CHEN  ZHE

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THE BEARABLE & BEES ︎
The BearableBees
Installation Views
Artist’s Book
TOWARDS EVENINGS ︎ 
Index: Six Chapters 
The Clock 
The Restoration
A SLOW REMEMBERING OF A LONG FORGETTING ︎
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You Are a Circle, Expanding (As Above)

向远的圆是你(上如其星)


2021
Reversible dynamic pigment, mechanic installation
200 x 200 x 35 cm

2021

可逆变色颜料,机械装置

200 x 200 x 35 cm



You Are a Circle, Expanding (So Below)

向远的圆是你(下如其纹)


2021
Video
7’40”

2021

有声录像

7’40”

You Are a Circle, Expanding consists of a rotating device and a slow-motion video, which are placed on opposite sides of a large black structure. As two sides of the same structure, they respond to the phrase “as above, so below” at both macro and micro levels.

Stars circle the night sky around the rotational axis of Earth. If you capture their motion through time-lapse photography, you’ll get numerous concentric circles–“as above”. Touch the water with the tip of your finger, just short of breaking the surface. If you capture the droplets falling in slow motion, the ripples will turn into numerous concentric circles–“so below”.

The circles on opposite sides of the black structure exist in time at different speeds, but they share the same center—it is the end of the sky, and the tip of one’s finger. It is the center of Jung’s mandala, the driving force behind everything in the universe and the symbol of wholeness when all inner contradictions have been balanced. It is the beginning of all circles that expand outwards: “Center of all centers, core of cores… a billion stars go spinning through the night, blazing high above your head. But in you is the presence that will be, when all the stars are dead.” (Rainer Maria Rilke, “Buddha in Glory”)

《向远的圆是你》由运动装置与慢速录影共同组成,分置于同一个巨型黑方块的两侧,以一体两面的结构从宏观和微观的尺度分别回应了“如其在上,如其在下”这句炼金术箴言。

以地球自转轴所指的穹点为中心,星星在夜晚的天幕上永恒旋转,对它们的运动轨迹做一次长曝光,将会显影无数循环的同心圆——“上如其星”。以手指肚轻覆水面,使指纹正好压在临界边缘,抽离时下落的水滴引发不断显现又消失的波纹,在慢速摄影里化作无数循环的同心圆——“下如其纹”

黑方块两侧的圆虽处于不同的时间流速,却共享着同一个中心:它既是星的天极,也是人的指尖。用心理学家卡尔·荣格的话说,它既是驱动宇宙万物运转的曼陀罗原点,也象征着人在整合了内在对立面后达到的完满自性。它是一切扩散向远的圆之初,“一切中央的中央,一切核的核……亿万的星体旋转着穿越夜空,它们的光辉映着你头顶的天穹。但你的里面藏着另一个世界,当所有星辰消亡,它仍将存在”。(里尔克,《荣光中的佛》)



















On view at ON | OFF: Carousel of Progress, He Art Museum, Guang Zhou, China, 2022
Courtesy of He Art Museum



Mark



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