‘New Constellations’

Incense, Rice paper

Xiamen. China

2026

New Constellations was a site-specific performance conceived as a gift of gratitude and welcome to the Xiamen performance art community, artists the performer met during the fourth “Gravitational Body,” hosted by Master Lin Zhongfei, with gratitude. The performance occurred at the threshold of Lin Zhongfei’s studio—the architectural entrance between outside world and creative sanctuary. This liminal space embodied standing at the precipice of a new community. In the performance, the artist’s body became a horizontal vessel, a living incense holder. Lying prone, lit incense held between the lips, the artist turned a traditional offering symbol into a tool for creation. In one hand, folded rice paper represented an unknown world. The burning incense pierced and burned through its layers, making a small, singular hole.

The paper was torn into eight pieces, each gifted to an audience member. The charred hole became a window—a portal to a new world, perspective, or connection. The title refers to the community itself. The artist arrived as a solitary body, a single point of light. Through gift-giving, that experience was fractured and shared, forming a constellation of new connections. Each recipient held a fragment of shared experience—a star in a newly formed constellation of friends and artists. The quiet ritual transformed meeting into belonging and a studio threshold into a community’s birthplace.

Part of “Gravitational Body,” begun at the Xiamen Cymbal Festival and organized by “Unstable Neutron,” the piece responds to this Fujian-based live art community.

Photography by Su Jingchao, Chen Long,