I decided to use my one and only talent (making paper snowflakes) to make a metaphor comparing humans as a species to my favorite form of precipitation. Snowflakes are undoubtedly beautiful, coming in unique shapes and sizes and consistencies, each with their own individual patterns; yet despite such differences, not only are they all made up of the same frozen molecules, not only are they each doomed to the same tragic fate when the sun reveals itself once more and spring returns, but to us who have all taken many steps back (our vision being too limited to appreciate this aspect of nature’s complexity), they all seem the same, equal in their presence and impact on the winter scenery. Humans are no different. We are all composed of the same biochemical structures, all doomed to die, and if we were to take a step back no one human being would look any more significant than another. When our existence as people, thinkers, and individuals, is reduced to this level of complexity, how could we accept any form of prejudice, of racial and socioeconomic favoritism, from any mere human being? It is that question that I want to challenge observers of my work to ask.
Photo by Changchun Zhang
