Sherry Muyuan He

Artist Statement

Growing up with learning disabilities, I acquired my language skills later than my peers. Therefore, non-text visuals have been something I rely on to understand the world for a long time. As I build my verbal communication skills, I wonder how visual art makes the information in our world more accessible. I also wonder how images could surpass the language barriers and foster more empathy among people who grow up differently. Culture and language diversity is the theme of my recent works. I interviewed people in various countries about their favorite food. I illustrated each dish and turned them into pop-up books. Since then I have been leading workshops that teach people paper engineering by making food-themed pop-up books. Since moving to New York, I have started learning different languages to analyze how one’s native language impacts their learning style. While intrigued by the culture embedded, the simple process of studying the writing system can open up so many conversations about our similarities and differences. Therefore, I have started designing board games that help people to learn different scripts such as Arabic, Thai and Japanese.