Tao Hui Chilling Terror Sweeps the North, 2024
Two-channel video (color, sound)
Duration: 26:55 min
Dimensions variable
Dimensions variable
Set against the vast and desolate landscape of Northwestern China, Chilling Terror Sweeps the North features a local village girl as its female protagonist. The young woman, at the invitation of a young man from the south seeking love, travels from the arid mountains to a humid southern city. There, she feels utterly out of place and struggles to adapt.
Both characters are depicted with objects attached to their heads, references to characteristics of their persona: the woman's head is dissected by a sickle that corresponds to her insistence on the importance of pain and suffering: "only cruelty can prove great love," she says at some point. The man has a small overturned wooden table attached to his forehead, perhaps alluding to his search for a domestic arrangement. Both attributes are visibly low-tech, literally objects attached to the actors' heads and sometimes seen swinging in the wind. This deliberate break with cinematic convention of narrative illusion is a recurring motif in Tao Hui's practice.
Tao Hui continues his signature style of nuanced visual language and unconventional camera cuts. Imagery of boundless desolation and ethereal vastness evokes classic scenes from Hong Kong cinema. The unique appearance of the male and female leads is inspired by the folk tradition of "Blood Shehuo," a type of ceremonial entertainment popular in China’s northwestern region, often involving singing, dancing, and acrobatics to please the gods. The two characters speak distinctly different northern and southern dialects, while a storyteller performs traditional Chinese music on a secondary screen. Tao Hui creates a poetic space where reality and dreams blend, prompting deep reflection on how we survive and adapt in a world fraught with differences and divisions.
INSTALLATION SPECIFICATIONS
– The dimensions of the work may vary according to the spacial situation.
– Installation manual
– Certificate of authenticity
– Soundsystem
Both characters are depicted with objects attached to their heads, references to characteristics of their persona: the woman's head is dissected by a sickle that corresponds to her insistence on the importance of pain and suffering: "only cruelty can prove great love," she says at some point. The man has a small overturned wooden table attached to his forehead, perhaps alluding to his search for a domestic arrangement. Both attributes are visibly low-tech, literally objects attached to the actors' heads and sometimes seen swinging in the wind. This deliberate break with cinematic convention of narrative illusion is a recurring motif in Tao Hui's practice.
Tao Hui continues his signature style of nuanced visual language and unconventional camera cuts. Imagery of boundless desolation and ethereal vastness evokes classic scenes from Hong Kong cinema. The unique appearance of the male and female leads is inspired by the folk tradition of "Blood Shehuo," a type of ceremonial entertainment popular in China’s northwestern region, often involving singing, dancing, and acrobatics to please the gods. The two characters speak distinctly different northern and southern dialects, while a storyteller performs traditional Chinese music on a secondary screen. Tao Hui creates a poetic space where reality and dreams blend, prompting deep reflection on how we survive and adapt in a world fraught with differences and divisions.
INSTALLATION SPECIFICATIONS
– The dimensions of the work may vary according to the spacial situation.
COMPONENTS INCLUDED IN SALE
– Sound & video files– Installation manual
– Certificate of authenticity
COMPONENTS NOT INCLUDED IN SALE
– Projector & screening material– Soundsystem