Space is omnipresent. It exists not only in the reality but also in mind. Our conception of “space” derives from the earth we live on from time immemorial. Height is the length from sky to land, and width shows by the extent to the horizon. When we view horizon, it is always very far away like unknown boundary. Human perception of space is expanded by his life experience.
In ancient oriental culture, people believed space was created by a giant named Pangu. At the beginning, the sky and the land was a egg-shaped chaos, and Pangu was born from this entity. He was striving to separate the sky from land for lifelong time. The breadth between the sky and land where people live is called “space”. Therefore, for the ancient oriental, an upper cap called “sky” and a down base named “ground” composed “space”.
However, photography records a three-dimensional space and further develops on two-dimensional plane. In another word, photographs is a projection from the space and something can be lost in this process from three dimensional space to two dimensional plane. Actually, a plane is unable to represent a space completely. Thus, viewers sense the photo and create, build a space in their mind. As a result, for human recognition, the space in human mind corresponds to the space in reality.
In this work, my target is a white screen on which the light is projected on, so the photo truthfully records the reality and represents it. The viewers see what they see, but simultaneously they will find that the image is like a space with a horizon where the sky and sea meet. The image of space actually comes from their experience. However, there is no such a space in the reality corresponding to the space in mind. That is to say, the space that viewers see only exists in human mind.
In conclusion, what the viewers discover from a photo is simply a reflection of their thought. We ,the generation of science and technology, are very similar to the ancient oriental people who believed the legendary of Pangu because we all live in the space we believe.
