Book Painting No.21 (Karl Blossfeldt. The Complete Published Work, Taschen GmbH, 2017), Acrylic on Canvas, 28 × 36 cm, 2018, Simian Collection

Private Collection

As much as Tang Dixin’s video may give the impression of a documentary film, once the work begins to reel, one quickly realizes the necessity for adopting a fictional perspective. A young Chinese Tang, who met a young Japanese Nan and convinced him to be buried in a hole among the reeds. This process seemed like two lonely strangers coincidentally met and played a game together, a unique encounter that could not have be repeated. Tang Dixin has an acute ability to grasp theatricality in a contemporary sense–the unusual, illogical and arbitrary encounters of strangers in an unfamiliar environment. The tacit understanding the two men have achieved is final, which neither has a past or a future, nor influenced by any conditions, but in the scenes constructed by these moving images here and now.

The location is the underground passage of the Fuxingmen subway in Beijing, a public space from one platform to another.I ran through the crowd and shouted my name and answered. It was as if I were calling myself and answering myself; It’s like I’m imitating others calling myself or I’m imitating myself in answering. I’m interested that when the spatial relationship between the caller and the responder becomes blurred, the form and result of being recognized by oneself or by others. What I shouted was “Kan Xuan! Ai!”