This series of work, under the theme “Narcissus Love” , which features the Narcissus plant, was transformed from my previous oil painting, same title:  “Narcissus Love”  to an installation work consisting of 7 individual pieces. My artworks should have an aesthetic which can be dedicated to my family, as well as honoring my father’s profession as a tailor.

I tried to make a new series of installation art in which the pots were handmade and sculpted in the shape of British shirt collars and the blossom stalks were made of real thread spindles.

I have experimented setting up the seven collar-pots, with the narcissus plant being taken out or added in different backgrounds and settings to suggest different layers of meaning and narratives.

My Academic Advisor Rhett D’Costa, during the previous class presentation, demonstrated how to disassemble and reassemble the work both literally and metaphorically. He played with the components of the work, seeing what was essential in the work and what was superfluous. He tried various ways of presentation, such as reversing the orientation, differing the spacing between each piece; he even tried to hang it on the wall! He also heldi2 pieces face to face to view from a different perspective to add more variations to the presentation.

Taking Rhett’s advice, I began to view my works from different perspectives, and create more compositions and renditions of the “Narcissus” theme by restructuring the components of the work to express more meanings when laid out in different backdrops and setups.

I also tried to remove the stones and the pot plates, as suggested by Rhett, and direct the focus onto the collar-pot itself, which is the highlight.

After many trials and attempts to improve, what I have learned by heart and will always bear in mind is that, in the making of art, less is always more.