Collages
The Seasons of Change (2024)
This collage is inspired by a Waka poem in The Tale of Genji, written by Akashi Lady after the death of Genji’s love, Murasaki. The poem depicts the changing seasons:
The wild goose has flown, the seedling rice is dry.
Gone is the blossom the water once reflected.
To me, this poem suggests that, like the seasons, we too should move on. This theme of sorrow, acceptance, and transition is precisely what this collage represents.
Clinging to the Bouquet (2024)
This collage is about staying in the present, inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s book “Ficciones” and the film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It emphasizes the things in life that help us avoid getting caught up in the future or dwelling on other possible lives we could have lived. A bouquet, for instance, forces people to stay in the present since the flowers stay fresh for only a short time. And the googly eyes, referencing the film “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, add a dose of humor to the day, also showing the joy people can find in the moment.
Break The Clock (2025)
This collage is about challenging the idea that being alone means being incomplete. I’ve seen our society push this idea a lot, especially on women. I’ve been thinking about it even more after watching the movie “The Lobster”, which in turn led me to make this collage.
In the film, all single people are gathered in a hotel where they have to find a partner within 45 days or get turned into an animal. Upon arrival, the owner of the hotel asks each person, “Now, have you thought of what animal you’d like to be if you end up alone?” This is quite an absurd and strange example, but it does an amazing job of getting the point across! I see the owner as symbolizing society and how it says being alone makes you inhuman — that you are merely surviving just like an animal.
Now, in my collage, I respond to this question by choosing myself. This illustrates that being alone can also feel complete, and that you can thrive instead of just survive. The hand on the right of my collage breaks her societal clock and makes her own timeline.
Simultaneous Isolation and Unity (2025)
After reading “The New Oxford Book of War Poetry” anthology, I created this collage inspired by the following lines in Robert Lowell’s war poem “Fall 1961”:
We are like a lot of wild
spiders crying together,
but without tears.
To me these lines emphasize how in a seemingly isolating instance such as war both unity and isolation among humans can exist simultaneously. I created this collage to portray this coexistence.
