Dragonfly saddle
Product, Single-channel video installation, sound, colour, 00’’48’ and 00’’17’2022
The story background of this work is based on the artist's world view of "A World Without Birds".
Out of fear of birds, the artist uses the idea of "how to make birds disappear" as a starting point to trace back and reconstruct history, creating a world where birds do not exist. In this timeline, the sky niche is occupied by the ferocious predatory insect, the dragonfly.
In the Late Jurassic, about 160 million years ago, dinosaurs were the most prosperous group of organisms at that time. There were such a group of dinosaurs at that time, and they evolved an important structure that did not play much role at the time - feathers. The feather system of this dinosaur group continued to improve, and in order to better occupy the arboreal ecological niche, it developed more slender forelimbs, and already had the prototype of wings. By the early Cretaceous period, early birds had successfully occupied the ecological niche of the sky and were known in paleontology as euornithopterygians.
During the Cretaceous period, the group of birds was very prosperous. Until the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous, global volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters, as well as the ensuing climate system disorder caused by aerosols and acid rain, shock waves formed by impacts, and the nuclear winter effect caused by dust all over the world, the land and global collapse of marine food webs.
On land, the dominant dinosaurs of the Mesozoic era basically disappeared. Living areas such as the forest canopy were immediately devastated. The homes that birds relied on for survival disappeared in an instant. The last small group of ground-dwelling birds are extinct due to some reasons. Mammals and insects that did not occupy a prominent position in the Mesozoic era multiplied rapidly and occupied various ecological areas that reptiles used to occupy. The ferocious carnivorous insect dragonfly became the overlord of the sky and developed diversified living habits.
The birth and existence of creatures are random. And nature has an almost infinite time to reach self-equilibrium. "Birdless World" is a fictional parallel world, which provides another possible form of the earth.
Due to the lack of competitors and natural enemies, the dragonfly was able to grow freely, and the Meganeura monyi reached a size that could be ridden.
After successfully riding dragonflies for the first time, humans have gradually mastered the method of taming large dragonflies. Through directional selection, a larger riding dragonfly was bred. They have an average length of about 2.7 meters, are docile, and can lift objects that are two to two and a half times their own weigh.
Today, dragonfly riding has withdrawn from the urban sky, but sports competitions remain as a continuation of the riding tradition. The Dragonfly World Cup will be held every year (dragonfly races are laid on different terrains around the world). It has greatly promoted the development of manufacturing and tourism in various places. Competition-level dragonfly breeding training and dragonfly betting have also become important economic activities in many countries.
Modeling
