Yijue Zeng, Mum's Conversation: Water, moonlight and mum's voice, 2024, still image, courtesy: Jan T.H. Ennker.
What creates our sense of home when we exist between places, and how do we define home itself? Yijue Zeng's video works Water, moonlight and mum's voice (2024) and Looking for mum's recipe in Riyadh (2024) explore home as a space constructed through memory and embodied connections, rather than as a fixed geographical place.
While away on a residency, Zeng sought to establish a sense of place by connecting her current home to the one she had left behind. This connection emerged through a medical remedy rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, prescribed by her mother.
Looking for Mum's Recipe in Riyadh documents the artist's search for the herbal prescription in a traditional herb store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When the store lacked the herbs the artist needed, she created a hybrid, alternative formula, using available Chinese herbs combined with elements from her temporary home in Riyadh—a literal blend of one place and another. To make this new prescription, the artist held conversations with her mother about Traditional Chinese Medicine. This dialogue, which includes discussions on the philosophical concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yijue's health, and the resonance between humans and nature, is translated into the work Water, moonlight, and mum's voice. Her mother's nurturing act sparked Yijue Zeng's contemplations about what it means to connect to home while away from it and how to put down roots in unfamiliar ground. This maternal care forms a red thread that guides the artist's path of self-reflection across these two artworks.
Yijue Zeng (b.1992) is a visual artist based in London and Guangzhou. Her practice reflects on the relationship between nature and self—and is often shaped by the people and environments around her. She works with photography and moving images. Her ongoing research encompasses urban and rural life, as well as the flow of nature in China and the United Kingdom. The screening of "Mum’s Conversation" at Kunsthall Trondheim is Zeng's first presentation in an institutional setting in Norway.
Mum’s Conversation is curated by Jan T.H. Ennker, Erasmus+ Intern Kunsthall Trondheim
With special thanks to Adam Kleinman, Joe Rowley, Dina Al-Makhrami, Thasuthida ‘JJ’ Thetthong and Tom Egoumenides