1989 in Translation #

2022, Single-channel video, color, sound, 4:28 minutes

1989 in Translation marks my first step up a Ladder. Here I walk you through my coming across a chapter in history that my education have be misplaced xxxxx (which I do not dare to openly discuss). In the video, the text displayed on the wall traces an excerpt from the first book I read about the protest after I began using VPN (Virtual Private Network) to bypass the Great Firewall. The audio component of the work featured the sound of Radio Calisthenics, a daily mandatory radio gymnastic exercise for every Chinese student from primary to high school. I performed this exercise in front of Google Lens, while Google Translate generated illegible text blocks in response to my body movements.

1989 in Translation, video still.

1989 in Translation, Installation View at MoA in Photography 23, Finnish Museum of Photography, Finland, 2023

1989 in Translation, Installation View at QWERTY, Solo Exhibition at Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Finland, 2023
image credit: Milla Talassalo / Hippolyte