The great roots of night grow suddenly from your soul and the things that hide in you come out again
As twilight approaches, the division between day and night becomes hazy and ambiguous. With the night and darkness covering the earth, the moon takes over, and a mysterious force begins to rise. This series of dark and abstract images recreates the moonlit landscapes when the world shows a subtle profundity. Between conscious and unconscious, visible and invisible, ephemeral and eternal, known and unknown, the world returns again to its initial state.
A lingering memory and afterstate, this project evokes a strong sense of existence and awareness of the universe. An irrational passage, through which the truth of life steals into one’s heart, like glimpses of a forgotten dream, a door open to another world.
暮色降临之时，日与夜的分隔也趋于模糊。当黑夜笼罩大地，月亮接管世界，一种神秘的力量悄然升起。这一系列照片再现了月光下的幽暗景象，此时的万物透露着一种微妙的深刻性。在清醒与恍惚之间，可见和不可见之间，短暂和永恒之间，已知和未知之间，世界回到了它的初始状态。
就像一份挥之不去的古老的记忆，这个项目试图唤起我们对于存在和宇宙的感知。通过一条非理性的通道，生命的真相潜入我们的内心，像是对于被遗忘的梦境的回眸一瞥，通往另一个世界的大门打开。
Winter Solstice Third Pentad, Wheat sprouts under snow
冬至三候，雪下出麦
Slight Cold Second Pentad, Springs thaw
小寒二候，水泉動
Great Cold Second Pentad, Ice thickens on streams
大寒二候，水沢腹堅
Beginning of Spring First Pentad, East wind melts the ice
立春初侯，東風解凍
Beginning of Spring Third Pentad, Fish emerge from the ice
立春三候，魚上氷
Fresh Green First Pentad, Swallows return
清明初侯，玄鳥至
Fresh Green Second Pentad, Wild geese fly north
清明二候，鴻雁北
Fresh Green Third Pentad, First rainbows
清明三候，虹始見
Beginning of Summer Second Pentad, Worms surface
立夏二候，蚯蚓出
Beginning of Summer Third Pentad, Bamboo shoots sprout
立夏三候，竹笋生
Fullness Approaches First Pentad, Silkworms start feasting on mulberry leaves
小満初侯，蚕起食桑
Fullness Approaches Second Pentad, Safflowers bloom
小満二候，紅花栄
Grain in Ear Second Pentad, Rotten grass becomes fireflies
芒种二候，腐草為螢
Grain in Ear Third Pentad, Plums turn yellow
芒种三候，梅子黄
Heat Withdraws Second Pentad, Heat starts to die down
処暑二候，天地始粛
White Dew First Pentad, Dew glistens white on grass
白露初侯，草露白
White Dew Third Pentad, Swallows leave
白露三候，玄鳥去
Frost’s Descent Third Pentad, Maple leaves and ivy turn yellow
霜降三候，楓蔦黄
Slight Snow First Pentad, Rainbows hide
小雪初侯，虹蔵不見
Great Snow First Pentad, cold sets in, winter begins
大雪初侯，閉塞成冬
Great Snow Third Pentad, Salmon gather and swim upstream
大雪三候，鱖魚群
*
Traces of humanity fade into obscurity when night arrives. The night reveals a dream-like state, when consciousness recedes, and the power of the subconscious emerges. It seems that all kinds of life can exist in this world. Plants, animals, humans, (or even spirits) coexist here.
The awareness we have of the night: mysterious, unknown, subtle, as a circumstance shared with our ancestors, is still deeply rooted in our collective subconscious. At night, our perception of time and place is suspended.
Japanese Shinto believes that nature is the source of spirituality. Mountains, rivers, trees and rocks are a source of inspiration, strength and guidance. Shinto describe the visible everyday world Kenkai (見界), and the invisible spirit world Yukai (幽界) as coexisting.
Zhuang Zhou’s philosophy emphasises a ‘continuous worldview’, which believes that there is no clear distinction between any external environment, that there is no absolute distinction between everything and me, and that objects are interchangeable and mutable. In opposition, the discontinuous worldview makes a clear distinction between humans and non-humans, and does not allow for communication between humans, ghosts, gods, and spirits.
For me, the night is a multi-layered existence, where familiar and strange, real and imagined, the experienced and the legendary, all exist together. Modern life is so bright that even when we turn off all the lights, the sky is still illuminated by buildings and roads. Darkness has become a rarity today. This project attempts to explore the forgotten scenes in the depths of our memories.
*
The title of the project quotes Pablo Neruda’s poetry. Just as the night is full of meditative rhythms, poetry is a meditation on language that creates a new space outside the logical order of words.
For this project, I have adopted a traditional Chinese literary creative approach. The ancient Chinese literati often travelled in the landscape and were inspired to compose poems. When they returned home their paintings were not exact reproductions of the scene, but rather a recreation of the landscape in their own minds, creating a remembered, subjective, inner landscape. These photographs taken from my travels, capture daytime scenes produced to look like nighttime. They are not a direct record of the outside world, but rather a blend of my memories and imagination. Ultimately, they reflect my inner world.
The title of each photograph comes from the East Asian system of 24 solar terms and 72 pentads, which is a traditional calendar system in ancient China, each term and pentad were named based on the seasonal changes of climate. Each title does not describe or contain the contents of the photograph. The aesthetic experience of the photograph is completed in the imagination of the viewer.
The 72 pentads were first introduced to Japan from China and subsequently localised and modified due to the differences in the geography of the two places. The Japanese 72 pentads have been translated for the English world. Unfortunately, I have never been able to find any translation or information about the Chinese 72 pentads in English, so I have no choice but to borrow the Japanese version to name this series. This makes the project a process of exploring my own identity and cultural heritage as well.
Inkjet print on Hahnemühle paper
artist handmade frames
86 x 56 cm
Frame 88 x 58 cm
Ambika P3
