Grad Show 23

Huanzhe Hu

Ice: Solar Etchings & Solar Captures

My work stems from a simple wish: to revitalize the intangible, visualize the imperceptible, and give volume to the inaudible. In my interdisciplinary art practice, I make installations, film, and photography to embody the intricate relationship between technology, mysticism and fading spirituality. I focus on non-human life and modalities of empathy to investigate the coevolution of objects, species, and space.

I have always thought of the world as something without a defined center. In my world, there is not a single species or inner voice at the helm; rather, it is a place where everything is interconnected in a vast, intricate web of coexistence. My world is less anthropocentric. Part of making my perceived world is to highlight the imperceptible through a poetic lens. My current exploration with ice is an extension of my ongoing dialogue with this imperceptible world, a dialogue that revolves around the quiet, profound interconnectedness of all things.

A person trying to focus on a tree with an ice lens.

Ice: Solar Etchings - Experiments recorded with super 8 film

Ice
4K
2023
Site-specific installation. Ice. Variable size. The work is recorded as a 4K resolution video with audio, using both digital and Super 8 cameras. 3 minutes
Sited along the Mill River near New Haven, Connecticut, the video captures the environmental sounds and the moving trajectory of the sun and the weather through an ice lens. Operating as a drawing tool, the focal point of the ice lens (formed from the river water) etches the paths of movement as textural impressions on paper. As the ice breaks and melts, the arc reaches its end, and the sun sets. The water then returns to the river, leaving behind the arc as the sole remnant.

The ice lens burns the paper, the burn mark expanding as the sun moves.

Ice: Solar Etchings - Installation view

Ice, paper
4K
2023

One hand holding a fragment of an ice lens.

Ice: Solar Etchings - Fragments of an ice lens

Ice
4K
2023

Ice: Solar Etchings - Ice lens broken into fragments

Ice
4K
2023

Ice: Solar Etchings - Arc drawn by the sun through an ice lens

Paper
4K
2023

Ice: Solar Etchings - Water is taken from the river to make an ice lens, the fragments of which end up melting in the river

Ice, water
4K
2023
Site-specific installation at Providence. Ice, cyanotype paper and handmade shredded fill paper camera. 2023. The work is recorded as a high resolution video and photographs.
Photographs
Exploiting the changes in the refraction of light during the melting of the ice, at regular half-hour intervals, I place a sheet of cyanotype paper in my self-made camera . Over eight hours, as the lens deforms, the images constellate as fragile-like apparitions. At the same time, the water from the melting ice lens washes over the cyanotype paper and completes the development. We know that the image will fade, and the ice will melt. The gradual disappearance of the image from vision, memory and life is implicit in this temporal document.