Work Overview / Statement

This installation explores the tension between monumentality and anti-monumentality through materials shaped by time, fragility, and transformation. Using fallen local trees from Hurricane Helene (2024), suspended lacquer apples, shattered ceramic fragments, and ceramic newspapers, the work constructs a site of ritualized remembrance. Audience movement—stepping on fragile objects, bending through lines—becomes part of the piece, inviting reflection on loss, decay, and renewal. Materials traditionally associated with permanence are recontextualized to reveal their vulnerability, making memory not static but actively shaped by time, space, and bodily experience.

“A monument is originally any work created by human will for the purpose of keeping particular human deeds or destinies alive in the minds of future generations. […] There are also, however, unintentional monuments—works not created as monuments, but which, by virtue of their mere existence, exert a monumental effect on later generations, because they unmistakably bear the mark of the period from which they originate.”

Alois Riegl, The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Character and Its Origin, translated by Kurt W. Forster and Diane Ghirardo, in Oppositions No. 25 (Fall 1982), pp. 21–51.

Spatial Composition & Viewing Experience

The installation is structured around three dead trees, arranged in a triangular formation to create a stable yet symbolically charged spatial geometry. Suspended between them and extending to the surrounding walls, red and transparent fishing lines form an irregular web that introduces both visual complexity and physical constraint. The viewer must navigate through this dense, shifting network—bending, stepping over, and adjusting posture—to access the central area.

At the heart of the triangle lies a circular zone scattered with fragile ceramic apples and shards, surrounded by breakable ceramic newspapers. Entry into this space requires the audience to engage physically, often stepping on and inadvertently shattering materials underfoot. This bodily intervention transforms the act of viewing into an immersive experience, where movement becomes a ritual and participation a form of meaning-making. The tension between monumental presence and fragile impermanence underscores the dialogue between monumentality and anti-monumentality.

Material Experimentation & Symbolism

This installation integrates a range of symbolic materials—ceramics, lacquer, newspaper, fallen trees, and fishing line—each carrying distinct cultural, temporal, and conceptual meanings.

Each material—decaying, shattering, stretching—becomes a language through which time, memory, and impermanence are not only represented, but physically enacted.

The Trees: Memory & Witness

In the autumn of 2024, Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, swept through Western North Carolina, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. Asheville and its surrounding areas bore the brunt of the storm, experiencing catastrophic flooding, landslides, and the uprooting of countless trees.

These trees, once towering symbols of resilience and continuity, became silent witnesses to the profound impact of Helene on the region. Their uprooting not only altered the physical landscape but also symbolized the vulnerability of nature amidst escalating climatic events.

In the aftermath, these fallen giants were repurposed as the central structural elements of an art installation, transforming them from mere remnants of destruction into powerful conduits of memory and testimony. By integrating these trees into the installation, the artwork bridges the past and present, inviting viewers to reflect on the cyclical nature of life, loss, and regeneration. Their presence serves as a poignant reminder of the storm’s force and the enduring spirit of the Asheville community in the face of adversity.

Temporality & Fragility

Time is not abstract in this installation—it is rendered visible through materials that change, decay, and break. Apples rot beneath layers of lacquer, their transformation hidden yet inevitable. Ceramic shells crack or collapse, unable to preserve their hollow core. Metal powders oxidize on the lacquered surfaces, forming unpredictable colors and textures that evolve over days.

These processes—decomposition, fracture, erosion—become visual markers of time’s presence. Fragility is not a failure but a deliberate language: one that speaks of memory’s impermanence and the body’s vulnerability.

When viewers step on ceramic newspapers, time is not only seen—it is heard and felt. The act of unintentional destruction becomes a personal, embodied experience of loss. In this space, history is not preserved but continuously reshaped and undone.

Installation Views & Audience Interaction

This work is never static. Over the course of the exhibition, its form subtly shifts—ceramic shards accumulate, red fishing lines catch the light from different angles, dry lacquer apples- seemingly suspended midair- sway and tremble gently.

Each visitor leaves a mark. The sound of ceramic newspapers breaking underfoot echoes through the space, registering presence and passage. Entering the central zone requires altered movement—bending, stepping, pausing. These gestures become a kind of ritual, turning viewers into active participants in the work’s unfolding.

Every action—every step, glance, hesitation—contributes to the work’s evolving state. The installation remembers. The artwork breathes.

(“With each visitor’s movement, the piece changes. No two encounters are the same. Each action becomes part of the work’s living memory.”)