‘A Suffering’ candle (white), 2026

150mm tall

paraffin wax, cotton wick.

'A suffering' candle is a figurative work exploring impermanence, inevitability, and self-authored suffering.

The figure kneels frozen, like those preserved by catastrophic events, suspended in the last moment before the end. Rather than being frozen in time, it is erased from it. The owner of the work allows this.

There is an irony embedded in the object. The figure recoils from the very flame that grows from its own hand - a suffering it did not choose, but one it cannot separate itself from. It is complicit simply by existing. The gesture of protection is also the gesture of acceptance.

In this way the work implicates its owner too. To light it is to participate. The candle functions exactly as intended - and that functioning is the destruction. One entity's suffering for the purpose of another's.

It is something beautiful. Something functional. And entirely inevitable.

Made through clay figure moulding, silicone mould making, wax casting, and extensive post-production cleanup.

The first functioning artwork of Mass Medium Studio.