Shen Lie-Yi Carves Raindrop Ripples into Black Granite

Chinese artist Shen Lie-Yi has spent over two decades transforming the fleeting impact of raindrops into enduring sculptures. His ongoing Rain series, begun in 2001 after seeing a science textbook illustration, captures the moment a droplet strikes a surface, expanding outward in ripples before vanishing. He recreates these transient forms in Shanxi black granite, black obsidian, and carbon fiber, using digital manipulation and meticulous carving. Based in Hangzhou, a city of mountains, lakes, canals, and rivers, Shen draws on his childhood near the Grand Canal and Daoist philosophy, exploring opposites like permanence and impermanence, hardness and softness. The sculptures invite slow contemplation, with dark surfaces that seem to pulse with remembered movement. The series gives physical permanence to a natural instant that was never meant to last.