Worlds of Trichiliocosm, Zhang Xiaotao, "The Section of Experimental Art at the 22th National Art Exhibition"

Worlds of Trichiliocosm is a Buddhist term, refers to a cosmology system composed of one thousand Big Worlds, one thousand Medium Worlds, and one thousand Small Worlds.

In the past, people believed “A day in heaven, a year on the ground.” The spatial and temporal concepts of ancient people share many similarities with contemporary theories of quantum mechanics. As each universe contains an independent time and space, and quantum mechanics reveals the existence of parallel universes. In the video, the plane flies slowly, while maps on the ground changes rapidly from ancient to modern times, from geographical coordinate system to Cartesian coordinate system, all of which represent human being’s knowledge of earth on the macro level. From taking off to landing, the plane completes journey in both time and space. One flight, the earth has tremendously changed from ancient to modern times, and we would like to question if the plane has landed in the same temporal and spatial sphere with its departure point.

Moreover, contemporary life in reality has been intertwined with a virtual world constructed by the Internet. Human beings struggle, back and forth, with information produced both in reality and virtual world, and seem to be struck in the world made of icons, markers, and signs.

The bees in the honeycomb represent a viewpoint from the micro-world. The honeycomb presents the same level of complicity and rationality with the human world. The micro and macro concepts are relative concepts. When we observe the world of bees from a micro-perspective, we discover its similarities with our own world, therefore, the boundaries between small and large, momentary and forever have been blurred.