Hérpein:
Face Your Fear

Statement

Hepetophobia examines how playfulness and reverie transform mental discomfort into a field of imaginative possibility. Using the serpent as a mutable protagonist, the work deconstructs a familiar symbol of snake into fragments, eyes, oscillation, forked tongue, skin, that shift between the ornamental and the uncanny. Fear is not removed but reorganized into forms that invite closer attention.

Vibrant, highly saturated color structures the space as both atmosphere and affect. Luminous hues translate anxiety into something seductive and theatrical, softening the impulse to withdraw while heightening sensory awareness. Attraction and unease occupy the same visual register, allowing the monstrous and the playful to circulate through one another.

An act of facing anchors the installation. A chair positioned before a monumental serpent establishes a durational mode of encounter, where stillness and proximity slow fear into curiosity. Across the exhibition, fragmentation operates as a method for negotiating scale and emotion, converting an overwhelming figure into tactile, visually charged units. This reveals the tension where fear, vulnerability, and beauty coexist.

🏆 Indigo Design Award, 2022
Gold Prize: Design for Social Change
Silver Prize: Integrated Graphic Design

✏️ Publication
Mindsparkle Mag 2019