Institute For The Future

IFTF's Future Gallery features artist Fong Qi Wei

Time is a Dimension, a series of photographs by Fong Qi Wei, challenges the concept that one image can only show a single moment frozen in time. Here on display are 10 examples of an entire 24-hour period stunningly compressed into a single printed image.

Hanging and visible from the sidewalk through September 1, 2016 at IFTF's Future Gallery (201 Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto, California), walk by and take a moment to be still, experience, and reflect on these evocative images.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Photographs and paintings are essentially two dimensional artworks. The most immersive paintings are almost like windows because they project a sense of depth that makes you want to reach within. They create an illusion of a 3rd dimension, simulating our experience in the real world.

But our experience also includes the flow of time. Photographs and paintings are static, freezing a moment in time. That’s why photographs are also called snapshots. In this series, I want to challenge the concept that a single image can only show a freeze-frame of time. When showing a flow of events we instinctively think of a video. But I aim to do that in this series with a single print.

In this series you are seeing an entire sunrise/sunset compressed into a single printed image. The intervals between frames are not regular, in keeping with my subjective experience of that day’s sunrise/sunset. In a way, the artwork is like a meditation on what I experienced for a period of time of 2 to 4 hours for that particular day.

In these busy, highly networked times, how often do we stop and actually stay still to see a sunrise/sunset from start to end? Everyone just wants to get to that “perfect moment” as soon as possible—but the fact is there isn’t one perfect moment. Our lives flow, and we should take time to be still, experience, and reflect.

• More of Fong Qi Wei’s art can be seen at: fqwimages.com
• Prints are available for purchase—queries for purchase, collaborations, and exhibitions can be sent to: ask@fqwimages.com