Opening & Forum：04.27 15:00

Speakers：阮慶岳 Ching-Yueh Roan X 蔡士弘 Shih-Hung Tsai

Text / Shih-Hung Tsai

What time is it there? –Time difference and filling the time gap.

To contextualize ourselves in the time and space, humans conceive the International Date Line, as if ying and yang exist in the present moment of time. Misled by time difference, we make the mistake of believing that “Place A is behind Place B in time.” Time reflects and reveals itself, tricking us while uncompromisingly moving forward without leaving any traces.

It is said those who are willing will bite the bait; or, are they perhaps the bait itself instead?

Gun powder, mercury, almond, talc, borneol, Oriental motherwort, musk…

The pursuit of beauty was always a fight against the irreversible time for empresses in the ancient times. To try to win this fight, they would eat or apply all kinds of medicine made with natural extracts to carefully maintain the best condition of their flesh.

Marble serves as a starting point here. As time progresses, the stone seems to reveal the traces of time. A marble slice exposes the wrinkles of time embodied by the stone texture. Eternity is captured by the temporal slice, as if time has been paused and solidified.

The empress’s method of preserving youth and beauty can be found in a mixture of different plants. Various elements are transplanted and transformed. Plants become marble whereas the process of preserving beauty is recorded in the markings of time, quietly blooming in a light yet dense manner.