Time Fantasy, Repetition, or Infinity
Installation presented by video / 1’19”
JI Ziwei 季子惟
2020 BAS New Media graduate
Abstract
From the bottom up, a reciprocating pointer leads five others to shake a cube prism that generates unpredictable changing light.
Artist Statement
We all learned to tell the time when we were little kids. Our ancestors recognized the existence of time as early as dozens of centuries ago. Even though time has long been integrated with human society, it is still one of the biggest mysteries.
Physicists propound the theory that time is driven by continuous entropy increases, a state relied on restless exchanges of particles in the universe. As particles radiated from the sun wave after wave, the world is in perpetual change.
In other words, time, the most irreversible phenomenon is generated by repetition, the mechanism with the exact opposite characteristics. This physical discovery with succinct philosophical implications inspired me to create a work that plunges the spectator into a trance thinking about the base of nature.
Time Fantasy, repetition, or infinity is a kinetic installation driven by linked clock-pointer-shaped acrylic materials. From the bottom up, one of them rotates back and forth, leading five others to shake a cube prism, and the cube prism generates a constantly changing kaleidoscopic effect under the spotlights. The shape of the cube prism is inspired by Alexander Calder’s work mobile which was one of the most meditative artworks I have ever seen. A tiny character model adheres to the track of the bottom pointer. In the breathtaking light, it implies the viewpoint of humans that the grand and majestic time is what we cannot break away from, but never got close to.
The coexistence of repetition and infinity under the same driving force invites spectators to this speculation: if time is a repetition or it embodies infinity? Though the reciprocation of the pointers and constant exchanges of particles can be reduced to some cycles, the angle of each rotation is slightly different, just like each batch of particles is not duplicated from the last batch. Human perspective limits our recognition of these changes, and in the same way, the infinity of time, which we intuitively perceive and firmly believe, is also questionable.
This work grows from one of the understandings of repetition and infinity of time, and challenges it at the same time. Instead of answering, it intends to raise, or interpret the question, which is the core mission of this artistic practice.
