The Ground of Memory
记忆之地 (2025-)
Coastline
海岸线 (2024-)
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The Ground of Memory 记忆之地 (2025 - ongoing)
The Ground of Memory is a multi-disciplinary project incorporating photography, sculpture, collage and text. It explores the notions of historical a priori, inheritance, and shaping.
Based on his grandfather's personal experiences during the Great Leap Forward, Jialin Sun uses collected materials, forged texts, archives, and photographic collages to create an intentionally biased and fragmented narrative. By combining real elements with imaginative fiction, this multimedia approach critically examines the reliability and dissemination of inherited stories.
Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Michel Foucault’s notion of the “historical a priori” (via Charles Merewether) and Allan Sekula’s critique of photographic discourse, the work reflects on how history is fragmented, conditional, and mediated by power. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic writings further influence the approach to memory as subjective and shaped by trauma.
Ultimately, this project encourages viewers to think about and question how the narratives we inherit are conditioned by the political ideology of the time, and circulated in discreet ways that shape us.