They Burnt and Fall

They Burnt and Fall (2024) is an etching with drypoint, edition of ten, produced through Hong Kong Open Printshop. The compressed grammar of the title — leaves that are simultaneously consumed by autumnal colour and detaching from the branch — suggests a continuous transformation rather than a single arrested moment. Combined etching and drypoint suit the subject: the bitten line carries the veining and silhouette of foliage, while drypoint burr registers the blur and softness of descent. In a wider art-historical frame, the print recalls the [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) tradition of seasonal observation in Japanese woodblock — flowers and birds, autumn maples, snow on a branch — though Wong transposes that attention to the small-format intaglio idiom she developed at the Royal College of Art. The print sits in dialogue with Into the Woods and Framed by the New Moon as part of a 2024 group concerned with thresholds: change of season, change of light, change of state. The serial format and modest dimensions of HKOP editions reinforce a reading of these works as intimate observation rather than monumental statement.