In an era where observation and information converge, Tan Mu explores environmental change and clean energy development. Solar Farm (2022) presents an aerial view of the landscape’s transformation from traditional agriculture to modern solar power farms. The structured arrangement of solar panels forms an abstract electrical grid, symbolizing the shift in renewable energy while reflecting the fusion of technology and nature. By incorporating a screenshot from her phone, Tan Mu embeds the piece with a digital visual experience, emphasizing information accessibility. Today, people consume news on politics, environmental issues, and technological progress with a swipe, engaging with the world remotely. This shift in information consumption is mirrored in the painting: the solar farm appears as an archived image, while blurred visuals from Tan Mu’s photo gallery dissolve into the background, symbolizing the overwhelming digital landscape and her reflection on technology’s role in shaping perception. Blending the solar farm’s geometric precision with the aesthetics of a digital screen, the painting constructs an information landscape that transcends physical reality, inviting viewers to reconsider how they engage with the world.

Q: Your work Solar Farm (2022) depicts solar panels. Could you share the inspiration and background behind this piece?

Tan Mu: This is the second time I have depicted solar panels in my work. The first was in Memory, where I painted the rooftop of a data center covered with solar panels. That piece sparked my deeper interest in the visual form of solar panels, the process of energy conversion, and their interaction with the surrounding environment.

After completing Memory, I wanted to continue exploring this subject more directly. Living in Florida, where sunlight is abundant, I frequently encounter large scale solar farms. Whether driving on highways or flying near airports, I often see vast fields of panels stretching across the landscape. What fascinates me visually is how sunlight refracts across their surfaces, producing subtle shifts in color and reflection that change throughout the day. These observations gradually became the foundation for Solar Farm.

Q: How do you understand solar panels as an artificial landscape?

Tan Mu: To me, solar panels are not merely technological objects. They are symbols of capital, infrastructure, and humanity’s intervention in nature. Their presence marks a significant transition in how land is used. Historically, land was cultivated primarily for food production. Today, large areas are repurposed to host solar panels that harvest energy instead.

This shift reshapes both the physical landscape and the social structures connected to it. The rigid geometry and reflective surfaces of solar panels impose a new aesthetic order onto the land. It is systematic, efficient, and rational, yet undeniably artificial. This contrast between the organic and the engineered invites reflection on how technology is redefining the landscapes of our future and altering our relationship with nature.

Q: How do you translate this man made landscape into painting?

Tan Mu: Solar panels have a distinctly geometric form defined by straight lines and precise repetition, qualities that are rarely found in natural scenery. In my painting, I emphasize the contrast between these rigid structures and the organic shapes of the surrounding environment.

When panels are installed in large clusters across flat terrain, they create an overwhelming sense of order that sharply contrasts with the irregular rhythms of nature. This tension is central to the work. It reflects how humans extract, reorganize, and systematize natural elements, transforming sunlight into a functional resource while simultaneously reconstructing the land into an engineered system.

Q: You use an elevated, almost game like perspective in this work. What is the significance of this viewpoint?

Tan Mu: I chose a slightly elevated viewpoint, similar to what one might see from an airplane window or within a video game interface. This perspective allows the horizon to remain visible while revealing the vast scale of the solar panels below. It also mirrors how contemporary individuals increasingly perceive the world through screens and digital interfaces.

The source image for the panels was captured with a phone camera, while the surrounding environment is rendered in a more abstract and blurred manner. This contrast reflects the way modern reality is mediated through technology. Moments are often fragmented, compressed, and fleeting. I am drawn to this instability, which is why I choose to translate these transient digital impressions into the slow and deliberate language of painting.

Q: How do you see art functioning as a record of technological transformation?

Tan Mu: For me, art is a way of recording and interpreting the present. As a contemporary painter, I am documenting subjects that did not exist just a few decades ago. As technology continues to evolve, works like Solar Farm may one day function as archaeological records of our current energy infrastructure.

I often think about Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, who documented industrial transformations in their time. His paintings of train stations and factories not only captured new technologies but later became valuable historical records. Scholars now study those works to understand environmental conditions and technological shifts of the nineteenth century.

In Solar Farm, I aim to document how renewable energy reshapes both landscape and perception. These technological structures are rarely addressed in historical painting, and I see value in filling that gap. In the future, this work may move beyond its role as an image and serve as an archive of how our era transformed nature through technology.