RICE CAKE EVERYDAY! (2024), Variable Dimensions, Wax, Yu yee oil, MDF, Zinc plated eye hooks, fishing wire.
It is the encounter between the embodied human being and the inanimate thing that occasions the act of remembrance, not some ‘exercise of the will’ (Proust, 1956, p. 53; Muntean, 2017).
While objects often function as vessels for memory, the interplay of senses (sight, taste, smell, touch and hearing) create an opportunity for one to re-experience forgotten memories of people, places and emotions. Informed by Marcel Proust's concept of Involuntary Memory, this project foregrounds olfaction and taste as sensory catalysts for evoking memories of my late grandmother. The scent of Yu Yee oil (如意油)— a traditional Southeast Asian medicated ointment serves as the olfactory trigger while the notion of taste is represented through wax-casted nian gao (年糕) pieces. Suspended and strung together within the space, the 132 wax-casted installation offers a nostalgic encounter, reawakening forgotten memories of home.