A Crow Has Been Calling for a Whole Day is a work by artist Liu Yi, created in response to various impressions and experiences during his travels in India. Seamlessly merging live-action footage with hand-drawn animation, the piece weaves a narrative through multiple dimensions—life and death, desire and religious ritual, time and dreamscapes. In the manner of a “travel diary,” the artist documents powerful slices of everyday reality and personal encounters: preserving the unfiltered vibrancy and clamor of India’s streets while incorporating elements of mystery and transcendence. In this sense, the work resembles a field-based cross-cultural study—rooted in postcolonial theory and multi-sited ethnography—offering not only an exploration of local customs and religious practices but also a reflection on self-ethnography.
Throughout the work, the crow motif no longer functions merely as an ominous or dark symbol from Chinese culture; in the Indian context, it assumes roles as a “messenger of the dead” and a “spiritual intermediary,” symbolizing the perpetual flow of life and death within the cycle of time. Liu Yi captures the crow’s unique status in Indian daily life: the birds move fearlessly through train stations, worship sites, and roadside spaces—bearing witness to the mortal world, even as they bridge the gap between humankind and the divine, the living and the departed. The title’s reference to “a crow calling all day” emerges as a kind of archetypal summons, linking those who are alive, those who have passed, and those yet to exist—an invitation to ponder ultimate questions of existence.
Formally, Liu Yi employs layered transitions between reality and animation, integrating painting, sound, video, and other media to convey the “multidimensional experience” he had in India. The work’s rich and vibrant visuals, the cacophony of everyday life, the aura of sacred ritual, and the symbolic imagery drawn from personal dreamscapes all coalesce. Meanwhile, recurring images of cows and crows—so commonplace on city streets—carry dual connotations of the sacred and the mundane. Through this multimodal, multisensory approach, the work illustrates the close ties between daily life and religious practice, inviting viewers to revisit the intricately woven tapestry of life, spirituality, and humanitarian reflection that lies somewhere between reality and the realm of dreams.
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