
2023
Treasure of Nature 自然之宝
As part of the artist’s Sustainability Series, Treasure of Nature reimagines a group of decommissioned oil tanks as immersive vessels for environmental renewal. Once geological relics of the energy age and monuments to an “excavated Earth” shaped by industrial civilization, these tanks are transformed into sites of poetic regeneration. Through digital media, the artist constructs an ecosystem composed of glaciers and rivers, turning the industrial remnants into virtual landscapes that explore nature’s capacity to reclaim and reshape the world within the Anthropocene.
Unfolding across three tanks, the work forms a narrative that symbolizes the evolution of life—from origin, to growth, and toward the future. The first two chapters are projected onto the outer surfaces of Tanks No. 3 and No. 4, visible only at night. Inside, simulated imagery of flowing water and melting glaciers creates a meditative environment where digital nature circulates continuously between spaces. The final chapter, installed within Tank No. 5, features an interactive system in which a river extends from the exterior into the interior; light and shadow move across the walls, evoking the perpetual renewal and transformation of life.
Grounded in real environmental data, the work invites viewers to return to the glaciers and rivers—symbols of the planet’s most elemental life forces—and to imagine futures that might flow from them. Under the artist’s intervention, the relics of industry are reactivated as a new narrative of Earth as medium: a techno-ecological interface co-created by digital systems, energy, and matter.
As multi-species anthropologist Anna Tsing writes in The Mushroom at the End of the World:
"If history is uncertain and multi-directional, perhaps multi-species assemblages can show the way forward."

Artwork by
Jiayu Liu
Commissioned by
Polestar
Curated by
GQ ART
Presented by
GQ
Executive Producer
Rocco Liu
Project Planner
Tuzi
Art Consultant
Haisheng Xiao
Creative Director
Teo
Editor
Xinfeng Jiang
Project Manager
Bochen Zhang
Technical Director
Xin Fang
Artist Assistant
Haobo Huang
Houdini Technician
Tiankun Yu
Motion Graphic Content
Zijian Chen
VFX
Jiakun Sun
Surface Design
Xiangyu Wang
Sound Design
Akei
Techinical Supported by
AUDITOIRE Group
Venue
Tank Art Centre. Shanghai. CHN



