River Cao
8 mins
River is My Hometown reveals the perspective of a revenant through a short film. A revenant is ‘one that returns after death or a long absence.’ In response to the question “return to where?”, the poet Rilke suggests an answer in Duino Elegies (1923): “in my invisible landscape, the most beautiful, you make me more angel-known, those are invisible.” Artist River Cao points to a similar inspiration: a traditional funeral ceremony “Plead for Water” from his hometown returns him as a revenant to a homeland that transcends the geographic concept, to reconsider the emotion of grief.
River Cao is a moving image and performance artist based in London. River’s works arise from a mourning approach; rebuilding the landscape from his early memories and discovering the perspective of the revenant mark the process of mourning in his practice. River is interested in how lamentation as a translation strategy interprets the fluidity of the subject.