The Yangtze River originates in the heart of the Tibetan Plateau and stretches to China’s largest and most developed city, Shanghai. Despite the profound differences in urban structure and natural landscape between these two regions in a globalized era, they are intricately connected through the Yangtze River. In this sense, the Yangtze is not only a transportation corridor but also a time tunnel between two distinct civilizations.
Thanks to the river’s abundant energy and natural resources, cities along the Yangtze River Basin have flourished. Growing up by its banks, this third-longest river in the world holds immense significance for me. The fragments scattered across the riverbed during the dry season, the streets submerged during the floods—these experiences instilled in me an early and profound understanding of nature’s rhythms and power, as well as the industrial development reliant on natural resources. Over time, both the river and those living along its banks, including myself, have been quietly transformed—by nature, by others, and by urban development.
This artwork extracts the section of the Yangtze River flowing through my hometown and reimagines it as a "light flow" through programming. The light's color changes at an imperceptibly slow pace, maintaining a continuous cycle of transformation. Just like the river and ourselves, it evolves quietly and subtly over time.
Detail pictures: