Linga Shanghai (2025)

❝I first encountered the linga while traveling through India in the 1970s. These smooth, cylindrical stone forms stood quietly by roadsides. People scattered flower petals over them, pressing their hands together in prayer. I was struck by their beauty and learned that they were lingas, sacred images in Hindu culture.

Since then, I have created many linga-inspired works in my ikebana practice. Like my other pieces, I use not only florist flowers but also wild plants and discarded materials. The form changes each time. Still, the linga I saw in India remains vivid to me. I continue making my own, with love for people I encountered there and their beautiful culture.

My work begins with a discovery of something striking, or sometimes anger or protest. But linga works are different. I often find myself making another one at important moments, quietly praying as I work. My large lingas are built with helping hands, and seen by many people. Perhaps each of them offers a quiet prayer―and the work holds those prayers within.❞

― from Kosen Ohtsubo’s text in the 15th Shanghai Biennale catalogue

This work follows Linga München, created for the Kunstverein München exhibition . The main material is a large quantity of weeping willow branches from neighboring Jiangsu Province. Inside the linga, clothing donated by the staff of the Power Station of Art (PSA) is arranged within the structure.

Over the course of the exhibition, the branches gradually wither. On the ground, older flowers break down into the soil, while new ones offered by the PSA team accumulate above them.

Praying for the well-being of the people of Shanghai.