White Tiger of the West
Ella A.
Dried leaves, glue
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For this artwork I recontextualized the Chinese myth of the White Tiger, one of the four cardinal directions, in the modern context of deforestation and environmental degradation. Tigers are associated with strength and nature, and having this symbol made out of skeleton leaves shows the fragility of the entire natural world. The off-white skeleton leaves allude to death and decay, and I also ripped holes in the sculpture to represent the deterioration of nature in the face of civilization.
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Creativity in the visual arts to me is a way to represent something in a form accessible to others, and conveys an idea in a way that evokes emotion in the viewer, often without the filter of language. It's a sudden, deep human connection bridging time and space and culture.
