This piece, composed of origami cranes and lotus flowers, folded from traditional Japanese Chiyogami paper, draws on centuries of East Asian craft and storytelling. The practice of paper folding—originating as zhezhi in China over 2,000 years ago and evolving into Japanese origami during the Edo period—serves here as both meditation and message. I honour this lineage while embracing the contemporary, global identity origami now holds, from art and education to applications in space exploration and medicine.
At the same time, this work challenges dominant narratives in cultural identity and representation. It is an abstracted portrait of Rosé, a Korean-New Zealand K-pop icon whose presence symbolizes a new kind of cultural hybridity. Yet, many viewers will read Marilyn Monroe—a default Western archetype of beauty. This piece asks: when will global culture make room for new canonical faces?
By blending traditional Asian paper arts with contemporary pop portraiture, I explore cultural transmission, displacement, and reinterpretation across generations and geographies. This piece invites viewers to reflect on how cultural expressions evolve, persist, and are perceived in an interconnected world.