If I Must Go, Let Me Be Armed
Sculpture
Steel
160 cm × 17 cm
2025
Yadanar
Drawn from childhood memories of tagging along with a mother who frequently visited fortune tellers, this work takes inspiration from one talismanic advice Yadanar received: to carry a small spear in her pocket for protection. Years later, while attempting to retrace fragmented memories after moving continents, Yadanar reimagined this charm into a life-sized, heart-shaped metal spear. It serves as an extension of her body — a symbolic arm of defense, remembrance, and resilience.
Diana
“My mother’s fortune teller told me to make a tiny spear for protection.”
Hence, before her move to the UK, Yadanar went to a temple market at North Okkalapa. The carpenter was hasty and the gold paint was sprayed on in front of her eyes.
Yadanar had kept the tiny spear diligently in her Comme des Garçons wallet until she lost her whole bag on Oxford Street on Valentine’s day 2025. Her friend who was with her that day also broke her heels and was walking on socks on highstreet.
Without her weapon, Yadanar feels vulnerable so she set out to make a new one bigger and better, as tall as herself at 5′2″.
She said she likes the satisfaction of making/holding a weapon, “My parents are violent. My ex was violent. My country is violent. I am thinking of taking up archery or shooting. I used to ride horses. I’m trying to be vegan now though.”
Yadanar does not have a wallet now because she cannot afford one.