Mystical Serpent Whakaturanga Toi Rama

Press Kit

Unique Properties

2025 is the Year of the Snake in traditional Chinese zodiac culture. On the facade of a century-old building in Shanghai, China, we have created a lighting art installation with the theme of snake: "Mystical Serpent", blending serpent legends from ancient China and Rome. The winding 3D inflatable snake body intertwines with the building's windows and the pseudo-3D mural. It renovates the original appearance of the building's facade, connecting the ground and the walls, and giving this century-old building a new visual experience.

Dimensions & Packaging

Main body of the inflatable "Mystical Serpent":
Diameter: 1m,
Length: 7m-14m
South wall mural: 100 square meters
West wall mural: 250 square meters

Tags

Installation, Art Installation, Light Art Installation, Exhibition, Shanghai

Production Technology

Using lightweight recyclable material, the main body of the "Mystical Serpent" is an inflatable device. The material properties ensure that installation can be stably displayed under various weather conditions. The pseudo-3D effect is achieved by covering the building walls with printed fabric and pasting glass stickers on the building`s glass. With carefully designed colors and patterns, and through ingenious visual treatment, a strong three-dimensional sense is created as a whole. The bold patterns of the serpent`s body are crafted from recycled materials, interlaced with traditional Chinese auspicious motifs and ancient Roman motifs(such as snake scales, peony designs), symbolizing the dragon-snake transition of the Chinese new year.

Design Challenge

The innovation of the design is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Spatial Design: Spanning from Building No.3 in The Inlet's facade to the ground, the installation merges three-dimensional forms with pseudo-3D planar patterns. We installed a frame on the outer side of the original wall of the building and covered the facade in the form of mural. Additionally, inflatable tubes, simulating the shape of a snake slithering through the building and across the ground, to connect the horizontal and vertical space.
Graphic Design: In terms of graphic design, the mural on the wall is applied in a pseudo-3D style, creating a three-dimensional atmosphere through the use of visual illusions. For the pattern design, we have carefully selected traditional patterns from both the East and the West, juxtaposed them and integrated Eastern and Western cultures by using geometric shapes and a unified color scheme. Fragmented Chinese and Roman serpent motifs are deconstructed and layered into a visual dialogue.

Research

Before we started the design, we conducted extensive research in the following directions:
Cultural Inheritance and Cross-cultural Dialogue:
The original building in this case is The Inlet in Shanghai. It is a unique Shanghai-style architecture that incorporates both Chinese and Western architectural cultures. When designing "Mystical Serpent", we also took into account the approach of integrating Chinese and Western elements to interpret the traditional culture of the Year of the Snake, which represent the city's all-embracing spirit.
The installation integrates Eastern mythology with Western guardian culture, which promotes cross-cultural understanding, provides the public with an open cultural experience space, and enhances social cohesion.
Activation of Public Space and Community Sense of Belonging: The installation is situated in the public area of a century-old alley in Shanghai. Through light and shadow interactions and immersive experiences, it transforms the traditional neighborhood into the heart of festive celebrations. Its lighting design, which clearly differentiates between day and night, balances functionality (nighttime illumination) and artistry. It attracts diverse groups of people, including children, the elderly, and international tourists, demonstrating the inclusiveness of public art.

Inspiration

The inspiration of "Mystical Serpent" comes from the legend of Zhulong, a serpent deity from ancient Chinese lore who governs day-night cycles and symbolizes eternal life. Additionally, it incorporates the story of the ancient Roman "domestic snake" the guardian of family. The fusion embodies renewal, protection, and the unbroken thread of life across civilizations. Also this integration achieves a convergence of Eastern and Western cultures, and conveys the profound meaning of protection and the continuation of life.

Project Duration

The project started in October 2024 and finished in December 2024 in Shanghai, and was exhibited in January 2025 in Shanghai.

Operation Flow

The entire installation is installed on the building and the ground, allowing people to interact with it by observing or taking photos in the square.

Image Credits

Image #1:Photographer DXIN,Mystical Serpent 1,2025.
Image #2: Photographer Qiao Wu, Mystical Serpent 2,2025.
Image #3: Photographer Qiao Wu, Mystical Serpent 3,2025.
Image #4: Photographer Qiao Wu, Mystical Serpent 4,2025
Image #5: Photographer Qiao Wu, Mystical Serpent 5,2025.