Red Threads （我很爱你）

(THIS FILM WAS PART OF OUR 2023 FESTIVAL LINEUP AND IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE ON THE SLAMDANCE CHANNEL) Initially inspired by the Tang dynasty poem Song of the Wanderer and Red Threads as lines of fate in Chinese culture, the artist utilizes a combination of Live-action Cinema, Sims 4 Machinima, Browser/Webcam framing, and Sewing to perform a filial ritual by building a simulation of 1) her American, 2) her Chinese and 3) her Chinese American experience. Looking to the screen not as a portal but as an interface, the artist reaches across game space to manifest her own belonging. The Parachute kid experience is akin to a life-simulation game manufactured by the U.S government and institutions with substantial economic incentives that, in turn, help US educational institutions run. Existing as “psychologically nowhere,” Sims 4 brings the artist’s Parachute experience into a true state of being “psychologically everywhere.” Meanwhile, the layers of the artist’s “self” become increasingly entangled.