Cuttlebones are a common sight on Hong Kong’s beaches. While cuttlefish are familiar as seafood and in traditional Chinese medicine, their internal structures reveal an intriguing world of patterns, textures, and formations—both beautiful to behold and rich in information.  

Xapa Lit is fascinated by the traces left on beaches and in sediment, and by the ways natural and human-made materials entangle themselves. This curiosity was only deepened by Prof. Yasuhara’s scientific research, which spans multiple timescales. Lit channels this exploration of how remnants of marine life transform over time into this new ceramic work. Cuttlebones and ostracods merge with human-made objects, blurring the boundaries between the organic and the artificial, the living and the leftover. 

The ceramic pieces find their place along Shap Long Beach, Chi Ma Wan, where cuttlefish are part of everyday life. Walk the shore and see if you can find them—searching for traces just as Lit and Yasuhara do.