Minqi Xu
Snow White
2018.12
4'55''
single screen video with sound
This is a surreal short film. The film tells a story about escape, inspired by a common experience about being chased in a dream. The film refers to Maya Deren's film ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ and repeats the scene where the protagonist wakes up in a dream and intertwine the dream and reality. The story takes place in an ordinary domestic scene, borrowing the key element of ‘Apple’ to connect the real and fictional space. Through the arrangement and combination of objects creates a strange and uncanny atmosphere. For example, a huge wax heart that is placed on the dining table, a bleeding apple with red sequins, and a girl who crawls into the suitcase. These surreal settings make the film full of mystery.
This work was my first attempt at surreal themes, basically imitating the work taken in the ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’. Although it lacks personal style and in-depth research on the theme, it has laid the direction for my practice. This work uses a lot of post-production editing, such as overlapping images or putting the same two people in a space, creating an illusion. I spent some time on learning Premiere online and from the technicians. There are no narrations and dialogues in the whole video, only the visual language is used to convey the story. In terms of performance and soundtrack, it was also my first attempt. I used the sound room to produce music. It was a big challenge for me to make music considering I didn't have any music background, but the music production program helped a lot. I tried to avoid any melody and made some sound which can represent the feelings. During the process of filming, I found it very difficult to film and act by myself at the same time. I would record some samples to make sure the composition and lighting before the real shooting. Although it was not easy to take all the roles, at the end I still managed it which gave me some confidence and experience for my later works.
Shelter
2019.02
4'30''
single screen video with sound
This video explores the psychological defense mechanisms. The shelter in the film is a cave, referring to the inner haven of people. The film uses a lot of video clips and voice over to tell an inner struggle process. I use symbolic elements and montages to represent psychological changes at different stages, such as Dolly the sheep kept in a museum, the fox walking in the garden, etc. The narrative of this film is simple and clear, focusing on showing a tangled inner state, afraid of the damage caused by the external world, and looking forward to becoming brave to return to society. Using a lot of post-production, the overlap of multiple moving images creates the effect of illusion and imagination.
This work continues to widely use post-production as ’Snow White’, focusing on creating rich visual effects. However, the scenes of this film are edited using the old video materials I’ve collected, and the corresponding video fragments are found according to the needs of the script. By referring to semiotics to edit the material. I found new meanings from the old footage and it inspired me to use more and more existing raw footage. After this project, I realized the importance of collecting materials from daily life and keep the habit of recording. This is a film that unfolds the story from a voice over, using language to connect fragmented pieces. By making this work, I found my interest in being a storyteller, and my research still focuses on human psychology. The process of this project was quite smooth except for the audio record of voiceover. There was a mistake when I saved the file after recording it in the sound room, so I couldn't open the file. The voiceover now in the video was a second time record.
Bathing In a Fish Tank
2019.05
6'32''
single screen video with sound
This film is a non-linear narrative, which mixes memory, imagination, and dreams through the whole video. The story was inspired by a false memory of mine. When I was six years old, I traveled to the beach with my teachers and classmates, and then I bathed in a fish tank on the beach. I clearly remember the shame of being watched naked by people passing by. But after talking with friends, I found that this memory did not actually happen in my life. It may be that a dream was implanted into my memory. The film arouses sexual awakening and cognition of hidden desires through narration. In Asian culture, sex is a quite sensitive topic. Even parents or schools will not take the initiative to discuss with children. Growing up in this repressive atmosphere has caused many people's sexual desire to be gradually distorted or accompanied by a sense of shame. In the previous research, I referred to Sigmund Freud's book ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’, which illustrates the relationship between dreams and the unconscious, as well as the discussion of dream and sex. I intentionally introduced a clip from David Lynch's ‘Blue Velvet’ into the film, gradually revealing the character's true desire and her resistance to moral constraints.
This work was an experimental of abandoning the traditional linear narrative and turning it into a form of stream of consciousness. I spent more time researching how to construct the story like a puzzle. Like ‘Shelter’, this film is also about the process of self-exploration, revealing the inner world through narration. With regard to the discussion of the inner mind, this time it focuses on the other side of human nature or the original desire of human nature. It still uses the montage technique, mash-up edited the footage, showing the inner desire of the protagonist. Compared with the previous work, this work exposes a very private world to the audience, allowing viewers to face these secrets that they may also hide. But there was a big problem when I tried to submit this work to the exhibition and film festival, which is the copyright of 'Blue Velvet'. I used the song 'Blue velvet' without permission. This is again another challenge for the music part of my work.
