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The Fish Says (2022)


Mixed-media Stop Motion Animation         
August         
2022

The Fish Says is a mixed-media stop-motion poem about a fish going home that I wrote for that misty sea in my dream. When I was five, I moved to a Chinese seaside city named Dalian. That was the first time I saw the ocean in real life. The sea of Dalian is not perfect; its sand is not soft, its air smells salty and it is always shrouded by a thick mist. It was charming enough for a young child though.

I left that city in 2008, but from time to time I experience dreams of that city as if the city is calling me to go home. So in this poem, I tried to visualise those surreal dreams that gently tickled my buried memory of Dalian.





Part I: A Visit To Dalian 




When I was a child, I visited the local sea shell muse- um in Dalian a lot. The spirals on the shell reminded me of the growth ring of a tree; as a child I thought of spiral like the growth ring for the ocean. The rings wit- ness the passing of time and also have the ability to ‘store’ memories. In my memory, Dalian has always been a misty city. In the winter, the mist sometimes is thick enough that people will get lost on their way home. When I stare out of the window I can see the mist slowing swallow the ocean far away as it is eating my memory of Dalian. I remember buying groceries with my mother at the seafood market. The fishmonger used to sit next to the fish stall, cleaning the fish with scis- sors. The scales would fall off like shining pearls and roll next to my feet. It is the stinky smeel of fish that draws me back to that seashore in Dlian.





Sketchbook pages Watercolour, Photography, Collage August 2022.




Part II: The Poem About the Fish




























Part III: The Fish Says (鱼说)