GOD OF A NEW PERSPECTIVE
2026, porcelain, PLA (47 × 40 × 34 cm)
Edition of 1+1 AP
At the entrances of shops across China, one frequently encounters decorative statues of the three-legged money toad, believed to attract wealth—functionally analogous to the Japanese maneki-neko. Typically depicted holding a coin in its mouth, the toad is associated with prosperity.
In this work, however, the coin becomes awkwardly lodged in the toad’s mouth, trapping the toad in an impasse. Upon closer inspection, both the toad and the coin are self-revealing to be made of chocolate. Which, then, is real? Or is the chocolate frog in the process of transforming into a golden toad?
The “form” of chocolate or gold, as perceived, is itself unstable. While we may attempt to simplify experience into binaries—hope versus despair, optimism versus pessimism—the complexity of reality demands openness. Alongside the overtly optimistic greeting “wishing you prosperity,” Chinese culture also holds an alternative view: that money is as insignificant as dirt.
God of a New Perspective reminds us that artistic creation exists beyond fixed value judgments. Beauty operates between good and evil. The world, therefore, hovers at a point of tension, and no one can determine how the toad chooses to hold the coin.
