Circulation | Lachesis

About this work
Against a violet ground, a girl with long blue-violet hair tilts her head toward the viewer, fingertips resting on her chin, while a red thread crosses the picture and loops into a bow around her wrist. The title comes from Lachesis, the Fate in Greek myth who measures the thread of life; together with Clotho and Atropos from the same series, the paintings trace the thread from its beginning, through its course, to its end.

Artist's concept | Bound By Fate series
A series of 3 paintings depicts the tension between one's free will, while bound by the constraints of culture and society. The women depicted are inspired by the sisters of fate in Greek mythology in parallel with symbolisms found in Asian culture, namely the use of the red thread. Through these women, we question the idea of freedom and obligation.

The three sisters represent the paradox of shaping our own destinies, while simultaneously being fated to tradition and duty; we are restrained by our cultural and familial connections. While they weave the strings of their own futures, that same string can also bind and constrain their freedom to do so. Behind the sisters' subtle smiles lies a sense of apprehension in knowing the restraints that family, society, and culture have thrust upon them. They posit the question of how much we are allowed to shape our own destinies without injuring the pride of our cultural ancestry and societal heritage.

The analogy of threads and fate has similar interpretations in many cultures across the world. The namesake of these artworks comes from the Three Fates/Moirae (sisters named Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) in Greek mythology, the incarnations of destiny who spent their time spinning, measuring and cutting the thread of life. The Buddhist traditional Chinese red knot, made from a single string, represents unity and interconnection. The "Akai Ito" or Red Thread of Fate in Japanese legend suggests an invisible red string that connects two people who are destined to be soulmates. This interpretation of thread and destiny was a powerful inspiration for the juxtaposed freedom and constraint expressed in my Bound By Fate series of paintings.

Symbolically, the red thread has an undeniable similarity to the essential blood that flows through all of us: it represents what gives us life and what we carry to those after us in our DNA, a very real observable connection through time. The thread is tied into a charming bow, the signature element of whimsy that plays into my illustrative, flat-pop art style as a nod to iconic magical girls like Sailor Moon and other such heroes I've admired in animation culture. — JINSEIZU

Lachesis is a 2025 original by JINSEIZU, acrylic on canvas, 50.8 × 50.8 cm / 20 × 20 in. Book a visit to see it in person at Neverland Gallery (Xinyi, Taipei).

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