One Hand Prayer
Project Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan

Artists: TANG Da Wu 唐大雾 | 

One Hand Prayer was a three metres tall and two metres wide sculpture erected on top of a hill near the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. It was hand-made from five centimetres-thick metal sheets. Tang asked the local women to place their painted hands on some metal sheets as they made their wishes for peace. He then collected thousands of such hand prints and merged them into an average-sized hand print. This was enlarged and printed onto the metal sheet, which he cut out to form a giant hand. He then erected the giant hand and used the rest of the metal to form its base, creating a symbolic praying sculpture. This giant hand embodied the power of women, which he hoped would be able to alleviate the horrors of war, typically initiated by men.

- text by Chng Seok Tin for Equatorial Wind, 43 (Aug 1999)

---

---