4-channel video installation on wall-mounted flat-screen monitors, 14-minute loop, PAL
Four looping animations composed of photographs of trees taken in the French Concession district in Shanghai presented on vertically mounted monitors. The images morph almost imperceptibly, creating compositions reminiscent of camouflage patterns, geospatial satellite imagery, and abstract painting. The French Concession in Shanghai, established in 1862 by the "unequal" Treaty of Nanking following China's defeat in the First Opium War, was one of many foreign enclaves that occupied major port cities throughout China in the mid-nineteenth century. The trees planted systematically throughout the neighborhood date from this period and continue to stand today amidst the district's old European-style villas and consulate buildings. The French Concession remains noticeably untouched amid Shanghai's vast urban development projects.