Dwelling Within Gilded Burden This work reflects the quiet, unspoken weight carried by those who grow up as the sole support for ageing parents. The figure, crawling with a mound of gold foil on his back, embodies a burden that glitters from the outside yet presses heavily from within. The gold—symbol of duty, love, responsibility, and expectation—shines brightly, but its radiance conceals the strain of carrying it. In today’s socio-political turbulence, this pressure becomes even more complex. Many of us cannot find work in our own hometowns; many artists cannot remain with their families despite wanting to. Home becomes both longing and distance, a place we belong to but cannot stay in. The layered handwritten text in the background echoes the noise of these circumstances—emotional, social, and political—swirling constantly around the individual. Dwelling Within Gilded Burden captures the paradox of care: how responsibility can feel precious and crushing at the same time, how love becomes labour, and how the weight of family—though gilded—shapes the body, the path, and the quiet endurance of a life lived between duty and displacement.