Kaixiang Zhang
about Momme
Installation view, MA/MFA Interim Showcase, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK 2025
In January 2025, within the Church of Saint-Honorat at the Alyscamps necropolis in Arles, time became visible. Layers of ethereal cobwebs draped the stained-glass windows like forgotten fabrics stained by the centuries. Amidst this labyrinth of silk, a cellar spider caught my eye. No larger than a knuckle, its spindly limbs refracted the dim light like strands of fibreglass. Though lifeless, it remained suspended in its living posture, arrested at the rhythm of its final moment. This stillness, echoing the imperceptible drift of atoms within solid glass, manifested a state of 'fragile eternity'. The faint shadow upon its abdomen and the shimmering threads evoked the memory of my mother’s hair: once jet-black, now turned to silver. For decades, she has woven an invisible web to sustain our home; her hair, changing silently with the seasons, is a tapestry spanning the great arc of life.
'Momme' is more than a unit of silk density; it is the weaving of love and mortality between Mother (Mom) and me (Me), spanning across time and space.
This series (Momme I, II, III) employs materials bearing the imprints of time—silk, oak, fossils, and my mother’s own hair—to construct a coordinate system across species and dimensions. From the initial visual replication of the encounter to philosophical reflections on resilience, and finally, to the direct touch of biological remains, these three works serve as warp and weft, weaving a temporal web of existence, guidance, and farewell.