Neurasthenia, 2017
plastic, incense powder, human hair, rice paper, eye hooks, wire
12 3/4 x 36 x 60 inches
 

Commissioned by ImpactART, a collaboration between Impact Hub Honolulu and Hawai'i Contemporary (formerly Honolulu Biennial Foundation).

This work speaks to the disconcertment change brings and the mystical objects and neurotic rituals some turn to in a desperate search for affirmation that all is safe and well in their world once the delusion of control has dissolved. Eastern implements are largely referenced including the representation of Chinese or Japanese wind-bells originally used for divination by the former and to ward off evil spirits by the latter. It was believed that to be in earshot of the wind chime’s toll one would have safe harbor from misfortune, yet these furin remain dissonantly silent.

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The bells are coated with auspicious red incense (a mystical and ceremonial tool) and are absent of the clappers and wind needed to strike them. The rice paper tanzaku are suspended by plaited human hair signifying ancient associations between change and the cutting of one’s hair such as bereavement, banishment or the more modern symbolism of letting go of the old and starting anew. Furthermore, the tanzaku have been impressed with an obsessive compulsive repetition of a Mahatma Gandhi quote in such a way as to render it effectually invisible to the viewer yet present for the subconscious to absorb, and reads as follows: “We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change”. Words that remind the individual of their accountability (and inherent pressure) for the state of the world they find themselves in whether within or without.