material : brick ~ material : body
part of “An Offering, A Burning, A Prayer”
a group exhibition curated by Con Gerakaris
13 February – 29 March 2026
performance iterations every Saturday throughout exhibition: Feb 14, 21, 28, Mar 7, 14, 21, 28.
material : brick ~ material : body is a performance-installation work devised by WeiZen Ho for the group exhibition with Casey Chen, Choy Ka Fai, Emma Pham, Jason Phu and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, curated by Con Gerakaris, An Offering, A Burning, A Prayer at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
In response to 4A’s request for a “cleansing” ritual — deconstructed — I asked that a portion of the demolition rubble be set aside. Each brick holds a history: fractured surfaces revealing inner strata, tiles shearing off to expose worn patinas. These fragments, otherwise destined for landfill, become material witnesses. My practice begins there: devising experiential processes that facilitate the re-appreciation of the ordinary, to the less-than-ordinary.
As body and object enter and re-enter a shifting relationship, an ontological conversation emerges. The body remaps the brick across thresholds of space and time: I lie on a bed of bricks; plaited hair balances a single block; hands grate brick on brick, producing brittle textures, granular dust and sound textures. The attempt here is to allow the witness of slow alteration — of surface, of relation, of intent.
One recurring action is tender and deliberate — wrapping salvaged bricks in josspaper (called kim-chóa) in Hokkien each Saturday afternoon, folding them into objects of attention and potential devotion. The customary finale of burning of these wrapped bricks are not allowed within or outside the gallery; their incineration is deferred.
Con Gerakaris, 4A’s curator describes the work:
“Dispersed throughout the gallery are a constellation of markings made by performance-based artist WeiZen Ho. material : brick ~ material : body (2026) is a site-specific installation and iterative performance artwork using heritage building materials salvaged from 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art’s recent demolition and renovation work. In repurposing structural components from this heritage-listed Corporation Building which 4A has occupied for 26 years, the artist brings the past in dialogue with the present utilising material interventions responding to the newly released energy flow throughout the gallery spaces.
Guided through intuition, material : brick ~ material : body is underscored by innate intrasensory feeling. Ho reconfigures these historical objects in an act of liberating rebirth and initiating them as collaborators in her improvisational performances throughout the duration of the exhibition. In this series of nonverbal communications, Ho embellishes these reclaimed bricks into spiritual offerings by introducing further materials drawn from ritual ceremonies, such as joss paper.
Upon conclusion of her evolving performance occurrences, Ho will burn and singe the resulting benefactory objects in a solemnly empowering rite of renewal.
Thank you to everyone who came over the seven Saturday performance sessions, some consciously, others by accident including the shop owners and the many people who work in Haymarket!
After the exhibition, I took all the bricks from the installation to my backyard in the Blue Mountains to complete the final action of burning in the firepit — a relocation of consequence. On May 16th, some audience members who attended the performance sessions at 4A, along with curator Con Gerakaris, visited Katoomba. They wrapped the remaining bricks in kim-choa, the ancestral offering papers used in the performance-installation, and placed them in the firepit to be burned. The rite’s endpoint took place outside the gallery, in a natural landscape of trees, wind, and personal caretaking. The burning symbolised material transformation and volatility, returning the paper offerings and bricks to a different cycle; both an end and a transmutation.
…with acknowledgement and gratitude to the hands that shaped the bricks, that laid them as supports and walls, that dismantled them, salvaged and repurposed them, that wrapped them with care, and by placing them in the fire, transformed them into offerings of devotion that connected to something greater.
