84/Eighty-Four (2023)
On his eighty-fourth birthday, the old man, who has seen the world through the rectangular-shaped gate every day since he lost the use of his legs, sits in the middle of the entrance, waiting for his relatives to arrive for his big day.
The moment he blows out his candles, a strong wave of memories comes flooding back and he cannot help crying, like a child, among everyone he loves and cares about. His beliefs, his glory, his family, and those unfinished wishes burst with tears and dissolve into applause and laughter...
This project is a reconstruction of my memories of my grandfather's eighty-fourth birthday based on photos I took on that day. By combining and transforming my mixed feeling and what happened on his birthday, his life was unfolded in front of me. His vulnerability in both body and mind hits me. I was with him the whole day, as granddaughter and observer, the participants and witness. His life mirrors the history, politics, and culture he experienced within his life span, while reversely these can tell nothing about his individuality.
The retrospective power of memories motivates me to initiate the recreation of those archived photographs. He told me melancholy “Your father needs a son. Only a son can inherit the glory of the family.” The granddaughter was silenced forever by those facts, while the observer created a new layer through the process of reterritorialization.
I was there face-to-face with him. I am here face to face with my memories of him.