Quiet Tears of Roses
Cohen New Works Festival, 2025
Artist's Statement
Roses have always been my favorite flower. A popular choice, they are grown and picked en masse to be shoved into picturesque bouquets until their last breath. They're the flower of all flowers, existing no longer as themselves but within the symbolism and expectations we have placed upon them. It's almost like they know this, and through our constant prodding and placing they've quietly constructed an armored shell. Their delicate, beautiful, and soft petals are what we expect to cradle in our hand, until we grasp their stems and bleed mercilessly.
The rose has always reminded me of myself - bearing the expectations placed upon my own feminine flesh to conceal the inner suffering unique to our own. A suffering not understood by those who conceptualized our institutions, and therefore not legitimized by those who finally built them. A suffering we bear in silence, and a suffering we conceal beneath the layer of thorns that uphold the soft petals expected from us. If we really took a second to see the rose for what it is, not what we expect it to be, we might finally notice the Quiet Tears of Roses.
Photo Gallery
London Lack
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