Dragonfly Eyes, a video created by visual artist Xu Bing using surveillance footage recorded in China, recently debuted in Beijing.
He says he became interested in footage of people who were not aware that they are being filmed.
These all-seeing 'eyes' observe a young woman named Qing Ting, which translates to 'Dragonfly', beginning a courtship with Ke Fan when both of them work on a dairy farm.
Veteran film critic Wang Xiaolu thinks highly of Xu Bing's 81-minute video.
"Surveillance footage has been under heated discussion among film industry insiders. Xu Bing, a pioneer in the assembly these images downloaded from the internet, makes a storyboard for video, which is an unprecedented endeavor. Unintentionally, he's really accomplished something that may stay in discussions on the filmmaking process."
Xu Bing says that because there were no actors involved, the making of the video was a constant back-and-forth between editing and recording more footage. He and his team were also busy with rewriting the script based on the footage.
Some other works from the artist are also on display in Beijing. Forums and dialogues are being held as well.