excerpt
The First Photograph
2024
Single-channel digital video (colour, sound)
10′55″
“I thought I would enter another world by climbing over the fence.”
In August 1978, my father attempted his second escape with two friends. The three of them pushed through grasslands, trekking 200 kilometers from China toward Hong Kong. On August 18th, far away in Britain, Siouxsie and the Banshees released their song "Hong Kong Garden." That morning, a lost personal memory gradually emerged from the chaos of grand history.
"The First Photograph" depicts the story of the artist's father, who fled to Hong Kong in the 70s. The video is presented in a series of overlays and montages, initially taken from one of her father's documentary photographs, and then combined with Google Maps to retrace the route of his escape from China, as well as newspaper news and radio broadcasts from 1978 to 1980. The artist also used the old negatives found at home, including those that are overexposed, torn, faded, with light leaks, etc. It is an attempt to find and restore the unrecorded family story in her father's fading memories and to reflect on the larger historical narrative through the individual's life experience.
第一張照片
2024
單頻道數位影像（彩色，聲音）
10′55″
「我以為翻過鐵網就能穿過一個世界。」
1978年8月，父親與兩位朋友進行了第二次逃亡。三人穿越草叢，從中國朝香港前進，徒步跋涉200公里。8月18日，遠在英國，Siouxsie and the Banshees 發行了單曲〈香港庭園〉。那天早上，一段失落的個人記憶，在混沌的大歷史中漸漸浮現。
〈第一張照片〉描繪了一個七十年代時逃難到香港的故事。錄像以大量疊化和蒙太奇的方式呈現，最初取材自父親的一張證件照，再結合通過谷歌地圖重回當年逃港的路線、1978至1980年報章新聞及廣播資料、家中的舊底片，包括過曝、破損、褪色、漏光的壞底片等。試圖在淡去的記憶中，尋覓並還原這段沒有影像記錄的家族故事，透過個體的生命經驗，反觀大型歷史敘事下的距離和時間感。
