Kexin Xiao
About
Tropical Memory
2021
I lived in Xishuangbanna for almost twenty years, and I hated the heat of my hometown in high school and wanted to escape so badly. When I left my hometown, I started to miss this particular tropical. This project is an attempt to convey my mixed feelings about my hometown.
I found that most people who live in the tropics are accustomed to tropical features, so they look at it from a tourist's perspective when they think back. For example, elephants and peacocks, which I don't often contact, seem very representative. It's like a false memory implanted by a tourism promotion ad. Instead, their own emotional experiences are ignored by themselves. They think about them after being reminded—for example, the joy of eating fruits, the disgust of hot weather, and so on.
So, after researching, I thought that to express the real tropical memories, we should let the tropical features become the backdrop and let the "feeling" of living become the object of expression.
This project is an attempt to convey my mixed feelings about my hometown.