The artwork is composed of five prints on glass of photographs of a young person’s hand in interaction with plants often regarded as weeds (bindweed, sow thistle, and ragweed). The images are the result of Wang’s observations of and reflections about these plants, which he found in his garden.

«Ce que nous avons laissé derrière nous aide à avancer» offers a contemplative space in which transparency, democracy, and temporality can be rethought and relearned.

The images, from left to right:

- A sprig of bindweed within a softly closed fist. The young hand suggests the idea of possibilities offered and points to a future to be shaped.
- Bits of sow thistle. The roots, leaves, stems, and flower, disconnected from each other, become individual parts of the plant, but they also form a collective whole.
- A young hand joyously shakes a mass of bindweed roots, stems, leaves, and flowers. The plant and the hand’s gesture suggest movement, as if a flag were floating in the wind or a long-tailed kite were flying in the sky, a child holding its string.
- Bits of ragweed. Its roots, leaves, stems, and flowers seem to be different units that are distanced from the plant, even as they form a collective whole.
- A bindweed has slipped between the fingers of a closed fist. Together, the hand and the plant form a gesture of uprising.

By presenting and interacting with plants, the work encourages us to rethink who we are both as individuals and as human beings in society.

This artwork was created as part of the major construction and renovation project for Montréal’s city hall, situated in the Ville-Marie borough. It was produced under the Québec government’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics.