The impetus for this body of work stems from a doubt as to whether or not humans have a soul, and if they do, how one would go about proving this soul’s existence. To that end, I took representations of various gods, Buddhas, and religious figures from different places and time periods, and deconstructed, melted, burned, and carved their form such that they became mere echos of the forms they originally portrayed. Paradoxically, it is through diminishing and transforming these types of figures that the meaning they symbolize is more easily accessed.
- Jin Shan