#3: Ikebana Study

Cross-sections are a theme I have been continuously exploring in my work. Nowadays whether it’s in design construction or artistic modeling, if you use 3D modeling, you are applying the same technology to create an empty shell. Whether it's an artwork, a small bowl, or even a spaceship, it’s all about building a hollow structure. By cutting it open, I allow people to see the essence of this empty shell. So this time my attempt is to explore. What if, instead of merely exposing the hollow interior to everyone, I put this emptiness to practical use, What would that look like？So I came up with a rather peculiar idea to truly treat it as a vase, a container. Meanwhile, in art history, the depiction of a vase is a deeply traditional motif, I found this idea intriguing.

As I was working on it I kept thinking about many older "Vanitas" paintings. These Vanitas paintings often depict a platform with a vase of flowers on it. These flowers are frequently accompanied by other objects, such as a skull. The juxtaposition of these elements signifies the coexistence of vibrant life and death, emphasizing the fragility and transience of life. This is what Vanitas portrays: emptiness.

This piece features my own head alongside beautiful yellow flowers. In addition to scanning my own body, I also scanned the limbs of some friends. I used a game development platform called Unreal Engine. I chose it because it offers a large library of free-to-use plant assets. As soon as you open the software, you realize it’s a tool designed for game developers. All the available plants are either desert shrubs or coastal weeds, or wildflowers growing in post-apocalyptic cities. These are the kinds of flowers you find there. You won't find anything like the plants you can buy in a florist shop. So selecting flowers from the software to do my "Ikebana Study", it really feels like wilderness survival, gathering small flowers along the way, and using them to decorate my virtual life.