A new lens on infinity

In the dim glow of Beijing's Songzhuang Art Center, a "pupil of light" slowly forms — 12 spotlights flare to life in sequence, their beams bending through a circle of crystal lenses until an eye gazes back at the viewer.

The installation, Flying Starry Eyes, is the latest creation of artist Li Bo. At its core is a cutting-edge caustics algorithm, usually confined to the realm of optical engineering. Li has transformed it into a vessel for memory.

Each lens is etched with microscopic convexities that redirect light, projecting a fleeting gaze that seems to appear, vanish, and reappear with time.

For Li, that gaze is not abstract: it carries the weight of her father's final look before his passing, a moment that could not be held but has been refracted into permanence.

"Those glances, impossible to grasp yet etched deep within me, are like these crystal-like lenses — hidden in time, almost imperceptible, until a beam of light calls them forth," she says.