《透雕的苍穹》 Original

Centered on shadow puppets—a national-level intangible cultural heritage—this work constructs an immersive starry sky generated by the textures of the puppets themselves, using intricately carved shadow puppet components suspended in layered, staggered arrangements. “Intimate carving” is the oldest carving technique in shadow puppetry, while “the firmament” refers to the vaulted sky that ancient people gazed upon—the celestial canopy of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions and the realm where deities rode clouds on their patrols. The work juxtaposes the Four Divine Beasts, the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, and the deities that mediate between heaven and earth—all symbols of the ancient cosmological system—with the achievements of modern astronomy and technology. It uses the art of carving to pierce through the impenetrable fabric of time and space, facilitating a trans-temporal dialogue between ancient and modern cosmologies. Through ancient language, it narrates the distant horizons yet to be reached, questioning humanity’s enduring, millennia-old quest to explore the cosmos.