Year: 2024
Dimensions: 100 x 50 x 60 cm
Materials: rice bags, newspaper, bowl, rice, chopsticks
In any culture, in any loving relationship, we naturally become selfless. Like many, I am constantly reminded of my privilege through the history of generations directly before me. I have not known true scarcity and hunger like them. They use food as their love language – expressed most clearly when you are gifted with the tastiest, most expensive, most-difficult-to-come-by piece. A sacrifice, rewarded by my inadequate mix of gratitude and guilt.
These hollow bags, removed of the once abundant rice, were frugally kept by my father, awaiting its next use. Now, they are filled with crumpled newspapers and air, fed on the temporary substance of constant change, supposedly urgent but empty words. This weak body that can no longer support itself, offers its own rice in a bowl, to you, the loved ones, the future. The upright chopsticks, a classic faux-pas, is just a fleeting symbol – of the three sticks of incense to honour the dead.
Exhibited in:
Take-Away (2024)
Exhibition 003 (2024)
Photos by Jon C. Archdeacon
Lisha Zhong 