TRACES OF BECOMING: SẮC SẮC, KHÔNG KHÔNG I SYBSY PENTHHOUSE - THE ARTISAN'S HORIZON

Traces of becoming brings together five artists from different generations—each with a distinct voice in their exploration of form, material, and abstraction, yet all converging in a shared contemplation of transformation and the nature of materiality.

The phrase “Sắc sắc, không không” originates from a central tenet of the Heart Sutra: “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” In Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy, “sắc” (form) refers to the material world—shape, sound, sensation—while “không” (emptiness) does not merely mean void, but rather śūnyatā, the insight that all phenomena are impermanent, interdependent, and lack inherent, fixed identity. The repetition of the words “sắc” and “không”, like a Zen koan, emphasizes the inseparability, the transformation, and the co-existence of material and immaterial, the visible and the invisible. One cannot exist without the other.

This exhibition explores the metamorphosis of matter—how materials shift from one state to another through natural forces, human intervention, and artistic intention. It examines how transformation is not just physical but symbolic, turning base substances into forms of beauty, power, and meaning. 

Matter holds traces of time, erosion, memory, and transformation. Through lacquer, metal, gemstone powder, glass, mixed media and paint, the artists engage with materials in flux—melting, hardening, layering, or eroding. Each work is a record of change, an artifact of process, and a moment within a longer cycle of becoming. 

Traces of becoming invites viewers to contemplate materiality not as fixed, but as fluid—where what something is becomes inseparable from what it was and what it can become.