External Light Gathers In
Artist: Yang Weihan, Zhang Daiqing
Jul 26 – Oct 8, 2025
traverse
Warehouse No.9, 53 Banjieta Village, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Artists Yang Weihan and Zhang Daiqing delve into seemingly ephemeral phenomena and experience, particularly the infinity and tangibility of light. Their collaboration explores how the combination of glass and photography can generate new forms of representation, capturing the subtleties of change in the surrounding environment and recording the invisible scale of time through images. External Light Gathers In is an extension of the artists’ previous practices as well as an experimentation in taking the exhibition itself as a continuous process of creation.
The title External Light Gathers In is drawn from a quote in Dream Pool Essays by the scholar Shen Kuo of the Song Dynasty, describing how a concave mirror gathers sunlight: the surface of yangsui (solar spark lighter) is concave; when held towards the sun, the light converges inward.” This ancient observation of optical principles resonates with the image-making mechanisms in the works: through apertures, mediums, and time, sunlight gathers at a specific spot on Earth, becoming an agency of human sensation
During the first month of the exhibition, a series of works will be produced and installed on site, responding to the changing nature of light and time. The exhibition’s titular work, External Light Gathers In, is an installation composed of layered photographic prints. On the second floor of traverse, the artists transform one of the rooms into a darkroom. Rather than using a camera, they capture natural light seeping through the ceiling pipe directly onto light-sensitive paper. Each image varies according to subtle shifts in weather, brightness, and exposure time, preserving the external flux on the surface of the photographic paper. The artists will position hand-blown lens-like glass throughout the space, using their refractions to expose photosensitive paper and create “portraits” of the site. Several panes of the original factory windows at traverse will also be replaced with silver gelatin glass plates made during the exhibition, embedding the act of image-making into the architectural structure.
The exhibition also features works from the early stages of the artists’ collaboration, in which glass—a medium once common in early photography but rarely used nowadays—converges with traditional photographic techniques. In Eclipse, the specks and lines that resemble celestial movement are, in fact, flaws and scratches left during the glassblowing process. Negative images on dry plates are presented alongside their positive prints; some of the plates are handcrafted by the artists, with subtle textures and irregular marks—absent in industrial glass—emphasizing the materiality of the medium. Glass workshops and ware also become subjects of the photographs, pointing to the relationship between material and theme. Yang Weihan and Zhang Daiqing transform and accumulate different forms of the image through the medium of glass, expanding the visual dimension of matter and exploring the interstices of phenomena and perception through the interactions of technique, material, and environment.
光聚向内
艺术家：杨维翰，张岱青
2025.7.26 – 10.8
traverse
traverse
艺术家杨维翰与张岱青关注的是看似稍纵即逝的现象与体验，尤其是光的有形与无限。 他们的合作探索玻璃与摄影的融合如何生成新的表现形式，并以此捕捉周围环境中细微事物的变幻，将不可见的时间尺度收录于图像之中。“光聚向内”是两位艺术家以往实践的延伸，也是一次将持续创作过程作为展览内容的实验。
展览题“光聚向内”出自北宋学者沈括的《梦溪笔谈》中对凹镜汇聚光线的描述：“阳燧面洼，向日照之，光皆聚向内。”这一古时对光学原理的记录，也是展览作品中成像机制带有的意涵：来自太阳的光线经由孔洞、介质、时间，汇聚于地球某空间的一隅，成为一种人类感知的媒介。
在展览起始的一个月内，一系列作品将持续产生并介入现场，作为一种对不断变化的光线与时间的回应。《光聚向内》将呈现为多张摄影作品叠加的装置；艺术家将展览空间traverse二层的一个房间改造为暗房，不借助相机，而是通过感光乳剂对光的直接反应，记录天花板管道中透入的自然光线。每张图像因天气阴晴、光线明暗、时间短长产生差异，将外部的流变留存于相纸之上。艺术家也会使用手工玻璃制成的类透镜在空间内不同位置取景，使其折射于感光相纸，为空间拍摄其“肖像”。他们同时计划将traverse留有的旧时工厂窗玻璃其中的几格替换为展期内制作的银盐玻璃，将成像嵌入建筑之中。
展览也将呈现两位艺术家合作初期将玻璃与传统摄影工艺结合的作品。《日偏食》中如同星辰运转的斑点与线条实际为玻璃吹制过程中留下的瑕疵与划痕；印有负像的玻璃干版与转印于感光相纸的正像并置，其中的部分干版为艺术家手工制作，工业玻璃所缺乏的细微纹理与不规则痕迹成为材料物质性的体现。玻璃工坊与器具也均进入艺术家摄影的主题，指向媒介自身与创作主题的关联。杨维翰与张岱青的实践将不同的“相”通过玻璃这一中介转换、叠加，延展出超越物质表现于外的视觉维度，在技术、材料，与环境的互动之中探寻现象与感知间的缝隙。