Cities of You

System #16: Hzoila (Lei Z)

16 x 20", Gouache on Paper

When you pull apart something that was meant to be indivisible, there arises the possibility of creating small cracks in the tempo of time, called Hzoila. For example, consider the adolescent activity of skipping rocks against a wall. A child would throw a rock against a brick wall as hard as he could. If it breaks, there is a chance that time can skip a second or two backwards, right before it reaches the wall to break again. The break would reverberate at decreasing intervals until it approaches zero, like dropping a marble on a hard surface. This is also why breaking a mirror is considered bad luck since, during the break, the reflective nature of the mirror magnifies the effects of Hzoila, sometimes creating deep fractures in time--hence the saying "seven years bad luck."