Enxi Liu
Time · Performance · Image
RAIN, SUSPENDED IN BALANCE
Performance Video 2026
In this performance video, the body acts as a fragile, natural scale. Standing in water up to the knees, the body supports a slender bamboo pole overhead, from either end of which hang transparent, slowly dripping water bags. Accompanied by the descent of water droplets and the intrusion of the wind, a dual-channel dialogue between wind and water unfolds within the space.
This is a labor that embodies depletion and disequilibrium. Beneath the seemingly static frame lies the body's taut struggle against the impermanence of nature. Water imposes a vertical downward gravity, while wind introduces a horizontal deviation; the hands tremble under the deprivation wrought by the intersection of these two forces. As the dialogue articulates: water comprehends heaviness in its falling, while the wind perceives lightness in its passing. They interpenetrate and mutually manifest.
When the water bags are entirely emptied and their material weight is returned to the lake, the visual frame is left with nothing but the acoustic reverberation of the wind. Balance is not an eternal stasis, but an unfinished descent. It is the ultimate void of all things, a testimony to this exact moment.
[Falling, I learn what is heavy.
Once sea. The silence of deep pressure.
You curled me, made me cloud.
Now, drop by drop, sinking into this lake.
You broke me like this.
Each drop, reflects the same sky.
Never again, can we gather.
This moment, in sync.
Falling. Silence.
The only time.
Empty.
Weight returned to the lake.
All shapes will disappear.
Was rain.
Sink.
Passing, I learn what is light.
Once gap. The emptiness between all things.
You lifted me, gave me form.
Now, bypassing you, breaking on the surface.
You made me seen.
Each gust, passes the same lake.
Never truly, do we stay.
This moment, still.
Breaking. Wrapping around.
The only instant.
Gone.
Beyond your emptied body.
Another sea, another you.
Was wind.
Pass.]