The late 20th and early 21st centuries are often referred to as the Silicon Age, a period defined by the element silicon’s profound influence on global development. As the essential material for semiconductor electronics, highly purified silicon serves as the backbone of transistors and integrated circuit chips, powering everything from smartphones to supercomputers. In the digital era, its presence permeates nearly every aspect of daily life, shaping how we work, communicate, and interact with the world. The ubiquity of silicon underscores its transformative role in an increasingly interconnected and technology-driven society. By depicting purified silicon stone, Tan Mu explores the intricate global supply chains involved in extracting, refining, and distributing this essential resource—the very material at the heart of computing and information technology. Silicon (2023) invites viewers to consider not only silicon’s pivotal role in technological advancement but also the environmental and geopolitical complexities embedded in its production. Through this lens, the work subtly reveals the profound impact of silicon as a fundamental element shaping the contemporary world.

Q: You have described silicon as a fundamental element shaping the contemporary world. In your view, how does silicon influence our era?

Tan Mu: I believe we are living in an era driven by computational power. Advances in computing have fundamentally reshaped how we explore the world, connect with one another, and construct systems of knowledge. At the core of this transformation lies silicon. Silicon is not simply a chemical element; it is the material foundation of the digital world. It exists within computer motherboards as countless on and off switches, regulating the flow of information and structuring how reality is processed, recorded, and perceived.

In works such as Logic Circuit (2022) and Mapping (2021), I examine the architecture and logic of these electronic systems. Through painting, I investigate how silicon based technologies are constructed and how they quietly shape contemporary life. My perspective resonates with ideas discussed by Michelle Kuo in New Order, where she reflects on the materials that sustain modern society and the intersection between materiality, art, and technology. In a similar way, my paintings engage with the physical substances that underpin digital existence. The logic of input and output embedded in these systems mirrors human processes of language, emotion, and cognition.

For this reason, my interest in silicon extends far beyond its physical properties. I am drawn to how it enables technological expansion and how, in turn, technology reshapes social structures. It transforms how we form relationships, store memory, and build communities. Silicon has become an invisible language through which we experience the world. It is not merely a component of industrial civilization but a defining force of contemporary life.

Q: You mentioned the environmental and geopolitical complexities embedded in silicon production. Does this relate to your broader interest in the relationship between energy, environment, and technology?

Tan Mu: Absolutely. As computational power continues to expand, silicon has become indispensable, yet its production carries profound environmental consequences. Refining silicon and manufacturing chips require extreme temperatures, complex chemical processes, and enormous energy consumption. Beyond fabrication itself, the rise of data centers and quantum computing facilities has dramatically increased global energy demand, altering how resources are extracted and distributed.

These developments are inseparable from broader environmental and geopolitical shifts. The extraction of raw materials, the concentration of chip manufacturing, and the control of technological infrastructure shape global power dynamics. In today’s world, control over computation often translates into economic and political influence, concentrating authority within specific regions and redefining relationships between nations, cultures, and labor systems.

My work traces these interconnected systems by examining the evolution of energy production, from early electrical grids to solar farms and nuclear power. These energy systems are deeply entangled with the history of computation and material science. Together, they form a larger narrative about how technology, environment, and power continuously reshape the physical and political landscape of our era.

Q: What visual language did you use in your work to represent this refined silicon?

Tan Mu: In Silicon, I wanted to move beyond a straightforward depiction of material. From a distance, the surface resembles a laboratory specimen, crystalline and rigid, reflecting sharp edges under a cold, almost surgical light. It carries a sense of mechanical beauty that feels precise and detached. Yet as viewers move closer, this clarity begins to dissolve. The surface breaks into layered textures and interwoven colors, creating a softer and more rhythmic visual experience.

Subtle traces of flesh pink emerge within the austere tonal field, while jewel-like blues flicker across the surface like fleeting electrical impulses. These shifts introduce warmth into an otherwise rational structure, allowing the material to oscillate between logic and sensibility. In constructing this painting, I deliberately balanced realism with abstraction. The sharp focal intensity of the source image delivers an aggressive visual force, but through painting, I soften and reinterpret that sharpness.

This tension is central to the work. It reveals silicon as both precise and fragile, industrial yet strangely organic. Through this instability, silicon transforms from a purely technological material into something that feels alive, mirroring the delicate balance between control and vulnerability within the systems that define contemporary life.