Away from the Long Night

遠離長夜 石晉華、宋冬、于一蘭、尹秀珍四人展 —

Away from the Long Night SHI Jin-Hua, SONG Dong, YEE I-Lann, YIN Xiuzhen

遠離長夜

一如光明必須由黑暗來突顯，清澈人性在紛亂的塵世裡亦更顯珍貴。「遠離長夜」以石 晉華、宋冬、于一蘭（YEE I-Lann）與尹秀珍等四位中生代亞洲藝術家的精彩創作，省思 當代的切身命題；他 ／她們分別從人與人之間的情感聯結、國族處境的反思、面對資本 經濟所產生的疑議、到回視時間本質所切入的「存在與虛無」，抒發出四位藝術家關注生

藝術開啟的生命之光 —

命與省思環境的獨特視角，亦透過不同的媒材所開啟的藝術對話，帶來一次全新的心靈 激盪。

擁抱的力量 擁抱，是人類最簡單直接的肢體接觸，也是撫慰人心的最大力量。透過擁抱，人與人之 間建立起情感的互動與聯結，也表達出對彼此的理解。從 2012 年開始，于一蘭以「擁抱」 的圖像進行一系列創作，她先邀請自己的朋友以及馬來西亞人民提供擁抱的照片，透過 影像的後製處理，只留下擁抱中的雙臂，並賦予鮮豔的橙色，襯以飽和的靛藍作為背景， 構成色彩對比強烈的視覺圖像。透過藝術家的設定，這些雙臂相擁的圖像各自暗示不同 的字母，進而排列出深具啟發性的文字篇章。于一蘭選用互為補色的橙與藍，在形式與 內涵上都呼應「擁抱」互為支持、填補的意涵，在視覺上，兩色交界處呈現出一種動態 與不隱定，當我們注視著作品一段時間之後再移開目光，顏色對換的「視覺殘留」影象 將會顯現，提醒著我們萬事皆有正反兩面，換個角度，會讓我們在面對歧義時，有更為 全面的了解而能夠明智對應。 作為此系列的第二篇章，《在深不可測的黑夜裡我聆聽大地秘音，聽到了你與你的不安 變成這樣行為的恐懼，不是嗎？在深深的黑暗裡》（In the Dark Dark Heavy Dark Night I Was Listening to the Secret Sounds of the Earth and I Heard You and Your Sweat Became That of Fear Didn't It in the Dark Dark Heavy Dark），這組由 136 件作品所構 成的文句段落，是于一蘭以藝術回應馬來西亞長久以來的族群議題的最新發表。作品透 過一種相互支持的動作，同時隱喻著「愛」與「失去」，並彰顯那長存於人類天性裡，互 相理解與包容的潛質。

情感的測量 相對於于一蘭透過影像搜集、取樣與後製，精煉出「擁抱」的視覺層次，同樣以「擁抱」 為題材的石晉華，則是透過身體的行為，用一種凡夫的刻度，日積月累地測量出藝術家 和其所生存世界的對應關係。 創作於 2003 至 2004 年間的《擁抱計畫》，是石晉華當年於美國紐約現代美術館（MoMA） PS1 駐村時，以行為藝術測量人際關係的一個項目，此作以藝術家的身體測量了人與人

之間的關係，並透過最簡單的擁抱行為，以藝術的視角紀錄下人的相遇和有關友情的刻 度。石晉華邀請 2003 至 2004 年和他同時於 PS1 駐村的藝術家共同進行這次創作，他以 雙臂擁抱每一位來自世界各地、不同背景的藝術家，在左臂上標出環抱時右手手指在左 臂內側的位置，並請對方在刻度邊簽下名字，以量度每個朋友的身圍來記錄這段時間的 相遇。最終，石晉華也以雙臂環抱自己，在背後留下自身的刻度與他的英文名字，完成 這件作品。石晉華的《擁抱計畫》，以藝術家的身體和感性隱隱地道出個人對於國族政治 的思索，並以個人對跨國友誼的紀錄反映了台灣作為一個定位不明的國家，在外交上的 文

孤立與特殊處境。

—郭怡孜

記憶的溫暖向度 記憶，是尹秀珍創作的核心命題。出生於 1963 年的北京，尹秀珍在共產主義的烏托邦夢 想中成長，卻在成年後面臨全球化和新自由主義經濟狂潮的席捲。生活在汰舊換新異常 迅捷的北京，尹秀珍對於這股急於拋卻過往、擁抱新事物的集體樂觀氛圍秉持高度的質 疑，也提出異議。憑藉著她對於「物件」的敏感和獨特興趣，尹秀珍的創作總是有著懷 3

