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Root Yin–Yang is neither merely furniture nor pure sculpture.
It is a grounded time-object — a meeting point between prehistoric nature, contemporary design, and embodied human experience.

Anchored in Aotearoa New Zealand’s ancient landscape, the work transforms a 50,000-year-old Ancient Kauri root slab into a living spatial presence that invites slow engagement, tactile awareness, and sensory immersion.

DIMENSIONS

Diameter: 0.6m, 1.0m, 1.5m, 2.0m
Thickness: 10cm, 20cm, 30cm, 40cm
Height: 20cm, 30cm, 40cm

I. Form — A Table That “Emerges” from Prehistoric Earth

Root Yin–Yang is not designed as a conventional coffee table. It is conceived as a geological–biological mass revealed by time.

Carved from the cross-section of a single Ancient Kauri root plate, the piece preserves the authentic boundary of growth rings while being carefully softened into an ultra-rounded form — suspended between wood and stone, organism and stratum, nature and craft.

The two tabletop elements originate from one single cut through a unified root mass. They are intrinsically one body, temporarily divided, yet always capable of reunion.

Thus, the work is fundamentally about separation and return:
• Apart — each piece is autonomous, calm, and self-contained.
• Together — they reconstitute a complete “Root Cosmos,” a micro-world shaped by deep time.

II. Yin–Yang — Relationship, Not Ornament

In Root Yin–Yang, Yin and Yang are not decorative motifs, but material relationships.
• The slightly smaller surface — matte finish, deeper tone → Yin
Evoking memory, interiority, sedimented time, and latent energy.
• The slightly larger surface — shining finish → Yang
Expressing appearance, movement, presence, and breath.

The two forms interlock and overlap while maintaining a visible threshold — a natural equilibrium line rather than a forced symmetry.

Here, Taiji is not drawn; it is disclosed through matter itself.
Material, proportion, texture, and finish perform what symbols would otherwise describe.

III. Taiji — A Cosmology within a Table

When joined, the two halves generate an implicit Taiji field:
• Low, massive, and deeply rounded — resembling a planetary cross-section
• Growth rings unfold like orbits of time
• The center is not a point, but a dynamic relational space

Accordingly, Root Yin–Yang operates simultaneously as:
• A ground-level coffee table
• A spatial installation
• A microcosmic model of temporal order

It suggests that even in stillness, time continues to turn.

IV. Ground Energy — A “Breathing” Presence

Resting directly on the floor — legless, dense, and monumental — the piece absorbs and resonates with ground energy (whenua).

It does not sit in the room; it appears to rise from the earth.
Its low profile and mass naturally slow the viewer’s body and breath, inviting proximity to the ground.

The work is therefore suited to:
• Conversational gatherings
• Tea ceremonies and contemplative settings
• Low-seating environments, meditation rooms, or art-led interiors

More than furniture, it becomes a usable landscape — an interior terrain that reconnects inhabitants with natural presence.

V. Prehistoric Information — Time Compressed into Matter

Ancient Kauri is itself a 45,000-year archive.

In this work:
• Growth rings = visible time
• Root plate = memory node of the earth
• The cut = contemporary human intervention

Three temporal layers converge:
1. Geological time — burial, carbonization, mineralization
2. Biological time — tree growth, ring accumulation
3. Human time — extraction, crafting, and spatial reinterpretation

Root Yin–Yang is not newly created — it is re-activated antiquity, allowing prehistoric memory to enter everyday life rather than remain confined to museums.

VI. Aroma — From Object to Atmosphere

The underside of the table retains a natural Kauri surface, allowing the deep, subtle scent of 50,000-year-buried wood to breathe into space — transforming the piece into an Aroma Carrier.

Discreet zones can integrate:
• Micro-porous texture
• Natural resin or essential oil infusion
• Replaceable “Time Fragrance Capsules”

Thus, the work is:
• Visible (form)
• Tactile (texture)
• Olfactory (atmosphere)

Yin–Yang extends beyond vision into the circulation of scent, echoing the rhythmic breathing of Taiji itself.