This piece follows a theme of manifesting emotional processing, or “verifying” one’s emotions: juxtaposing an abstract condition with tangible and material mechanisms. This piece references the French game of “effeuiller la marguerite”, which means to pluck the daisy, a game of “verifying” whether or not one’s sentiments are returned by the object of their affection. There are a variety of French phrases on there: “I love him”, “He loves me”, “I love him a little”, “I love him sometimes”, “I don’t love him at all”, “He loves me a little”, “He doesn’t love me”, etc. It also depicts how our affections for others can be a source of angst and agony for ourselves. At first, we nurture it, much like a plant, until it outgrows us, becoming a burden to which we sometimes succumb to.
This theme of creating a physical expression of emotional experiences, whether abstract or literal, has been something I have been exploring already, especially through organic motifs and symbols. However, the idea of using textual elements to subtly compel an audience to engage with and actively participate in a piece is something I would like to perhaps take further. Most viewers can't help but read text when it is present in the art, as it is perceived as something much more "material" than trying to interpret the other elements that the piece may contain. However, by using another language, in this case, French, it can prompt curiosity and inquisition: perhaps an attempt to translate it, which garners deeper and longer engagement with a piece. Another effect of using a foreign language is that the words do not become an overwhelming focal point; they can be ignored and absorbed by the other elements to become purely aesthetic as well. Another element that interested me was the use of idioms in art and materializing them. Commonly used expressions are oftentimes not provided with much thought or reflection, much like the day to day emotions we feel. However, by creating a tangible object can stimulate more deliberate thought and start to analyze and ponder what these expressions can really mean to us.
