About the project - Overview

About the Project ▾
Overview Goals & Objectives Artistic Rationale
The Artists ▾
The Team Overview Nicole Lee Paul Castles Dapeng Liu
Project Outcomes & Formats ▾
Overview Installation Other Formats
Funding & Support ▾
Funding Models Sponsorship/Co-Presentation
 

The Poem

Set on a remembered Silk Road, the poem traces a traveller’s westward journey toward her beloved. Over a single night at a caravanserai, she asks herself and the constellations the vital question…as love is traded along the economies of the Silk Road, what is the cost?

  • Finalist in Tupelo Quarterly Open Poetry Prize 2025

  • The title is a nod to John Berger, the art critic who frequently wrote about art and migrant bodies as commodities

  • Influenced by classical Chinese poems, The Prophet by Kahlil Ghibran, and contemporary poetry

  • Inspired by the poet's intercultural relationship (Chinese and Iranian)] 

Aesthetic Vision

Contemporary epic poetry set to intimate electro-acoustic song compositions, which fuse classical and modern traditions through collaborations with Chinese and Iranian performers, interweave with reinterpretations of traditional Chinese mountain-and-water landscape painting that resonate with colour field and minimalist art. Together, these elements metamorphose into a 4D caravanserai – a floating perspective experience where poetry, story, music, and image echo as a single voice on a voyage of love along a remembered Silk Road.

Forms of Presentation  

The work may be experienced in any combination of the following transmedial forms:

    • 4D Non-Linear Audio-Visual-Spatial Caravanserai Installation Experience

      • A 4D multilingual audio-visual-spatial experience where poetry, painting, and music converge within a contemporary caravanserai, reimagining the oral storytelling tradition – where song and story were inseparable – as a shared yet intimate encounter.

      • The installation is a non-linear, intimate, self-guided journey, inviting audiences into a space that emphasizes internal emotionality and a sense of journey beyond time.

      • Drawing inspiration from the floating perspective of classical Chinese poetry and painting, the poem unfolds as sound, image, and text move in all directions at once. 

      • Experienced through headphones, where each listener’s journey through sound, image, and text becomes both private and collective – echoing the Silk Road itself, and the poem’s quiet voyage along the economies of love.

    • 4D Linear Live Caravanserai Performance

      • A live, linear concert presentation expanding the caravanserai into a shared space of performance that emphasizes the act of storytelling to a collective/community in real time.

      • Integrates the poetry set to music, and interactive projections, transforming the visual and sonic textures of the installation into a dynamic, embodied encounter.

      • Extends the installation’s intimacy through movement, voice, and sound, creating a multidimensional act of storytelling

      • Reimagines the oral tradition of song and story for the present moment, blurring boundaries between audience and performer.

      • A collective experience of reflection and renewal, echoing the Silk Road’s crossings—where personal stories meet in a shared journey of love, memory, and return.

    • 4D Publication

    • 4D Online Presentation