CELL GALLERY
In loving memory of my grandmother.
I experienced quite a dark time after my grandmother passed away; I felt depressed, enervated, and devitalized throughout the daily life. Everything I do, and everything I see, will remind me of some moments with my grandmother. I was sinking into the memories so much that I couldn’t focus on the present life anymore. It feels like my whole body is out of function, I cannot control my emotions, and my mind keeps returning to the past. To prevent things from getting worse, I started to force myself to go out on the street, to say hello to people, and to take snapshots of random scenes. At that time, I started to notice that countless objects turn out of function/out of service every day. Possessions being abandoned, garbage being thrown away, foods being wasted, even the deceased animals, etc… If my depression caused me “out of service”, then in some way, I can say that my grandmother’s death caused her “out of service”. I felt a wired but strong relation to these things at that moment. I turned my camera to them and tried to keep a record of their existence; in this way, their existence is also a witness of my survival. I try to document things that are out of service as much as I can, so sometimes I take a small snap camera with 35mm black and white films, and on other occasions, I’d just use my phone.
These images, in terms of a selection of Out of Service, I strive to demonstrate different aspects of the meaning of Out of Service: things being used then abandoned, things being wasted, and things that deceased. Also, it intends to showcase them in the proper sequence to let the expression progressively get more vital and more profound, both visually and conceptually.