Of Mud and Lotus is Viviane Sassen’s second collaboration with Japanese collective Artbeat Publishers and G/P Gallery, Tokyo. As the title suggests, this body of work engages in a conversation on transformation, procreation, and fecundity, all elements traditionally ascribed to the idea of the feminine.

Experimenting with collages and unique hand-colored pieces, Sassen creates images in which abstraction and performance intertwine. In this evocative and imaginary realm of intense color and textures, the imagery is rich with associative references that allow for layered readings and responses. Her new works also include seemingly abstract compositions: mundane objects and apparently incidental motifs are transformed with collage, filters, and streaks of pigment to the point of where their original forms lie unrecognizable below Sassen’s interventions. Very little is what it seems at first sight.

Dense clusters of fungi and spores are reminiscent of proliferating living cells. Organic materials such as eggs, milk, flowers, and natural dyes are prominent in the imagery of female figures, enhancing a sense of their sinuosity in the natural world. In seemingly abstract compositions, mundane objects and apparently incidental motifs are transformed with collage, filters, and streaks of pigment to the point where their original forms lie unrecognizable below Sassen’s interventions.

After the success of the former publication Lexicon, this is the second Japanese photobook the artist has published. The book is beautifully printed and bound, with loose threads extending from its delicate embroidered cover. The book design represents Sassen’s aesthetic eye on the world.