the soup is getting cold

In memory of Hai Chen 献给陈海老师

The metal thing in the middle is a ring I bought in 2018 and has been intensively wore. During video shooting, it was going through ultrasonic cleaning where those white smokes were results from contaminants attached to the ring and cavitation induced by inaudible sound. With some realistic overthinking, the contaminants are, in a sense, my traces unintentionally accumulated between 2018-2021 – traces of all irreversible experiences over last three years.

 The second part of video is showing an imagined accumulation progress by reversing the cleaning process.

 “the soup is getting cold” is from an unfinished conversation in 2018 with my dearest mentor and friend Hai Chen whom this work is dedicated to. I only found out late this year that this sentence was believed to be Leonardo da Vinci’s last written words.

 – xiaowan 11/2021

throat singing: Hao Xu

video technician: Feiqi  Wang