“木棉”展览现场 Installation View of “Kapok”
Kapok木棉
2022
Single-channel HD Video 单通道数字影像
Color, Stereo, 3’56’’彩色，有声，3分25秒
Lili Memorial小碑
2022
Giclée Print on cellophane paper, Magnet艺术微喷于菲林片、磁铁
50 × 98 cm
Soaking水浸街 - 02
2022
Giclée Print on Cellophane Paper艺术微喷于菲林片
41 × 32 cm
Soaking水浸街 - 03
2022
Giclée Print on Cellophane Paper艺术微喷于菲林片
16 × 20 cm
Soaking水浸街 - 01
2022
Giclée Print on Cellophane Paper艺术微喷于菲林片
129 × 102 cm
Kapok
木棉
The kapok flower, an everyday presence in the lives of Guangdong’s local residents, became my entry point into the memories of growing up as an outsider in this place. Through the kapok’s migration across multiple geographical contexts, a landscape of identity and emotion begins to unfold.
My thoughts kept wandering uncontrollably until the stiffness of my body reminded me of the limitations that exist. It's not time and space that limits people, it's who they are. And when touching the limit, it seems like feeling the bones under the skin as well as the bottom of the boat hitting the reef. The sea gradually disintegrated and swallowed the hull of the ship of the ego though being so tender a second before its sinking. When the kapok (木棉花) fell over on my head without any signs, and became a canoe.
Passing through Cantonese to Chongqing and Hunan dialects, the kapok blossoms drift and flow in tender or wrinkled hands, in boiled herbal teas together with honeysuckle (金银花), chrysanthemum (菊花), frangipani (鸡蛋花), sophora flowers (槐花), and in chicken soup and pork bone broth.
I used to pick them up as a child following my classmates not aware what it could be used for. Years later the kapok water I drank was saturated with fragments of my memories. Soaking and getting mouldy with the body of water I entered the images, familiar but gradually unfamiliar. And after being salvaged, my stomach screamed, "Rice noodle rolls (肠粉)!”.
Cantonese cuisine is my elephant graveyard as my stomach is the real brain, and my head excels at regurgitating and fermenting layers of mould. The building entwined with the intertwined Chinese banyan is green fireworks, slowly blooming. A sprouting potato, a menopausal womb losing their functions in the human world, however, gain freedom in the midst of rejuvenation.
The project originated during my residency at Shekmai Space (Dongguan) in 2022, and was later presented through video, installation, and photography works in my solo exhibition at Window of Shemai in Shenzhen.
木棉花作为广东本地居民生活的部分，是我走进作为一个外乡人在此成长的记忆的入口。身份与情感的风景借由木棉在多重地理语境中迁徙和穿梭。
我的思绪总是不受控制地穿梭，直到僵硬的身体提示我局限的存在。而触摸到局限之时，宛若皮下摸骨，船底触礁。在沉没前一秒还那么温柔的海面，渐渐瓦解吞没自我的船体。木棉花毫无征兆地掉落在我的头顶，并成为一支小舟。它越过粤语、重庆话、湖南话，穿梭在稚嫩或者褶皱的手里，在与金银花、菊花、鸡蛋花、槐花熬煮的凉茶里，在鸡汤、猪骨汤里。
我小时候曾跟随同学捡拾，却未知晓它的用处，时隔多年后喝到的木棉花水浸润了碎片的记忆。我进入熟悉又逐渐陌生的影像里和水体一起浸泡、发霉，在被打捞出来之后，我的胃大叫着：“肠粉！”。
粤菜是我的象冢，肠胃是真正的大脑，而我的头颅擅长反刍发酵出层层霉菌。被盘根错节的细叶榕缠绕的建筑是一场缓慢绽放的绿色烟花，发芽的土豆，绝经的子宫，在生机焕发之际失去在人类世界里的功能并获得自由。
该项目诞生于2022年我于石米空间（东莞）驻地期间，并于我在深圳石米之窗的个展中以录像、装置、摄影等形式呈现。