Luxury beyond Death
Luxury beyond Death - Ghost Money I
2018
The series portrays the paper offerings traditionally burned in funeral rituals across East and Southeast Asia to send money and material goods to the deceased in the afterlife. Alongside ghost money resembling legal tender, paper offerings replicate everyday necessities such as clothing and household goods, often imitating luxury brands like Rolex and Nike.
The project highlights our obsession with consumerism whilst simultaneously raising questions about what awaits us in the afterlife.
Ghost money is worthless to the living, and the billions we generate will be equally useless to us once we die. So what’s truly valuable in life?
And if there is an afterlife, how do we know that this is not it?
2018
The series portrays the paper offerings traditionally burned in funeral rituals across East and Southeast Asia to send money and material goods to the deceased in the afterlife. Alongside ghost money resembling legal tender, paper offerings replicate everyday necessities such as clothing and household goods, often imitating luxury brands like Rolex and Nike.
The project highlights our obsession with consumerism whilst simultaneously raising questions about what awaits us in the afterlife.
Ghost money is worthless to the living, and the billions we generate will be equally useless to us once we die. So what’s truly valuable in life?
And if there is an afterlife, how do we know that this is not it?
The subjects were sourced from a Vietnamese market in Berlin.
台湾やベトナムなどのアジア諸国には、親族が故人のために
身の回り品の紙の模型や偽物の紙幣「冥銭」を燃やす習慣があり、
天に昇る煙を介して死者に物資を届けることができるとされている。
肉体を去った意識はあの世で再び身体を手に入れるのだろうか？
そして死後の世界におけるナイキ、ロレックスなどのブランド物や札束の価値とは？
死者のための冥銭はこの世では役に立たないが、この世で「本物の」通貨もまた
死んでしまえば紙切れにすぎない。生きていれば億万の価値も
死ぬ時はゴミに等しいのならば、本当の価値はどこに存在するのか？
私たちは死の向こう側を知ることができない。
であれば、私たちが生きているこの世界が
ある次元から見た死後の世界である可能性は否定できるだろうか？
消費社会に生きる人間の物質的な豊かさへの執着に焦点を当てながら、
死の向こうで私たちを待ち受けるものについて考える。