Emotions
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Emotions
C magazine review
Yuling Chen
April 16th 2026
Bones in the canal and other photographs is an exploration of emotions. It tells people a story about Israel Palestine conflicts’ origins in the biblical stories. The Virgin Mary is made to kneel to measure the length of the legs of ballerina. A baby is sleeping or lying on the floor. A penis is used to shock the viewers out of their senses. Sometimes we see vehicles. Sometimes we see cats. Sometimes we see women and men. These biblical references to sacrifices often link the conflicts to the everyday life of people lived in random places. The exhibition talks about the market in the past tense. It makes up a biblical narrative about the markets as a type of fish travelling through waves of information blackout and black holes. The most notable photograph in the exhibition is the one two people trying to cajoling a cat to play near the river bank. The tender suggestion that they are trying to drown the cat to death has made the photograph a shocking revelation of the Cain and Abel story as a fabrication of love in the face of adversity and struggles. It tells the narrative of the Alice’s adventure in wonderland, of a little blonde girl traversing the dreamy underworld of grotesque monsters without detailing its brutal scenes of murders and killings. The theorist Jacques Derrida in 1997 addressed the public of “the autobiographical animal” later published as “the animal therefore I am (more to follow)”. He talked at large of the animal being a self referential subject looking and gazing back at their spectators. This fear inducing framework has shocked the general public as absurd and grotesque. How could an animal look back at you when it had no human consciousness or awareness of being watched? This photograph deals with this ontological question gently through its gesture of petting. It no longer wants to answer the question and its thorny undercurrents of provocations. It wants to pose itself as a question, should we or shouldn’t we treat ourselves as an autobiographical animal?
Having experienced the themes presented in the exhibition, I found that the interplay between biblical symbolism and contemporary conflicts offers a profound reflection on the human condition. The photographic portrayal of everyday scenes—like people coaxing a cat near a riverbank—powerfully evokes complex emotions tied to sacrifice and love amidst adversity. This approach reminded me of walking through a historical city where each corner seemed to tell stories of past struggles woven into daily life, blending the intimate and political seamlessly. The exhibition challenges viewers to reconsider their perceptions by using unsettling imagery, such as the depiction of the Virgin Mary measuring a ballerina’s legs or confronting the shock of a penis image, pushing beyond typical comfort zones. This provocation mirrors the way social and political protest movements, such as those in Hong Kong, confront authority and force public engagement with uncomfortable truths. Both art and protests use their chosen mediums to shine light on undercurrents of power, sacrifice, and identity. Furthermore, the theme of the "autobiographical animal"—the animal as a reflective subject—raises intriguing philosophical questions about self-awareness and the gaze. It made me reflect on how we often anthropomorphize animals in our lives, attributing emotions and intentions, yet struggle to acknowledge our own vulnerabilities. This idea prompts a deeper self-examination about empathy and how we relate to others, whether human or animal. In sum, "Bones in the Canal" does not just depict the Israel-Palestine conflict; it invites a meditation on memory, narrative, and our shared emotional landscapes. Viewing such work personally reinforced my appreciation for the power of art to serve as a bridge between history, politics, and personal experience, encouraging empathy through nuanced, unsettling storytelling.
