Faculty of Design

Illustration

Fangying Zhu

Numbness麻木

NumbnessI envisioned a delicate, pure white lotus flower emerging from a dark pool, a flower that blossoms but with a touch of fragility. Its stem is made of a dense, black, twisted braid of hair, a rope that seems to bind the flower to the mud.This hair rope, the root of the lotus, represents the entanglement of emotions, a state of being rooted but not fully experiencing. The flower itself, though beautiful, is trapped by this entanglement. It represents the potential for feeling that is not yet fully activated, the numbness that exists alongside beauty.

“I lay downVines wrapped around meNo painno soundThe world felt lightand far awaylike a dreamthat had already ended”