Raging Blossoms, Ailing LeavesDec 2023 (re-edited Feb 2025)
Experimental film and performance
Materials: paper leaves, string, mask, Eucalyptus tree leaves, black ink, cheese cloth
Equipment: GoPro HERO9, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 IV
Duration: 4 minutes 53 seconds
Raging Blossoms, Ailing Leaves is about an intricate journey of a person of Eastern Asian origin grappling with her fragmented memories and searching for her own sense of belonging.
Looking back years later, I hold conflict emotions towards this piece. While I no longer fully agree with some of its messages, I acknowledge it as an important exploration of identities—a concept often framed as passive political labels but, in reality, should be formed organically through active, lived experience.
One of the central elements of this work is the burial ritual and its relationship to the land I walked upon. I see this piece as a reflection on the past, a proper burial for my fear and confusion surrounding my passively assigned identities. I believe this is the best ending for my past—falling asleep in the embrace of the earth or dissolving into the ocean waves…