Dust Becoming at Lychee One Gallery , London, UK

 

June 2026

Gaia’s dawn-kiss
reaches my eyelids, conjunctiva, and lens
through the light of time;
passing the tunnel of the pupil, it touches me.
My beloved dead sleep within the earth.
Borrowing the chalices of flowers,
I drink with her once more,
on every nameless meadow of spring,
passing through the wall of life.

Flowers run throughout Diane Chappalley’s practice, originating from what she describes as a moment of miracle. After the death of a close friend, a packet of poppy seeds was left behind and later planted by a mutual companion. When Diane visited, she encountered the first poppy in bloom on an alpine meadow in Switzerland.
“You may not believe me, but in that moment I saw magic.”
From then on, she began painting flowers. Some remain recognisable, while others resist naming altogether. These flowers become messengers, moving between the living and the dead. The revelation they carried entered her work: at times gathering into mountain-like forms from which a spiritual blue ascends (Blue Moon); at others branching like veins, animating bodies that seem perpetually in the process of becoming. Elsewhere, they emerge from the earth itself and are guided into the world through the artist’s hands as ceramic forms.

 

Poetry & Text by Qian Qian