2022-2023
In the summer of 2022, the complexity of quarantine policy in China led me to abandon the return to my homeland. From the East Coast of the United States, where I resided, I headed to San Francisco—the nearest point on the other side of the Pacific Ocean from China, and intended to trace a possible sense of belonging. The essayistic film Coast to Coast (Preamble) oscillates between personal experience, remnants of the past, and several proxies, examining the ambiguous and complex temporality of the coast and the liminal position of myself in the present. As the film unfolds, multiple displacements are built up, intersecting and interacting.
It is the prelude of an on-going project Coast to Coast which will be divided into several chapters to address subjects, including ancestral oceanic epistemology, the image of the vessel, and optical navigational devices along the chinese coast with their historical legacy.
2022 年夏天，中国复杂的检疫政策让我最终放弃了回国的打算。我从居住的美国东海岸出发，前往太平洋彼岸离家乡最近的旧金山，寻找一种可能的归属感。散文式电影《从海岸到海岸（序言）》在个人经历、过去的残余和若干代理之间摇摆，审视了海岸模糊且复杂的时间性和自己在当下的边缘位置。这是正在进行的项目《从海岸到海岸》的序幕，该项目将分为几个章节，讨论的主题包括先民的海洋性认识论、船只的形象以及中国沿海的光学导航设备及其历史遗产。
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Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2022-2023
10:20 | DCP 2K / ProRes | 1.77:1 | color, stereo | Chinese 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
Painted plywood, detached English subtitles on vinyl, 18’’x50’’x18’’
installation view from “Too Close” group show at Microscope Gallery, NY, US
In the summer of 2022, the complexity of quarantine policy in China led me to abandon the return to my homeland. From the East Coast of the United States, where I resided, I headed to San Francisco—the nearest point on the other side of the Pacific Ocean from China, and intended to trace a possible sense of belonging. The essayistic film Coast to Coast (Preamble) oscillates between personal experience, remnants of the past, and several proxies, examining the ambiguous and complex temporality of the coast and the liminal position of myself in the present. As the film unfolds, multiple displacements are built up, intersecting and interacting.
It is the prelude of an on-going project Coast to Coast which will be divided into several chapters to address subjects, including ancestral oceanic epistemology, the image of the vessel, and optical navigational devices along the chinese coast with their historical legacy.
2022 年夏天，中国复杂的检疫政策让我最终放弃了回国的打算。我从居住的美国东海岸出发，前往太平洋彼岸离家乡最近的旧金山，寻找一种可能的归属感。散文式电影《从海岸到海岸（序言）》在个人经历、过去的残余和若干代理之间摇摆，审视了海岸模糊且复杂的时间性和自己在当下的边缘位置。这是正在进行的项目《从海岸到海岸》的序幕，该项目将分为几个章节，讨论的主题包括先民的海洋性认识论、船只的形象以及中国沿海的光学导航设备及其历史遗产。
Coast to Coast (Preamble), 2022-2023
10:20 | DCP 2K / ProRes | 1.77:1 | color, stereo | Chinese 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
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?”
（旁白节选)
“借助远摄镜头，你想起自己的先民也可能是这样在海水里穿梭，学习，汲取经验，直到独木舟的出现。你在想他们身在混乱的海域，是否也创造了一种助忆装置，或者制图模式，感知并记忆某刻波浪的形态——弯曲，反射，扰动，折射，携着海洋性知识，继而前往远处零星的岛群。
直觉在何时被压制?
(...)
它是否会在故乡的港口停靠呢? 未曾抵达的灯塔从对岸向你规律闪烁，经过透镜折射和弯曲的光线会被暗箱接住吗?”
“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?”
（旁白节选)
“借助远摄镜头，你想起自己的先民也可能是这样在海水里穿梭，学习，汲取经验，直到独木舟的出现。你在想他们身在混乱的海域，是否也创造了一种助忆装置，或者制图模式，感知并记忆某刻波浪的形态——弯曲，反射，扰动，折射，携着海洋性知识，继而前往远处零星的岛群。
直觉在何时被压制?
(...)
它是否会在故乡的港口停靠呢? 未曾抵达的灯塔从对岸向你规律闪烁，经过透镜折射和弯曲的光线会被暗箱接住吗?”