MJUT / 靜無止盡
Stillness is not the absence of strength; it is strength hidden from view.
2018
MJUT begins with the idea of quiet strength, understanding stillness as a state of balance rather than the absence of force.
If balance had a colour, it would be black and white. If balance had a form, it would be a circle. Opposed yet interdependent, these elements become the visual language of the work.
Through black, white, and circular forms, MJUT reflects on a balance that continues to emerge between movement and stillness, strength and quiet.
Exhibition Context, 2018
MJUT unfolds as a choreographed spatial journey. Passing through a narrow entrance, visitors move through an environment composed of photographic works, LED screens, augmented reality, and circular installations. The space is not a backdrop to the work, but a condition through which viewing is gradually transformed.
In the darker spaces, still images enter into movement through a mobile device. Two large LED screens in a triangular passage present iPhone-made moving images concerned with dissolution and division. In the bright gallery facing the river, circular images on the windows connect different moments of the river through AR; near the exit, black spheres interrupt, direct, and recompose the line of sight.
The work does not treat movement and stillness as opposing states, but as a relationship continually transformed through bodily movement, moving images, and the act of viewing.
Documentation of the Original AR Experience
This series was originally presented with an augmented reality component. Through a mobile device, viewers could activate moving image layers embedded within the still works, extending them into another dimension of time and perception. As the original application is no longer active, selected documentation is presented here to preserve its original mode of viewing.
Exhibition Viewing Documentation
Research Statement
MJUT begins with the idea of quiet strength, understanding stillness as a state of balance rather than an act of withdrawal or cessation.
Balance does not arise from the disappearance of opposing forces, nor does it remain permanently fixed between two equal sides. It is closer to a process of continuous adjustment: movement and stillness, noise and quiet, external force and inner perception pull against one another, searching for a temporary centre within change.
If balance had a colour, it would be black and white. Like the two ends of a scale, they appear opposed, yet both are necessary for balance to exist. If balance had a form, it would be a circle. Without a fixed direction, beginning, or end, the circle favours neither side and remains complete within itself. Black, white, and circular forms therefore become the principal visual language of the work, translating an invisible state of balance into something that can be perceived.
Photography temporarily suspends time, while augmented reality returns the image to movement. AR is not an animated effect added to the photograph from outside; it allows a single work to contain both movement and stillness, placing time within an image that initially appears motionless. As the photographic surface and moving image meet within the same field of vision, they become interdependent and continuously transform one another.
The balance sought in MJUT is therefore not a fixed outcome, but a process continually generated through time, force, and the act of viewing.
Artwork Information
Year｜2018
Medium｜Photography, augmented reality, video, installation
Related Research Themes｜Perception; Technology and Viewing
Exhibition and Technical Realisation
Modern Art Museum / 上海藝倉美術館
12–21 October 2018
AR experience presented with iPhone X.