under the sun: Time’s witnesses
chang hui fang
Venue: INSTINC Space, 39 Keppel Rd, #03-10 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065
Exhibition Duration: 13 to 23 August 2026 | Mon-Fri, 1PM-7PM. Sat - Sun, 1PM-6PM
Opening Reception: 12 August 2026 (Wed.), 5:30PM–8:30PM | RSVP
Artist Talk: 15 August 2026 (Sat), 3-4PM | RSVP
brief
Under the Sun: Time's Witnesses presents a new body of charcoal powder works centred on images of ancient wood and rock. Inspired by the Book of Ecclesiastes, the exhibition employs the language of contemporary art to reflect on the brevity of life, the passage of time, and the human traces we leave in our wake. Rather than dwelling solely on impermanence, the works consider how an awareness of life's fleeting nature prompts a quest for that which endures and transcends individual existence.
Charcoal powder is a material that embodies the transformation from organic life to material residue. As it merges with water, images of withered trees and timeworn stones gradually emerge, evoking landscapes formed over eons, radiating a quiet yet profound power. Visually, the works echo the spirit of Eastern ink painting, yet they deliberately forego traditional brush-and-ink techniques, instead allowing the inherent unpredictability of the charcoal powder solution to become the generative method of the image.
The wood and stone depicted here are not inert objects offered for passive observation, but entities that long predate human life, silently enduring decay and fracture. As remnants shaped by time, they stand as witnesses to innumerable cycles of existence. In encountering them, viewers are confronted with a reversal of perspective, recognising themselves as momentary presences before forms that have outlasted generations. Against such temporal depth, human life is fragile and fleeting, prompting reflection on what we ultimately seek to hold on to.
Within these works, time resists a strictly linear reading. Faced with these remnants, time appears to pause, echo, or fold back upon itself. The natural forms serve as vessels of memory, carrying the past more fully than we can, bearing the visible traces of history and change. In this encounter, observation becomes reciprocal: the viewer looks and is simultaneously looked back upon. Time in this context transforms into a field of quiet resonance between human presence and material persistence.
Under the Sun: Time’s Witnesses does not attempt to provide answers to the mysteries of time, but rather offers a way of seeing. In the face of timescales that stretch far beyond the span of individual life, it invites viewers to pause and reflect on what truly endures, and to consider how that which truly endures redefines our understanding of time.
《日光之下：时间的见证》展出一系列以山石与枯木为主题的炭粉作品。作品灵感源自《传 道书》，以当代艺术语言探讨生命的短暂、时间的流逝，以及人在其中留下的痕迹。然而， 展览关注的不仅是生命短暂本身，而是在其中如何提醒我们寻找并正视永恒的价值——那 些能够超越个体生命、在时间中保有分量的事物。
作品以炭粉（charcoal powder）为主要媒材。炭粉本身就是一种由有机生命转化为物质残 留的媒介；当炭粉与水交融后，逐渐浮现出枯木、古石等意象，仿佛历经岁月沉积而形成的 风景，散发着静默而深沉的力量。作品在视觉上呼应东亚水墨的精神，却有意舍弃传统笔墨 技法，转而让炭粉自由形成不可控制图样的特性，成为画面生成的方式。
在这些图像中，枯木与石头并非只是被描绘、被观看的客体。它们是比人类更久远的存在， 曾经历腐朽、断裂、沉默与留存，是无数生命更迭的见证者。当观者凝视它们时，其实也正 被它们反向观看——在漫长的时间尺度里，我们只是匆匆而过的一瞬，而它们则是承载着 记忆与时间的长久存在。短暂的生命反而显得透明而急促，而自然之物的持续存在提醒我们： 我们所追寻、所紧握的，究竟是什么？
在作品之中，时间呈现出一种微妙的错位与反差：我们习惯以为时间只会向前推进，但在枯 木与石头面前，时间似乎不再是线性的。它仿佛静止、回荡，或轻微地向后折返，使人意识 到这些自然之物比我们更能记住过去，也更能承载时间留下的痕迹。当观者面对这些被时间 留下的物件时，其实也正在被它们回望；时间因此不再是一条直线，而是一种在生命与物质 之间反复回响、彼此映照的流动。
《日光之下：时间的见证》并不试图为时间提供答案，而是提出一种观看的方式。面对那些 比个体生命更加漫长的时间尺度，作品邀请观者暂时放慢脚步，重新思索：当一切终将改变， 我们究竟如何理解存留；而那些真正存留下来的，又将如何重新定义时间本身。
BIO of Artist chang hui fang
Chang Hui-Fang (b. 1981, Taiwan) graduated with an MA in Art Museum and Gallery Studies from Newcastle University, UK in 2009. She mainly works with Chinese ink, and combined this medium with pencil sketching on paper for her early works made in Taiwan. Chang is passionate about incorporating realism with abstraction; her current works often apply charcoal powder and gold leaf, and employ appropriation as a method. She won 1st prize at the Tainan Fine Art Exhibition in 2001. Her work has been exhibited at ION art gallery, Affordable Art Fair, Artspace 222, Objectifs, Young Art Taipei and the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. Chang currently lives and works in Singapore.
Website: https://changhuifangart.wordpress.com/ | Instagram: @changhuifangart