In experimental project “7 Rooms”, 2017, artist Cao Jigang and I were exploring different ways of creating dialogue between art and design, to provoke different mindsets towards Chinese painting aesthetic.

Ripples of time is a installation clock in dialogue with Cao’s work <Untitled>. It’s a built-in gear mechanism enclosing three overlapping rippled acrylic disks each bearing a single, static sphere, each disk being set into motion by the gears inlaid into the clock’s case, and moving at different speeds to correspond with hours, minutes, and seconds. The hour marks – 12 metal rods suspended from the ceiling - combined with the refraction of light and the shadows cast by the ripples in the acrylic disks create an intricate visual experience of time.

<Untitled> is a large painting which allows us to look down upon a range of cascading mountains, giving the viewer a bird’s eye view of the depicted space. It is difficult to appreciate the beauty of this painting without seeing it in person. The spatial layers, intricacy and sheer mass of the painting contrast strongly with the soft brush strokes and faint, blending colours used, expressing strength while maintaining a distinct, deep and calming character in which one loses all perception of time and space.