Digital print on tradition rice paper 13 pages 10 images Hand-made photobook Softcover 10.5x15.5cm
Burning book is a book made to be burned.
In Chinese funeral culture, fire is the essential medium through which matter transitions from the world of the living to the world of the dead. From gold ingots and paper money to clothes, luxury goods, and even digital artifacts, the desire for a privileged afterlife mirrors aspirations in different times. Yet, when I considered what I would send or wish for my afterlife, I was struck by the absence of art works.
As a response, Burning Book seeks to transport art into the afterlife. Drawing from the story on the acknowledged artist Van Gogh floral paintings, I created a series of ten photographs by layering and manipulating images, each piece echoing both a moment in art history and a fragment of the fragile experience. Burning Books may also open questions about what remains when a decorational painting fails to help an artist to survive, when color once devoted to life becomes a monument to death, when artwork becomes a trade game rather than a spiritual experience .
