Sparrow Ossuary

Multi-channel Video Installation, Glass, Paper | 2023 | Runtime Variable | Dimensions Variable

During the Great Leap Forward in China from 1958 to 1962, the central government identified sparrows as a threat to crop production and ordered their elimination. Local governments actively responded to the policy, sacrificing sparrows for administrative achievements. In an era when false reporting was common practice, hundreds of millions of sparrows were eliminated under the Four Pests campaign with no exact number of deaths. Sounds from the protests in 2022 against the Zero-COVID policy juxtaposed with the falling sparrows, blurring the past and the future.

Installed at RISD Auditorium Black Studio