Ophelia
China House, George Town, Penang, 2018
Organza, fabric, LED light garland — approx. 180 cm
Inspired by Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, this installation makes a body present through its absence. The dress, empty and lit from within: Ophelia is no longer there, and yet she is all one sees. What remains is what shone within her, and went unseen.
Suspended above the water, the dress holds that fragile moment when Ophelia is still floating, between reason and madness.
Beneath her, her image divides. On the surface, an Ophelia still near, shifting, almost alive; another sinks into a farther darkness, already claimed by the depths. Death waits.
