Xuanbo Cao

Firstly, I just have interests on plants, witches’ figures, their colour, textures, collecting seeds, creating magic like finding treasures to me.

But I realise that human being’s culture give them different meanings, so I did further research on it—what’s under those interesting surface is long dark ages, they are associated with malevolent magic. If something goes wrong, people will think it’s witch's fault, consider an innocent woman as a witch following the trend, or believe one woman is the source of bad luck or plague. Witches’ images are mostly dark colours like purple and black, so I wonder if the definition of a witch will be changed? I believe it will.

The inspiration comes from the plants’ cells experiments done by a witch in her laboratory. She recombines different cells to form new life forms, and choose one of them which is suitable for herself and make it accessories to carry with her.

I am the witch, and I made these living beings and kept them in those transparent containers.

'Witches represent women who transcend domination and restriction.' With the advent of equal rights awareness, women slowly grow freely outward from the frame of being stared at and restricted, showing their positive and splendid vitality in various forms. Cells like those shown in the work break through the glass slide being observed and form free-form shapes.

The definition of a witch could be changed, and the culture of witches could continue and grow freely.