Echoes of the Firecracker

The firecracker, a sonic emblem of the New Year, drives away evil spirits and ushers in good fortune. Yet in the diaspora, that sound is often absent, and so its absence becomes metaphor.

What happens to tradition when it is silenced, banned or remembered only as an echo? The sharp burst of firecrackers, the hum of family gatherings, the pulse of lion dance drums, temple bells and the gentle flicker of incense: these sounds trace lines of identity, loss and adaptation. 

Echoes of the Firecracker meditates on how rituals travel across time and place, what gets lost, transformed or invented anew. Drawing on Confucian and Daoist concepts of ritual (禮) and harmony (和) and informed by phenomenology, the exhibition explores how sound and rhythm shape memory, perception and the moral fabric of communal life.

A Willoughby City Council exhibition curated by Monique Bedwell in consultation with independent curator Faye Chen.

Artists: Luke Abdallah, Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen, Koen Delaere, Susie Dureau, Pamela Leung, Abigail Montgomery, Maira Shimada, Mollie Rice and Gary Warner

Image: Cindy Chen, The Birth of Thunder, 2025, acrylic ink on Wenzhou paper