From MoMA, I was not inspired by a particular piece rather than combining the elements I liked in different pieces. For example, the manipulation of different levels of darkness within Jasper Johns’ work Shrinky Dink (2011), and Gert Tobias and Uwe Tobias’ Untitled (2011), and in Kara Walker’s famous piece Testimony, the usage of shadowed figures of humans.
This collage of mine was for a friend who went through a lot and meant a lot to me. When I saw the three fallen dead birds that morning, I thought of her as once I described her having beautiful eyes like birds: so clear and pure.
I used tape to shape sunflowers in the lowest level which was a secret metaphor between us two that we shall be sunflowers one day out in the world being embraced by sunlight. I printed and rubbed (to add the wooden-like texture) a photo collage containing the letter M and number 13 representing my in a symbolic manner (my name is Mon, and my lucky number is 13 which I also have a white tattoo on my finger). This meant the identity of me was covering and veiling the nature of sunflower. Upon this layer, I used candle to draw a crying eye (her existence and my mood), fishes(the willing to have short-memory like them), ocean and a boat(eternal life and rebirth), and illustration board to cut two figures and sticked them upon the M and 13.
The process of making this piece was more precious than the outcome of its representation. The heat from the candle and the pain testing thick tape gave my something as the feeling of living: or per say, the feeling of her liveness. Yet the effect of candle I was not that fully satisfied for I should thicken and strengthen the lines a little bit more.
