Now and Then


This work, "Now and Then", uses wheat fibers and paper fibers as the material carriers, creating a memory granary that has been hollowed out by time. By building miniature granary forms with bundles of wheat fibers coated with pulp, in a kiln fire of 1099°C, the wheat fibers carbonize and disappear, leaving behind countless holes that connect the inside and outside. The finished product is placed quietly on the base of rough kiln bricks, resembling a broken monument standing on the soil of civilization. The work attempts to complete a silent narrative through the transformation of the material's life and death: when the flames devour organic life, those negative holes are not evidence of absence, but rather a void that carries a broader collective memory - the abundance of the granary and the famine years, the gift of the earth and the cultivation of humanity, all eventually condense into the broken monument of civilization between the ashes of the fibers and the transformed bricks. It is also a return to the original language of craftsmanship: in the era of mechanical replication, let the body once again become the conductor connecting nature and civilization, allowing soil, plants, and flames to revive the ancient time dimension through physical operations. The burning of wheat fibers symbolizes the disappearance of the material form in the agricultural era, and the remaining holes are like memory channels, reconstructing the traces of existence in the void.

Year of Creation: 2023

Materials: Wheat fibers, pulp sludge, 1099℃, kiln bricks

Dimensions: 60.00*45.00*40.00cm

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