66. MO NAN: A SPACE BETWEEN IMMEDIATE AND INFINITE.
Mo Nan,‘Mirror Mirror’, image courtesy of the artist.
‘I still clearly remember one evening when I was very young, lying on my bed with the golden sunset shining into the room, a flock of wild geese flying by the window, and the sound of an old-fashioned clock ticking nearby... I am always looking for that feeling; it makes me feel like I am falling into an infinitely deep, safe abyss’… M.N.
The first time I was aware of your work, was seeing some still images of an imagined landscape, a desert with a swarm of mythical animals flying through the sky, I immediately thought of Dali - and also a feeling of digital flux - I remember how the image appeared to be broken, glitched - disturbed. Please can you reflect on this work and explain why and how it came into being?
Dali was indeed my artistic inspiration. I remember seeing Dali's work when I first started my undergraduate studies, and I was deeply attracted by the surreal ambiguity, heavy metaphors, and the blurred boundaries between dream and reality. My work has always tried to pursue and recreate that surreal feeling, often imagining bizarre worlds in my mind. This film is my graduation project at RCA, "The Self of the Edge of the Self." It tells the story of how our identity and self-perception change and are influenced in this digital age—everyone is in, to some extent, fluid and indefinable. This represents both the freedom and confusion brought by the digital age.
Mo Nan, ‘Final Flight Visa’, garment design: Suza Vos, image courtesy of the artist.
Disturbance appears to play a big part of the visual identity of your work - the juxtaposition that you are incredibly calm and composed and yet your work is often very violent and arresting…
Perhaps that's true! Maybe I am a person who experiences a lot of anxiety. I can always keenly sense the immense anxiety rapidly spreading in this digital age. It could be due to the current society that focuses excessively on efficiency, where everything is replaced by quick and short-term gains. Or it could be because the world seems to be on the brink of chaos: pandemics, wars, financial crises, etc… as if something big is about to happen. I believe my work reflects the current era and my personal experiences living within it.
Visually you explore traveling and exploration within the work, each film feels like a different place. You continue to return to London from China - what does London represent to you, why do you want to stay here and why do you voyage visually within your practice?
London is the first city I settled in after leaving China. It is an international place that clearly reflects my race, nationality, and identity. In London I first directly faced the issue of identity politics, which was also the origin of my first film. This city led me to start reflecting on human identity and race, followed by further thoughts on contemporary identity issues—digital anxiety and the alienation of self-recognition. Voyage is a primary expression in my work, and I think it is also because I am currently in a state of voyage myself. My life and future hold many uncertainties, and this sense of journey is reflected in the form of my work.
Mo Nan, Image courtesy of the artist.
You collaborate a lot within your work, with many different practitioners - so many strong identities, and yet your work always returns to a visual space - to an atmosphere of feeling that is specifically your own - can you contemplate your creative process when working solely within your own practice and how it differs from working with others?
I first think about a worldview, about the story I want to tell. This part usually takes up most of my project time. It's somewhat similar to the standard process of making a film: first I come up with the script, characters, scenes, dialogues, etc., then proceed with storyboard drawing. In collaborations, my team members would handle the music, costumes, dialogues, and voice acting. I think because the worldview does not change during collaborations, it always returns to that familiar visual atmosphere in the end. The biggest difference is in the roles. When working with others, I step back from my director role, respecting the director's vision in the project, and use my style and skills to collaborate and complete the project.
I am fascinated by a perceived aesthetic nostalgia within your work, a specificity from the worlds of gaming / animation which feels to hybridise American and Japanese graphic styles from the late 20th century. Yet other layers seem to stretch and distort, future nostalgia - as if we enter a 1980s television screen from a time not yet lived…
This sense of 'return,' the peculiar retro feel, is the surreal atmosphere I have always sought and tried to present in my work. I am a super fan of 90s Japanese anime such as Akira, Perfect Blue, Ghost in the Shell, etc. I still clearly remember one evening when I was very young, lying on my bed with the golden sunset shining into the room, a flock of wild geese flying by the window, and the sound of an old-fashioned clock ticking nearby... I am always looking for that feeling; it makes me feel like I am falling into an infinitely deep, safe abyss, a realm of irrational thinking. Every time I create that visual atmosphere, I feel I am getting closer to a place in my heart that transcends reason. It’s like a small dot of light, very distant but clear. I think this is what I have always wanted to present.
Mo Nan, image courtesy of the artist.