This 1.60 x 1.00 meters canvas art installation serves as a stage for an exploration of belief, humanity and the eternal pursuit of paradise. The delicate patches of lace, fabric and crochet symbolize the timeless paradise. This imaginary place was the promise and guidance of the my upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness.
As I grew up, I could not live anymore with the belief that I would be saved and ‘the others – neighbours, teachers, the cashier in the supermarket ‘ would not survive while I and my fellow-believers deserved salvation.
The world of paradise is awash in shades of white, conveying an aurora of arrogance, spiritual blindness and existential emptiness.
Underneath the canvas is blanketed with a dense assembly of maple tree helicopter seeds with given names. A total of 607 names are the people I once met, loved, worked with, or gave birth to. This tapestry of connections is my paradise.
Each viewer of the installation can pick up one patch and keep it or put it in the basket. By doing so I invite the viewers to destroy this paradise and unchain it to unveil my view of paradise: nature and human fused together.
I would also encourage the viewers to write their experience in the book and/or make a picture and post on my website.
