Ice Étude No. 1 originates from my first experience of stepping onto an ice surface. Growing up in southern China, where natural ice is absent, I understood this unfamiliar bodily experience as a new timbre.

The work may only be performed by someone who has never stepped onto an ice surface before. Its structure is formed by recording the time of every entry onto (IN) and departure from (OUT) the ice, together with the reason for each departure. Cold, hunger, curiosity, or any external event may interrupt the work and become part of its structure.

Rather than seeking control over the body through willpower, the work hands its structure over to the constant intervention of the environment.