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The Way to Be Empty, 1
2005, closed size:7 1/3 x 10 1/3 x 1 ½, page number: 108 + 3, 1 sheet of description, edition size: 10 + 3 A.P., hand cut, transfer print on Okawara, Coptic binding and Banana leaf covered clamshell box
The number 108 is created with a different combination of fourteen words- evoking a sense (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind), an aspect of time (past, present, future), a characteristic of the heart (pure, impure), and an emotional preference (like, dislike, indifferent). Each combination constitutes one of the 108 Buddhist “desires or agonies.” My working process is a meditation, as is the experience I want to give to the reader. The act of cutting 108 pages and printing 108 different combinations of 14 words is one that empties my mind of desires. As readers turn the pages, they participate in that meditation, similar to the Buddhist practice of repeating vows 108 times and telling 108 beads. The path of piled desires or agonies gets smaller and smaller until finally the reader reaches the emptiness at the end of the path, the last page.