Unburned 未燃的晚安
Unburned 未燃的晚安 / 2026
Unburned 未燃的晚安 / 2026
讓煙在地上中練習靜止，
比灰燼更固執，
比告別更漫長——
留在原地，
比消失更像結束。
而結束本身，
就是未燃的
晚安。
比灰燼更固執，
比告別更漫長——
留在原地，
比消失更像結束。
而結束本身，
就是未燃的
晚安。
Let these cigarettes practice
their stillness upon the ground,
with a persistence beyond ash,
a duration longer than any goodbye—
To stay where one is
more like an end than to disappear.
And this very ending
is the unburned good night
their stillness upon the ground,
with a persistence beyond ash,
a duration longer than any goodbye—
To stay where one is
more like an end than to disappear.
And this very ending
is the unburned good night
ARTWORK DESCRIPTION:
Unburned is a sculptural installation composed of one thousand hand‑formed porcelain cigarette butts. The artists themselves do not smoke, yet they commit to the slow, repetitive act of “making cigarettes” by hand: pressing, pinching, and shaping clay until touch, pressure, and passing moods are all quietly fixed into matter. Each porcelain stub becomes a small emotional fossil, preserving the weather of a particular inner moment.
The title Unburned carries a quiet contradiction—suggesting both an ending and something that has never properly begun. On the most literal level, it describes a physical state: porcelain cannot catch fire, and these cigarettes will never release even a wisp of smoke. But it also points to a psychological condition: the gentle goodnight, the farewell that never quite made it into words, left hovering in the chest like a cigarette that was never lit.
The work takes one of the most disposable, rapidly consumed objects of daily life—the cigarette butt—and transforms it into something solid and almost enduring. This act of transmutation becomes a metaphor for solidification: here, emotion does not disperse like smoke, but is held by the weight of clay and the labour of repetition, turning into a kind of solid memory. It cannot be burned away, and it does not easily disappear; it is simply, stubbornly there—more lasting than ash, more drawn‑out than goodbye. Each small fragment of clay is laid down like a quiet attempt to hold back time, while offering, however belatedly, a goodnight that still wishes to be said.
Unburned combines porcelain with mirror. The porcelain stubs act as material traces, marking past nights and stories that have already slipped away; the mirror belongs to the present, folding the viewer’s reflection into the work. As you lean in to look at the scattered cigarette butts along the wall or on the floor, you also catch your own face in the glass. This simple arrangement deliberately blurs the line between onlooker and protagonist: we find ourselves observing the remnants of someone else’s evening, while quietly recognising that we, too, are capable of leaving such traces behind.
The title Unburned carries a quiet contradiction—suggesting both an ending and something that has never properly begun. On the most literal level, it describes a physical state: porcelain cannot catch fire, and these cigarettes will never release even a wisp of smoke. But it also points to a psychological condition: the gentle goodnight, the farewell that never quite made it into words, left hovering in the chest like a cigarette that was never lit.
The work takes one of the most disposable, rapidly consumed objects of daily life—the cigarette butt—and transforms it into something solid and almost enduring. This act of transmutation becomes a metaphor for solidification: here, emotion does not disperse like smoke, but is held by the weight of clay and the labour of repetition, turning into a kind of solid memory. It cannot be burned away, and it does not easily disappear; it is simply, stubbornly there—more lasting than ash, more drawn‑out than goodbye. Each small fragment of clay is laid down like a quiet attempt to hold back time, while offering, however belatedly, a goodnight that still wishes to be said.
Unburned combines porcelain with mirror. The porcelain stubs act as material traces, marking past nights and stories that have already slipped away; the mirror belongs to the present, folding the viewer’s reflection into the work. As you lean in to look at the scattered cigarette butts along the wall or on the floor, you also catch your own face in the glass. This simple arrangement deliberately blurs the line between onlooker and protagonist: we find ourselves observing the remnants of someone else’s evening, while quietly recognising that we, too, are capable of leaving such traces behind.
Approx. size:
1000 porcelain pieces, each approx. 2 × 2 cm
Materials used:
Ceramics. Mirror.
