The Petal
Misa Chhan
Lyric Shen

August 4 - September 2, 2023
Reception August 4, 5-8pm
2831a Mission St., SF

Following the direction of the sun, my head moves towards wherever it may be. Wherever she goes, I go. Always looking up and reaching towards the light!

That is, until, my head gets too heavy and starts to droop. I’m filled with the most delectable kernels, even the birds abandon their bird houses and pick at me because they want the freshest stuff, not the shit that’s been sitting on the shelves for a long time. But it’s better than nothing.

The broken hulls hit the floor as the birds come and go. They pick at my seeds, leaving me with just enough to start again. My pockets are almost fully empty. Then I begin to wilt. One by one, petals drop from my stem. I become death and death becomes me. Until another bud bigger and more beautiful than the last emerges.

We will bloom and wilt over and over and over and over

With the flowers, thinking about life/death/transitions. I was growing sunflowers and poppies this year so I focused on these two flowers, in addition to the indigo that plant and extracted from to use to dye the pieces.

There is a sunflower cyanotype that shows the formation of seeds, and the harvesting of them. I was thinking about abundance as well as emptiness and space.

The veil and gate motifs represent protection, coverings and hidden spaces. I always feel protected when I see that gate. The veil is a newer thing, the print of the veil looks like a singular petal to me.
- Misa Chhan

When was the desire to possess my image born?

In the junior high locker room, when people just started getting cameraphones, someone took a photo and I was changing in the background. I didn’t know until years later when I was seventeen, they called my mom and everything, it was the reason cell phones became “banned” at school, my unintentionally lewd photo being posted online.

Then, editing a photo of myself for Myspace in MS paint to give my dark brown eyes yellow streaks.

I don’t mean to compare myself to them.. sunflowers, that is.. The difference in head count in the wild or domestic.

A heart shaped leaf.

But.. I wonder if I am always facing east. If I was, maybe my mom and I would talk on the phone more.

Sunflowers are called “the fourth sister.”

Many student demonstrations or movements in Taiwan were named after plants - Sunflower, Wild Lily, Wild Strawberry.

In the journals from our worlds; the material movement of our images from flat to dimensional (Lyric), and dimensional to flat (Misa).

I work by binding water transfers onto various materials — for this group of pieces, wood, aluminum, and found auto plastic. Working at an urgent tempo, but with caution that working itself is not what’s celebrated.

Self portraiture, but with the knowing that as quickly as I speak the shape and idea of myself, somewhere my double is formed to act as empire pleases.

Profile (as side view, but also as the eclipsed, flattened view of something. The view vs. the sight. To view vs. to really see something)

- Lyric Shen