Illuminate the self

Returning to my rural hometown after a year away, I saw a tall, withered, unknown flower in the garden behind the house. Suddenly, I saw the conclusion of my own life in that plant—I too will eventually "wither," just like it. I thought to myself, this flower, from taking root and sprouting to blooming and then withering, has passed through an entire cycle of seasons. It has weathered wind and rain, and I realized that this is the trajectory of life. It has already withered, and we are merely walking a slightly longer path than it did, yet in the end, we too will wither like it. In my work, I depicted that withered flower and painted a human figure behind it. This figure symbolizes countless individuals, metaphorically representing the shared trajectory of life. I also incorporated a gray-white caution tape into the composition, which serves as a metaphor for the fragility of life and the dangers it faces, while the colorful mosaic paper airplane symbolizes bygone moments that can never be reclaimed.