2022-2023
In the summer of 2022, the intricate quarantine policy in China compelled me to forgo the plans to return home. Departing from the East Coast of the United States, where I resided, I headed to San Francisco—the closest point on the other side of the Pacific from my homeland, tracing a potential sense of belonging. The essayistic film Coast to Coast (Preamble) oscillates between personal encounters, remnants of the past, and several proxies, examining the ambiguous temporality on the coast and my own condition of being inbetween during that period.
It is the prelude of a long-term project Coast to Coast, which will be divided into several chapters to address subjects, including the oceanic epistemology from ancestors, the image(ry) of the vessel, and the historical legacy of optical navigational devices along the Chinese coast.
2022年夏天，我因中国复杂的检疫政策而放弃回国的打算。从居住的美国东海岸出发，我前往太平洋彼岸离家乡最近的旧金山以寻找一种可能的归属感。散文式电影《从海岸到海岸（序言）》在个人旅途遭遇、过去的残余物和若干代理之间来回摇摆，审视海岸模糊的时间性和自己在彼时的居间状态。这是长期项目《从海岸到海岸》的序幕。该项目将分为几个章节，讨论的主题包括祖先的海洋性认识论、船只的形象以及中国沿海光学导航设备的历史遗产等。
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Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2022-2023
10:20 | DCP 2K / ProRes | 1.77:1 | color, stereo | Chinese Mandarin and Ningbo dialect with English subtitles
Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2022-2023
(1:35 minute clip from 02:50, full video available on request)
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Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2023
Single-channel HD video installation (sound & color), 10:05
Wireless headphones, painted plywood, detached English subtitles on vinyl, 18’’x50’’x18’’
installation view from “Too Close” group show at Microscope Gallery, NY, US
从影片分离出的英文字幕附在一条长凳上，作为影像装置的一部分于纽约市的一个画廊展出。撤展后，我将它运回了罗德岛州的一处海边。
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Untitled (Unshipped)
Performance, single-channel SD video (color, silent), looped by CRT monitor, 8’10’’, 2023
In the summer of 2022, the intricate quarantine policy in China compelled me to forgo the plans to return home. Departing from the East Coast of the United States, where I resided, I headed to San Francisco—the closest point on the other side of the Pacific from my homeland, tracing a potential sense of belonging. The essayistic film Coast to Coast (Preamble) oscillates between personal encounters, remnants of the past, and several proxies, examining the ambiguous temporality on the coast and my own condition of being inbetween during that period.
It is the prelude of a long-term project Coast to Coast, which will be divided into several chapters to address subjects, including the oceanic epistemology from ancestors, the image(ry) of the vessel, and the historical legacy of optical navigational devices along the Chinese coast.
2022年夏天，我因中国复杂的检疫政策而放弃回国的打算。从居住的美国东海岸出发，我前往太平洋彼岸离家乡最近的旧金山以寻找一种可能的归属感。散文式电影《从海岸到海岸（序言）》在个人旅途遭遇、过去的残余物和若干代理之间来回摇摆，审视海岸模糊的时间性和自己在彼时的居间状态。这是长期项目《从海岸到海岸》的序幕。该项目将分为几个章节，讨论的主题包括祖先的海洋性认识论、船只的形象以及中国沿海光学导航设备的历史遗产等。
Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2022-2023
10:20 | DCP 2K / ProRes | 1.77:1 | color, stereo | Chinese Mandarin and Ningbo dialect with English subtitles
Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2022-2023
(1:35 minute clip from 02:50, full video available on request)
Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2023
Single-channel HD video installation (sound & color), 10:05
Wireless headphones, painted plywood, detached English subtitles on vinyl, 18’’x50’’x18’’
installation view from “Too Close” group show at Microscope Gallery, NY, US
*narration excerpts*
“With the assistance of a telephoto lens, you recall how your ancestors might have done the same, weaving through seawater, learning, and gaining experience until the advent of the canoe. You wonder if they, in the confused seas, also created a mnemonic device, or mode of mapmaking, sensing and memorizing the swell patterns in certain moments—bending, reflecting, disturbing, and refracting, then carrying with oceanic knowledge, onward to the sporadic groups of islands in the distance.
When was intuition suppressed?
Would it dock at the port of your hometown? The unarrived lighthouse is blinking to you from the opposite shore with regularity. Could the photons refracted and bent through the prisms be caught by the camera obscura?”
2023
A bench with detached English subtitles from the essayistic film, as part of a video installation, was exhibited in a gallery in New York City. After deinstalling, I transported it back to a beach in Rhode Island. Untitled (Unshipped) documents the happenings around the bench.“With the assistance of a telephoto lens, you recall how your ancestors might have done the same, weaving through seawater, learning, and gaining experience until the advent of the canoe. You wonder if they, in the confused seas, also created a mnemonic device, or mode of mapmaking, sensing and memorizing the swell patterns in certain moments—bending, reflecting, disturbing, and refracting, then carrying with oceanic knowledge, onward to the sporadic groups of islands in the distance.
When was intuition suppressed?
Would it dock at the port of your hometown? The unarrived lighthouse is blinking to you from the opposite shore with regularity. Could the photons refracted and bent through the prisms be caught by the camera obscura?”
2023
从影片分离出的英文字幕附在一条长凳上，作为影像装置的一部分于纽约市的一个画廊展出。撤展后，我将它运回了罗德岛州的一处海边。
Untitled (Unshipped)
Performance, single-channel SD video (color, silent), looped by CRT monitor, 8’10’’, 2023