I am inspired by the ancient Chinese philosophy that everything in the world is made up of five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. In this unit, I continue to extend the theme by focusing on the relationship between the elements of water and wood. In Chinese philosophy, trees also represent time and life. I found that after a wet and rainy season, multiple layers of irregular moss formed on the branches of the trees, and this texture appealed to me. I took photos of different trees and then showed this texture by combining different materials.
I worked on a combination of printing and embroidery. I first extracted the moss left on the trees after the rain and combined it with pictures of water. I used green colour to represent wood and black for water. I combined traditional Chinese knot stitches and punch stitches on printed fabrics to express the texture of these elements.
