Reflection of My Mind , 2004, Stainless Steel Sculpture and Digital Clock Installation

Qiu's installation made for the 5 th Shanghai Biennale , Techniques of the Visible, 2004, is comprised of three stainless steel pagodas, suspending from the ceiling and hanging upside down pointing to the earth. Each pagoda measures 142 cm width x 300 cm height). The ticking of a digital clock counts down to the start of the next millennium. The stainless steel pagodas are based on a famous scene of the reflection in a lake of three pagodas. This traditional scene appears on the new one yuan note just issued in China . Qiu's upside down stainless steel structures, accompanied by the digital clock recording the countdown to the next millennium, are pagodas with high tech characteristics, more akin to rockets or missiles than Buddhist symbols. The sounds of the timer, the ocean's tides, and a motor reinforce the high tech nature of the piece and its reference to China 's newly established space race. A space race against who? The USA and China ?