Huge sticks of incense constantly burn before the statue of Confucius in Nanjing's 1,500 year old Confucian Temple. The characters imprinted on the outside of the sticks incongruously appear as well on the burning ash itself. I organize the image around the repetition of vertical thrusts – the three sticks of incense echo the vertical folds of the statue’s softly focused robe just behind them. The crossed hands emerging from the robe repeat the ash emerging from the incense sticks as well.