When I was a child, I always dreamed about being trapped in a huge, shaking metronome. I had to sing out the correct musical tune in order to escape. Yet no sound came out no matter how hard I cried or sang. The horrible dream stemmed from my frustrating experience of being forced to learn to play the piano beginning at age four.
In this video, I incorporated both still and moving images. In the middle of the video, I photographed the metronome from different perspectives, in different times, then edited the photographs, frame by frame, into a hypnotic, accelerating metronome carrousel. This disorientating and distorting effect is meant to revive the ghost of my dream and evoke a memory that has cast its shadow across my mind for years. The repetitive ticking of the metronome symbolizes my ceaseless attempts to free myself from being trapped by the passing of time, from memories and experiences that linger even as they grow distant. The bad news: I know I cannot run away from them. The past remains ever present.
Directed by Jingyi Wang (China)