Shot, directed and edited by Yikii, “鏡中闇夜mirror/error” concerns the connection between personal loneliness and society via visual accompaniment to six of her own tracks. The film title directly translates to “dark night of the mirror” in Chinese, where the artist abandons the notion of solitude as relational, instead exploring an alienation completely detached from other people. In doing so, “鏡中闇夜mirror/error” is a vision of an ‘apocalyptic loneliness’ completely absent of another human being.
The video is replete with metaphors and fast-switching shots, while the dissonant music of tracks like “Don’t Forget the Butterfly” and “Poisonous Air 空气毒性” present a flashback of destructive and desolate images, while alluding to the reflective “gaze of others” avoided. At the same time, Yikii emphasizes that such aloneness is not a negative adjective. Clear withdrawal has its own naturally calming power, while still carrying with it a fear of the unknown. Both the sun and moon shine on earth at the same time, after all. In the summer, the sunlight pours gently in the garden where flowers are in full bloom, but the mirror reflects the sticky darkness of the night.
This video is the first of “Pop Psychology,” a four-part video release on Creamcake’s 3hdTV platform. This past year has been a period of deep reflection. At a time of serious social, political and economic upheaval, triggered by an ongoing pandemic, each and every one of us has been pushed to confront the systems, structures and spaces we inhabit—both as a community and as individuals. There have been benefits to this moment of crisis and consequent self-examination. As our primary modes of organizing have been taken from us with social distancing and self-isolation protocol, the question has become, “where do we go now?” Gathering in clubs, theaters, galleries, even our homes has been deemed unsafe. With that we have been forced to look even further inward, into our hearts and our minds, while developing new spaces of energy, action and connection on the internet. Creamcake’s “Pop Psychology” video program is one such productive and proactive outcome.
