"文消虫 - Guilt worm"
2023
Felted soft sculpture. Alpaca hair, linen, soil, wood, stone, 練り切り (Japanese traditional sweet)
Symbolising one’s uncertainty of place within “other”, this “worm” shrinks and expands based on one’s cultural dysmorphia.
Based on an old Japanese superstition, Kōshin Shinko (a belief that there are 3 worms living within our bodies that record all the bad we do and report it to Buddha every 60 days, resulting in Buddha withdrawing days off your life), this piece depicts a new fictionalized retelling of Koshin Shinko within the context of my ‘other-less’ folklore. The abstract worm felted and stuffed is named 文消虫(Monshō Mushi). 文(Mon) is the character from the Japanese word for culture, 消(Shō) means “disappearing/erasing”, and 虫(Mushi) is bug/worm. The worm is a physical embodiment of a sense of loss around my cultural identity (language or habits). The worm’s size and fungal hairiness grows as my connection to Japan weakens. The Shiitake mushroom Nerikiri (a traditional Japanese sweet made from white kidney bean) made from a found old wooden mold is placed as a symbol of guilt and ask for forgiveness for not maintaining my connection and “one-ness” to my culture.