TETHERS is all about connections—how we’re linked to history, culture, and each other.

With BLACKNESS AT THE DOOR, I turn welcome mats into sites of cultural inscription, laser-etching them with Black cultural sayings that speaks to resilience, pride, and community. Growing up in the South, I’ve always been aware of the tension between hospitality and exclusion, and these pieces play with that contradiction. By turning an everyday object into a statement about belonging (or the lack thereof), I want viewers to reconsider the thresholds we cross, the invitations we extend, and who gets to feel at home.