ALONG THE PIXEL EDGE OF SUEZ CANAL

HD full screen is recommended. 

digital photography, 60 x 40cm, 9 pieces

single-channel video, 16min40sec, color, silent

2015-2017

The entry into Egypt was declined due to political crisis in 2015. when we were transiting through the Suez Canal, I tried to capture from afar the tiny white plates inserted into the landscape: the numbers, which are almost the same size with the soldiers, civilians, hollow windows, flags, shipwrecks and plants. The insurmountable distance of viewing flattens the conflicts, the daily life or even a whistle from the opposite bank onto the same image: a sand table with plastic mini models. 

Enlarge the images till the edges of pixels emerged. There he is. Holding his phone carefully to avoid sunlight and trying to take a picture of me. On a bigger monitor, I decide to look for more “mini models” who look back at me and document their fuzzy portraits. As a second transit through the canal, the video work looks into the minimum number of squares required to conjure faces, bodies, and objects that they hold on to.


exhibition view, OCAT Shanghai

2017