SUSURRATION (IV): The Echo of Material and Memory
In a world saturated with visual noise, there are certain artworks that demand silence—works that speak not through bold colors or grand gestures but through texture, depth, and the subtle resonance of material itself. SUSURRATION (IV) belongs to this rare category.
Composed of carbon, walnut ink on walnut, and ultra-black resin, this piece is an exploration of surface and substance, an invitation to lean in, listen, and experience a presence that is both tactile and ephemeral.
The Language of Charred Surfaces
The word susurration evokes whispers, murmurs, the barely audible stirrings of wind through trees or voices lost in memory. Similarly, this work does not shout for attention; instead, it beckons the viewer into a meditative space, where material and process merge to create an object imbued with history, erosion, and transformation.
The burnt walnut wood, with its rich grain accentuated by carbon and walnut ink, carries the physical marks of time and process. The charred surface recalls ancient Shou Sugi Ban techniques, where fire is used to preserve and strengthen wood, reinforcing the idea that destruction can also be a form of protection, a means of endurance.
But here, the burn is not uniform—it fades, revealing striations and incised marks that suggest wear, touch, or even an almost calligraphic language etched into the surface. This is a piece that remembers.
Depth and Absence: The Role of Ultra-Black Resin
One of the most striking aspects of SUSURRATION (IV) is its use of ultra-black resin, a material that absorbs nearly all light, creating a void-like depth. This intense blackness is not merely aesthetic; it is conceptual, evoking ideas of absence, the unknown, or the liminality between being and erasure.
The contrast between the textured walnut and the abyss-like resin introduces a dynamic interplay between presence and negation. The resin absorbs light, while the organic grain of the wood catches it—a push and pull between materiality and illusion, form and formlessness.
This effect is not just visual but psychological—it creates a sense of infinite depth, as though peering into a space beyond the physical limitations of the wood itself.
A Tactile Meditation on Time
SUSURRATION (IV) is an artwork that resists passive viewing. Its textures and nuances invite close inspection, perhaps even the impulse to reach out and touch. The whispering marks on its surface suggest stories embedded in material—histories written in wood grain, in burn scars, in the darkness that absorbs and refracts light.
This is a piece that operates in the space of memory, erosion, and endurance. It suggests that even in silence, there is presence. Even in darkness, there is texture. And even in destruction, there is transformation.
It is not just an object, but an experience—one that lingers, like a whisper in the mind.
