Bonsai XII, 2025, is part of Chris Bogia’s ongoing exploration of the bonsai as both object and metaphor. In this series, the artist treats the bonsai tree not as a natural specimen, but as a projection of a quieter, controlled reality—one crafted through obsessive care and intentional artifice. Cloaked in domestic materials like lacquer and grass-cloth wallpaper, Bogia’s bonsais carry the visual language of interior design, evoking the comforts and contradictions of home. These sculptures are both serene and anxious: their stillness is deceptive, a façade that conceals the tension required to maintain their form. In Bogia’s hands, the bonsai becomes a stand-in for the body—something endlessly shaped, contained, and performed, yet always resisting true stillness.