Luxury beyond Death
Luxury beyond Death - Ghost Money I
2018
The series portrays the paper offerings traditionally burned in rituals in Vietnam to send money and material goods to the deceased in the afterlife. It is a traditional Chinese-Taoist practice widespread in Asia. As well as ghost money, which resembles legal banknotes, there are various kinds of paper offerings representing daily necessities like clothing, personal electronics and household goods, many of which imitate luxury brands such as Rolex and Nike.
The project highlights our obsession with consumerism whilst simultaneously raising questions about what awaits us in the afterlife.
Ghost Money means nothing to the living, but the billions of dollars that we generate will also be inaccessible to us in death. So what's truly valuable in life? If there is an afterlife, how do we know that the life we are living is not itself an afterlife of another world?
2018
The series portrays the paper offerings traditionally burned in rituals in Vietnam to send money and material goods to the deceased in the afterlife. It is a traditional Chinese-Taoist practice widespread in Asia. As well as ghost money, which resembles legal banknotes, there are various kinds of paper offerings representing daily necessities like clothing, personal electronics and household goods, many of which imitate luxury brands such as Rolex and Nike.
The project highlights our obsession with consumerism whilst simultaneously raising questions about what awaits us in the afterlife.
Ghost Money means nothing to the living, but the billions of dollars that we generate will also be inaccessible to us in death. So what's truly valuable in life? If there is an afterlife, how do we know that the life we are living is not itself an afterlife of another world?
ベトナムなどのアジア諸国では偽物の紙幣をはじめさまざまな身の回り品を象った紙を親族が燃やすことで、 天に昇る煙を介して故人に物資を届けることができると信じられている。肉体を去った意識はあの世で再び身体を得られるのか？ ナイキのサンダル、ロレックスの時計などブランド物や紙幣の死後の世界における価値とは？ 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問う。
この世で「本物の」通貨はあの世では紙切れにすぎず、 冥土の紙幣はこちらでは用を為さない。 生きていれば億万の価値も死ぬ時に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。それならば、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？