Zhanchao Pan

After things End

2025

Installation

20cm × 60cm × 1cm

Glass pieces, metal wire, dried flowers, leaves, metal hinges

After Things End is a small screen composed of three pieces of glass, with plants and metal sandwiched between two of them. After being fired in a high-temperature kiln, the plants carbonized, leaving irreversible traces of time. The work focuses on the moment and the residue of events—are these traces the result of natural chance or human intervention? When light penetrates the glass, the carbonized marks, the metallic texture, and the transparency of the space intertwine, creating a subtle relationship between light and shadow and space. The work attempts to present the tension between nature and artifice, chance and necessity, existence and disappearance: each trace is both a lingering shadow of life's passing and a moment intentionally arranged by the artist. Viewers, in the process of viewing, will feel the afterglow of time, the remnants of memory, and the emptiness of existence. It provokes philosophical reflection: are the "traces" we witness truly gifts of nature, or moments frozen in time? When everything is over, what remains?

The work also touches upon the levels of perception and existence: the traces themselves are physical, temporal, and psychological. Light and shadow flow between the glass and the marks, making the space both alive and seemingly empty. Each viewing is a dialogue with time and existence, forcing one to confront profound feelings of chance, transience, and impermanence.

Afterwards, the space, constructed of glass, plants, and metal, reveals carbonized plants, leaving traces of time. Light filters through the glass, intertwining shadows and imprints, creating a subtly vibrant space. These traces are both natural coincidences and human design; existence and transience overlap, lingering resonance and emptiness coexist. In that instant of viewing, the viewer engages in a dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence.