24 × 31 cm, 192 p, ills. color, paperback
ISBN 9789083519951
edit & design: Jurgen Maelfeyt
Rotation is an ongoing photographic series exploring how urban development reshapes our relationship with space—public, personal, and imagined. It invites viewers to reconsider orientation, perspective, and the fragility of boundaries between the built environment and the body.
Referencing the disorientation of outer space—where gravity dissolves the idea of ‘up’ and ‘down’—the series plays with visual perspective and suspension. Many images are shot through glass, integrating reflections that allude to invisible connections between people and places. This use of light and surface evokes a sense of weightlessness and fluid identity. Since 2021, Rotation has evolved through collaborations with over 20 organizations across cities such as London, Berlin, Stockholm, and Warsaw. With more than 70 works created so far, the project continues to map spatial perception through image-making—blurring lines between architecture, motion, and memory.
QIU Yangzi (b. 1989) is a London-based visual artist of Chinese descent, specializing in experimental photography. Her work explores the relationship between humans and nature, focusing on the elements—earth, sky, and clouds—to examine themes of connection, time, and belonging.
At the heart of Yangzi’s artistic vision is Shanshui, a Chinese concept of landscape that embodies spiritual connection, tranquility, and an ideal beyond the material world. Her work reflects a deep engagement with the intangible and transient nature of time, capturing moments that slip between past and present, permanence and impermanence. Through her lens, landscapes become fluid spaces where time folds, dissolves, and reforms, mirroring the fleeting nature of human experience.
Yangzi’s creative process embraces chance and spontaneity, incorporating experimental techniques that challenge traditional photographic boundaries. She reinterprets Shanshui in a contemporary context, weaving her Chinese heritage with a broader exploration of identity and cultural fluidity. Her immersive works invite viewers to engage with the shifting nature of existence, questioning how we perceive time, memory, and connection.
Through her art, Yangzi creates poetic visual narratives that evoke the delicate balance between presence and absence, permanence and change—offering a meditative reflection on our place within the ever-evolving world.
