｜Wax Sculptures x Spatial Soundscapes
｜7 sets of candle sculptures x 7-channel sound installation

First Stop: Shenzhen Exhibition Info
Dates: October 28 – November 15, 2026
Venue: ecooL Space
Second Stop: Macao Exhibition Preview
Dates: December 2 – December 20, 2026
Venue: RUA DE S. ROQUE N° 32-B, HOI LEI RÉS-DO-CHÃO A
Curators | Pal LOK Chok, Kathine Cheong Weng Lam
Participating Artists | Joein Leong Chou In, Zen Lu
Organisers | MyLand Culture, Macao New Media Arts Association
Sponsor | Cultural Development Fund of the Macao SAR Government

Human reflections on the transience of life can be traced back to some of the earliest surviving literary works, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, inscribed upon Sumerian clay tablets four thousand years ago. In mourning the loss of his companion, humanity so profoundly confronted its own finitude. Grief became the vessel through which humankind gave written form to the fear of impermanence and the enduring tenderness of remembrance. For millennia, humanity has continually sought to comprehend this inescapable boundary and the unknown that lies beyond through the lenses of mythology and philosophy.

With advancements in medical technology and the life sciences, life, aging, illness, and passing are increasingly observed and understood through physiological indicators, clinical diagnoses, and technological interventions—bringing the materiality of the body into new domains of discourse. Yet life is never merely a measurable physiological process; the emotions and memories bound to loss continue to seek sanctuary through diverse worldviews and rituals. This heightened sensibility toward transience is deeply rooted in the southern coastal contexts shared by the two participating artists, Joein Leong and Lu Zheng, based in Macau and Shenzhen respectively. Although shaped by distinct historical trajectories, both cities share a contiguous maritime-terrestrial convergence where multiple traditions, transient populations, and enduring folk legends intersect. Rituals of incense and offerings coexist with mundane daily life; inherited customs, local memory, contemporary living, and individual somatic states continually permeate one another. Within these interwoven conditions, the passage of life and time acquires a palpable material presence and emotional weight.

The exhibition Before the Candle’s Cracker Fades begins with an imagination of life’s ultimate horizon, pointing to a state of continual approach: one that cannot be experienced in advance as a completed event, nor assumed on another’s behalf. Macau-based artist Joein Leong continues her sustained, nuanced observation of the body, life, and everyday experience through a feminine perspective, employing wax as her primary medium. Her sculptures contemplate the immeasurable distance and uncertain boundaries between life and death. Wax possesses a tactile, skin-like warmth, yet carries an innate vulnerability that melts and erodes over time. Suspended between solidification and fluidity, wax becomes a lens through which to observe the finitude of the physical body. Leong’s seven new sculptural works incorporate the ambiguity of liminal space, belated heartbeat, the absolute equity of time, and architectural motifs drawn from the balconies of Macau’s traditional tenement buildings (Tong Lau). Local architecture, bodily perception, and the material transformations of wax converge, reflecting the passage of life and time through visible forms. Rooted in the specificity of lived experience, the works seek to approach the limits of what we can know about life, and attempting to find the boundaries and ends of life’s cognition.

In dialogue with these wax sculptures is an immersive spatial soundscape constructed by Shenzhen sound artist Zen Lu. Clinical research indicates that hearing is the final sensory channel to quiet as life ceases, making auditory perception the ultimate strand connecting consciousness to the Life-world. Harnessing sound’s pervasive capacity to penetrate space, Lu has composed seven independent acoustic movements in response to Leong’s seven sculptures, assembling them within the exhibition space into a unified, harmonious symphony. Together, the artists embark on a sevenfold exploration of the boundaries between life and death, peering into how, through personal life experiences and artistic practice, they reflect on the relationship between self and world, while exploring the multiple boundaries of life, body, and time.

It is precisely this impassable boundary that gives form to the sculptural and sonic works in Before the Candle’s Cracker Fades. Aging, separation, bodily transformation, and the quiet depletion of everyday things have long been integral to how we understand existence. The memories and longing that linger after loss continue to reshape our relationship with the world. The Latin adage Memento Mori — a reminder of our finite nature — reveals that life and death are not mutually exclusive opposites, but rather the boundary that renders life profoundly precious. In shifting from the fear of mortality toward a reverence for the present, we may begin to reconsider our place in the world and the relationships that give life its meaning.
Curators: Pal Lok Chok, Kathine Cheong Weng Lam