ZHONG Q​i

 

Flow

(2023-2025)

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The flow of water depends on the instantaneous convergence of countless conditions, existing in an irreproducible form; the dissolution of these conditions announces the annihilation of the phenomenon. I use photography as a "technique of interception," relying on mechanical devices to resist the dissipation of flow while also employing it as a tool to capture the trajectory of thought, thereby freezing the frame. Here, water symbolizes perpetual change, yet the frozen frame attempts to solidify a certain eternity within it. This bestowed eternity is a creation of the spirit, with no correspondence in the laws of nature. Is eternity a subjective image or an objective existence? However interpreted, it remains relative. And it is precisely this relativity that confirms "impermanence" as the fundamental law of the world.

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When consciousness becomes a channel connecting the inner world with external flow, those deeply contemplated patterns manifest in the water. These images, fleeting in microseconds, though merely temporary symbols in visual experience, are endowed with spiritual symbolism. Through such specific visual projections, I seek to explore the energy field they carry—revealed instantaneously within "impermanence."

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These consciousness-driven visual outcomes require an independent cosmic space to accommodate. I call it the "small universe of the mind." Everyone possesses such an inner universe, and at certain stages of life, encounters it through specific circumstances. It is precisely this fluidity that constitutes the unique map of an individual's spiritual growth.

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During the shooting process, "non-action" becomes the essential and sole methodology of creation. It arises entirely from natural occurrence, involving no intervention—only accepting and perceiving the flow, coexisting with it, thereby entering the present movement. More crucially, "impermanence" is not "nothingness"; true eternity lies not in resisting change but in becoming change itself. We cannot turn a moment into eternity, for eternity is, in itself, the continuation of countless moments.

 

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Zhong Qi, 2025​​

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