Visual artist Xu Bing's Dragonfly Eyes debuts in Beijing

Footage shot by public video cameras were used for Chinese artist Xu Bing's video artwork Dragonfly Eyes, which went on display in Beijing on Sunday, Aug 18, 2019. [Photo: provided to China Plus]

A romance assembled from surveillance footage – this is what the new video art work Dragonfly Eyes is.

Created by visual artist Xu Bing using surveillance footage recorded in China, it recently debuted in Beijing.

He says he became interested in footage of people who were unaware of being filmed.

These all-seeing 'eyes' observe a young woman named Qing Ting (蜻蜓), which translates to 'Dragonfly', beginning a courtship with Ke Fan when both of them work on a dairy farm.

A picture taken by public cameras was used for Chinese artist Xu Bing's video artwork Dragonfly Eyes, which went on display in Beijing on Sunday, Aug 18, 2019. [Photo: provided to China Plus]

Veteran film critic Wang Xiaolu (王小鲁) thinks highly of Xu Bing's 81-minute video.

"Surveillance footage has been under heated discussion among film industry insiders," said Wang.

He thinks that Xu Bing is pioneering a new realm of storytelling, by creating video storyboard from images downloaded from the internet, an unprecedented endeavor.

"Unintentionally, he's really accomplished something that may stay in discussions on the filmmaking process," added Wang Xiaolu.

Xu Bing says that because there were no actors involved, the making of the video was a constant back-and-forth between editing and recording more footage. He and his team were also busy with rewriting the script based on the footage.

Some other works from the artist are also on display in Beijing. Forums and dialogues are being held too.