Letters from 8000 kilometers
By waves and wind
2023
Double-channel video,Yiwu dialect voice-over
Duration:15’24”
This is a series of performance art pieces completed on the beaches and dunes of
the Netherlands, where I wrote two letters in the sand with my fingers, attempting
to send these messages to my hometown, eight thousand kilometers away,
through the actions of wind and waves. On the beach, I wrote letters in Chinese;
each time the waves washed ashore, they gradually smoothed out the words
written in the sand. On the dunes, the shifting sand blown by the wind gradually
scattered my words, leveling the uneven surface. I regard water, sand, and wind
as "transboundary materials" that flow unrestricted by borders, circling the globe
with the Earth's rotation. I firmly believe that these perpetually drifting and
moving elements will one day carry my longing to my hometown, perhaps as a
breeze, a drop of rain in a storm, or a floating speck of dust.
The video's voiceover is in the dialect of my hometown, Yiwu, reading the
content of the letters. I hope that the unique rhythm of the dialect encrypts these
private whispers once again, making them comprehensible only to that distant
land that can truly understand their meaning.