Self-Portrait of Resurrection

Resurrecting Self-Portrait

This work was originally created in 2022 as Self-Portrait.

After being damaged, it was repaired and brought back to life in 2025 as Resurrecting Self-Portrait.

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2022 – Self-Portrait

Around this time last year, when the weather had just begun to cool, I was raising silkworms in my room.

They made crisp, crackling sounds as they ate mulberry leaves, growing plump day by day. Dreaming of becoming moths, they spun themselves inside still-translucent cocoons, slowly rotating as they tirelessly produced white silk, until eventually their bodies disappeared completely within the white shells.

Dust, which continues to accumulate in proportion to the rhythms of daily life and the passage of time, is proof of being alive.

This coffin contains soil from my houseplants, fibers from my clothes, food crumbs, and even my DNA in the form of hair. Every fragment of myself is inscribed within it. The coffin is designed to fit my body precisely.

After my body eventually decays, the dust—normally destined to be immediately incinerated—will instead continue to speak on my behalf.

For 99.99…% of people on this planet, it may appear as nothing more than a filthy mass. Yet for someone else, it might be something that carries warmth, something to be cherished.

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2026 – Self-Portrait of Resurrection

The coffin broke.

The lid collapsed under its own weight and shattered.

Once broken, it became distorted. I repaired it, as if performing kintsugi.

I lifted it—far heavier than my own body—struggling for breath as I turned it over and worked to mend it.

During that time, I added more dust that had accumulated.

It is still nothing more than a rectangular box.

As long as I continue to care for the thing that I will someday inhabit, perhaps that means I am still being kept alive.

Naturally, there is nowhere to store something this large and heavy.

So I place it beside my bed in my bedroom, and sleep next to it every night.

2022 “Self-Portrait” (before restoration)