Ruihan Zhang

In the dark, murky brine, our past, present, and future cling to our flesh and blood. Some things refuse to rot, some things quietly spread. This is a potential revolution, units as minute as microbes, emitting hymns too faint to be heard.

Salting Snow is a multimedia installation project incorporating performance, video, and sound. A pickle jar serves as a domestic object and a container for diasporic experience. Two layers of sound activate the installation on the floor: audio from the 16mm film—composed of seven field recordings triggered by singing the revolutionary song Nanniwan (南泥湾)—and live interaction with the audience. The work explores grief and transformation, and how new forms of coexistence can be imagined.

Zhang Ruihan (b. 2004, Chongqing, China) is a multidisciplinary artist exploring visual ambiguity, fragmentation, and poetics in relation to memory and identity.