Life Stream
2019.02
50'00"
video installation with sound
desk, chair, chips, cup, monitor, keyboard, headphone, lamp, books, pens
‘Live Stream’ is a video installation that simulates a scene in the room. This work discusses that digital devices have been fully integrated into our lives, every moment of the day. In addition to bringing us the convenience of connecting the world, it also exposes our private life to strangers. Is our private space still safe? Do we still have a hint of private space in the digital world? In recent years, more and more TV series and films have discussed the shortcomings of high-tech products, such as 'Black Mirror' and ‘Unfriended'. Some people invade others' private life through these cameras connected to countless electronic products. 'Live Stream' creates a scene that allows the audience to peep into the life of another person. A woman ( who is played by myself)'s daily life is shared on the computer. At the same time, there is a word document by the side to record her each movement. These settings can't help but remind people of perverted stalkers.
The live part of the video is my life recorded with a computer camera, including I spending a lot of time on social networks, using retouching software to make myself look more beautiful, searching for hashtags as well as posting selfies to get more likes and attention. The online world has made people's real lives more and more deformed. Some people are addicted to socializing in the virtual world, and some people peep at the lives of others through the Internet to gain satisfaction. The film creates an illusion of using a computer by recording the screen, such as typing, chatting in live video. There were not many difficulties when I produced this work except many time-consuming screen records and editing. I used a monitor to pretend a computer and I placed keyboards and mouse aside. The reason for this is to keep the video playing safe and smooth, considering there may be a risk of letting the audience interact with this work.
This piece of work is not only a video but also a sculpture. The content of this work is not narrative-based, so the environment that I create is a part of the work. Compared with using only one screen, the video installation makes it easier for the audience to immerse in the atmosphere I created, and the found objects on the desk and furniture also help to build up the narrative. This work shows a private space in a public gallery, breaking the boundaries of space. In the process of watching, the audience will be alert to the uneasiness that privacy may be exposed to. The way of showing a room scene in a pubic space fits the original intention of the work. At this stage, in addition to the content, I will consider different ways of presenting the work and break the limitations of traditional video.
Movie Sins
2019.03
27'48''
video installation, no sound
old television, wooden drawer, DVDs, clock, picture frames
‘Movie Sins’ is a silent film composed of 7 short videos. Each video is borrowed from a classic movie, and I adapted it from the original lines to connect the theme of each short film with one of the seven deadly sins. Since I used post-production to make the picture very blurry, the audience can only rely on subtitles to understand the content. I installed all the movie DVDs I used, but I blurred the cover, including the clock's surface and the photos in the photo frame. All this simulates the illusory and uncertain scene in the memory.
This work is inspired by the variability and inaccuracy of memory. People's memories will change slightly with time and experience. When I give a lot of clues, can the audience know exactly which movie is playing, and is the line of the movie consistent with their impression? This work uses a lot of post-production. Christian Marclay's work ' The Clock' inspired me to borrow ready-made materials into my work. It took me some time to find the right movies to represent the seven sins because even the image is blurred, it still shows the emotion through the movements of the actors. When I added subtitles, the line has to match the duration when the actor speaks, and it increased the difficulty for screenwriting. I reconstructed them to create a scene in memory, which brings the audience into a strange scene with familiarity.
The connection between the seven deadly sins and the movie clips stems from my research on human desires and essence. Movies are reflections of life and human nature. Seven short videos are enough to reflect the various forms of life.
The video installation "Movie Sin" is a sculpture piece rather than a simple video work. I created a home scene in a public space and presented the videos on an old Television. A single screen is far not enough for me to deliver the idea about memory. An installation offers more extra information to the audience and helps them to get into the context better, for example, the blurred photo and DVD cases. Unlike the previous videos, all the clips I used this time are ready-made materials. I thought about how to develop a new story and give it a new meaning to an existing ready-made product. But at the same time, I also realized that more and more artists use this technique to create. The limitations and repetition of using second-hand materials will make my work lose my personal characteristics.
A Place Where There Is Only Winter
2019.07
7'57''
single screen video with sound
"A place where there is only winter" is a short film about my understanding of love. In this film, establishing the relationship of two unrelated topics: love and climate changing, encourage the audience to think about how to extend the shelf life of love. Overall, this is a ridiculous metaphor and contrast, but I aim to encourage the audience to reflect on the fragility of love in this absurdity. "Each couple has different reasons for being together, but there is only one reason for breaking up, that is, they don't love anymore." This sentence makes many reasons for breaking up very hilarious. Everyone tries every means to hide an obvious answer. The story is narrated through two lines: memory and reality. Using a lot of metaphoric material, through the inner monologue to make these seemingly unrelated fragments reasonable. The color of the image is relatively strong, which increases the drama of the story.
