The Beginning is Feminine is a visual interpretation of Tina Chang’s poem by the same name. Arranged by stanza in a series of 10 works, the text of the poem warps and wraps around primal shapes. Viewers are encouraged to tilt their head in syncopation with the edges, feeling the shapes with their own movement.

The poem begins with earth material (plains, bark, wilderness) and ends with water (rushing, runs). This balance ensures the sustainability of nature: trees, birds, humankind. The calm volley between the elements of earth and water is represented with careful geometries in greens and blues.

Chang's lines also reference fire, spark, flame: a third, urgent element used both for survival and destruction. Fire threatens earth and life, but is itself alive. Reds throughout the pieces interact with the blues and greens as small agitations, and also eruptions of flame. This tension is quelled, in the end, by water; a gesture to begin this cycle again--earth, fire, air, water--exploring the relationship between humanity and nature through the generative power of femininity.

The 10 pieces were included in the show POEM OBJKT in Paris in June 2023, curated by theVERSEverse.