2020 / HD video / 13 channels / color / sound / dimensions variable.
There are two separate but mutual influences of this series: the precedents of literature and film, and the documentary clips of the surroundings. Sometimes the process is reading a book first, then filming the environment, and vice-versa. The materials from both sources might seem irrelevant at first sight, but by employing montage, juxtaposition, and repetition, the effects take a cue from one of the early video praxis, “experimental image-making.”
Day 2
29/2 Reconstructed an intangible sense of isolation: I was listing to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s online concert for Wuhan, sitting aside the window seeing a dark and empty cityscape.
Day 3
1/3 This work depicts a movement of landing from a high-density neighborhood with the recorded sound, layering static texts over moving images.
Day 4
2/3 A skyline of Beijing's Central Business District, featuring poet Gu Cheng's piece Melting Point.
Day 5
3/3 A Juxtaposition of the image of a mysterious rooftop and lines from Virginia Woolf's To The Light House
Day 6
4/3 Threading the memory and reality together, introducing dream-like imagery that evoked imaginations of islands and the sea in a shrouded space. Text: House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk.
Day 7
5/3 There are close-up images through a door viewer. This work uses the effect that disorienting repetitions of two clips. The background sound is from the film Jumping Frog by Yizheng Ke, on the philosophy in Journey to the West.
Day 8
6/3 Narrating a sunset across a domed building with the sound from TOEFL TEST listening section. Text: Chinese edition of Dream Interpretation.
Day 9
7/3 An attempt of colliding sound from a Space mission and on-site recordings, this work explores imaginative storytelling with docu-style footages.
The ending poem is from Bei Dao's The Answer: I don't believe the sky is blue; I don't believe the thunder's roar; I don't believe that dreams are false; I don't believe that death has no revenge.
Day 10
8/3 This work is made on occasion of the International Women's Day. It combines the aesthetic of motion graphics and moving images. Sound from the archive of Elizabeth Reid at the 1975 World Conference of the International Women's Year.
Day 11
9/3 I shot extremely “hand-shaky” footages and applied the "stabilize" in iMovie. The result becomes absurd. Text: Peter Handke's Der Chinese des Schmerzes.
Day 12
10/3 This work concerns the observation and reflection of an empty schoolyard. Both the sound and image engages in a structural rhythm.
Day 13
11/3 Editing a long take with animation montage and layering texts from Language and Silence by George Steiner.
Day 14
12/3 A sequence of montages from the compound's staircase, simultaneously narrating Bertrand Russell's words to the future generation.
fin