Li Xinmo aimed to create a visual poem through the layering and connection of different images, constructing a poetic space and imagination. This work is inspired by stories and legends of robins. According to legend, the robin is considered a bird of God. When Jesus was crucified, a robin flew to him and sang to alleviate his pain, which caused its chest to turn red. Another source of inspiration is a dark English nursery rhyme: robins were killed by sparrows, flies were witnesses, and fish took the robin's blood at a Bird Trial Conference... At the next bird trial conference, the sparrows will be on trial... This work is not an illustration of the story but a symbol of polysemy created through abstract language.
Another source of inspiration is a personal experience. When she was a child, she caught a blue bird, which she liked and wanted to keep. However, the bird died in her hand three days later. After that, she never caught another bird or saw a blue bird again. Many years later, the memory of the dead blue bird remained vivid. She later learned that the bird was called a robin. When a memory cannot be forgotten, it becomes a work that seals that memory. After creating this work, she felt she should say goodbye to the dead bird.
She began to imagine performing this inside a space, but upon arriving at the scene and finding no suitable indoor space, she chose to perform outside in a courtyard that seemed very suitable and inherently poetic. It had rained the day before, leaving a pool of water in the courtyard. She made shapes of birds out of white clay. The clay birds were soft and paralyzed, lying on mossy slabs like the souls of abstract birds.
She approached the water's edge, where there was a pile of blue. She dipped a needle and thread in blue and pierced her clothes, leaving blue marks on her body. The needles and threads hung from her as she held blue feathers and blew them at the water's edge. The blue feathers floated down like dreams. She finally bent down into the water to complete the performance.
