March of the Elephants
Single-channel video (colour, sound), 41′ 21”, 2022
The Lancang River basin is a traditional habitat for Asian elephants; in the Dai language, ‘Lancang’ literally signifies ‘millions of elephants’. Due to their immense physical presence, elephants have repeatedly been imbued with symbolism that transcends their biological reality. These layers of symbolism, accumulating over successive eras, have in turn obscured the animals themselves. This work attempts to examine the entanglement between objects and discourse through the encounters of elephants with reality across different historical contexts, exploring how they collectively traverse history to construct new realities.
The Preludes
Single-channel video (colour, sound), 14′ 55”, 2024
Fuxian Lake is the deepest freshwater lake in Yunnan. Its profound depths lend it an air of persistent mystery, giving rise to numerous local legends. The lake is home to a unique species called the Kanglang fish (Anabarilius grahami), which migrates annually during the breeding season, swimming upstream to spawn in spring water deep within the cliffs along the shore. However, as lake levels recede due to human activity, these ‘fish caves’ have dried up and risen above the water line, preventing the fish from returning.
A similar phenomenon is occurring in the traditional villages surrounding these plateau lakes: the loss of land and tradition, and the abandonment of ‘Stone Cats’ (guardian statues) in their original sites. In this work, the artist borrows a motif of taboos and disasters from Fuxian Lake folklore to find its contemporary counterpart: a narrative of memory and loss, and of places escaped that can never be returned to.
