Sow & Tailor is pleased to announce an in-focus project in our Annex with Augustina Wang. The works of the presentation delve into the artist’s concept of the “self-insert,” the desire to create an idealized proxy of the self through which one engages with various methods of roleplay. Through these characters, lovingly and powerfully owning her own identity as a young Asian-American woman, Wang appropriates and remixes the language of anime, video games, and internet subculture. Wang is a recent graduate of RISD, where her thesis focused on the “Mary-Sue” archetype. “Mary-Sue” is a term used in the fanction subculture to identify a female character who is ultimately too perfect and awless; and is often considered to be an idealized version of the author. With this archetype in mind, Wang reappropriates the derisive identity, instead using the form as a source of power and strength. The artist encourages a sense of escapism and worldbuilding, where women can be goddess-like gures— perfect and powerful, yet relatable reections of the inner self. Raised by a rst-generation Chinese-immigrant single mother, Wang grew up understanding and wrestling with the limits of girlhood, weakness, and strength. As a witness to her mother’s own struggles with misogynistic violence and racism, she discovered that intergenerational trauma is not only inherited but repeated; a rite of passage for young Asian women. Wang learned that to survive in America, in this world, in your body: you must ght. Augustina Wang (b. 1999, New York, NY) lives and works in Queens, NY. This year, she was awarded her BFA with honors from RISD and the Florence Leif Award. She was recently included in the collaborative exhibition “Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose” organized by Sow & Tailor at the Japanese American Cultural Center, Los Angeles.