TOKYO-2017

Eyes Close, Shadows Awake

  • Photographer
    Wen Hang Lin

We have learned to capture the moment and tell a story through photographs. Yet, our conception of the reality around us really is a continuous act of layering moments of experience. What we see as real is only defined by our belief structure. Therefore, the question is what exactly is the moment? If time can arbitrarily weave together many moments, what our perception and memory of the moment will change in that intertwining of time? Adopting coincidence as a creative tool, this series of images is an attempt to glimpse between two layers of time. The overlapping images, created by rewinding film after it has been exposed, fused two separate events into an abstract space. The vibrant colors and ambiguous details blur the boundary between reality. Seemly ordinary street scenes transform into a stage, in which, the puzzling occurrence allows viewers’ memories move between the ridges of the consciousness, appearing when stimulated or when least expected. It is an improvisational performance between the photographs and viewers’ sub-conscious, provoking a visual sense with both the hidden and the present.