25 Years and Non-Fiction Island consists of landscape photographs, 309 moon prints made from acrylic plate and a soundscape.
The project interrogates the intricate entanglements of power that flow between the individual, society, and culture.
In probing questions of identity, I discovered a parallel between identity and the act of looking at images. Photography,
it seems, is fated to be split in two: the image as such, and the content it signifies. This bifurcation concerns not only the photograph
but also our perception of reality itself—what lies in front of our eyes and what takes shape within our minds.
How does the audience negotiate and reconcile what is seen with what is known? These questions form the central axis of this project.
Landscape as a tradition in fine arts has a history rooted in the colonial era, when distant territories were framed,
painted, and possessed through the artist’s eye. To depict a landscape was often to assert power over space and to translate the unknown into the familiar.
A piece of trashed plastic was found in the studio bin; its shape evoked, almost inadvertently, the silhouette of an island.
Out of this fragment of waste emerged an image bound to both memory and longing — the desire to claim, to invent, to make it my own.
By transforming it into an image visible to everyone in the studio, I reimagine the act of landscape-making:
no longer as a gaze of ownership, but as a reconsideration of materials, contexts, and belonging.
The soundscape by Haiyun Yu — 12 Moon Temperament — is based on an ancient Chinese tuning system for imperial ceremonial music that reflected 12 moon phases of the year.
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(Artwork no. 1)
Rong-Ci Zhang
Non-Fiction Island
2022-2025
Archival pigment print
160 x 100 cm
(Artwork no. 2)
Rong-Ci Zhang
309 moons
2025
Print on paper
(Artwork no. 3)
Rong-Ci Zhang
Non-Fiction Island Triptych
2022-2025
Archival pigment print mounted in acrylic frame
31 x 20 cm
(Artwork no. 4)
Haiyun Yu
12 Moon Temperament
2025
Äänimaisema
12:30 min
The project interrogates the intricate entanglements of power that flow between the individual, society, and culture.
In probing questions of identity, I discovered a parallel between identity and the act of looking at images. Photography,
it seems, is fated to be split in two: the image as such, and the content it signifies. This bifurcation concerns not only the photograph
but also our perception of reality itself—what lies in front of our eyes and what takes shape within our minds.
How does the audience negotiate and reconcile what is seen with what is known? These questions form the central axis of this project.
Landscape as a tradition in fine arts has a history rooted in the colonial era, when distant territories were framed,
painted, and possessed through the artist’s eye. To depict a landscape was often to assert power over space and to translate the unknown into the familiar.
A piece of trashed plastic was found in the studio bin; its shape evoked, almost inadvertently, the silhouette of an island.
Out of this fragment of waste emerged an image bound to both memory and longing — the desire to claim, to invent, to make it my own.
By transforming it into an image visible to everyone in the studio, I reimagine the act of landscape-making:
no longer as a gaze of ownership, but as a reconsideration of materials, contexts, and belonging.
The soundscape by Haiyun Yu — 12 Moon Temperament — is based on an ancient Chinese tuning system for imperial ceremonial music that reflected 12 moon phases of the year.
-
(Artwork no. 1)
Rong-Ci Zhang
Non-Fiction Island
2022-2025
Archival pigment print
160 x 100 cm
(Artwork no. 2)
Rong-Ci Zhang
309 moons
2025
Print on paper
(Artwork no. 3)
Rong-Ci Zhang
Non-Fiction Island Triptych
2022-2025
Archival pigment print mounted in acrylic frame
31 x 20 cm
(Artwork no. 4)
Haiyun Yu
12 Moon Temperament
2025
Äänimaisema
12:30 min