fifi rae
©2024
installation
FRAGILE! HANDLE WITH CARE (2025)
Red and white paint
Installed in a vidrine case at the Art and Anthropology Building, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Museum cases are supposed to protect and preserve the objects and artworks inside them while removing them from their contexts and purposes and preventing any interaction with them. Museums, like the Hearst Museum of Anthropology located right to next to my installation, label certain works as fragile and in need of careful handling to justify their harmful and unethical acquisitions and colonial pasts. These cases keep works away from their communities, take away their meanings, and freeze them in time. The absence in my case draws attention to its glass structure and aims to address how dependent museums are on owning what’s not theirs, and repatriation forces them to confront the fragility of their power as an institution. My presence and unintentional performance in this case invited people to interact with me, whether I wanted it or not, and view the case in a new way that isn’t stuck in the past but rather sends a clear message for the future.
Courtesy of Melody Adly
Photo courtesy of Kristiana Chan
Photo courtesy of Priyanka D’Souza
Photo courtesy of Katarina Ceguerra
wall (2025)
In collaboration with Nathaly Garcia, Bonwoo Kuh, and Gemma Padilla
Wood, casters, white paint, found objects
Installed at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery for Pro-pin-qui-ty, Berkeley, CA
Photos courtesy of Bonwoo Kuh
Designed by me
I SWEAR I WAS HERE. I still am. (2025)
Linocut, blue relief ink, old shoes, silver spray paint, paper stencils, silver paint marker, found photos, push pins, and my shadow, 10’/10’4” (H) x 9’8” (W) x 9’5” (D). Invited people to tag the walls.
Installed in the sculpture yard of the Art and Anthropology Building, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
This installation is about the human obsession to prove one’s existence, claim/reclaim a space, and turn a space into a place. After 3 weeks of working and existing in this space, I painted over my mark, unintentionally mixing the blue ink with the white paint. My temporary presence will forever remain a layer of blue buried in this space.
11:37 am
5:42 pm
8:39 pm
Photo courtesy of Nathaly Garcia
Photo courtesy of Addison Lee
To read my project statement, click below:
Fool’s Gold (2024)
Mixed media installation, colored pencil and fabric on paper, cyanotype on mesh fabric, collage on chair, and video projection w/ sound, dimensions variable.
Installed at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery for Multiple Transparencies, Berkeley, CA
Mixed media installation, colored pencil and fabric on paper, cyanotype on mesh fabric, collage on chair, and video projection w/ sound, dimensions variable.
Installed at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery for Multiple Transparencies, Berkeley, CA
Photo courtesy of Katarina Ceguerra
Photo courtesy of Katarina Ceguerra
Photo courtesy of Bonwoo Kuh
Photo courtesy of Agnes Chouchan
Photo courtesy of Bonwoo Kuh
To read my project statement, click below:
We Are All Neighbors (2024)
Public mural installation located at 2450 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704. Acrylic paint, 10 ft. (H) x 20 ft. (W). Co-designed and co-painted with tia lu (@citr_uss) and commissioned by the Downtown Berkeley Association and the Berkeley Art Studios.
Public mural installation located at 2450 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704. Acrylic paint, 10 ft. (H) x 20 ft. (W). Co-designed and co-painted with tia lu (@citr_uss) and commissioned by the Downtown Berkeley Association and the Berkeley Art Studios.
Photo courtesy of tia lu