About this work

A Chinese legend tells how koi fish came to symbolise strength, perseverance and destiny fulfilled: after swimming against the current up the Yellow River, a school of koi came to a waterfall. They tried to reach the top of the waterfall, to no avail. After hundreds of years jumping, one koi reached the top and the gods rewarded its determination by turning it into a golden dragon, the image of power and strength.

It required an elaborate make-up process to transform our model into a koi, wrapping our beauty in fishnet to recreate the scales.

All this led up to the moment of truth -- immersion. We didn’t have much time to get it right. Like the koi itself, this was a big investment and lottery. You do not know what color young koi will turn out to be, so it is a matter of chance if they fulfill their promise of beauty.

A phygital edition of the Fine Art work Transcendence.