Installation，2025 Marble, Granite，Gloss Gel Medium，Acrylic Paint
To gaze upon a portrait is to be in the presence of the depicted.
In this work, I utilize artificial intelligence and algorithmic reconstruction to generate "possible" faces for the 61 famously headless stone statues of Western Region envoys at the Qianling Mausoleum in Xi'an, printing these fictionalized digital visages onto crushed marble. This is not merely a cyber-restoration based on iconography, but a "ritual of return" enacted through modern media for these anonymous, decapitated bodies.
Returning to my hometown of Xi'an years later with the somewhat absurd identity of a "tourist," I confronted these historical ruins whose heads and bodies had long been severed. The image is conventionally regarded as a medium of "presence"; however, in this context, the AI-generated portraits serve to confirm a permanent "absence." As these crushed marble fragments are endowed with faces, the work establishes a relational structure that transcends time and space: visages erased by historical violence are resurrected through algorithmic simulation, and we, the viewers, reaffirm our own position within the historical framework as we gaze upon these "possibilities."
We do not stand outside of history; we are perpetually enveloped within its structure. In this sense, this pile of rubble bearing artificial faces is no longer a traditional monument, but rather an open "reception room of time." The faces repeatedly summoned by time, along with my present gaze, are merely transient guests in this room. Time, material decay, and the ongoing act of observation will continue to leave new abrasions and traces on the surfaces of these faces.