Birth of the Series

It all began around the table on Lunar New Years when my mom and her cousin reminisced their common ancestral roots. The stories reminded me of the ten silkworms my maternal grandmother smuggled out of China for me one year.

Silk-farming supposedly dates back to the Yellow Emperor, the first emperor of China . Neolithic loom fragments from 4000BCE were found in Zhejiang . Ancient Greeks and Romans called Chinese “Seres” – the silk people. Silk-making knowledge was fiercely guarded; its disclosure punishable by death. Violent acts were committed and wars waged to seize the secret.

My great-grandfather had been a silk farmer in Shunde (順德), China. My great-aunt would talk about how the wages her father was paying her was so low that she hired someone to cover her post, while she went to another factory to work - weaving silk cloths. My mom's cousin who grew up on the family farm remembered picking pupae and dead worms from the vat of boiling water with long chopsticks - that was her job when she was just a child. The pupae was fried up as food, while the worms were fed to the fish (my great-grandfather was also a fish farmer).

Then the Communists came into power, and the farm was confiscated. My relatives who remained in Shunde continued to breed silkworms, gather silk and weave clothes, but as workers employed by the government in what used to be the family business. All properties belonged to the People, and conversion to private use was a crime - which was why my grandmother smuggled the worms in her undergarments. She was determined that I was to learn how a worm became silk.

As I built these art pieces - in repetitive, almost meditative process, I am free to think, to remember, to contemplate. The “Bombyx Mori” series reflects the life and contribution of the silkworm, and considers humankind’s interactions and endeavors with Mother Nature. It also investigates the allegorical ties of sericulture and my people’s history / culture.