City Memories
In this work, I explore the themes about city construction, people's memories of the city, the sense of belonging. Many cherished memories are buried and replaced during construction by new buildings like shopping malls or high-rise flats. What really happened under the surface of a beautifying city was assimilation. Every city is becoming New York. I often transport between my hometown Wenzhou and Shanghai, every time I travel back to my hometown, I feel disconnected. After two years in the US, all the buildings in Shanghai around my apartment that I was familiar with were torn down. My "home" now has become a land in my imagination. I chose to go to the ruins next to my house(both in Wenzhou and Shanghai) to collect construction waste as the main body because I believe that house-building materials have a strong connection to the people who have lived in this space. I printed the negatives onto the construction wastes (in this way, photography was considered and applied as a more profound medium of documentary), which serve as both the witness and participant of the changes taking place in cities, and the films were shot right in the places where I collected these wastes, with daily life pictured, environment captured, and construction wastes shown(most of the films were shot before the demolition).