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1:05 Eternal Treasure — Donghai Guan From Liuli China Museum
Eternal Treasure employs a unique lost-wax casting technique to permanently enclose a blue-and-white porcelain bowl within glass, symbolizing people's possessiveness for their cherished items. Through this ownership, the object, like a caged bird, transforms from a treasure meant for public appreciation into something private. However, such possession is inherently transient. The use of delicate glass to protect equally fragile porcelain creates an unstable equilibrium. This mirrors humanity’s efforts to preserve precious artifacts in museums, which appears secure on the surface, yet is still vulnerable to war, earthquakes, and other catastrophes.
Due to this dual precariousness, the artwork questions the illusion of safety that control promises, revealing the paradox lying at the heart of human attempts to make something last forever.