Day Dream /白日梦
“Yes. I think the question of cultural identity and belonging can hardly be ignored... It is, as you said, a way of translating ‘Chineseness’ into the landscape and into the history of this place. Its a way of re-telling stories. ”
In the opening scenes of the video work ‘Day Dream’ / 白日梦 (2020), Echo Cai and her long-time artistic collaborator Fu Hong, sit together nonchalantly smoking and playing the harmonica. Filmed in black and white, the plaintive tune of the harmonica makes the scenography reminiscent of a black and white, Western film. And yet, the characters are Chinese and the clothes are clearly present day. The imagery shifts then to the roadside viewed from the car. Barrelling past, there is the sense of the awe-inspiring expansiveness of the landscape - which can hardly be disguised as the reddened earth of central Australia. Hereafter the scenography flickers back and forth - between the protagonists in black and white, and the landscape in the vibrant, earthy colours of Australia’s centre.
In Conversation
with
Echo Cai (EC) & correspondences’ Emma Thomson (ET)
ET—Was the curtailment of your recent visit to Broken Hill the inspiration for ‘Day Dream’ / 白日梦 (2020)?
EC—Yes! I was so disappointed I could not visit and so Fu Hong and I made the work. I used footage from my other travels into the outback and the harmonica always has that slightly sad, yearning quality. It felt appropriate.
ET— There is a sense of repetition in this work, back and forth between the roadside imagery of nature and the protagonists in the story, which is also a feature I see in your other works. It implies this sense of connection and the idea of the process of thinking - about time and humanity’s place in this environment.
EC—Yes. I do like to use repetition to create a narrative. In the wake of COVID-19, the context in which the work was born, it asks; what do we need to think about in terms of our relationship with this place in nature?
ET—When we know something of your love of central Australia – and your plans to visit Broken Hill – as well as your research into understanding the role of early Chinese-Australian settlers which we discussed in our recent newsletter, the work takes on a deeper meaning around cultural identity and belonging.
EC—Yes. I think the question of cultural identity and belonging can hardly be ignored. As you have written to me…
“There is a sense of a Chinese presence being implanted or translated into the Western genre of film-making and into the iconic scenography of central Australia, as a way of translating ‘Chineseness’ into the landscape and into the history of this place. It is a way of re-telling stories”.
