2017–2018
Sculpture
Dried envoy fruit without seeds, copper tubes, LED lights
250 cm × 84 cm × 300 cm

An oval surface dotted with tiny lights is tilted towards the sky like a rocket launcher. The lights flicker shyly, encouraging the viewer to approach. Upon closer inspection, we find that each light is actually embedded in a protruding flower bud—the dried envoy fruit of the Chinese honey- suckle (Combretum indicum)—a common red flower found in Hong Kong. Meticulously removing the seeds of the dried flower, the artist replaces them with tiny light bulbs of varying degrees of brightness. Such work requires the viewer to maintain a certain stillness in order to observe its beauty—a state similar to that of the stargazer craning their head upwards towards the heavens. The placement of the envoy seeds, too, correspond to the acupuncture points of the ear, which turns the sculpture into a “satel- lite dish” connecting the body and the universe.

In looking at a star, one is also inad- vertently peering back in time. Due to the finite speed of light and the sweeping distances between Earth and other celestial bodies, what we see in the sky is not its present but its past. While the emission of light from a star travels toward a pair of eyes on Earth, an emission from the sky might have been either accidental or inten- tional, a steady burn or a solar flare. Similarly, on Earth we have intentional emissions, along with other forms of communication—a word, a glance, a sigh—all transmissions from one being to another, transmissions which we hopefully receive in a remotely punctual fashion.