Ø30cm

Hahnemühle film

2020

In Fan Xi’s When to sail exhibition, the defunct clock Untitled resembles most closely a traditional photographic work; however, because of its unframed, circular, life-size format, the work gains an eerie realist quality, feigning effectively an everyday object that is physical and real, and not just a photograph. This counterfeit clock is however unreal, after all: the hands are either always inanimate, or are always in extreme motions, so much so that human cannot comprehend clearly with it the passage of time. In her long-term practise, Fan Xi often deals with realities and fantasies that are tangible or mirage-like, and the Untitled in its hysterical way answers the question that is the title of the exhibition, “When to sail” - that is, the question regarding the beginning and end of life experience.