The Death of Heywood (2012)

80 x 80 x 140 cm

The Death of Heywood is a participatory sculpture that serves food and information. Its design draws inspiration from the Bagua, or eight trigrams, a system rooted in Chinese cosmology and also a homonym for “gossip” in modern Chinese.

Audience is invited to rotate each tier and examine the contents of the drawers. The three levels are mechanically interconnected; rotating one causes the adjacent level to move in the opposite direction. As the structure turns, access to each drawer changes. Certain horizontal angles unlock specific compartments, while others keep them sealed.

Inside the drawers are assorted foods and concealed items, gradually unfolding the narrative of a political poisoning that is entangled in secrecy, symbolic violence, and ideological conflict, and that echoes the structure of state-sanctioned myths and conspiracies.