Grace Xiao — “Rules for Connecting Continents”

Process Note

This drawing-poem/poem-drawing first emerged out of a poetry workshop in November 2022 where, after reading Renee Gladman’s Plans for Sentences, I was tasked with creating a single-line drawing that mapped the trajectory of my year. From here, words emerged to describe the various forms of my drawing, as I sought a way to connect my visual practice with my poetic practice. This resulted in “Rules for Connecting Continents,” part of an ongoing investigation on diaspora, homelands, and migration.

grace xiao (she/her) is a writer, artist, poet, and daughter of the Chinese diaspora studying art history at Brown University. She is broadly interested in modern and contemporary art of the Asian diaspora, along with the history of photography. She currently lives between and around Providence, Rhode Island and Plano, Texas.