In Virtual Return We (can’t) Dehaunt is a multi-channel moving-image work by Yarli Allison. It traces the real life stories of four queer Hong Kong (trans)migrants by reconstructing their nostalgic homes in virtual reality (VR), that draws attention to diasporic narratives and cultural archives through the process of cognitively metaphorical ‘returns’.

 

The videos, presented on a set of three screens, consist of ethnographic research, VR modelling, soliloquy and poetic extracts from real dialogues. These are intertwined with docu-fiction writing and choreographic representations, while exploring the possibilities of sexual and political identities that have transcended geographical definitions in the digital age.

 

Yarli first poses the question ‘‘to which house do you most wish to return?’, recalling memories of the four overseas ethnic Hong Kongese who were all born in the 80s and identified as queer. The VR spaces are then contextualised after a series of interviews conducted by writer Yin Lo and anthropologist Dr. Haro Matas. Upon invitation, the interviewees revisit their memories of ‘home’ – now a synthetic but emotionally believable VR environment. Further comments are recorded, allowing the team to build a social construct among them, which becomes the core of the work. These misplaced nostalgic spaces – or ‘homes’ – are as if empty shells but significantly contribute to the formation of their identities, yet one can no longer confirm its spatial accuracy and are left with immaterial impressions.

 

Throughout the work, the concept of ‘returning’ obsessively exposes itself, attempting to transition from “longing” to “belonging”, whether it is achieved with the act of perpetuation with VR; or illustrating the migrant being forgotten; or as a self- reflexive phantom-like being who is heedlessly seeking to survive.

 

In Hong Kong’s mainstream cultural beliefs, phantom-beings are expected to return to their origin after death, otherwise a wandering result is expected. Before reincarnation, one has to drink a bowl of Mang Po Soup (孟婆湯) to forget past attachments. These semi-invisible lingering phantom-like beings appear in the middle-half of the work, metaphorically representing in-betweenness, embodying unconscious imprisonments and cultural alienation. Their existence questions the romanticised attachment to the non-existent spaces of the past.

 

In an attempt to distinguish between the four characters, viewers are met with faceless creatures with mixed soliloquies, evoking a sense of confusion and distance, implying the characters’ tangled identities could easily be dismissed, simplified, or depersonalised.

 

With Hong Kong’s complex political history, including several past “Mass Migration Wave” events, the unceasing debate on migration for a “better life” remains. The need for an “escape route” is further stirred by the recurring political turbulence. Although a temporal sense of ‘community’ among diasporic Hong Kongese is reinforced by digital connectivity, the practicality of migration is left perpetually unresolved.

 

《於虛擬的彼岸 迴魂(不)散》是⼀一件多頻道錄像作品。林雅莉追蹤四個香港酷兒的(跨)移⺠民真實故事，以虛擬實境重構她們回憶中惦念念的家，透過象徵式的感知回歸，引起離散敘述和⽂化檔案(cultural archives)的討論。錄像以三頻道的形式展⽰，內容包括民族誌研究、虛擬實境塑模、獨白，以及從真實對白擷取的詩意字句，與虛構式紀錄寫作和舞蹈動作交織；在數碼時代裏，開拓拓性⾝份和政治⾝身份的多種可能，超越了了地理理定義上的意涵。 「你最想回到那個家?」林雅莉以問題開首，設問四位在一九八零年代出⽣生的受訪者。 一連串的訪談由作家盧妤和⼈類學家Haro Matas博⼠士帶領，那些娓娓道來的回憶成為繪製虛擬實境家居的素材。完成她們「回憶中的家」後，受訪者應邀「回去」那十分熟稔卻人⼯合成的虛擬空間，喚起種懷緬感受。創作團隊將之紀錄下來，從⽽譜製成作品的核心社會建構 (social construct)。因為無法再回到原有的家去確定物件擺位與記憶的真偽，這些回憶的空間就如同錯置的空殼般，只留留下⼀一種非物質的印象，卻緊扣著⾝身份的建構，亦向個⼈人⾝身份提出疑問。

整件作品中，回歸的意念念執迷地不斷重現，無論是永續 (perpetuation) 的行為，還是 虛擬實境重塑所帶來的疑問，或是被遺忘的回流移⺠民⼈仕，抑或是不顧⼀一切地存活著的鬼魂，都寄望不需再「憧憬」，⽽而找到「歸屬感」。

在香港的主流⺠民間信仰中，如果⼈死後的魂魄沒能回家，便便會成為遊魂留留在⼈人間;⽽在輪輪迴投胎之前，要先喝⼀一碗孟婆湯，以消忘⽣生前記憶和依戀⼈人間的念念頭。這些半透明⿁鬼影在作品後半部出現，比喻徘徊於中間的遊離狀狀態、擁抱囚禁的意識和⽂文化疏離感，亦質疑對過往已消失的空間，有過於浪漫的想像。