From 1998 to the present day, Kentaro Hiroki has methodically copied receipts, tickets, and other ephemeral documents of his daily travels and shopping trips. In 2007, Hiroki started copying the discarded paper items that he collected. To display these copies within an exhibition, the works were placed on the gallery floor, inconspicuously enough that people would easily miss it and indirectly forcing the audience to challenge themselves to discover the aesthetic value of his small works.

In its first iteration, two cigarette packages were taken from Hiroki’s studio and were representational of the artist’s life. They were then meticulously recreated in paper and coloured pencil, and for display were installed on the gallery’s floor. During the exhibition, the works were unfortunately cleared by a cleaner who had mistook the works for rubbish, resulting in the end of the piece’s existence. Similar incidences have happened previously to his other works. After this particular incident however, he decided to reproduce the cigarette packages again. Hiroki believes that the challenge presented to the audience not only lies in perceiving the artworks on a superficial level, but also in the ability to convey the story behind the object and their ephemerality, emphasised through the technical process of reconstruction and reproduction.