Words Across the Tide 

Words Across the Tide explores the boundaries of communication through AI-mediated dialogue, combining live interaction, recorded video and vintage display technologies. Building on my earlier work Adding to the Tide Somewhere Sometimes, which invited audiences to deposit anonymous letters as an archive of memory and longing, this work transforms the archive into a live exchange. Participants speak short responses to prompts, such as “Say one word for home”, triggering real-time AI replies shown against black-and-white sea footage. The sea is both a personal and conceptual metaphor, recalling my migration as an international student and its boundless capacity to hold meaning. Even in the same language, words may shift in weight or intention, returning altered like a tide. The vintage television adds a layer of nostalgia, framing the exchange in a familiar yet distant medium.

I am a Chinese-born, Australia-based artist and a high school Visual Arts teacher. My practice spans participatory installation, video and interactive media, exploring themes of home, longing, intimacy, and the nuances of communication across distance, language, and culture. I am particularly interested in Asian cultural contexts and how they shape shared and individual experiences. Influenced by artists such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Lee Mingwei, I create works that invite audience participation while preserving ambiguity and trust, often blending analogue materials with emerging technologies to form poetic encounters that move between personal memory and collective narratives.