“Do you see how an act is not... like a rock that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that’s the end of it. When that rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it heavier... All these act within the Equilibrium... all they do is done within the balance of the whole.
What is life without death? Life unchanging, everlasting, eternal? What is it but death— death without rebirth?”
The notion of ‘sacrifice' in my work is borne from the belief in Equilibrium on Earth— an exchange of energies and Yin-Yang, where two opposing entities form a whole. The fibres of yarn "hold" energy given by artisans; intricate lace is the fruit of hours of labour. When these energies are sacrificed in destruction— whether by violence or silent erasure— we receive, fleetingly, emotions that remind us of the ephemeral quality of life. Despite being inanimate forms, these artworks gain ‘life’ and evoke empathy as they evolve, for that is evidence of passing time— encompassing existence itself.
Do we have to destroy in order to make something our own? This existence itself is a contradiction— we kill in order to live, as eating is our basic form of survival. We derive pleasure from food, yet it is sinful. ‘Sacrifice’ makes the moment of creation in art instantaneous yet everlasting, something I aim to capture and express.
“[Music is] the same as Ikebana— just one moment. You can’t keep it in the world forever. It’s just that one moment, which vanishes. But that moment is eternal, and [by creating it] you can live in that eternal moment.”
The vessel, a recurrent form in my practice, holds in yet keeps out. Its walls partition ‘Nothingness’— giving what it contains an identity. The vessel might symbolise a person, a group, or even a nation. Who decides the shape of its walls? Such ideas represent the amorphous duality we often confront in life, which are yet contrarily confined to binary terms. In light of current times, my explorations grapple with the transitional boundaries determined by humans, encompassing themes of identity and ownership.