Poppy and Butterfly

2026

Engraved aluminum in artist’s frame

30.25 x 30.25 in

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Another pink flower in the exhibition is the opium poppy, Papaver Somniferum. Transforming a pillar in the gallery into an “opium pipe”, I attempt to draw attention to a historical object that is both intimate and geopolitical, shaping world power and love stories in movies that shaped and reflected the city’s fate. As an instrument of pleasure and sedation, it was used by the empire as control and weapon leading to the Opium War in the mid 19th century, which turned Hong Kong into a British colony for 99 years. Rereading the big history through a miniature painting on an opium pipe, in a Harvard Art Museums’ collection, the piece relates life and death, love and addiction, tenderness and ruin in the same breath.

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The work made a subtle reference to the Hong Kong movie Rouge (1987), the courtesan Fleur applies makeup against a backdrop of pink floral wallpaper, evoking classic cinematic imagery. Her descent into opium use, hoping for eternal sleep to reunite with her lover, traps her in a fifty-year wait. Fleur’s wait for her lover mirrors this historical context, illustrating how time can feel borrowed—a fleeting illusion that resonates with both personal desires and larger historical narratives.