CRITICAL WRITING / 2026
Who Can Bring the Work to a Halt?
Viewing, Collective Creation, and Archives in He Fa’s Practice
Rewritten from a Gemini conversation draft; edited and published by He Fa.
2026-10-25 · Rewritten edition 1.0 · Chinese text with Chinese and English abstracts
Abstract
He Fa’s work in photography, language experiments, P4 Theater and film repeatedly involves arranging the conditions of an encounter and working with the responses those conditions produce. This essay considers photographic seams, viewing positions and participants’ decision-making through Mountain upon Mountain, Fafalish, YourTube, Real Image and P4’s collaborative productions. It then examines the tension between openness during production and selection in the completed film Shoot Self with You. Relational Image Theory, retrospective video essays and digital archives are discussed in relation to their particular versions and uses. The essay proposes that these practices be assessed through the experience their forms produce, the distribution of collaborative labour, and the capacity of disagreement to change what happens next.
Public versions and files: GitHub ↗
Original conversation: Gemini ↗