Xiaolu Wang
Fallen Day 受难日
16mm to digital
9 minutes 7 seconds
2025
A dragon dance troupe, an aikido class, an ice skating rink. Three scenarios or scenes through which the sensation of falling, or learning to fall, become metaphysical ruminations on modes of existence that draw strength from letting go.
– Morgan Quaintance
Unfolding in three vignettes, each offering its own way of seeing movements, all done with in-camera edits on 16mm. The sound for each segment is asynchronous from the image, all in the form of conversations. The first and third segment are phone conversations between friends, and the second is recorded on location of non-verbal conversations between bodies in a martial art space. My artistic assertion in this film is to set up counterpoints between image and sound, between questions and replies, between movement and directions. The film is a note about falling throughout life. Balance is an illusion. Every step a falling.
Xiaolu Wang was born in Ningxia Muslim Autonomous Region of northwestern China in 1991, and brought up by grandparents who instilled in her the hunger for poetry and practicality. She likes to work at the intersection of film and translation probably due to the fact she worked at a video rental store in order to learn English to survive the life of a transplant stranded on Occupied Dakota land. She proposes works charged with affect of absence, misunderstandings, and migration, as a way to overlap distant realities. She develops video collage and friendships as methods to shift relational possibilities with text, image, sound, and performance. You can also find her in the company of cats and flying kites. For more info and moving image works, visit x140lu.cargo.site. Also recommended: at the bamboo green.
This work is shared by Roman Susan as a part of Evergreen at 4750 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL.