Ron Siu

all that I see, all that I wonder

2022, series of screenprinted phenakistoscopes. Exhibition at Open Studio, Toronto, Canada

all that I see, all that I wonder experiments with the intersections between print media and animation. Through a series of hand-printed phenakistoscopes (circular devices that were an early analogue form of looping animation), Siu considers their cyclical nature as space for meditations on change, intuition, emotions and magic.

The notion of poetic looping gestures draws inspiration from the “Star Gauge“, a densely complex, 4th-century Chinese love poem formed entirely from palindromes. Intrigued by the idea of “magical palindromes”, whose multidirectional incantations hold mysterious sentiments, Siu explores a similar vein visually. In combining print’s materiality with animation’s hypnotism, the phenakistoscopes evoke their own kind of intimately personal, magical rhythm.

all that I see, all that I wonder (install shot)

all that I see, all that I wonder (install shot)

all that I see, all that I wonder (install shot)

all that I see, all that I wonder (exhibition shot)