A Dazzling Grey

Before it gradually took shape as a video installation, A Dazzling Grey began as a series of poems on shadows that I wrote during an artist residency in Japan in 2016. The work stems from contemplation of a fleeting moment – a temporal displacement of being – a state of having departed and yet not necessarily settled. It describes a shift in one’s reality, an acknowledgment that one is in the midst of a journey: floating, searching, and longing.

The two videos capture the graceful movement of birds, presented and juxtaposed as references of two geographical locations which are familiar to me – one across a rice field in Asia, and the other, above the sky of a Middle East landscape. Together, the videos are intended to become windows that frame instances of ordinary encounters. Yet, this meditative act of gazing could also transport us to a dream-like realm, filtering our conceived realities and fantasies. What is seen as certain may not be after all, and what seems indefinite, could be authentic.

(Artist note, 2019)

The work was shown in Palazza Mora, Venice, in conjunction with The Venice Bienalle, Italy, 2019