M HKA Ensembles

Book, 18.4 x 13 cm, 250 p, language: English, Chinese, publisher: Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, ISBN: 978-3-9524064-3-4.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2026/23).

Literary synopsis

Circadian Rhythm is a 130,000 character detective novel based on both reality and fiction. Its title comes from the daily cycle of human physical processes and emotions. Meanwhile, it’s also a metaphor for the passage of meteorological changes between day and night. The novel follows a detective who slowly begins to question his own identity after he meets obstacle after obstacle while trying to seek the truth behind a vicious crime. Woven into the narration are opera lyrics, poetry, endless soliloquies and dialogues and depictions of dreamscapes and fantasy. The novel has an imaginary author, whose unfamiliar and indistinct identity is used to imagine the structure of the novel’s world.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

Circadian Rhythm is part of Cheng Ran’s solo exhibition “The Last Generation” in Galerie Urs Meile Beijing-Lucerne. This exhibition centers on an original novel written by the artist. During the time of the exhibition, a wooden structure in the shape of a spiral is installed in one of the gallery spaces, where the audience can read the novel in an environment that at first sight may seem unfamiliar, delivering at the same time the sense of a “reading room”. The leitmotifs of the novel are converted into objects realized in different media that develop into "non-existent" chapters and paragraphs, while the real space and the spiritual world interchange and support each other.narrative.

Novel's website

Novel's website2