Abstract
LAYERS of DUST – the untold stories of an invisible/absence presence (2025): this photo essay meditates
on the tension between visibility and erasure in architectural memory. Taken at an abandoned
traditional building in Gusu, the series captures dust as both material trace and metaphor—marking the
presence of absence across thresholds, corners, and forgotten surfaces. These quiet accumulations
resist architectural sanitization, inviting viewers to reflect on the temporal residue embedded within
space. These accumulations act as phenomenological traces, aligning with Merleau-Ponty’s view that
perception is shaped as much by what is obscured as by what is seen. The dust highlights absence as
presence, making visible the quiet ontology of emptiness that Heidegger attributes to the jug. Through
its minimal compositions and poetic layering, the work explores emptiness as a condition of presence,
where what is no longer visible still exerts spatial and emotional influence.
on the tension between visibility and erasure in architectural memory. Taken at an abandoned
traditional building in Gusu, the series captures dust as both material trace and metaphor—marking the
presence of absence across thresholds, corners, and forgotten surfaces. These quiet accumulations
resist architectural sanitization, inviting viewers to reflect on the temporal residue embedded within
space. These accumulations act as phenomenological traces, aligning with Merleau-Ponty’s view that
perception is shaped as much by what is obscured as by what is seen. The dust highlights absence as
presence, making visible the quiet ontology of emptiness that Heidegger attributes to the jug. Through
its minimal compositions and poetic layering, the work explores emptiness as a condition of presence,
where what is no longer visible still exerts spatial and emotional influence.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 27 Jul 2025 |
| Event | Beyond Design Research Symposium - The Factory, Cairo, Egypt Duration: 27 Jun 2025 → 28 Jun 2025 |