Déjà vu

2023-24, loop, mixed media installation

16mm film, sound, clay, iron oxide

"Thirty meters of metal wire were directly exposed onto thirty meters of film negative. Here, the metal wire may be read in all its ambivalence: as a device for entrapment, or as a tool of escape from high-rise building during fires.

The booming bass rhythm derived from 2022 protest chants in China—erased of words—interrupts the narrator’s voice, which interweaves memories of physical injury, whether from accidents, hate crimes, or police brutality. Independent to the 16mm projection, the digital audio also loops, with each loop rendering different fragments in the narration illegible. If déjà vu “is just a bodily sensation, not a real memory,” is it possible to use one’s own physical memory to understand or relate to someone else’s experience?

Like a déjà vu of sorts, this question also resurfaces in a clay replica of a precious Qing dynasty calligraphy brush rest that sits on the window frame. Originally made of jade-like opaque glass and found in the households of royals, artists, or poets (usually men), the brush rest is molded in the shape of a naked boy kneeling on the floor— an object signifying high status.

Commissioned by Kevin Space and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo