As though swept away by a gust of wind that must be fought against as one descends, each step down the staircase is a struggle to find one’s feet. The external descent echoes an internal, psychological descent. As though one descended from a superficial state of consciousness towards a deeper one. The external space and the internal space are deformed by the steps of the staircase. These distortions may add strata of experience to the original. At first indecipherable, our first impressions may include a near-infinite infolding of hidden meanings, which become apparent only when we adjust our anamorphic perspective. Like forgotten companions, witnesses of past battles, slabs of past experiences piled atop each other, whose renewed correspondence is the only possible way of recovering what slumbers within. And yet, going beyond comfortable superficiality is disquieting, at first. For it is a letting go of past lightness, towards a more fragile and sickly state.
Directed by Pan Daijing
