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Video Work

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The Answer Lies in the Mud

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Media: 
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Sound Record: 
Wood Working: 
3 Channels Video Media Installation
10’10
2024

221 Desdor Studio

Kaiyu Wang
Xueyi Sun
Ruolin Liu

Sandberg Instituut Media Lab
Sandberg Instituut Wood Workshop
The Answer Lies in the Mud is inspired by the dynamic tension among Kaiyu’s identities and his reflections on the persistent absence of a sense of safety and belonging in the intersectional experiences as a queer individual in China and as an Asian queer in the Netherlands. In this work, by reclaiming queerness in ancient Chinese mythologies, Kaiyu question the factors that contribute to the invisibility of Chinese queer identities while challenging the white, male-centered queer narratives.


Based on the mythology of ancient Chinese gay god Tu’Er Shen, Kaiyu is retrospecting and reconstructing the queer narratives in mythologies that were erased during the colonizing invasion and the country’s modernization process, he want to explore how the identity of Chinese queer is being continuously reshaped through ancient mythology, regime’s oppression, and cultural colonialism.


The Answer Lies in the Mud conveys the confused states of becoming a Chinese queer, while also questioning and challenging the predominance of white-male-centered mainstream and Western queer narratives, also explores whether a mediator exists for Asian queers in the gap between multiple layers of local culture and white-centered Western queer narratives.


The videos are played separately on three screens installed in a shrine designed and made by Kaiyu. This shrine is a divine space that also serves as a carrier of traditional family moral values, coming together as a complete moving image installation.