with hand-shaped candle sculptures cast from molds of my parents’ hands embedded with eucalyptus leaves collected from the Oakland hills where I grew up. During the performance, the candles are lit and held until degredation. I force sustained contact and attempt to remain still as heat slowly burns the insides of my arms and melting wax spills onto my hands. Eventually, release becomes unnegotiable and I cannot help but let go.

Developed during a period of deep isolation due to Covid19, the work translates the infantile impulse to return towards parental closeness into an embodied experience. The interaction between my body and the candle's harsh elements recontextualizes longing as a process that must be physically endured, rather than experienced as a silent and abstract feeling.