Human-Cannabis III: Tracing Green
The experimental short film "Chasing Green" is the final chapter of the Human-Cannabis trilogy. Following the prehistoric and ancient settings of the first two installments, this piece adopts a surreal documentary approach to explore the many contemporary dimensions of cannabis. Filmed across India, Thailand, the Netherlands, and the U.S. state of Colorado, it presents the plant’s shifting identity within different cultural, economic, and scientific contexts.
The work blends real-world footage with AI-generated imagery to create imaginative interpretations. Through an observational shooting style grounded in reality and a nonlinear narrative that weaves between realism, metaphor, and abstraction, the film examines cannabis’s multifaceted roles, from ancient Indian religious rituals to modern medical applications in Thailand, as well as the global issues of misuse, while reflecting on the enduring mystery of this age-old plant.
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Arthur LiouDirector
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Arthur LiouProducer
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Project Type:Documentary, Experimental, Short
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Genres:Experimental, Documentary, Video Art
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Runtime:13 minutes 30 seconds
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Completion Date:May 1, 2025
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Production Budget:50,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:Thailand
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Taiwan Contemporary Culture LabTaipei
Taiwan
May 7, 2025
Jawshing Arthur Liou is an artist with a background in photography, digital media, film, and journalism. His recent projects include a pilgrimage in the sacred mountains in Tibet, a journey through the tsunami-ravaged coastline of Japan, and a cinematic collaboration with a brain scientist regarding the connection between endocannabinoids and memory. Liou works with lens-based materials and electronic imaging to create installations depicting mental and surreal spaces. Many of his videos do not contain clear narratives but are meditative in nature, allowing time to slow to a ruminative pace while spatial scales oscillate between the microcosmic and infinitely expansive. Using sources ranging from landscapes and oil paint to human body, much of Liou’s work is related to notions of impermanence, human tragedy, and spiritual sanctuary.
Liou’s videos and prints have been featured in programs, exhibitions, and collections in Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Rubin Museum in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Indianapolis Museum of Art, National Gallery Victoria, Melbourne, Seoul Museum of Art, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Red Brick Museum, Beijing, Art Basel: Hong Kong, and Sharjah Biennial. Liou is the recipient of Asian Cultural Council Grant, New York; Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, Indianapolis; and Garry B. Fritz Award from the Society for Photographic Education National Conference, Chicago. International presentations of his work include SIGGRAPH conference; European Biennial Conference of the Society for Science, Literature, and the Arts; and Chicago Humanities Festival. Liou is currently the Dean of the Geer College of the Arts at Kennesaw State University.
Cannabis exemplifies how a single plant can occupy multiple, often contradictory roles depending on the observer’s standpoint. Throughout history, it has provided a rich narrative for people with various ideologies, each adopting different stances on its impact. It can be a wondrous medium for spiritual exploration or a scapegoat for vilifying immigrants. It can serve as a powerful catalyst for spiritual exploration or be weaponized as a scapegoat to marginalize immigrant communities. It may be hailed as a vital resource in sustainable agriculture or condemned as a dangerous threat to the well-being of future generations. It has been celebrated as a miraculous remedy in medicine, but also feared as a corrupting force to the human psyche. Through centuries of human cultivation and refinement, its roles have only multiplied and deepened. Over the past twelve years, I have witnessed shifting narratives surrounding cannabis across moral, economic, and legal spheres. These evolving interpretations have revealed to me how the human-cannabis relationship lays bare the fluctuating nature of perception and ego within social systems. Our constructed frameworks often lack the capacity to fully comprehend, let alone honor, the inherent complexity and contradictions of the world around us.
If we can set aside any preconceived notions, we might consider Michael Pollan’s provocative perspective that views agriculture through the lens of the plants themselves. In this framework, crops like cannabis appear to exert an influence on humans through a process of co-evolution. By producing THC, cannabis alters human consciousness, enhancing its appeal for spiritual, medicinal, and recreational uses. In doing so, it incentivizes humans to cultivate and selectively breed increasingly potent and efficient strains. Pollan redefines the notion of “agency” from an evolutionary standpoint, suggesting that while humans manipulate plants, cannabis exerts its own subtle influence guiding human behavior in ways that ensure its survival, proliferation, and cultural entrenchment. Human-Cannabis relationship may very well be one of the greatest metaphors that challenges our notion of perception, memory, and reality.
