Untitled
The one with a sun.
Installation
Mixed media
Variable dimension
2021
Beginning with concerns of recreating phenomena in physical space, I centered my attention on my studio. The room was once part of an old office building in the late 1990s. While the building has been renovated over the years, many design elements and structures remained, such as the buzzing convectors and the outworn hardwood flooring. A big single-hung window was built on the west side wall. In late Fall, everyday after noontime, the room would be filled with warmth and sunshine. I wanted to ground and activate the phenomena with the conditions of this space.
After spending days in my studio, studying the structures, observing the changing of temperature and lighting, I located every object based on the existing architectural space and ephemeral conditions (sunlight and time).
A Body (Untitled #1), Acrylic, paper,7.5cm×9.7cm
An abstract photograph of a body (Untitled #1) was pinned on the floor at the entrance. It was an introduction to the work, unfolding the intertwined dynamic between corporeal and celestial cycles.
A Sun (Untitled #2), fire, cow bone, tallow, mirror, W38cm×D20cm×H40cm
A few steps away from the photo is the second object (Untitled #2). It was installed close to the ceiling, above the average height of a person. A cow bone candle was supported by a hand-crafted wooden bracket. The burning candle spread a subtle but visceral smell in the air. A concave mirror was placed above the bracket, distorting the flame inside the marrow. The phenomenon could only be discovered from certain angles, which differs between people depending on their heights. The bright shimmering imagery contained in the round mirror, which was too bright to be stared at for long, created an illusion of the sun.
A Pair of Burning Lens (Untitled #3), Glass, sunbeam, bee wax
In front of the "sun", under a beam of sunlight, was a pair of jointed glass spheres sitting on a wax base (Untitled #3). The spheres assembled and focused the sunlight on to the base. The focal points were traveling according to the movement of the sun, melting and marking the surface of the base, visualizing the energy of the sun and the ephemerality of time.
The Interrrior (Untitled #4), Convex lens, wood, silicone, 18cm*18cm*50cm
A small cabinet (Untitled #4) was located at the corner which the beam was pointing at. The cabinet was lit inside. The dim yellow light leaked through crevices around the door and revealed the texture of the skin-like layer framed in the front. On the top of the furniture embedded a convex
lens. Looking through the lens, an infinite inner world of an organic body was expanding.
As some phenomena in the installation greatly depended on weather and time, the work was only open for visit during specific hours of the day. The positioning and orientations of objects indicated a preferable route for navigation. Moving from one object to another, the participant was offered an accumulation of experiences centered around the theme of the invisible energy contained within the sun and the body.