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Hiraeth
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 10th June 2023
Artist: Zhilin Xu
Medium: Digital film
Object number: MISC.2023.1187.CC
DescriptionDigitial film work. Description by the artist: The term ‘hiraeth’ is Welsh with no direct English translation. It conveys a sense of “an overwhelming feeling of grief and longing for one’s people and land of the past, a kind of amplified spiritual homesickness for a place one has never been to”. This film is set in a dystopian future. It supposes that the Russo-Ukrainian conflict had deteriorated into a world-scale nuclear war – WWIII, with three protagonists mysteriously connected by their shared hiraeth for a restorative place of secure belonging – symbolic of our endangered planetary home – across temporal and geographical realms. Through its plot and visual design, the film emphasises a sense of loss and melancholia as the planetary home which all three protagonists long for is irretrievable due to environmental deterioration and warfare.
Hiraeth is open to interpretation beyond its planetary metaphors. On a personal experiential level, the film is also about belonging and non-belonging in different contexts, in relation to cultural identities, removed ethnic origins and religious-beliefs etc.
p.s. To protect its chance for potential circulation in the film festival circuit of 2023-24, the film Hiraeth is not to be shared publicly until the 31st of May 2024. Thank you for your support.
Hiraeth is open to interpretation beyond its planetary metaphors. On a personal experiential level, the film is also about belonging and non-belonging in different contexts, in relation to cultural identities, removed ethnic origins and religious-beliefs etc.
p.s. To protect its chance for potential circulation in the film festival circuit of 2023-24, the film Hiraeth is not to be shared publicly until the 31st of May 2024. Thank you for your support.