Calibrations within the Bamboo Grove: Suspended Time, Returning to the Horizon and Veil Tower
Suspended Time, Returning to the Horizon, and Veil Tower are three temporary site-specific installations constructed within the same bamboo grove at ANNSO in Xianning, southern Hubei. Known as the “Land of Moso Bamboo,” Xianning is characterized by vast bamboo forests interwoven with hills and lakes.
Within this native grove, bamboo culms rise vertically from undulating terrain, forming countless axial lines that connect earth and sky. One can see through the grove, yet never fully penetrate it. Dense canopies filter sunlight into fragmented patches, and the endless repetition produces a subtle sensation of being spatially contained by nature.
The project seeks to anchor a fleeting moment with a sphere, to measure the undulation of the ground with a single white line, and to guide the body’s upward gaze through a tower. Together, these interventions initiate a temporary dialogue between human, bamboo, ground, and sky, introducing a new, bodily legible order into what was previously a diffuse and disorienting field.
Suspended Time
A Red Sphere and a Temporal Glitch
We sought to introduce a “disruption of time” into the bamboo grove.
A two-meter-diameter artificial red sphere is suspended deep within the grove by several extremely fine cables. These cables are anchored to the tips of three adjacent bamboo culms, whose natural elasticity absorbs wind-induced vibrations. Detached from the cyclical rhythm of day and night, the sphere neither rises nor sets; it remains fixed in a perpetual state of “just risen.”
Within the grove’s layered spatial field, the sphere appears and disappears as one moves: at times obscured by dense foliage, revealing only a diffuse red glow; at others, fully visible through gaps in the canopy. While contemporary life propels us forward along a linear timeline, this installation attempts to suspend that urgency, creating an extended present.
Here, light and shadow no longer serve as indicators of time; instead, time is spatialized into a stable visual presence. As visitors wander and look up at this unsetting red sun, they encounter an illusion of stillness—where the sun does not set, and temporal anxiety momentarily recedes.
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Returning to the Horizon
A White Line and the Measure of the Ground
The true undulation of the ground is often concealed beneath layers of fallen leaves. Inspired by Barnett Newman’s notion of the “absolute vertical,” we invert this concept into an “absolute horizontal,” establishing an unwavering datum line across the grove using white medical cotton tape.
The tape adheres to bamboo culms through its own adhesive properties, causing no damage to the living surface. As the bamboo grows, the tape naturally tightens or loosens. This horizontal line reveals the hidden terrain: it assumes dramatically different relative positions along the bamboo—at times above head height, at others near knee level, or even disappearing into the soil. It reads as a kind of primordial watermark, where geometric stillness reveals the freedom of the terrain.
Randomized numerical markings are imprinted along the tape. When inscribed onto a material associated with medical tactility and wrapped around living bamboo, these numbers become physically perceptible markers. As one moves through the grove, fragmented segments of the white line flicker, overlap, and gradually cohere into a perceptual order.
This continuous horizontal datum provides a constant reference, inviting visitors to rediscover an internal sense of level within the shifting forest light—to register once again the gravitational relationship between body and ground.
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Veil Tower
A Black Lantern in the Grove and the Ritual of Looking Up
Fast-growing, resilient, and locally abundant, bamboo serves both as an ecological material and a cultural symbol in East Asia. Under strict budget constraints, Veil Tower explores a low-tech, site-responsive construction method using raw bamboo, realized collaboratively by architects and local volunteers.
The project originates from the imagined act of “peeling bamboo to reveal its inner skin,” pairing a flexible membrane with a rigid bamboo structure. Drawing from the collective ritual platforms of Chu culture as a centripetal spatial archetype, fifteen bamboo frames form a pentadecagonal matrix, from which a ring of black fabric is suspended.
The structure functions as a temporary spatial device within the grove, interrupting horizontal vision and guiding bodily movement toward the sky.
Fifteen bamboo poles, each approximately 60 mm in diameter, cluster together, retaining their raw, unprocessed texture. At the base, two three-meter-long diagonal braces intersect with each vertical pole, connected by bolted joints to form stable triangular supports. Beam junctions are bound using traditional cross-lashing hemp rope, whose tensile capacity compensates for geometric irregularities in the bamboo. As a reversible construction method, the rope joints allow for re-tightening as materials age.
The Veil Tower leaves no permanent trace on the ground. All connections are reversible, and all bamboo and fabric components are fully recoverable.
Suspended from the bamboo frame, fifteen panels of black cotton-linen fabric form the “Bamboo Inner Pith Membrane” of the structure. These panels are tensioned vertically and adjustable via a rotating bamboo lever at the base. With approximately 60 percent light transmittance, the fabric produces a soft, ink-wash-like visual quality under dappled sunlight.
The vertical folds of the fabric, shaped by gravity, contrast with the rigidity of the bamboo frame, creating a distinct material tension. The installation appears as a cluster of bamboo elements supporting a suspended dark volume, hovering lightly above the terrain. From a distance, it reads as a black lantern within the forest.
Gaps between the fabric panels allow wind to pass through, relieving pressure loads. During the day, shifting shadows of bamboo leaves are cast onto the fabric surface, where the boundary between natural and constructed elements becomes blurred.
The fabric is suspended at a height of 1.6 meters, precisely calibrating the horizontal line of sight. The distant landscape is obscured, compressing perception to the immediate surroundings. To enter, one must slightly bow, performing a subtle bodily transition.
Inside, the enclosing fabric isolates the surrounding complexity, directing perception inward while guiding vision upward. The fifteen-sided opening at the top frames the sky, capturing drifting clouds and swaying bamboo crowns as a composed view.
Here, the movement of fabric in the wind and the light from above define a space distinct from the surrounding forest—a temporary spatial condition that shelters the body while opening a vertical connection between ground and sky.
