Micro narratives…
The narratives of micro events
First things first:
take a microscopic approach –
attention to the details of perceivable surfaces, minute movements, and minimal processes…
No monumental events, no grand discourses, no calculated plot lines, but –
Textures…
Textures of the quotidian, of material surfaces, of emotions and loose thoughts that –
…that have escaped our naked eyes and informed perception
Microscopic approach –
…a series of experiments in our city,
in the darkest corners
in broad daylight,
in his kitchen,
inside your closet,
her muttering,
in neighborhood parks and squares,
on multi-lane freeways….
It only takes a moment of courage to blow off – “1-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-5-6…”
Someone was laughing, but as you try to follow the squishing, squashing, splashing,
Beware of the collapsing earth right behind you, hush…
Stay awake for the patch of barely audible secrets – what-if-haven’t-I-told-you-don’t you dare…
…as it dashes off leaving behind only a slimy draught…
Time regained. You enter the tiny bedroom of a child, reading him reading and rehearsing violence. …The steelworks in Causeway Bay produce a pitch that replicates itself in a cargo boat in Yau Ma Tei. …A word from you: a legend about love. A word from me: an urban myth about a creepy videotape.
Let’s bake a napoleon cake with our colorful time sheets: and let’s not worry about the imperfect suture of the layers.
Cover it up, cover it not.
She grew up failing to learn the secrets of how to powder a woman’s face whereas he
…lost in time, wanders from one (re-)construction site to the next.
Fingers crossed, all this will soon be revealed as a standard scene in a generic TV melodrama episode.
How long does it take for someone to walk from the 24th floor to the 48th floor?
He stared at him, at himself, and his shadow(s) to be.
A world could be defined as a 4x3 rectangular frame, further fabricated by a string of glittering sounds. One frame, many worlds. Many frames, one/many world(s).
I’ve lost track of when and where. You snuck ahead. And because of that, we sequentially become an impossible sequence.
Imagine 24 screens blinking 108 invented worlds all at once,
Be it a mix of romance or resentment, prayers or agony,
Perhaps simply a string of murmurs sliding by bouncing off cement walls to become nothing but noise, noise and noise.
You – or I – want to spend 200 more sentences, 25,000 more words, and repeat 30 more times of what you see and what your hear… Try. Try again. Exhaust your language.
- Linda LAI / Curator
[English translation by Wesley Tang and Linda Lai]