From Metaphor to Tangibility: Iterating My Installation

In my previous intervention, I created an installation using yellow silk and thread to evoke entanglement, intimacy, and control. The work generated responses such as “wedding dress,” “shackle,” “control,” “connection,” and “line.” These words revealed how participants connected the material and spatial experience with themes of marriage and power. Yet, the feedback also made me realize: the piece remained too metaphorical, more atmospheric than tangible.

Moving Toward Tangibility

For the next iteration, I decided to carry these keywords forward and make them visible in a more concrete form. Hair became the central material: a bodily extension that carries cultural weight, often linked to femininity, beauty, but also discipline and restraint. Red ropes and chains materialize shackle and connection, extending the visual tension.

On the ground, I added layers of black tulle—a deliberate reference to the wedding dress. Unlike the traditional white gown symbolizing purity and idealized love, this black fabric speaks of shadow, suppression, and the weight beneath the ceremony. It becomes a counter-image: the hidden underside of marriage that is often unspoken.

The Design Process

I experimented with different ways of attaching and layering hair onto black fabric, arranging it so the strands cascade downward like a suspended dress—yet one that appears bound, stretched, and fragmented. The process itself felt like stitching together fragments of memory, desire, and constraint.

Reflection

This version of the installation moves closer to the tangible: viewers can immediately read the imagery of a wedding dress, while also sensing its distortion. The chains, ropes, and black fabric invite associations of entrapment and control, contrasting with the softness of the hair.

By allowing audiences to physically interact—touching, pulling, or even cutting the threads—I aim to explore how marriage can be experienced as both connection and confinement. This iterative process not only refines the visual form, but also deepens the conversation between material, metaphor, and social critique.