Four tracks, 2021
Amongst all the artworks inside the exhibition, “Four tracks” by Shen Xin was the one I find the most refreshing. The idea of just typing words and sentences on a plain background with bright colours including cyan, magenta and yellow, seems simple yet odd but the way the project engages with the watchers attracted people the most.
A six-channel interactive installation which was displayed with 6 iPads was closest to the theme “The Instructed Collective” as it contained three continuous stories empowering alternative histories, relations and potentials between individuals and nation states. By tapping on the screen, you will get each words and sentences guiding you to the next scenery as it seeks to create affirmative spaces of belonging that embrace polyphonic narratives and identities.
As the conversations between four groups of Chinese railroad workers who are all gathered from across different lands and epochs, you can tell the time and space collide while reading each story. The workers wonder which group brought the mosquitoes, though they slowly realise no one is to blame as mosquitoes inhabit all the lands they arrived from. Those from the past raise their voices, while those from the present are silenced.
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