The Longest Day — Guan Hong Lu

Guan Hong Lu

Painting
2015-2016
2017-2018
2019-2020
2021-2022
2023-2024
Installation
Rubin Vase
The Longest Day
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The Longest Day
wooden sundial, motor, light bulb
Dimensions Variable  (sundial 38.5x38.5x2cm)
photo credit: 許博彥(三月影像工作室)、汪正翔｜ mechanical design: 凌宗廷 (OKOME STUDIO )

The Longest Day draws inspiration from my childhood experience of tracing the shadow of a sundial using a desk lamp. The work consists of a lamp that moves in a circular motion and a sundial. While creating this piece, I came across a story: In the past, craftsmen who made sundials would inscribe a motto on the base of the sundial according to the owner's request. However, one craftsman mistakenly engraved the owner's irrational statement ("Begone about Thy business") as the motto on the sundial's base. This kind of misinterpretation and inaccuracy in meaning serves as a flexible strategy in my creative process, where any coincidence or discrepancy ultimately becomes inevitable. "The Long Day" realizes an imagined state of natural rules about time (which cannot possibly function this way), where the shadow becomes a trace that moves in and out of my experience, exploring the misunderstandings in the relationship between light, shadow, and time.