Zhanchao Pan









Currents





currents

2025

Interactive multi-material installation

40 × 110 × 20cm

glass, mineral (ore), stainless steel tubing, acrylic (PMMA), foam spheres (expanded polystyrene).





This work is an interactive installation centered on the five physiological desires, aiming to guide viewers to face their impulses with calm and candour, and to regard the rising and expression of desire as a natural part of self‑knowledge and life experience. By materializing the five desires—wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep—the piece creates a space in which inner longings, impulses, and pursuits can be openly and directly revealed.

The structure consists of three stacked acrylic boxes, total height 110 cm, symbolizing multiple layers or states of being. The transparent top box represents pure spiritual aspiration; the opaque middle black box signifies the boundaries and obstacles of desire; the lower black box houses deep subconscious longing and features an opening at its rear, affording viewers the possibility of direct interaction.Five semi‑mineral, semi‑translucent glass sculptures represent the five desires. Each piece is associated with a different mineral to underscore its symbolic meaning: the glitter of pyrite evokes the allure and illusion of wealth; malachite’s variegated hues suggest the richness of sensory pleasure; black tourmaline hints at the resilience and attraction of fame and status; calcite’s warmth symbolizes everyday nourishment; and a comfort‑evoking mineral suggests the pull of ease and sloth. These sculptures are set into pre‑drilled glass bases and connected by stainless‑steel tubes that pass through the central partition and extend into the lower black box, forming an interactive raising‑and‑lowering mechanism.

Viewers or the artist can manipulate the stainless‑steel tubes to make the sculptures rise or sink within a foam‑filled chamber, enacting the surge and release of desire. This process is neither mere gratification nor repression but a confrontation with the self and a composed acceptance of inner impulses: desire is both a life force and a natural expression of being. Rising symbolizes an affirmative, active articulation of inner needs; sinking represents acceptance, sublimation, or a deeper comprehension of their nature.

In a broader philosophical register, desire is presented as a fundamental constituent of human existence—a natural instinct that should not be dismissed as merely negative. Like minerals lying quietly within the earth, desires originate deep in human nature: primal, pure, and deserving of respect. The ebb and flow of these urges is a normal manifestation of life, a dynamic interaction between the individual and their conditions. To acknowledge and openly present desire may be the start of reconciliation with oneself and a pathway toward greater wholeness.

Desire, rooted in the depths of the self like ore in the earth, endures quietly yet persistently; it is both an essential truth of life and a partly unrecognized reality. Rather than responding to its upheavals with avoidance or denial, we might meet them with calm acceptance and integrate them into our self‑understanding. These recurring images of rising and sinking can be seen as a silent call from the self: within endless fluctuation lies the potential for profound insight into the nature of existence. This movement is not merely physiological feedback but an ontological echo—desire’s emergence and transformation test and reshape the boundaries of the self. By relinquishing hostility toward these drives and allowing oneself to immerse in this pulsing substratum, one may approach a truth that transcends the appearances of desire: a truth that resists full articulation yet speaks deeply to the essence of being.