In the pre-modern world, human creative activities were considered sacred acts as they imitate the creative power of the transcendent beings. Through artistic creations, architecture, religious rituals, and other forms, humans attempt to recreate the actions of the gods and establish a connection with the immaterial realm through this imitation. Objects was not only made for functions, but also acted as a channel to stay close to the transcendence. This duality of everyday objects in pre-modern cosmology provided me a trace to explore how and why our ancestors started to design.
Consider imagining the divine as a beam of light that passes through a prism, refracting into countless colors. Each color appears different, but in reality, they are the same. They share the same essence. They originate from the same source. Therefore, what may seem separate and different on the surface is, in fact, a singular entity. This is what our ancient ancestors believed.
Following the traces left by the ancestors, the mythologies, legends and artifacts, I want to tell a story about the ontological nostalgia of modern everyday objects, a speculation on the origin of modern objects, a sanctuary of the dream of objects. If you see and you just see, a flexible world full of humor will unfold in front of your eyes. The material culture and the invisible realm intertwined, weaving the memory of the world. The memory grows in your body, your hand, your toes, in your every single hair. And they incarnate into vases, tools, spoons, or a door mat, an emoji after thousands times of reincarnation, reminding you of the interconnections of things and factors and the great wisdom of ancestors. I chose these archeological objects from the depot with the intention and aiming to create a space for intentional misreading of the objects. For example, hands as the first vessel for water, could also be a container for memory; A man’s belly used as the plate for the fat from grills and a whistle in the shape of a jester are the real “form follows function” before we invented “modern design”.