Within Gold Clouds is a sculptural installation that materializes my struggle to come to terms with my Japanese- American upbringing. I spent months dissecting Japanese history- from the arrival of Buddhism to contemporary anime, to learn the difference between lyrical space (a space that does not fit within the framework of realism) and epic space (a space that contains a universal order). The idea, which resonated most for me during my studies, was the use of abstract clouds in traditional Japanese landscape paintings. At first the scenes appear unified by scale, flat space, and moments of detail within a great fog. However, the use of large opaque clouds abstracts space and perspective. The elegant distortion of space resonated with my practice, and I began to situate my visual vocabulary within the passages that artists and historians speculate on what lies within, to create a seemingly Japanese aesthetic.