If heaven is temporary
Chi Tran
Chi Tran
Chi Tran is a writer and artist interested in language as a form of devotion, working mainly through essay, auto-theory, and writing exhibition texts for other artists. They often write about the grief for what expression cannot achieve, thinking about the inevitable loss between an event or experience, and the act of writing it into expression. Chi’s practice is invested in the affective functions of language and phenomenological possibilities of combined critical and poetic writing.
As a writer who is heavily influenced by film, If heaven is temporary marks the artist’s departure from writing and into visual storytelling. This work is the first instalment of a larger, ongoing research project that considers the life and afterlife of language.
About the work
If heaven is temporary
Short film
9 mins
If heaven is temporary, where do we go after? The artist’s debut short film follows a young woman who is trying to get to heaven, to let those already ascended know that they must prepare for another afterlife. But how will she get there without having to die? This work combines elements of fantasy, ritual, physics, and different religious concepts of ‘the afterlife’ as a means of trying to understand the experience of what it is to ‘be’ in time.
If heaven is temporary
Chi Tran
Chi Tran
Chi Tran is a writer and artist interested in language as a form of devotion, working mainly through essay, auto-theory, and writing exhibition texts for other artists. They often write about the grief for what expression cannot achieve, thinking about the inevitable loss between an event or experience, and the act of writing it into expression. Chi’s practice is invested in the affective functions of language and phenomenological possibilities of combined critical and poetic writing.
As a writer who is heavily influenced by film, If heaven is temporary marks the artist’s departure from writing and into visual storytelling. This work is the first instalment of a larger, ongoing research project that considers the life and afterlife of language.
About the work
If heaven is temporary
Short film
9 mins
If heaven is temporary, where do we go after? The artist’s debut short film follows a young woman who is trying to get to heaven, to let those already ascended know that they must prepare for another afterlife. But how will she get there without having to die? This work combines elements of fantasy, ritual, physics, and different religious concepts of ‘the afterlife’ as a means of trying to understand the experience of what it is to ‘be’ in time.
Runway Journal acknowledges the custodians of the nations our digital platform reaches. We extend this acknowledgement to all First Nations artists, writers and audiences.
Runway Journal is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Runway Journal receives project support from the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Runway Journal acknowledges the custodians of the nations our digital platform reaches. We extend this acknowledgement to all First Nations artists, writers and audiences.
Runway Journal is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Runway Journal receives project support from the NSW Government through Create NSW.