Phantom Ledger
Wooden beads click rhythmically against a heavy ledger, their hollow sound filling the hall as ink marks transactions not of matter, but of potentiality. Each entry traces an idealized self traded away to secure the presence of a vanished original, turning existence into a sequence of promissory notes held against future iterations. As these scripts unfold, the weight of being settles like fine silt upon the page. In this quiet exchange of shadows, one finds a strange, sudden clarity in the cost of staying present.