Asian Diasporic Zodiac: Fire Horse, Archival Print (2026 version)
🔥2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse. 🔥
It is a double fire year, and with fire comes destructive power. I am reflecting on how destruction is a necessary part of creation. Volcano eruptions create new earth. Prairie fires make space for new growth. But repressed fire, like repressed anger, can become overwhelming and dangerous. We have witnessed this destruction in the wrong hands, in a country like the US with too much fire power and too little accountability. It is one thing to dismantle existing systems–and entirely another to create something better in the place of what has been destroyed.
I drew this Fire Horse in reference to the volcanoes that span the western coast of Turtle Island and the Pacific Islands that bridged the distance of the Pacific Ocean long before European intervention. I am thinking about the ways in which powerful nation-states have endeavored to control islands for military purposes. I am thinking of the powerful force of magma that breaks but also sculpts the earth, and how the living land reimagines itself beyond the limitations of artificially drawn borders.
For reference, the last Year of the Fire Horse was 1966:
Vietnam War: increased deployment and drafting of troops, draft dodging, protests, and growing anti-war sentiments
Founding of the Black Panther Party
Chicago Freedom Movement
Ongoing Civil Rights protests in the US
Cultural Revolution in China
Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966
*This is the second time that I have drawn the Fire Horse since starting the Asian Diasporic Zodiac series. 2019 version.
The AAPI (Asian Pacific Islander American) Zodiac explores hybrid identities, inspired by conversations with my Taiwanese mother. In the Chinese Zodiac, there are 12 animals and 5 elements that shape individuals’ identities. I reimagined the Zodiac animals as if they were informed by diaspora and landscapes of Turtle Island / North America.
Open Edition, Giclee Print
Giclee Print on Archival Paper for the lifelong collector.
8 x 10 inch print.
5 x 7 inch print.