Untitled (2023)

Untitled (Charlston Crest) transforms a traditional school desk into a layered emblem of heritage, control, and resistance. At the center of the desktop is a hand-drawn family crest labeled “Charlston,” surrounded by doodles, coats of arms, and symbolic marks that evoke both ancestry and colonization. The back of the chair bears the official Canadian coat of arms, burned into the wood—a visual anchor of nationhood, sovereignty, and institutional power.

This piece explores the intersection of personal identity and the larger systems that shape it. The floral pattern on the seat and backrest suggests domesticity, femininity, or inherited cultural refinement—juxtaposed with the rigid, utilitarian design of the school desk. The placement of these motifs on a child’s desk complicates ideas of learning as innocent or neutral, instead linking pedagogy to indoctrination and legacy.

Positioned within the Pedagogy series, Untitled interrogates how names, bloodlines, and colonial histories remain embedded in educational systems. The work invites viewers to reflect on how identity is constructed through both family lineage and state power—often within the very desks where children first learn their place in the world.