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The Photograph Ahead Of The Vehicle (WIP)


Video Installation / Collaboration with Yu Chau /
(2016 - The day until one of us die)


Death is like a ghost, it follows us since we born.

"The Photo Ahead Of The Vehicle" referring to the dead portrait which used in Chinese funeral: a still portrait of the deceased will be hanged ahead of the hearse, so as to symbolize the soul and the yearn of relatives. The project is a lifetime on going collaboration with Yu Chau. The work take the concept of exchanging the media: by changing the still photo to video, a strong statement about death have been draw.

The work instructions are listed as below:
   - The whole project started at 1/5/2016.
   - Whenever I meet up with Yu, we will take a 10s video of each other.
   - The composition of the video (framing) follows the death portrait.
   - We are able to behave whatever we want to, the only rule is about the framing.
   - The whole project will stop whenever anyone of us die.
   - The video will be edited into a chronological order.
   - The finished work will be exhibited in the funeral of the dead person.

There are reasons behind choosing still photograph as the death portrait in general: The stillness provide viewer a feeling that the deceased was isolated in another world and unable to communicated with others anymore. By changing it to video, a surreal have introduced. The relatives and friends who participate our funeral are expected to experience the montage in a complicated emotional, since they will see us moving from the video. An illusion was produced. In that sense, the media itself actually change the meaning of a object which carry a culture content.

The work will also invite audiences to think about the idea of preparing for death. Choosing how to behave in front of camera and when to record the 10s sort of designed how you want yourself to be seen after you dead.

The work is going to be the last gift between two of us.