If Longing has a Color, It Must be Sino-Red

Medium: Video

Length: 13min

Size: Variable

Date: 10/2024

This video installation focuses on the narrative and aesthetic language of erotic cinema. Set in a reconstructed massage room, the piece features a therapist dressed in a qipao, engaging in playful English banter with a fully covered “client,” while her gaze remains fixed on an implied television screen. The background sound, composed of clips from the Chinese New Year Gala, merges symbols of Eastern culture with the tension of a Western gaze. By borrowing the visual grammar of erotic films, the work reveals an undercurrent of tension and absurdity, exploring the body’s role in processes of objectification and how cinematic language shapes cultural identity and the dynamics of the gaze.

Exhibition View & Screenshots