Grandma:

Grandma passed away in an August evening. While changing the shroud for her, I could still feel the warmth left on her body. The warmth was so real that death seemed unreal.

After she was diagnosed late stage cancer in January, the family had to learn to accept the farewell in a difficult way. We saw her body wasted away day by day, but apart from keeping company there was nothing we could do.

I began to use the thermal camera to explore the latest public monitoring measure in China in the midst of the pandemic. As I became familiar with the new visual tool, I began to use it to capture the trace of heat instead of living creatures themselves. I couldn’t take any photographs for a while after grandma passed away, and one day, before I realized it, I was using the thermal camera to record grandma’s trace.

As my own remembering ritual, I used my own body to follow grandma’s trace in the house, on the objects and in the family photographs. I feel that by doing so, I became closer to her than any time in my life.

The photos are accompanied with a letter to grandma. The title is "Grandma:" with a colon mark as a way of addressing her in the letter.

I intend to make a little book as the final output of the work.