Ji Zhou’s new multimedia collection Civilized Landscape builds on themes from the artist’s past series Dust (2010) and Event (2007), and just as his themes build up on one another over time, so his work embraces the idea of physical layering.

Dust, completed after a fire at his Beijing studio, emulated the aftermath of the incident by capturing airborne specks and flakes of ash as it settled on surfaces, inviting consideration of permanence, re-stabilisation and recovery from trauma.

In Civilized Landscape, Ji’s photographic exploration of depth and contour is tackled more directly; stacks of books — themselves made up of hundreds of layers of paper, are stacked to form bridges and towering buildings that represent our modern city skylines in the Maquette series. Paper plays an important role in another of Ji’s new pieces too, as the artist manipulates old maps by hand, creasing and folding the flat planes to add a third dimension mimicking the Earth’s mountains and valleys. With these carefully constructed visual illusions, Ji asks if civilisation itself is merely an man-made illusion, or an inevitable product of evolution.

Civilized Landscape is being show at Klein Sun Gallery, New York, until 10 October.

@kleinsungllery

The Map No. 2, 2015
C-print, 100 x 150 cm
© Klein Sun Gallery and Ji Zhou

The Map No. 6, 2015
C-print, 92 x 160 cm
© Klein Sun Gallery and Ji Zhou

Maquette No. 2, 2015
C-print, 110 x 152 cm
© Klein Sun Gallery and Ji Zhou