Smoke by Flora Hanitijo
8"x10" ($40) | 11"x14" ($85) | 16"x20" ($275) | 20"x24" | ($775) | 24"x30" ($1,450)
Originally from Macau, an autonomous region on the South Coast of China, artist Flora Hanitijo grew up in Montreal, Canada–and settled in New York City (she currently lives and works in Brooklyn) after studying at the famed Cooper Union. Hanitijo spent a decade working and living between Paris, London, and New York–a true cosmopolitan artist to the core. Like the multifaceted cultures she’s fluidly traversed her whole life, Smoke, our debut edition with the artist, depicts a literal and metaphorical rainbow of different states of matter, light, and form.
Hanitijo’s work explores the dichotomies of life, a subject she has long been drawn to. "I have always been interested in life’s polarities. Death and birth. Love and loss. Joy and sorrow. Finding beauty and magic in the most mundane or tumultuous moments is my attempt at understanding and embracing these dualities", she explains. Indeed, this image contains areas that look like day, others that appear to be in the shadow of night, and the interplay of each of the four elements. The smoke itself shows the presence of fire and air, the seemingly cloudy sky involves water and air, and the swoop of dense landscaped bushes shows the solidity of earth.
Smoke is part of a series she's been working on for years. Hanitijo describes the lengthy and immersive project as "a result of a very chaotic decade and the rediscovery of my Buddhist upbringing and teachings." The series continues to evolve alongside a broader exploration of life’s contrasts through this lens. Peering into the fluid, dynamic qualities of the piece’s centralized plume, the soft, milky, swirling tendrils mesmerize, twisting and curling into the air.
Like life itself, smoke forms intricate, unpredictable patterns, drifting slowly or tumbling with the wind. Changing form. Appearing, then dissipating into the ether. It’s easy to see how the central tenet of Buddhism–impermanence–comes into play in this piece. In Buddhism, impermanence emphasizes that all things are in a constant state of change and are in a continuous cycle of arising and passing away. The rainbow in Hanitijo’s piece lends a sense of optimism and serenity to a composition that will mesmerize viewers for generations to come.
