Victoria Leixin Qian

It Remembers

 

 

 

It remembers.
The night facing the piano.
The pen on my wrist.
The tear on my face.

It remembers.
The room full of lights.
The sorrow in February.
The snow outside the window.

It remembers.
The smell of a cigarette.
The sound of a motorbike.
The terrace bathed in moonlight.

It remembers.
The green outside the house.
The quietness in the air.
The secrets in my heart.

It is empty.
It is full.
It forgets.
It remembers.

Moving is the key melody of my life—from apartments to apartments, cities to cities, countries to countries. Now that I’ve grown, the feeling of being displaced from home has taken over the excitement and curiosity of moving to a new place. On countless nostalgic nights, I think of the vase sitting on my piano that accompanied me for thousands of sleepless nights of practicing.

The 3-D printed objects, though generic in form, are recreations of a significant bottle from each of my homes. They are personal symbols of home, containers of my past, and portable self-portraits. I left, yet they remained still. The lights inside the vases light up my way home, while the images are reminiscent of places beloved by me.


Bio: Victoria Leixin Qian is a designer and photographer based in New York City. She was born and raised in China, and later moved to the US with her family. She graduated with a BA degree in Studio Art from Macalester College (St. Paul, MN). During her undergraduate years, Victoria studied in Milan, Italy as an exchange student, which this experience has been a significant influence on her work and a starting point of questioning where home is. She utilized visual arts, not limited to photography, to understand her story and experiences as a new immigrant to the US and an outsider of her beloved place, Milan, IT. Victoria Leixin Qian’s current work is a sculptural installation using technology and symbol to fulfill her narrative of home and emphasize the beloved distant home. Each piece becomes, to a certain degree, a portable self-portrait and a functional design that illustrate Qian’s in-betweenness of moving frequently and being exposed to multiple cultures.
Contact: victoriaqianlx@gmail.com
Website: http://www.victoriaqian.com/
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