God of the Soil and the Ground (2022) is a cinematic installation consisting of a film projection and a series of sculptures. The film features a protagonist who, by choosing death in the ruins, connects her spirit to
the earth and defies time, transforming into the God of the Soil and Ground.1 Her colossal form, overlooking the viewers, symbolizes a resistance against the hegemonic past. Twelve casts arms appear to emerge from the ground, representing nameless figures reclaiming their place from repression. On the floor, torn and rearranged pages from Five Thousand Years of Chinese Nation, an emblem of authoritarian history, lay scattered.

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    Inspired by Beidao’s In the Ruins2, Dino retraces the historical oppression inflicted on our physical bodies in form of the law and regulations by the social systems in China. The work endeavours to create a history for the body, challenging narratives of oppression by positioning the body as a symbol of resilience and transformation.2 By supernaturally bridging the physical and spiritual realms, Dino invites viewers into a public space where historical trauma can be acknowledged, oscillating between the lived experience of memory and the multi-millenary speculation on the order of time.

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1  ‘God of the Soil and the Ground’ is a kind of tutelary deities in Chinese folk religion.  

2   Beidao. (1990). Waves: Stories. New Directions. 

3   Stewart, Susan. (1993). On Longing Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Duke University Press.