8/ Caspiar

2017
By Angela Su
Duration: 5:20 min.
Recommended by Yang Yeung

How does this work investigate “hope?”
The work could be read as a creative non-fiction and fiction, a lost legend. It works with cultural elements that make the placeness of a place – at once a sunken island by the name of Caspiar, and Hong Kong in 1998, one year after its sovereignty changeover. The narration is an interview in mixed languages, addressing the longing for home, but in a matter-of-fact and emotionless tone. Part fiction, part fact, the story critiques the colonial gaze, internalized by inhabitants of Hong Kong, and also invites the re-imagination of the past and future as a necessary process of decolonization.

About the work:
The video is an interview with a refugee from the island of Caspiar that sunk in 1998. The refugee fled from Caspiar to Hong Kong and makes a living in the city as a domestic helper. The work traces the history and culture of Caspiar and questions the truthfulness of memories. Caspiar ends with Proust’s poem “In Search of Lost Time.”