No Need to Come By

Death is my last monologue, my final narrative.

Death as a one-way adventure with no return, and solitude embraced, visits and tributes unnecessary. A gourmand leather, soft and warm materials set against hard and cool ones, with an aloof air for Tan Shuai's own island of peace.

Mint and thyme are at the top with pepper and turpentine, the spirit distilled from pine resin; myrrh and olibanum, which is frankincense, sit in the middle with jasmine; patchouli lies under them with tonka beans and sandalwood.

TOMBSTONE works from a single object, the marker left behind and inscribed by other hands. A grave marker is a shared human ritual, a structure standing for reflection and continuation, and this house resists the inscription, so no one gets to define a life. Every bottle is handcrafted. Each cap is carved from natural marble with its own earth-formed pattern, no two ever the same, and the bottles carry no words at all.

The work begins from a gaze toward mortality. The house sets out to unlearn the ornamental myths that have gathered around death, and to celebrate the beauty and intensity of being human. Five works make up the line, each one a personal reflection on the inevitable, made with no preset story and no budget ceiling. The results are rich and powerful, and original without apology.