At a time when the world feels increasingly fractured, Auspicious 88 offers something rare: art as a space for healing.
Vision
Nick Dong’s grand scheme for Auspicious 88 has its origins in 2015 in a series of acts of kindness known as Mendsmith Project, that fused his artistic vision with his artistic and manual skills. In one case, he heard that a man had died prematurely of cancer, leaving his wife of fifteen years in despair. He was touched when he heard that every week over the fifteen years they were together, he had presented his wife with a singe red rose, sometimes many more, as tokens of his love for her. Dong made a suggestion, that he would transform the man’s wedding band into a pendant of a golden rose, so that she could wear for the rest of her life, offering consolation and relief.
Conceived by artist Nick Dong in 2023, Auspicious 88 began as a reinterpretation of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism—icons of balance, wholeness, and sacred meaning. But what started as eight works quickly expanded into a far-reaching vision: a journey across 88 sculptural experiences designed to awaken the senses and cultivate well-being.
Each piece in Auspicious 88 combines light, sound, motion, and hand-crafted detail to form immersive, emotionally resonant encounters. Rooted in the philosophies of Buddhism and Confucianism, and shaped by Dong’s dual background in engineering and traditional craft, the project invites visitors to enter a meditative environment where time slows and awareness deepens.
The work is intentionally quiet. It doesn’t demand attention; it restores it. Viewers often describe the experience as soothing, grounding, even therapeutic. Whether through mirrored reflections, gentle kinetic movements, or ambient soundscapes, Auspicious 88 creates space to reconnect—with oneself, with breath, and with something larger.
This is not art to be consumed. It’s art to be lived inside. A spiritual architecture of attention and care, each work is designed to mend invisible fractures in our lives and offer a kind of aesthetic remedy for disconnection.
Following its initial debut in Taipei and San Francisco in 2024, Auspicious 88 will unfold through 2028, culminating in an international tour that brings these healing spaces to audiences around the world. As the project grows, so does its purpose: to offer beauty, stillness, and emotional clarity in a time that needs it most.
Eight Auspicious Symbols
Eight ancient symbols, reimagined for today.
Rooted in Buddhist iconography, these forms represent spiritual ideals—now transformed into kinetic, luminous objects that invite reflection, protection, and transcendence.
Lotus:
a symbol of rebirth and purity, emerging from the mud untouched. An invitation to rise through adversity with grace.
Infinity Knot:
a closed loop with no beginning or end. It represents continuity, balance, and the interconnectedness of all things.
Dharma Wheel:
the path of wisdom and the cycle of life. It evokes the teachings of impermanence, discipline, and awakening.
Victory Banner:
originally raised after battle, this form now celebrates inner triumph—over ignorance, ego, and fear.
White Conch Shell:
a call to higher purpose. Once used to announce sacred teachings, it now resonates with the voice of personal truth.
Treasure Vase:
a container of limitless blessings. Overflowing with symbolic riches—spiritual insight, compassion, and generosity.
Two Golden Fish:
signifiers of joy, freedom, and fearless movement. They swim effortlessly through the currents of change.
Parasol:
a protective canopy once reserved for nobility. Here, it shelters reflection and honors sacred presence.
Eleven Life Quests
Using 11 deeply personal themes as a lens for exploring and understanding universal human consciousness.
These life quests guide the viewer through emotional and philosophical terrain, offering moments of stillness, clarity, and connection in a shifting world.
Time: a meditation on presence. Time stretches, collapses, and circles back—reminding us to witness each moment.
Introspection: an inward gaze. Stillness becomes a mirror for clarity, emotion, and revelation.
Enlightenment: not an endpoint but a lens. A shift in perception where light, sound, and silence become teachers.
Impermanence: the beauty of what does not last. Change as a force of growth and release.
Together & Apart: the invisible web that binds us. An exploration of how we meet, separate, and meet again.
Ego & Egolessness: where identity dissolves. The self reflected until it vanishes, revealing something deeper.
Reality & Surreality: a dance between the tangible and the imagined. What is real may depend on how you feel.
Luck & Prosperity: symbols of abundance reimagined. Fortune here is spiritual as well as material.
Living & Dying: a layered contemplation of breath, decay, and rebirth. Two halves of the same circle.
Love & Desire: the spark of longing that drives us forward. When examined, it reveals both clarity and illusion.
Gravity: a force both physical and metaphysical. What pulls us down may also keep us grounded.