There are truths we carry in silence — heavy, tangled, difficult to name. “To Die To Survive” is a work born from that silence. It’s an object, a memory, a confrontation.
It is about suppression — not just as an external force, but as something internalized so deeply that it reshapes one’s identity.
It is about suppression — not just as an external force, but as something internalized so deeply that it reshapes one’s identity.
The piece consists of black ceramic cords, hand-formed and intertwined, dense and knotted, placed on top of a mirror. The mirror doesn’t simply reflect — it becomes a stage for distortion.
What’s underneath cannot shine through. What’s above overwhelms. That’s precisely the point.
This sculpture is rooted in a personal story — one of growing up in a family environment where conformity was safety, and individuality was risk. Where survival meant learning to mimic, to echo, to camouflage.
I was not allowed to express freely, not encouraged to speak, not even asked what I thought or felt. Instead, I learned to read the room, to play the part, to twist myself into shapes that would not disrupt the expected flow of silence and hierarchy. I learned, like many children do, that to “be good” often means to disappear.
I was not allowed to express freely, not encouraged to speak, not even asked what I thought or felt. Instead, I learned to read the room, to play the part, to twist myself into shapes that would not disrupt the expected flow of silence and hierarchy. I learned, like many children do, that to “be good” often means to disappear.
Ceramics as a medium has always been about memory for me. The clay remembers — it holds the imprint of every movement, every gesture. In To Die To Survive, the cords are intentionally chaotic, a visual metaphor for the emotional entanglement of identity and suppression.
They are black — absorbing light, not reflecting it. They rest atop a clean mirror, which should represent clarity, truth, or reflection — but here, the mirror is almost irrelevant. It’s blocked, covered, made mute. Just like the voice of a child in a home where only obedience is rewarded.
