Yifan Wang

I'll Believe Your Demons, 2020, 1280 × 720, digital color video, 4 minutes, 29 seconds

“I’ll believe your demons” is a video collage of images and sounds from Wuhan, the central Chinese city first struck by the increasingly globalized coronavirus. Composed of widely-circulated social media footages taken by Wuhan residents during the peak of the city's outbreak and a rap song of the same title that went viral in the early days of China’s internet era, the scenes unfold almost entirely in the city’s local dialect, a vernacular known for its straightforward candidness and vulgar humor. The title itself is the literal translation of a Wuhanese idiom, a sarcastic turn of phrase that conveys a simultaneous sense of disbelief, shock, anger and frustration. The expression repeats itself throughout the sequence -- both in screams and whispers -- weaved together by vernacular monologues and conversations of grief, despair, care and hope. 

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