Last Days on the Island, 2021
artist’s book, archival pigment print on transparency film
11 × 17 × 0.6 inches (27.94 × 43.18 × 1.52 cm)
This artist’s book responds to the demolition of housing on Lingkun island by a local government. It captures the mundane moments of one resident’s life (my grandfather’s), meticulously tracing each interval of the day to preserve the final moments of serenity, before his dispossession. Using transparent layers, it weaves together fleeting moments, scenes, and the people who populated his life. These transparent layers however also capture traces of the readers enfolding them into the narrative, collapsing geographies and complicating histories.
灵昆 (líng kūn) it’s called
There, my grandma’s life took root
Raised on its soil, then left
to marry my grandpa
Embarking on a new life
Years drifted by
Our family reclaimed a little piece of land
Slowly transforming into a place that my grandparents call home
A new life unfolded for my grandpa
For thirteen years, and to this very day
I remember those years
When our family gathered there
Setting off firecrackers to celebrate the New Year
Burning old soil in a pile and roasting sweet potatoes
And the little yellow dog that aged alongside the house
Amid government expropriation
The house approaches the end of its time
Capture photos to ensure we won’t forget
With transparencies
Shadowing my grandpa’s day
Overlapping fragments of the mundane
The new life he developed here
Flip through the pages
Leaving fingerprints behind
Reliving the moments
The trace of being there before