“Add a flower.”

We don’t know who in Japan started saying it, but some people still say it when a woman joins a group of men.

The Empress Michiko (a member of the Imperial House of Japan) raised her daughter as a princess. My grandmother was a big fan of the Empress, and she wanted me to grow up like the Imperial Princess. “Keep smiling in front of a man. Don’t talk too much,” my grandmother always said. “Keep smiling” is a tough thing to do sometimes, especially when we have periods, diseases of the womb, and other problems. We don’t want to smile; we wish to scream, but we cannot, especially in front of men. When there are only women, we feel free. Laughing with loud voices, arguing about male co-workers and crying for each other.

In this video, I tried to make fake digital flowers by capturing flower videos projected on the wall. They look like beautiful and attractive flowers, but they are untouchable; they are just imitations.

When I was 27 years old, I felt my situation, environment and even my own history were untouchable. The age of 27 is the magic time between girls and grown-ups. We can protect ourselves, and we leave our girlhood behind.

• LITTLE SPLINTERS: 2022 GRADUATE ALUMNI EXHIBITION