Omikuji

2021

Game sculpture and interactive essay curated into the Spinning East Asia – Series I: A Compass in Hand exhibition at the Centre for Heritage and Textiles, Hong Kong.

Games and simulations have always provided ways of peering into unknown futures. Historically and internationally, games have existed in sacred and everyday contexts not just to entertain, but also to provide alternative logics and clairvoyant predictions.

Based on fortune-telling chests found  across China and Japan, the thirty drawers of this hand-made cabinet house an interconnected narrative revealing historical connection of games with divination, while also providing glimpses into possible futures and alternate realities. Exploring the intertwined origins of fortune-telling and games, this work highlights the ancient and ongoing practice of “ludomancy” - of divination through games and play.