Small Paths precisely sketches a poetic portrait of its two protagonists through the specific omission of information. On the left we follow the explorations of an ant, which is repeatedly moving out of the camera’s depth of field. The focus on the ant’s habitat -extremely magnified for the human eye- makes us empathetic for it’s tragic destiny. To the right it is a moving camera, which feels it’s way along a woman’s body without showing her face. We accompany the woman as she walks through a garden with a pond and maybe we wonder what brought her here. Liao Wenfeng examines textures and surfaces with extreme precision. With an effective, almost ethnographic eye the subtle connecting of elements from both videos becomes apparent and the viewer is sensitized to the symbolic details.