Belly of the Giant Serpent: Prophecy 巨蛇之腹：预言

Set in the fictional Norgris Town, this work unfolds as a fragmented travel account that drifts between observation, myth, and memory distortion. What begins as a quiet stay with a local family gradually opens into a system of beliefs where daily rituals, pre-dinner prayers, and inherited folklore blur the boundary between cosmology and lived reality.

At the centre of Norgris is a recurring phrase “The world lies within the belly of a giant serpent.”

It functions less as metaphor and more as an operative logic through which the town understands existence, protection, and origin.

As the narrator is drawn deeper into local narratives, the distinction between historical account and collective imagination begins to collapse. A meteorite incident in the 1990s, interpreted as scaled like a serpent, becomes a foundational myth. Retired teacher Patrick’s cosmological theory further expands this system, proposing a universe that originates from serpentine formation dust curling into planetary bodies, life emerging from enclosed curvature rather than linear creation.

Seasonal rituals led by the priest intensify this atmosphere, where perception becomes unstable and bodily experience begins to echo the mythology itself. The work gradually shifts away from documentation toward psychological immersion, where what is seen, remembered, or imagined can no longer be cleanly separated.

Ultimately, Norgris remains unresolved possibly real, possibly constructed. What persists is not its geography, but its condition: a world held within enclosure, suspended inside a protective and digestive interiority where meaning is never fixed, only contained.

Belly of the Giant Serpent: Prophecy is a work concealed beneath the masks of fiction and the supernatural, which metaphorically depicts the author's life during the 2019-nCoV pandemic, along with the silent accusations that accompanied it.  The town the protagonist accidentally steps in is a metaphor of China under the strict lockdown conditions.  Through the science-fiction-like short story and genrative images operated by AI, the author tries to express the unspeakable but unforgettable personal experience and collective trauma.

This book is intended for readers and viewers who are drawn to:

• Contemporary photobook practices that merge fiction, field observation, and conceptual narrative
• Myth-making as a structural tool rather than decorative storytelling
• Works exploring belief systems, rural cosmologies, and collective imagination
• The intersection between anthropology, speculative fiction, and visual storytelling
• Slow, ambiguous narratives where meaning is constructed through repetition and uncertainty
• Artists, photographers, and researchers interested in the porous boundary between documentary and invention

It may particularly resonate with those who approach photography not as evidence, but as a site where reality is continuously rewritten.

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Language: English & Chinese
Book Size: 170 x 235 x 15 mm
Pages: 174 pages | 350g
Binding: Softcover
Publication Year: 2026  | First Edition
ISBN: 978-988-71352-0-3