Yi Nan Kang

Do You Love Me?

Class of: 2026

Major: Fashion Design BFA

Medium: Soft Sculpture

Faculty: Aviva Maya Shulem

Prompt: For this project, we had to create an object that shows a cultural identity and is related to a community that we are a part of.

This soft sculpture represents the internal struggle of trying to satisfy family standards and the importance of self love. It represents how children growing up in Asian households don’t receive the amount of affection from their family that they expect. At the same time, I also want this sculpture to represent self love and never feeling ashamed about where you come from. It is to heal the inner hatred and to also absorb all the affection that can be given. It also serves as a reminder to not be too hard on one’s self despite the high standards and expectations given to American children from their immigrant parents. Due to the high expectation of becoming successful, it always seems that there is a never ending goal of parent approval. I created a heart and arms to wrap around the body to represent a hug or somebody hugging you to release the pressures of family expectation and to embrace the self love.