2017
Medium: Vinyl, laser cut mirror surface stainless steel, etched stainless steel
Katzman Gallery – kontort project space installationDimension: dimensions variable
The willow is often associated with resilience, not because it resists force, but because it yields. Its trunk anchors deeply while its branches bend and recover, embodying flexibility as a structural strategy. In Buddhist imagery, Guanyin is frequently depicted holding a willow branch, a gesture linked to healing and protection. That lineage informs the work as a cultural undercurrent rather than a literal narrative.
The cicada undergoes years of subterranean growth before emerging to shed its exoskeleton, leaving behind a hollow skin. This cycle of concealment and transformation has long carried symbolic weight in Chinese literature, where the insect signifies renewal and continuity between realms. Yet beyond symbolism, the cicada’s life cycle reveals a biological rhythm of latency and emergence.
In this installation, hybrid figures wear cicada wings and gather among the willow branches. Their presence suggests a threshold condition between human and insect, grounded and airborne. Rather than illustrating myth, the work stages an ecology of transformation, where bending branches, molted shells, and suspended bodies coexist within a shared system of growth and change.