It is one of two snakes wrapped around a young man's neck. She clipped it out, photocopied it and spliced it with a photocopy of her own portrait. Iijima colored the photocopies with graphite and color pencil, crumpled the paper, burned a hole at her breast and heart before assembling them into a shadow box. Iijima wants it to represent the rational mind, an obstacle that one must overcome to obtain spiritual truth. Truth is something you have to experience directly, so the mind, the rational side of you, is kind of in the way.
People think they can use their intellect or power of reasoning to find truth.
Iijima isn't sure she's close to discovering the truth in life, but she has learned a few things about herself through her art over the years. Some of my work can make people uncomfortable, and I guess the snake is an example of that. I understand it's not something people would want to hang in their living room. My work is very personal. The things in my pieces may not have any importance to other people, but they have meanings to me.