Tea – Time

A project started from teahouse experiences in Chengdu.

Jul 08, 2026

There’s a saying that time flies when you’re having fun. But time doesn’t actually move faster or slower, it only feels that way depending on how we interpret each moment. We figured out a long time ago that time isn’t fixed. Not the way a clock keeps it.

Since I was young, I’ve never really known what to do with free time. Sitting on a beach, watching the sea, I can appreciate it, but I can’t call it relaxing. The only time I feel that ease is when my attention is attached to something in motion: music, a film, something moving along a timeline I can follow. I didn’t know this was something I struggled with, until I had something to compare it to, which turned out to be something as simple as having tea.

It happened in Chengdu, a city where tea is everywhere, woven into daily life rather than set aside as an occasion. My experience with tea rituals before had always been ceremonial: a serious setting, someone guiding you through a lecture on the tea. Chengdu wasn't like that. I tried a traditional courtyard teahouse, an elegant tearoom, a roadside spot, a modern place with a twist, a cafe-looking one, and every single one shared the same thing. You order a set, then they leave you alone. That time was yours.

Around me, people eating snacks, playing cards, chatting loudly, someone reading, someone staring at nothing. It was crowded, completely unceremonious, but one of the most peaceful hours I've had. I brewed at my own pace, noticed when my cup was empty, filled it again when I felt like it. For the first time I could feel time passing rather than watching it pass, like it became legible, something I'd only thought about abstractly until then. That feeling led me to this project.

Tea – Time is a series of composite photographs made during tea rituals. I filmed myself brewing tea using interval shooting for 3 minutes. The compositing happened afterward, folding each stretch of time into one image. Looking at hundreds of frames from the same session, I was experiencing the time again, but now I could form it the way I remembered. The repeated gestures of brewing dissolve what comes before and after, composing time as a loop rather than a line.1

Here are the ones I selected to represent the session.

Session 01 | 3 mins | Oolong | Home