Flying Suofen Plan 1 & 2
Flying Suofen Plan 1, 3 channel video, color, stereo sound, 4’07”, 2017
The right perpetuator I try to portray is a power machine in the depths of society, hidden, and operational.
In Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialect, “Suofen” means dried rice noodles that is fragile and easy to break.
I asked a programmer friend to bring me some Suofen without sophisticated package and protection measures from Hangzhou to Beijing and help me to record the whole process. From the moment he bought the Suofen to the moment I received it, every step of the long journey was recorded with a camera. From another perspective, Suofen experienced walking, taking the elevator/escalator, talking a taxi, passing the security check, and taking a flight.
Since my friend is only an amateur cameraman, I didn’t plan any requirements about structure, composition, and storyline. The purpose is to observe through a unique and commonly-neglected angle and to be aware of the existence of Suofen. It is also a way to reflect modern life and the observation of the national system. For example, we can sense the contradiction between an efficient modern lifestyle and strict safety checks of the innocent “Suofen". Meanwhile, the video, as a media product, also captured some unremarkable details (like buildings and fashions) in this Information Explosion Age.
Flying Suofen Plan 1, exhibition archive, 3 channel video, color, stereo sound, 4’07”, 2017
Flying Suofen Plan 2, 3 channel video, color, stereo sound, 4’11”, 2020
Traveling with this noodle again during the pandemic changes the standard and the details of "security checks" in the journey. I wanted to explore and understand how terrorism directs our daily life and capture the fragments of daily life from ordinary people under the control of the national machine in the first project in 2017.