The project is a mixed media installation documenting the passage of time and space, particularly during the journey from home to Australia. This was inspired by a moment during a car trip when everything familiar seemed to regress ten years. Through video recordings from a dash cam, online panoramic screenshots, and narrative poetry, the project reveals the contrast between physical change and the unchanging essence of home.
It explores the delicate sense of time, space, and change, capturing the subtle interplay between tangible transformation and the enduring familiarity of its roots.
When time passes, your body don't always register the hours and seconds; sometimes it drags, and other times it flies by.
For the last six years, my life has oscillated between two countries, Australia and China. The pandemic has distanced home from home, not only spatially but also due to the perceived differences brought by time. Despite many relocations, such as boarding planes and traveling long distances, the essence of home remains the same. The installation invites everyone to reflect on the complex dynamics of perception and reality in the context of migration and personal memory. Using a third-person narrative, I believe this feeling is not unique to me but resonates with a collective sense of nostalgia and longing for home.
Audio captions in video spoken in Mandarin (with translations):
当走出家门的时候，离开家的感觉并没有产生。
When stepping out of the house, the feeling of leaving home did not arise.
好像只是和平时一样出去了一趟，
It felt like a usual outing.
区别是这一趟可能要些许远一些，时间要久一些。
The difference is that this trip may be a little farther and longer.
女孩总是在路上，去机场的那段路她烂熟于心。
The girl was always on the go, and she knew the way to the airport by heart.
往返一次需要两个小时十四分钟，往返一次需要七十四分钟，
A round trip took two hours and fourteen minutes, a round trip took took seventy-four minutes,
往返一次需要六十六分钟，往返一次需要二十六分钟。
A round trip took sixty-six minutes, a round trip took twenty-six minutes.
一次离别重逢的循环需要七十四分钟。
A parting reunion cycle took seventy-four minutes.
女孩觉得那些距离有些时候很近，有些时候又得数着秒计算。
Some days those distances felt close, other days she had to count the seconds.
从家到家之间是一个小时十分钟五十秒。
Between home and home it was an hour, ten minutes, and fifty seconds.
从家到家之间是三十三分钟三十四秒。
Between home and home it was thirty-three minutes and thirty-four seconds.
从家到家之间是十五分钟。
Between home and home it was fifteen minutes between home and home.
从家到家之间是十五个小时二十秒。
Between home and home it was fifteen hours and twenty seconds between home and home.
女孩的这一生拥有过很多的家。
The girl has had many homes in her life.
这些家大大小小，散落南北各地，却总是挨着机场。
These homes have been large and small, scattered north and south, but always next to an airport.
回家曾经很难，家也曾经很远。
Home used to be hard to go back, home used to be far.
女孩有时候在想那段回家的路是否只是她幻想出来的。
The girl sometimes wondered if that journey to home was just a figment of her imagination.
相似的气味，相似的飞机飞过的画面，相似的温度，相似的梦，相似的一切。
Similar smells, similar images of airplanes flying by, similar temperatures, similar dreams, similar everything.
她就这样想着又想着，让她感觉好像从来没有离开过。
She just thought about it and thought about it, making her feel as if she had never left.
飞机起飞降落的声音成了女孩的白噪音，伴随着她的生活和旅程。
The sound of airplanes taking off and landing became the girl's white noise that accompanied her life and journey.
那讨厌的声音一开始让她整宿整宿的睡不着，后来她也就习惯了。
That annoying sound kept her awake all night at first, but she got used to it.
只要听到那声音她就觉得是到家了。
As long as she heard that sound, she felt like she was home.