This work is an attempt for me to discuss the cinematic language of films. From screenplay to filming, I have a well-consider arrangement. At this stage, I have studied in depth how to present the story with fragmented pictures, and let the audience conceive the rest. In the film, I explored the cinematography of expressing several spaces or feelings at the same time, like the picture in picture and multi-dynamic image technique. For example, in the scene of a couple quarreling, the picture-in-picture in the foreground is the rough sea, showing the real world and the inner world to the audience at the same time. For the use of metaphorical pictures, I am deeply influenced by the film ‘Nymphomaniac vol.1’, which uses animals to present the relationship between predator and prey in the human world. Another attempt was that there was a silent long shot in the film, no music, no dialogue, only white noise. The characters do not have any physical movements, only subtle expression changes. This near-static long shot is a test for the actor, pushing the character's emotions to a climax in the brewing, while also giving this fast-paced narrative work a buffer and breathing space. For the first time in this film, I invited other actors to play the roles. I've met some problems with the audience reflected on their own impression of me in my previous works which I played by myself. Compared with the film I played, the work performed by other people can be more disconnected from the personal impression of the artist. I can also fully invest in controlling the shooting. This film is a cinema-based work, and I intended to use the lighting and editing, and music to add cinematic feelings. So it would be presented by a single big screen in a cinema.
Keep them till you die
2019.11
mix media installation
chair,desk,carpet,UV light,lamp
This work is an installation of mixed media, specially made for ‘Crypt Gallery’ in London, the space for the ‘ IMMUREMENT’ exhibition (2019.11). ’Crypt Gallery’ was originally a bomb shelter during World War II, which was later used as a tomb and eventually transformed into a contemporary gallery. So this exhibition space carries many years of history and war scars. ‘Keep them till you die’ communicates with this special space in the sense. This installation looks like a family scene that has just experienced violence. A fallen chair, a table with one leg missing, a desk lamp scattered on the ground, etc., all hint to the misfortune of the owner. The ultraviolet light bulbs hanging from the ceiling illuminate the text messages written on the chairs and tables. I wrote some secrets on the furniture with a transparent pen. This information is invisible in daylight and can only be revealed by UV light in the dark. The reason for this represents the concealment of secrets, and most people will keep secrets in the dark until they die.
In the early stage of making this work, I invited many people to leave their secrets anonymously in a bottle and I used them as raw material for creating this work. I collected some furniture in a second-hand store and reorganized the legs of the chair in a collage. Second-hand furniture enriched the story of this work. A scratch and a stain are all a piece of history. The reason for the reorganization is to avoid the single interpretation of the work. I hope by using different styles of furniture to represent these secrets’ owners are from different backgrounds.
‘Keep them till you die’ is my first try without using video. Since the beginning of the course, I have found my way of storytelling which is moving-image. A monitor and a video piece were included into this work in the original concept, but I realized there was too much information in this piece and they fight with each other. When I made a video installation, I considered if the relationship between installation with video is supplemental. In the process of making this work, I encountered some problems. For example, the invisible pen is not suitable for writing on furniture, and the ink will penetrate into the cloth or wood. The sentence I wrote didn't look complete, which made it harder for the audience to read and understand the work. Moreover, in this scene I made, the arrangement of the objects will make the audience mistakenly think that it is a story of domestic violence. So this work taught me how to use and adapt materials, and how to accurately convey the theme I want to express.
Alice, Max, John, Sally, Jenny, and Will
2019.11
4’ 54”
3 screens video installation with sound
This work consists of six groups of dialogues, each of which is talking about a certain character, and these six characters have a certain relationship with each other. The relationship of the characters emerges through the unfolding of the dialogue. This is a video with only background sound, and the audience can only understand the conversation between the characters through subtitles. I used this method in my previous film "Movie Sins". Compared to silence, these sounds that sound like eavesdropping across a wall are more likely to arouse the interest of the audience. They seem to be able to hear the dialogue of the characters, but they can't hear the content clearly. By showing people the gossip, I let the audience experience the pleasure of eavesdropping on the secrets of others in public spaces.
The inspiration for the work comes from the fact that I often overhear the conversation at the next table in a cafe or restaurant. At the same time, I also watch people who are far away from me talking and guess what they are talking about. Therefore, in this work, I re-arranged the dialogue of the characters and made another story based on their mouth shape and movement. The video shooting was a very risky attempt for me. I used the GoPro camera that I carried with me to film the strangers. I don't know anything about the background of the characters in the footage and what they are talking about. Because of this, it gave me more space to make up a story that didn't belong to them. They only provided a "performance", and I wrote the script based on the performance. In order to make these unrelated footage look more uniform, I adjusted all the clips to a single color.
