Video work: Shot Through was made from footage shot in Shanghai during a residency in 2004. Not the first visit or the second to China, but still the ambiguous and ambivalent relationship felt on the first trip to ‘ancestral’ lands continues. The existence of more cars, tower block skylines, free flowing fashion, and all that the Western Press celebrated in the years post communism did little to change this very personal experience of having a relationship to an ‘unknown’ or ‘overly-known’ location. The work looks at the way in which China becomes a cipher through the written text of others. Shot Through interrogates the writings of philosophers and theorists such as Derrida, Barthe, Sontag and Kristeva who had certain fascinations with China and made short visits followed up with written interpretations, theorising and ponderings which now circulate and form part of China's global textual patina.

Shot Through Video work and information: https://www.erikatan.net/shot-through