Untitled, Imagined Homeland

The Imagined Homeland series grew out of the artist’s long-term engagement with the Lisu people living along the China–India border between 2013 and 2019. Through staged photography, light and shadow, and multiple exposures, De interweaves the real and the spiritual. Golden light, ducks, and water recur throughout the series as symbols of human beings, animals, and nature, while images resembling family albums construct an imagined place of belonging. Addressing border governance, urbanization, conflicts between belief and modern civilization, and related conditions, the series explores the sense of belonging in an increasingly globalized world. This exhibition focuses on two works revolving around “light,” inviting viewers to enter the artist’s mysterious and emotionally charged photographic world first through the sensory experience of light.