2023

Interactive Installation

Customized telescopic machine, sickbed, cloth, sensor

​

When we are born, we are brought into this world in a hospital bed; as we age, we eventually end up in the same place as we approach the end of our lives - the beginning and the end life is a sickbed.

 

In the work Mother / Father, the artist Di utilizes 20 customized telescopic devices and makes them move in certain patterns by coding. With an irregular up-and-down movement, all the machines intend to mimic the breathing of dying human lying in a sickbed. While the work stays silent and static without any audience interactions, the viewers are welcomed to wake the living being on the bed by circling around the bed and triggering the sensor. “Without companionship, the life in the bed is no different than a corpse.” Di states, and he indeed tries to embed this thought into the interaction of this piece.

 

Di’s grandmother and grandfather passed away in the summer of 2023. Mother / Father is also a work for him to memorize his grandparents.