曹思懿
“Art can help.”
(Robert Adams, 2017)
The Abyssal Trumpet (2025)
A Sequel to Dexia's Autobiographical Journey
7 minutes 04 seconds, single screen, colour, sound
This is a story about Yizhen trying to uncover the real side of her mom, Dexia, after she passed away by sorting through her belongings. When Dexia was alive, she was always calm and reserved, keeping her distance from the world—like a hidden puppeteer quietly pulling the strings. While going through her mom’s stuff, Yizhen found an unfinished sci-fi novel Dexia had written. The story was about a strange deep-sea creature called the Vampire Squid and how humans could turn into these creatures using a device called the "hearing trumpet."
She was so fascinated that she built the hearing trumpet based on her mom’s description and actually experienced what it felt like to transform into a Vampire Squid. Once she entered the deep-sea world, she felt an overwhelming sense of freedom, desire, and cruelty.
Eventually, Yizhen figured out that her mom’s solitude and distance were probably her way of protecting herself from being consumed by the world. After her final experience with the hearing horn, Yizhen accepted her mom’s true departure, understanding that memories alone can’t keep someone alive forever.