Hey Grandpa, Talk To Me Please
再說說話，好嗎？
2025
Workshop (2025)
Keywords: Edible material, collective memory, community event, embodiment, intimacy
Dimension: 21x28cm, variable
Material: Rice paper, food coloring, sugar
Organizer: Mountain Beyond Art Space （山外山艺术空间）
Location: Shunde, Guangdong, China
Candies wrapped in rice paper
Photos from the internet
The artist creates a custom edible rice paper, once widely used in 20th-century China to wrap candies and pastries. Each sheet carries text designed by the artist, printed in a format that echoes the red-headed official documents once common in China—an archival style inherited from the artist’s grandfather’s personal files.
This paper becomes the writing surface for workshop participants. It is both a pursuit and a tribute to the artist’s family history. The artist’s grandfather served in the Chinese military, and much of his work remained classified and unshared with his family. After his passing, the artist discovered diaries and personal notes hidden in his drawers—fragments of a life even his wife and daughter never knew.
These hidden histories, once unspoken, inspired the artist to reflect on secrecy and intimacy in a past generation. By writing messages to her late grandfather on these fragile sheets, wrapping childhood candies with them, and consuming them, the artist performs a tender gesture of grief, remembrance, and connection.
In this workshop, participants are invited to write their own private messages on the edible paper. They may choose to share them aloud—or swallow them silently, letting the words dissolve and become part of the body. This act transforms memory into something fleeting, intimate, and embodied.
Photo: Wude-yijia