THE snake first crept up in 1997. It was a shadowy figure behind two geishas in the garden. There's something about snakes that people react to. She finds them a little scary, but she also sees beauty in their sinuous shape. The cold-blooded animal that caused havoc in the Garden of Eden is a metaphor rich with the various complexities of life, she says.
Western belief puts the snake squarely on the side of evil.
But in Eastern religion, which fascinates Iijima, the snake is a more complicated creature. The thing about the snake is that it's so charged with meanings. As soon as you see it, all kinds of things come up in your mind. The snake she used came from a photograph in a magazine. It is one of two snakes wrapped around a young man's neck.