SBS Interview: Jingmin Ren’s Solar Longitude – Time Orbit at Bondi Sea Wall
How Can One Public Artwork Connect Chinese and Western Cultures?
Source: SBS Mandarin
Reporter: Jason Liu
Published: 13 August 2026
Updated: 20 August 2026
Audio duration: 11 minutes 14 seconds
SBS Mandarin has featured Jingmin Ren 任静敏 and her public artwork Solar Longitude – Time Orbit | 太阳黄经－时间轨道, presented at Bondi Sea Wall in Sydney with the approval and support of Waverley Council.
In the on-site interview, Ren discusses how the work brings together solar longitude, the Twenty-Four Solar Terms, Chinese calligraphy, traditional seal culture and the natural environment of Australia’s Southern Hemisphere.
Time at the Centre of the Artwork
The monumental Chinese calligraphic character 时, meaning “time,” forms the visual centre of the mural. Around it, the Twenty-Four Solar Terms are arranged clockwise through a 360-degree solar-longitude structure.
Ren explains that 时 carries interconnected meanings relating to time, season, seasonal phases, opportunity and the rhythms through which life continually unfolds in nature.
Traditional Chinese seal elements also appear throughout the composition. These include seals representing the Sun and key seasonal points, extending Ren’s continuing artistic engagement with Chinese calligraphy and seal culture into a contemporary public-art context.
A Southern Hemisphere Seasonal Perspective
The work translates the Twenty-Four Solar Terms through the seasonal experience of Bondi Beach at 33°53′ south.
Within Ren’s Southern Hemisphere seasonal reading, she began painting on 7 July 2026 at approximately 285°, corresponding to Minor Cold, and completed the work on 7 August at approximately 315°, corresponding to the beginning of spring.
The mural incorporates Bondi’s distinctive coastal light, waves, migrating whales and dolphins, golden wattle and jacaranda. These local natural elements allow viewers to experience the same annual solar cycle from a different position on Earth.
Ren explains:
“We share the same Sun and the same solar longitude, yet because we live in different hemispheres and on different lands, we experience different seasons and landscapes, and develop different cultures. Beneath these differences, life remains connected to the same rhythms of nature.”
Connecting Chinese Knowledge with the Bondi Landscape
The SBS report considers how a single public artwork can create connections between Chinese and Western cultures.
Traditional Chinese astronomical and seasonal knowledge is not presented separately from the Australian environment. Instead, it enters into a visual dialogue with Bondi’s landscape, climate, community and everyday public life.
A local resident interviewed by SBS responded to the seasonal system through her own experience of growing plants, observing that knowledge of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms could encourage people to think more carefully about appropriate planting times.
This response demonstrates how cultural knowledge can acquire new meaning when encountered through local experience.
From Concept Design to Public Artwork
During the interview, Ren also discusses how the completed mural developed beyond its original concept design.
Working outdoors on a large public wall was very different from painting on canvas. Weather, scale, the physical conditions of the site and continuous encounters with members of the public all influenced the creative process.
These adjustments and challenges became part of the artwork’s evolution, allowing Solar Longitude – Time Orbit to develop in direct relationship with its location.
Listen to the SBS Mandarin Interview
The complete SBS Mandarin program explores the meaning of the mural, the changes Ren made during its creation and the challenges involved in producing a large-scale artwork in a public coastal environment.
Explore the Project
Learn more about the artwork, Southern Hemisphere seasonal-phase translation and Jingmin Ren’s continuing research into Spatial Time:
