Vennes Cheng: Dwelling at Home

住家

Dwelling at Home

文 / 鄭秀慧ﾠ（香港學者、研究員、作者及獨立策展人）

Text: Vennes Cheng (Hong Kong-based scholar, researcher, writer, and independent curator)

「在人的一生中，房子能抵禦突發事件，提供不斷的持續性。 沒有它，人將四散各方，房子幫助人們渡過大自然和生命中的 風暴。它是身體和靈魂，亦是人類的現世啟始。」

——《空間詩學》，加斯東．巴謝拉著

巴謝拉所說的房子不單指物理上的居所，也是能為人們心靈提供避難和安置之 所。房子能給予穩定和安全感，不讓人們感到失喪。從這個意義上說，巴謝拉對 房子的概念與家有着相同的含意，強調歸屬感和成就感的實現。人生是在一個同 時提供身體庇護和心理安慰的空間中成就出來，人經歷危難而在居所中得以保存 力量，就會把這居所轉化成為一個家。「家」這概念更早出現在東方，宋代詩人 蘇軾在《定風波》中，感歎人生無常，並以「此心安處是吾鄉」作結。安坐家中即 表示在私人空間中得享安心，而不能令人產生情感寄托和安全感的居所，只會是 一個空殼而不是家。

藝術家梁志和透過《家・不家》的創作，審視「家」的非物質和不確定意義，反 省和顛覆對家作為居所的慣性連繫。梁志和將非家居空間（即酒店房間和大廳） 轉變為混響和中介空間，把《開屋（香港版）》（2007）以及一個全新創作的裝置作 品，分別設置在兩間酒店房間之中。兩個「不家」的酒店房間，是對兩個不同年 代的反思，遊走對於家的歸屬感的不同觀念。在酒店大堂，舊式電話亭象徵隨時 代轉變，電話亭的角色及代表的聯繫方法已日漸被人遺忘。梁志和將整組作品以 「家」設置在非家居場域這種錯置手法作為策略，同時表明家的概念本質上受情 感的影響。與其說家是一個物質空間，不如說家能提供安寧與平靜的情緒狀態。 《家・不家》在香港最近的動蕩環境中引發出修辭上的辯證：當「家」不一定是長 久習慣的一個地方，可有其他「不家」之境亦能為破碎的心靈提供護蔭？

In the life of a man, the house thrusts aside contingencies, its councils of continuity are unceasing. Without it, man would be a dispersed being. It maintains him through the storms of the heavens and through those of life. It is body and soul. It is the human being’s first world.

——The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard

Bachelard’s concept of house proposes a space that does not merely comprise physical characters of shelter; rather, it is a refuge that shelters and settles the psyche of human. It offers a sense of stability and security, and prevents man from falling into pieces. Bachelard’s notion of house, in this sense, shares same implication of dwelling that accentuates the attainment of belongingness and fulfilment. Life comes into being in a space that provides both physical shelter and psyche solace. Dwelling in a space that maintains one’s strength in getting through nuisances transforms the space into a home. The notion of home has its antecedent in the East; in the poem Calming the Winds and Waves of Su Shi, the poet of Song Dynasty lamented the vicissitude of his life and versed “Home is where the soul resides” to conclude. Dwelling at home is about the cultivation of wellbeing in private space; and without the potency of providing emotional attachment and security for its dweller, the space is merely a physical structure of residence, but not home.

In the project Home and Nonhome, Leung Chi Wo examines the immaterial and vacillating notion of home and proposes reflection on and counter-schema to the inertia material structure of residency. The artist transforms the non-home space, namely hotel rooms and lobby, into a space of reverberation and mediation. Leung situates Open Home (Hong Kong) (2007) and a new set of installation in two hotel rooms; the two-nonhome-hotelroom setting, insofar as ruminations of the two generations, renders oscillation between different views on the idea of intimate attachment at home. In the hotel lobby, an old phone booth signifies a bygone way of communication between home and sojourner is installed. Leung sets the project in a non-home sphere whereby schema of misplacement – home in a non-home sphere - is manoeuvred; it also suggests the notion of home is essentially emotional repercussions. Rather than a physical shelter, dwelling at home infers peaceful and settled emotional conditions. The “Home and Nonhome” ignites rhetorical mediations on recent turbulence of Hong Kong: what if home becomes nonhome and what if non-home calms the shattering souls?