Burning

2023

Burning is an exploration of memory as I create and burn books made of Chinese incense paper, critiquing ritual and belief, and the relationship that binds them.

Ashes vanish into thin air, echoing the memory of that one winter afternoon when I stood on a Hong Kong rooftop and burned my very first book. Leaf by leaf, another book is consumed in the fiery embrace, its journey to the afterlife sealed in flames.

Rituals pass from one generation to the next, their meanings rewritten with every iteration. Once a traditional Chinese act of filial piety to convey messages to the departed, burning incense paper has evolved into a symbolic expression of remembrance, forging connections from the past with generations to come.

I have no message to convey, nor any person to address. But I trust that each act of burning manifests new meanings, reinforcing the link between my actions and beliefs, birthing new rituals with their own purpose and intentions.

As I repeat the burning process again and again, I ask myself these questions:

Are ritual and belief connected or is there dissonance? How do they evolve together or fall apart?

Are beliefs solidified through repeated inertial actions or do our beliefs inform our actions?

What becomes of the rite if the message is never conveyed?

Does burning become a one-way transmission of messages, or a two-way meeting across time and space?

I can only fathom what this rite will become as I unravel new meanings, one book at a time. With every book that disappears, new meanings are solidified. For now, I can only ask open questions that lie between existence, rites, and beliefs, our present reality and the next — separated by nothing more than a leaf of paper and the strike of a match.

2023，紐約

隨著火焰消逝於稀薄的空氣，我腦海中重現了那个香港天台的冬日午後，第一次燃书的情景。一頁，兩頁，三頁…逐漸被火焰環抱，通向往生。

儀式、傳統，被歷代承襲，向前聯繫著千百年，與現在和將來相對；也在迭代中，不斷地被改寫意義。在東方語境下，燃燒香紙作為“孝義”的物化形式，帶著對往生的信念和對已故之人的思念，此世的期許將在火焰燃起的一刻，送往來世。

我沒有想要傳達的訊息，也沒有指定的收件人。我願這本空白的書成為我創作的隱喻文本，重塑行為與信仰之間的關聯，讓每一次燃燒激發出超脫程式化的儀式之外的、自主的意圖。

在一次又一次燃燒的過程中，我不斷向自己發問：

儀式與信仰，這兩者是否在本質上有所聯繫？是在協同進化還是漸行漸遠？

是儀式為先，信仰因而被物化成重複的慣性動作；還是信仰在前，它導向了我們的行為？

若信息從未被真正傳達，那燃燒的意義何在？

到底是單向的傳遞，一條不曾期待回覆的信息，還是一種雙向的超時空迴響？

在不斷追問中，我探尋著關於存在、儀式和信仰之間，依舊模稜兩可的答案，並試圖摸索出儀式可能的演化型態。隨著每一本書在火焰中消失，新的意義也將慢慢顯現。此生與來世，兩者之間，不過一紙之隔。