Helios was exhibited at SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, July 5, to October 23 2017 at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.

 

In Helios, I wanted to invoke a sense of infinite repetition and represent a metaphor of the sun or the light, that is ever present and connects all living entities. The word “Helios” from the Greek means the “sun”. The installation consists of two different individual forms, the seraph and the flower-like shape. The seraph in Christian mythology is an angelic being that is associated with light, ardor, and purity. While the flower-like shape was meant to represent the radiance of light. I have always been inspired by how pattern-making and geometric design are used to express spiritual ideas or beliefs such as in Islamic arabesque patterns found on many mosques which make up the memories of my childhood neighborhood. It invokes a sense of awe in us, or may remind us of the underlying order, some sort of cosmic order that lingers beneath our immediate surroundings.

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The installation consisted of approximately 2000 pieces of ceramic objects mounted on the gallery wall as a three-dimensional pattern combining two different designs in a simple symmetrical and repetitive manner. Helios was designed to have such flexibility that its coordinates can be stretch and extend or compress to flexibly fit onto the wall in different dimensions and on its first installation at Mori Art Museum, it covered a 9 x 5.5 meters of exhibition wall.