Dou-Gong
* “The bracket components resting on any one column and supporting any one beam may be multiplied almost endlessly…” – Chinese Architecture (2002)
There are two separate parts to the DouGong: the "dou" and the "gong". A carefully balanced arrangement of a number of these tiny structures, fitted without cement, was used to support the weight of roofs. They were everywhere, from the Imperial palace to temples hidden in mountains.
I combined the DouGong into a stable structure with an empty center. The audience can reconstruct the piece themselves as they look at the structure from different angles. That was what DouGong was to me: stable and combinatorial.
But what did DouGong inspire in others? It has infinite possibilities, to be arranged, combined, taken apart, and put together again. We create with our assumptions, our culture, our background. What does it say about us and how we fit together? I offered the piece to the public, and recorded what they made from the same blocks.
