Ruth Ju-Shih Li | Bloom 2020

4 – 21 March 2020

Ruth Ju-Shih Li, Florilegia V, 2018, porcelain, 18 x 22 x 14 cm. Courtesy of the artist and May Space. 

Throughout time, we – with all our far-reaching diverse cultures and histories – have always been obsessed with but one eternally ephemeral conceit: life itself. It is this preoccupation that dominates, influences and ultimately dictates our collective behaviours, psychologies and spiritual neurosis; especially in the wake of realising life’s impermanence and facing its ending. Yet, with every ending there begins anew; whether such renewal is achieved through encapsulation via memory, narrative and myth, physical transformation, or transcendence beyond the tangible and the mundane.

Drawing inspiration from the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden where these concepts were first introduced, Florilegium refers to the gathering of extracts from a larger body of work manifested through a marriage of the traditional and the historical, the modern and the mythical, in hopes to create an abstract and spiritual experience as well as an expression of an integrated global language. It is a metaphorical meditation on the fragile paradox of life and death in relation to the self and extensions onwards to consider the transitory nature of the human condition – from the first dream of utopia, to the physical co-habitation of life, its ageing and gradual decay, and lastly its return to the earth.

Part of Bloom 2020 in celebration of International Women’s Day. All gallery commissions will benefit Global Fund for Women to support anti violence programs throughout the world.