Along the River
Glass, engraving on glass, aluminium alloy, metal wire
Size: 260 x 54 x 5 cm
The glass engraving installation Along the River is inspired by the cityscape portion of Along the River During the Qingming Festival, a masterpiece by Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan. The original painting, created in a handscroll format using a scattered perspective composition, vividly records the urban landscape of 12th-century Northern Song capital Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan), as well as the lives of people from various social classes. It serves not only as a testament to the prosperity of Bianjing at the time but also as a reflection of the city’s economic landscape. In this glass artwork, I employed glass-cutting and layered engraving techniques to create a unique sense of space and structure. By merging the traditional panoramic folding screen format with a louvered installation, the piece becomes interactive, allowing viewers to rearrange, conceal, or integrate it into its surrounding environment. Technically, the engraving method blurs the line between painting and sculpture, offering a distinctive three-dimensional aesthetic. The overall composition presents an intricately detailed urban network, where buildings and crowds appear at varying distances. Additionally, the landscape incorporates a recurring motif from Wu’s glass engraving practice—a polished spherical carving representing the sun or moon.
Exhibited during China’s Qingming Festival, the artwork leaves it up to the audience to see: Is this a depiction of the ancient city of Bianjing, or an imagined metropolis?
