Chapter II · Form & Material 05 / 14

Principles of Reduction

The Ancestral Form


01

The concave holds more than the convex

The heart-shaped face hollows inward, creating presence through deliberate absence.

02

Surface as mirror, surface as skin

Palm-oil burnished blackwood absorbs and reflects light at the same instant.

03

Sight without depiction

Brass-strip inlay suggests vision without ever rendering the eye as organ.

04

The body is the reliquary

The bark container below holds ancestral remains — portrait and tomb as one.