2023
Ice: Solar Etchings
Ice, paper. Size variable. The work is recorded as a 4K resolution video with audio, using both digital and Super 8 cameras.
Sited along the Mill River near New Haven, Connecticut, the video captures the environmental sounds and the moving trajectory of the sun and the weather through an ice lens. Operating as a drawing tool, the focal point of the ice lens (formed from the river water) etches the paths of movement as textural impressions on paper. As the ice breaks and melts, the arc reaches its end, and the sun sets. The water then returns to the river, leaving behind the arc as the sole remnant.
As a tangible and temporal representation, the drawing acts as a form of data visualization, yet it does not contain any electronic components. The audience can intuitively imagine the weather fluxuation of that day from the documentation of these dynamic contours.
Drawing Ⅱ
Winter
Ice lenses were made from river water and placed on a grassy area near the river. Using the light-sensitive nature of the leaves of the plant record the moving trajectory of the sun. As the ice lenses faded in the sun, faint yellowish traces were created on the blades of grass and would disappear as the plants grew. As ice turns into water, the sounds (vibrations) emitted by the surrounding environment are also recorded on the plant.
Drawing Ⅲ
Summer
The sand from the desert is transported to the glass factory to make a fresnel lens with a diameter of two meters. and this lens is transported back to the desert to sinter the sand using the sun and the hot spot of light generated by the lens in order to make a near-arc photolithographic sculpture.
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