objectless

2025

Real-time digital rendering, multi-channel video, monitor display, keyboard, Internet-connected language model.

Dimensions variable

“無物” (wú wù) — objectlessness — a core concept in Daoist philosophy, is the starting point for the series. objectless is an interactive installation, which explores how ritual endures when material forms dissolve.

There is a kind of speaking that happens in solitude, where no reply is expected. Viewers are invited to type into the keyboard that offers no words. Like prayer, it unfolds in silence, unwitnessed, inward, and known only to the one who offers it.

As Zhuangzi reflects: “Dao cannot be expressed in words; what can be expressed in words is not dao. Is it not the case that which gives form to form is itself formless?”

objectless invites viewers into this ambiguity. Here, cultural memory is not static inheritance, but a living negotiation between past and present, gesture and disappearance, silence and response.

What remains is not the object, but the trace of intention. Viewers may press a key to hold onto a passing moment on screen, and take it with them as a print.

Instructions for interaction

Write an intention, a thought, a memory, a name, a longing, or something wordless you carry.

Let it drift for three seconds and watch how the smoke shifts in response.

When a moment feels right, press the period key « . » on the keyboard to capture what you see — your own trace of the unseen, a gesture made visible, held briefly, then gone.

This capture may be printed and is available for acquisition — please inquire with the gallery if you’d like to take one with you.

July 2025
Tusitala, Singapore
Bring Your Own Beamer: Currents exhibition, curated by Rachel Poonsiriwong

January 2026 (Singapore Art Week)
Mandala Club, Singapore
Aura, curated by Deborah Lim

March 2026 (Hong Kong Art Week)
Sansiao Gallery, Hong Kong
WEEKENDERS, curated by Yukie Sanderson and Souya Handa