This work is presented by three monitors. I planed to show on six monitors and each story with one monitor, but with the shortage of equipment and the duration of each story, I chose three monitors in the end. The reason why I played multiple monitors as a line is that I aim to let the audience find the relationship between each story. When they watch the stories side by side, they could easily see the connection with them. This multi-screen installation opened up the possibility for me to use the multi-angle narrative. But the disadvantage of multi-screen images at the same time is the overlapping of multiple soundtracks, so I did not re-record their dialogues on this work, instead, I used subtitles. In this regard, I began to think about how to use multiple screens to show the storyline, but at the same time, it can retain different soundtracks, including dialogue and over voice.
2020.3
2 screens video installation, no sound
This work is a looping video installation consisting of two vertical monitors. In this installation, it shows two records of browsing Instagram on a phone. The two screens play simultaneously, and the same accounts appear in order, but the content posted on both sides is different. On the left are popular topic posts that we can often see on Instagram, such as travel, beauty, selfies, study, art, food, fitness, etc. Although the screen on the right has the same posting accounts, it presents a completely different mentality and conveys a more negative mood. I used the photos downloaded online to fabricate virtual character accounts and their lives and matched the posts with these photos.
The inspiration for the work comes from my doubts about the content received on social networks. A large number of people spend a lot of time sharing their lives on social platforms, gaining inner satisfaction by being followed and liked. But is the private life as glorious as they post it? As a loyal user of a social platform, my experience tells me that some people hide their true life and create a perfect avatar in the virtual network. I hope that through such a comparison of the left and right screens, the audience will see the different mentalities of the same person at the same time more directly.
In the process of making this work, the biggest difficulty is to simulate the effect of the mobile phone browsing Instagram, but also to maintain the playing speed of the two screens is the same. I first saved the Instagram pages of the two videos as a long JPG image, which was originally presented by the physical mobile phone screen recording, but the content browsing speed of the two screens is not the same. So later, I used animation to simulate the effect of sliding the finger on the screen, and then put the same motion track into the two videos.
This work is my further exploration of multi-screen video installation and I used two vertical monitors to simulate smartphones. This work could also present on smartphones, but it is not friendly for more audiences to watch at the same time. The content posted between each account is not relevant, and the overall work is not narrative, so it seems to lose focus. In terms of themes, I returned to previous work, ‘Live Stream’. Social networks take up most of human real life, and people use it to fill their inner emptiness. It is also displayed in the form of screen recording, but the direction of expression is not completely consistent. ‘Live Stream’ focuses on the uneasiness of private life being spied on. ‘Instagram’ discusses more the double sides of human beings in the real world and the virtual world. How much authenticity is left when we see a post on a public platform?
The Green Light - interview
2020.2
7’51’’
Single screen video with sound
This work is composed of interviews with three people, who are telling their experience of seeing the ‘Green Light’. In this film, I didn’t offer the answer to what’s the ‘Green Light’. Through this keyword, three interviews are connected in series. In this work, I use a similar way like ‘Alice, Max, John, Sally, Jenny and, Will’ to present the story through language. There is no physical shooting but the audience will construct a scene in mind. The way of interviewing is not unfamiliar in video art. It can express a person's emotions and convey stories intuitively. In many movies and TV series, the clues of the case will be connected through interviews with witnesses or suspects. Or in Sally Potter’s movie ‘Rage’, delivering a murder scene by recording different character’s words and reactions in the interview. In the second part of this film, I used a filming technique "crossing the line" to edit from the scene in the camera to the scene of the shooting place. Such a space change allows the audience to suddenly switch the idea from watching an interview video to watching a documentary. At the end of the film, there is a clip of screen recording, which is the scene of editing the video on Premiere. The jumping of each layer in the film implies a real and false change. The theme has returned to one of the main parts of my research direction: the question of the boundary between real and false. Especially today, with the spread of the Internet, how much truth is retained in all produced TV shows or online videos
The production of "Green Light" was completed in three stages. First, the interview part was filmed. Later, a shooting site was added. Finally, a screen recording part was added during the editing process. I encountered some technical problems during the filming process. For example, I recorded interviews with three people twice. Due to the different light settings and radio equipment, although I kept them as consistent as possible, the final effect is still different. For example, the clarity and volume of audio, as well as the direction and brightness of the lighting, the effect of wide-angle, and so on. The work "Green Light" directly influenced the direction of my assessment project. I continued this theme: some discussions about dreams and reality, lies and truth, post-production blinding to facts, and other issues. In the assessment project, it’ll change to a dual-screen installation to expand the narrative from two perspectives in two parallel worlds.