Potential History (work-in-progress)

Potential History continues my exploration of images as transitional spaces, focusing on the intricate relationships between memory, apparatuses, and the reconstruction of history. The work originates from a childhood anecdote my mother often recounted: the carousel spinning in endless loops as she stood waiting nearby, catching glimpses of me every few seconds. This memory does not belong to my own lived experience but was embedded in my imagination and understanding through her retelling. It became a transitional experience, interweaving the realms of reality and imagination. Through her narrative, a personal history is constructed—one that transcends the limitations of photographic documentation and embodies the entanglement of nonlinear time. Using the slide projector, the work seeks to evoke the latent possibilities of unrecorded histories.

“My mother would often recall how I loved riding carousels as a child. As the carousel turned, she stood still, watching me circle round and round. To her, the carousel seemed to move yet not move, and every few seconds, I would reappear, as if she were repeatedly seeing both my past and my future. Decades have passed, and the ‘me’ she glimpsed on the carousel, and the ‘her’ I saw from my seat, continue to meet in our shared memories. These moments, layered upon each other, reappear and expand as we grow older, resurfacing in an endless loop of recollection.

These memories, entirely passed down through her retelling, exist without personal recollection or visual documentation. I wonder how a carousel-like projection apparatus might revisit these absent memories—how it could anchor them in the tangible present while simultaneously challenging the visual hegemony of historical representation.”

2025

Slide Show Installation (projector, slides)
dimension variable  /  22 mins