Sun Xun: Time Spy

Time Spy (2016) is a 3D animation that required more than 10,000 separate hand-carved woodcuts, animated at an old-school 15—18 frames per second, to be watched with similarly old-school 3D glasses.

Originally commissioned by Audemars Piguet, the Swiss watchmaker, a shorter version was projected onto Times Square in New York for three minutes nightly, just before midnight, in July 2017.

Time is revealed to be simultaneously flowing and eternal. The sky is filled with spinning moons and Sun’s animal and human characters move through a landscape of rotating gears and oscillating pressure valves.

The full-length version reveals Sun’s characteristic iconography: winged violins, strange machinery, hybrid mechanised beasts, revolving planets, and the five Chinese elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth, visions that immerse viewers in Sun Xun’s exploration of the nature of time.

Luise Guest, for White Rabbit Collection, 2017.