Gallery Entry

I'm sorry

By Yihan Wang · DE

I’m Sorry originates from my experience of growing up in a religious family, where I was expected to pray to God every day for forgiveness, even when I felt I had done nothing wrong. This work explores the suffering of the sinner. The mantis appears to be in immense pain, yet she remains utterly unapologetic. In this sculpture, I combine the sexual cannibalism of the praying mantis with the biblical figure of Judith. The mantis becomes a female figure suspended between predator, martyr, and bride. Through her, I ask whether the mantis needs to apologize at all. The phrase I’m sorry is itself ambiguous: it can be an apology, but it can also express a mild form of sympathy. This double meaning is central to the work. The piece is highly detailed and deliberately handmade. Through its tactile quality, intricate surface, and especially its scale, I try to slow down the viewer’s gaze and prolong visual attention. For me, the act of making this work also resembled a process of atonement or even martyrdom: a laborious, repetitive, and physically demanding act of devotion. Encountered in person, the sculpture produces a feeling of unease. Its presence is meant to be morbid, seductive, and disturbing at the same time. Viewers have described it to me as “morbid” and “disgusting in the right way,” which I take as a meaningful response. In an age of AI-generated images, I am interested in the irreducible force of physical scale, material detail, and embodied discomfort—qualities that cannot be fully replaced by frictionless image production.

Category

VISUAL ART

Approved

15 October 2026