Discussions between Inga Svala Thorsdottir and Wu Shanzhuan on “the state of things” led to the idea of “thing’s right(s).” In 1999, their Thing’s Right(s) declaration was published. On the front cover is the Thing’s Right(s) logo with the “perfect bracket” and on the back is the copyright statement: “Thor’s Daughter’s Pulverization Service/Red Humor International”. Thing’s Right(s), the long-term creation begun by Thorsdottir and Wu in the 1990s, was unfolded in their “library” as one of the books in its collection, in exhibition “CAUSE AND EXAMPLES PROJECTED FROM IT”. Among them, 30 prints regarding “thing’s right(s)” appeared as “Index”.

Article 6
All of it has being had the right(s) to confrontation everywhere as an object before the relationship of existences.

Article 24
All of it has being had the right(s) of invisible function and of untouchable function, including limitation of function time of the matter of course and certain time invisible and untouchable function with reaction.

——Thing’s Right(s)

In the early 1990s, Inga Svala Thorsdottir and Wu Shanzhuan began their long-term collaboration, and soon afterward, the “perfect bracket” was born. Thorsdottir and Wu assumed that the size of the bracket affects the depth of perception: the larger the distance between the brackets, the wider the field of interest, and the shallower the depth of focus; on the contrary, the closer the distance between the brackets, the narrower the field of interest, and the deeper the focus and insight. From this, the two artists pondered: as the left and right bracket slowly come together until they cross, can the “perfect bracket” we get push the depth of cognition to a near infinite depth? What kind of state is the “extra” outside the bracket?