TING-HSUAN CHANG

 

Traditional dipped candle-making involves repeatedly immersing a wick into molten wax, allowing layers of wax to gradually accumulate and ultimately form a candle.

 

The works in The Dipping Series originate from this traditional technique, yet do not aim to produce candles. Instead, dipping is treated as a process of form generation. Through the transformation of structure, the act of dipping is developed into a new method of making. Through repeated immersion, waiting, and accumulation, the form of the object is not predetermined but gradually emerges over time.

 

The series is developed along three structural approaches: Net, Knot, and Cell. In Dipping Net, cotton wicks are woven referring to basket-making and net-weaving techniques, transforming lines into surfaces. Pulled downward by gravity, these surfaces begin to create spatial volumes resembling bowls or basins. In Dipping Knot, the protrusions formed by knots create points of connection, linking parallel wicks into surfaces that enclose tubular structures. Dipping Cell adopts the logic of beading, connecting wax spheres into continuous formations.

 

Across all three directions, structures are first established, then repeatedly dipped into wax, allowing the objects to gradually gain weight, thickness, and boundaries, as if growing their own bodies through the process.

 

Each layer of wax is both a reinforcement of structure and an accumulation of time. By relying solely on the wicks as the basis for form, the works retain their burnable quality, positioning them between object and sculpture, stability and fragility, and thereby loosening established notions of function, use, and states of existence.