The Retracing is a text-image installation that explores the connection and transformation between memory and physical image, as well as the complementarity of image and text in narrative.

 

The story starts from a field trip I went with James Benning—the pioneering filmmaker, also a faculty at CalArts—in a valley around Castaic Lake, California. That trip led me to reflect on human nature, the habit, and the passage of time. It also left an image in my mind, which was always the first that surfaced whenever I recalled that trip. Not satisfied with the fact that that image only existed in my memory, I decided to transform it into a real, physical one. When I returned to the valley to photograph, however, I found that a specific detail I remembered did not accord with the reality. I began the journey of searching what caused the discrepancy, but gradually realized this journey might never have an end…

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