There's a Worm in Your Brain
Black-and-white video, sound, 01'37", glazed porcelain figure
Size variable
2025
News footage of the 14th anniversary of the Soviet seizure of power in the Caucasus, the unveiling of a Lenin statue are revoiced and reedited into the form of a comedic parody news report. The bust of Lenin is 3D printed and slip-casted in porcelain.
This work begins with the question: To what extent do archives present the past? Archives preserve only selected images and voices. However, this fragmented imagery from the past becomes powerful enough to shape how societies remember themselves, and how we understand ourselves in the present.
The plainly-wrong narration from “Lenin’s Brain Worm” is done through an unhinged way to distance the audience from immersion in the usually official, formal news report. The work hopes to create an alienation effect that allows the audience to reflect on the limit, the artificiality, and the fictionality of archive imagery and the history it carries.
Voiced by Jodie Luk, Ariz Ahmadkhanli, Kitman Yeung
Installation view
Video stills
