Poiesis, 2018
Single Channel HD Colour Video with Vinyl Print on Wall
Poiesis (2018) is a single-channel video installation accompanied by an experimental text displayed on the wall. The work takes inspiration from Benjamin Whorf’s Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which suggests that the language we speak shapes the way we perceive the world. This idea sparked a question: how do we respond when confronted with multiple languages simultaneously — especially when we don’t understand any of them?
In Poiesis (2018), both the video and the text resist clear interpretation. Found footage drawn from films, pop culture, and books is sliced into fragments, layered, and reassembled into a chaotic stream of sensory input. The audio overlaps multiple languages and voices, challenging the viewer’s ability to decipher meaning. Likewise, the wall text functions less as a coherent narrative and more as a visual collage — an image composed of words that hovers between language and abstraction.
The work invites viewers to reflect on the limits of communication, and what happens when language becomes unfamiliar. Does it cease to function, or does it transform into something else — texture, rhythm, emotion?
Poiesis (2018) was first exhibited in 2018 at the Central Saint Martins Undergraduate Graduation Show Show ONE, and later featured in the exhibtion Déjà Vu at the Freud Museum London.
Poiesis, 2018
Single Channel HD Colour Video with Vinyl Print on Wall
5:35min
Installation View
