MJ Sanqui


sedimentary
handmade paper, abaca, flax, cotton, recycled & found fibers, pulp paper blowouts, found objects, glass, paint, digital photography
2024, ongoing
 sedimentary is an ongoing field research, paper-making, & photography project exploring the blurring of the natural and built environment and the entropic entanglement of natural and synthetic materials. the places I call home, the Appalachian Mountains and the Narragansett Bay, have distinct legacies of industrial innovation, proliferance and decay, and are covered with the remnants of these industries, creating what I consider modern transitional ecologies. in this series I’m producing paper objects which incorporate / emulate found and foraged fibers, street trash such as glass, plastics, construction materials, and other natural elements like stone and soil. originally taking inspiration from the thick chips of lead paint that are sedimented onto the old mill buildings and warehouses in this area of Providence, the paper objects in this series are dimensional but not cast or vacuum formed, emulating the weathered and battered forms of trash as it moves and is transformed over time.

to accompany this project I am doing material research into foraged fibers and synthetic found fibers for papermaking, focusing especially on cooking and processing foraged fibers that I’ve collected in the Narragansett Bay as an artist in residence on Prudence Island, as well as creating hand-woven nets to accompany sedimentary in its various installation forms. sedimentary has been developed during the 2024 and 2025 Winter Residency at the Penland School of Craft, and  has been installed at Penland, the Waterfire Arts Center, and in tangled stream, a group exhibition put on by myself and my studio mates. 



35 mm color film
2024, ongoing
 


tangled stream
installation photos 
June 2024
 tangled stream was a co-curated pop-up exhibition and open studio by MJ Sanqui, Vic Xu, Felicita Devlin, Audrey Buhain, and Hayley Canal, installed in Hayley’s Vinton St. apartment





entanglements  / remnants
handmade paper; abaca, flax, cotton, recycled & found fibers, risograph prints, gel medium transfers, digital photography
2023, ongoing


the term assimilation comes up repeatedly. for a while my reflections were focused on assimilation as a process of self-erasure, on all the ways I have changed or been forced to change in order to feel safe or like I belong in my surroundings. but now I’m also considering how belonging rests on an ability to transform. I’m considering how being fluid and fractured can lead to a more expansive way of existing. I want to lean into ideas of identity as multiplicitous rather than singular: of being difficult to name: the self as a nebulous construction.

nebulous 
original artist book printed as part of my BFA thesis project
risograph editions vol 1 & 2 printed at the Binch Press / Queer.Archive.Work studio
2021 / 2022 / 2024
a collaborative publication exploring identity construction, illegibility, assimilation, mimesis, & transformation, with contributions from Olivia Fredricks, Courtney Nelson, Ollie Bandong, Hayley Canal, Arik Miguel, & Eric Halvarson. 

nebulous has been exhibited in numerous book fairs and shows, including the Ulises: Assembly exhibition at Tufts University Art Galleries in 2024