Bamboo Flowers is an exploration to further investigate and understand the ephemerality of all things tangible and non-perceivable. As an attempt to represent this idea, an assemblage of different objects creates a smooth undulation of hue and tonality. The colour spectrum created by the objects exhibits in a visual sense the cycle of life of a bamboo plant. From being verdant green during its vegetative state, it slowly transitions to muted yellows and brown soon after its flowering—an enigmatic event of monocarpic flowering. The use of the bamboo’s melancholic narrative is to challenge the positive human perception of the colour yellow with an attempt to create new semiotics with the hue. Revisiting common semiotics and personal narratives embedded in the objects but also giving room for the creation of new meaning collectively or just for ourselves.
The installation becomes a physical representation of my mind—an organized clutter, referencing monumental events and past works and hinting at future pieces. Most of the objects used bare sentimentality, some are just collected clutter. The combination of these items creates a flattening of meaning, stripping their past and personal narratives as they become part of the whole assemblage. The various objects showcase the rate of change and ephemerality of those objects. Using natural and human-made objects exhibit a wide range of effects of change and evidence of impermanence as some once-biotic components start to rot while synthetic objects withstand the elements as they are designed to. However, everything is subject to change even though it might not be as easily perceivable. In such a fast pace world, we know that change occurs around us but we rarely acknowledge it. I ask you to slow down and explore the minutiae of the entirety and it will gradually show you the beauty of change, the inevitability of death, and the melancholia we experience with impermanence.
What is your bamboo flower? What will blossom in you?
