The Hush Left Behind

𝙸𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚜𝚑 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚍, 𝚙𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚜 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚖.🤍

In this ceremony, a flower girl presides over the passing of a unicorn. Soft, floating things gather around something heavy — flowers beside bones, ribbons beside a creature ancient, sacred, and gone. She is the one who comes closest to that sacred disappearance. She notices it, stays with it, and gives the ritual its shape. Her softness becomes the quiet authority: gentle enough to approach death, and steady enough to remain beside what is vanishing.

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This piece was created for In Bloom, an exhibition hosted by @pankeki.au 🌸 I’m so grateful for the invitation!

I spent a long time sitting with the question of what shojo and hirahira mean to me, not as an aesthetic, but as a feeling. I kept coming back to this idea of softness as something with weight. Things that flutter and float aren‘t weightless; they choose to stay close to what is heavy. That tension is where this piece lives.

I’m really happy this one finally gets to be seen🩵

The work is an archival giclée print on fine art matte paper with hand-applied gold and silver ink, and will be exhibited in person at Pankeki‘s gallery in Australia. if you’re local, I‘d love for you to come see it. 🤍