The Secret of Growth

Commissioned and performed by NakedEye Ensemble
Premiered at Delaware County Community College March 10, 2022 in Media, PA with additional performance at Zoetropolis Cinema Stillhouse, Lancaster PA and Temple University, Philadelphia.

The Secret of Growth is an audio-visual piece conceived as an ancestral altar honoring past generations of family members through the framework of film and sound. The five movements draw upon traditional Chinese symbols of veneration including offerings of light, food, flowers, water, and imagery associated with various individuals. While honoring ancestors in my bloodline, this piece also acknowledges the disjunction with the traditions and heritage of my past as a result of my family's diasporic trajectory. I began first by composing the music with the offerings as seeds to the sounds, then created the visual imagery as a continuation of the sound.

The first movement is an offering of light, inspired by the practice of burning joss paper or 'spirit money', which is burned to provide wealth to the deceased in the afterlife. The second movement symbolizes an offering of food through the imagery of steam, one of the main elements of Chinese cooking and known to preserve the vitality and nutrition of prepared food. The third movement presents an offering of flowers through the act of looking at a lily. The imagery juxtaposes my act of observing lilies with a black and white photograph of a lily taken by my maternal grandfather, a gifted photographer who was unable to fully realize his talents. Though I remember him mostly for his acerbic and rough personality, I chose to mirror his act of regarding these delicate flowers in homage to the lineage of his artistic spirit. The fourth movement combines the element of water with a playful re-anima-tion of my maternal great-grandmother and grandmother's faces. Through filming the slow examination of my Manchurian great-grandmother's facial features, I connected to her enigmatic expression in unexpected ways. Her features, which previously seemed worn from a hard life, revealed a kind of grace and artfulness in living 'close to the bone', and her warm and nurturing character was indeed confirmed by my mother's recollections. Towards the end of this movement, a subtle overlay of video 'generations' (filming a projection of something filmed) offers a visual connection to how our visages transform through multiple generations in a family. As altars are also typical places of reflection, this piece serves as a literal one – reflecting elders of my own heritage, which I saw little to none of in filmed media while growing up. The fifth movement serves as a recapitulation of all these offerings in collage with actual photographs of my ancestors, going back four generations to my paternal great-great-grandfather. In part, my impetus for this piece is to recognize the immutable elements within oneself that resist dissolution in the great experimental 'melting pot' of American culture. My deepest gratitude to Ju-Ping Song and NakedEye Ensemble for commissioning and performing this piece.

Mvmt. 1 - light
Mvmt. 2 - food
Mvmt. 3 - flowers
Mvmt. 4 - water
Mvmt. 5 - lineages