Yes, Today
Three-channel video
9’57’’
2017–2022
Several underage boys from impoverished mountainous areas in Sichuan, China, were learning combat in a boxing club in a large city and participated in underground fights. After media exposure, local authorities took the boys back to their hometowns. Using this incident as a thread, the work invites some of the boys to perform combat in the fields, mountains, and streets of their hometown.
The work brings together elements the artist has used before: social investigation, intervention and dialogue, and video documentation. Through the video, the artist magnifies the fate of this group—extending from individuals to a community, and further to the fate shared by many people today. The battles for the future emerge and unfold on different levels, and the themes of life, death, violence, and ideals are extracted in a poetic manner. What seems absurd is woven by the artist into a narrative about personal struggle and destiny.
