Wish by the Sea,
2020, Two-channel video installation (3min 20 sec)
Wish by the Sea is a video work documenting the artist's personal experience of leaving home and wandering across the world for more than ten years. It expresses the deep emotional yearning for the departed family member and the lived experience of in-betweenness and exile.
The video shows how the artist learnt to cook a home-style dish from childhood as an attempt to reconnect with her grandmother. Through the juxtaposition of the cooking and Sydney's landscape and seascape, the artist highlights the significance of food for Chinese diaspora. The fish becomes an embodiment of memory, tradition, and loss. The taste from home is a thread that connects this generational relationship, and the Sea becomes a place that evokes a sense of exile, which Edward Said described as "an unhealable rift between a human being and a native place" and "essential sadness".
Wish by the Sea was created during the pandemic and was filmed entirely in Sydney when the artist was forced to be separated from her family. It conjures an intimate and poetic audio-visual narrative by synthesising moving image, food, sound and narration. This work was first created for the Jumping Frame Festival in Hong Kong and was later screened during the Rollout Dance Film Festival in Macau and Guangzhou Times Museum's "Hospital Becoming Art Museum" project.
2020, Two-channel video installation (3min 20 sec)
Wish by the Sea is a video work documenting the artist's personal experience of leaving home and wandering across the world for more than ten years. It expresses the deep emotional yearning for the departed family member and the lived experience of in-betweenness and exile.
The video shows how the artist learnt to cook a home-style dish from childhood as an attempt to reconnect with her grandmother. Through the juxtaposition of the cooking and Sydney's landscape and seascape, the artist highlights the significance of food for Chinese diaspora. The fish becomes an embodiment of memory, tradition, and loss. The taste from home is a thread that connects this generational relationship, and the Sea becomes a place that evokes a sense of exile, which Edward Said described as "an unhealable rift between a human being and a native place" and "essential sadness".
Wish by the Sea was created during the pandemic and was filmed entirely in Sydney when the artist was forced to be separated from her family. It conjures an intimate and poetic audio-visual narrative by synthesising moving image, food, sound and narration. This work was first created for the Jumping Frame Festival in Hong Kong and was later screened during the Rollout Dance Film Festival in Macau and Guangzhou Times Museum's "Hospital Becoming Art Museum" project.
Artist
Bio
https://shiyalu.art/
Instagram @shiyalu.art
Shiya Lu is an artist and creative producer living and working on the traditional lands of the Wann-gal (Wentworth Point, Sydney).
Born in Meishan, Sichuan Province, China, Shiya went to a boarding school in the UK at the age of 16. In 2012, she dropped out from the University of Oxford where she was studying Mathematics, and began her career in cultural journalism and creative producing. Over the past years, Shiya has worked with a broad range of high-calibre artists and organisations including Shaun Parker & Company (Australia), Ibsen International (Norway), WorldService Project (UK), Ergao Dance Production (China), Helsinki Festival (Finland), The Festival Academy (Belgium), and the Edinburgh International Festival (UK). She also frequently writes for cultural publications in both Chinese and English.
In 2019, Shiya founded Flying House Assembly, an initiative dedicated to cross-cultural collaboration in theatre and visual arts. The company's debut production, A DEAL received the Bright Ideas Grant from the University of Sydney and had a sold-out season in Sydney.
Shiya studied Stage Management at the Academy of Film, Theatre & Television (AFTT) and completed the Directors Studio course at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) and the International Curatorial Program at the Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin. She is currently a Dalyell Scholar at the University of Sydney (BA, Art History and Visual Arts). In 2021, she decided to explore the intersection of art and technology, by enrolling in the Master of Visualisation, Simulation and Immersive Design at UNSW.
Shiya’s rich experience across different continents, cultures, and disciplines offered her a unique holistic and transdisciplinary approach towards her artistic practice. Shiya works across different disciplines including video, photography, installation, ceramics, performing arts, curating, and immersive technologies and she is always exploring new possibilities of creative expression.
https://shiyalu.art/
Instagram @shiyalu.art
Shiya Lu is an artist and creative producer living and working on the traditional lands of the Wann-gal (Wentworth Point, Sydney).
Born in Meishan, Sichuan Province, China, Shiya went to a boarding school in the UK at the age of 16. In 2012, she dropped out from the University of Oxford where she was studying Mathematics, and began her career in cultural journalism and creative producing. Over the past years, Shiya has worked with a broad range of high-calibre artists and organisations including Shaun Parker & Company (Australia), Ibsen International (Norway), WorldService Project (UK), Ergao Dance Production (China), Helsinki Festival (Finland), The Festival Academy (Belgium), and the Edinburgh International Festival (UK). She also frequently writes for cultural publications in both Chinese and English.
In 2019, Shiya founded Flying House Assembly, an initiative dedicated to cross-cultural collaboration in theatre and visual arts. The company's debut production, A DEAL received the Bright Ideas Grant from the University of Sydney and had a sold-out season in Sydney.
Shiya studied Stage Management at the Academy of Film, Theatre & Television (AFTT) and completed the Directors Studio course at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) and the International Curatorial Program at the Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin. She is currently a Dalyell Scholar at the University of Sydney (BA, Art History and Visual Arts). In 2021, she decided to explore the intersection of art and technology, by enrolling in the Master of Visualisation, Simulation and Immersive Design at UNSW.
Shiya’s rich experience across different continents, cultures, and disciplines offered her a unique holistic and transdisciplinary approach towards her artistic practice. Shiya works across different disciplines including video, photography, installation, ceramics, performing arts, curating, and immersive technologies and she is always exploring new possibilities of creative expression.