舊的溫度，以一種出自女性的柔軟特質，反省既定的現實框架，警醒這個充滿競爭、高 速向前滾動的世界。 尹秀珍的作品一直都以二手衣物作為主要材料，在她看來，二手衣物，是有溫度的布料， 既是使用者的第二層皮膚，也承載著使用者的情感與故事。《書籍 22 號》是尹秀珍以 二手衣物創造出的眾多藝術裝置之一，她以收集而來的舊衣物包覆木塊，以一種簡單的 創作方式形塑出一座兼含知識與感性的複雜雕塑載體。《書籍 22 號》的正面如同滿滿陳 列著書籍的書架，背面則彷彿一座收納衣物的櫥櫃。書籍作為盛裝知識的載體，經常象 徵一種知識的權力與菁英階級，以及歷代傳承而來的知識框架，但尹秀珍以常民穿著的 二手衣物包覆木塊成書，將崇高的知識系統內部汰換成平凡的日常物件，不僅為知識的 崇高感注入柔軟和溫度，也似乎顯示出傳播系統的轉變，讓知識體系不再專屬社會中的 某個階層，而是屬於普羅大眾。於是，透過材料的反差與物件象徵的錯置與轉化，《書籍 22 號》以一種溫暖卻有力量的態度，對當代文明提出了反思。

無痕的存在 相對於尹秀珍對物件的敏感，宋冬的興趣更偏向於無形力量的探問，或是關於天地運行 規律的冥思。宋冬的藝術往往從個人的行動或生活經驗的爬梳，推衍至社會群體的狀態， 甚至觸及普世精神層面的辯證。而宋冬的作品裡，頻繁地在公共區域以個人形象執行創 作或現身於作品之中，也使得他的創作在某種程度上，成為藝術家個人生活於天地之間 的自我修煉。 深研道家思想的宋冬，對於時間的運行、虛與實之間的對應有其深刻的體會，《水寫時間 北京》一作道出了藝術家對於存在與時間本質的深度思考。宋冬以毛筆沾清水，在北京 胡同裡寫下創作當下的時、分、秒，時間即在發生當下被標示於地面，卻又隨著時間的 流逝與水的蒸發消失無蹤，不留一點痕跡。藝術家藉此抓取時間的瞬間性，並彰顯了顯 現與隱藏、存在與虛無之間的關係。透過探索時間的本質，《水寫時間 北京》以行為藝 術之姿精闢地觸及了生命的存在議題，而藝術家不留痕跡的時間書寫，對應了道家的「無 為」哲學，更是一個「無得之得」。

日將東起，並帶領我們遠離長夜 這一年，世界各地不斷發生的戰火、意外、天災、人禍，似乎讓西元 2014 年應驗著中國 紀年法裡，甲午年所象徵的戰火年。然而，面對巨變與災難乃歷史長流中文明蛻變向前 的必要之痛，正因為人性光輝在安逸生活中難以彰顯，生命必須經由苦難的課題來正視 困境的

示，學習從一次次的打擊中站起，攜手面對惴惴不安的未來。狄更斯的文學名

句「這是最好的時代，也是最壞的時代。」澄清了亙古不變的普世價值，並提點了我們 面對困境不該過度地放大，藝術永遠是苦難世界或艱困環境裡的一盞明燈，如同于一蘭 以「擁抱」為核心概念之系列創作的第一章節所言， 「日將東起，並帶領我們遠離長夜。」 1

1. 此系列的首章《日將東起，並帶領我們遠離長夜》發表於 2012，2014 年發表

序曲《愛的感受》與第二篇章《在深不可測的黑夜裡我聆聽大地秘音，聽到了 你與你的不安變成這樣行為的恐懼，不是嗎？在深深的黑暗裡 》，並將在 2016 及 2018 分別發表第三及第四篇章。

Away from the Long Night — the Illumination from Art

Just as light must be foregrounded by darkness, pure humanity seems even more precious in this chaotic mundane world. The exhibition, Away from the Long Night, tackles issues close to the contemporary era, and presents the outstanding works by four Asian artists born in the 1960s and 1970s: SHI Jin-Hua, SONG Dong, YEE I-Lann, and YIN Xiuzhen.

From the emotional connections between individuals, the reflections on national and racial status, doubts toward capitalism, to a review of the essence of time and its “existence and emptiness,” their works demonstrate unique insights into life and contemplation on the social environment, and commence an artistic dialogue with various mediums that refreshes our views and minds.

The Power of Embraces A hug is the most powerful body language that sooths and invigorates our hearts. Through the act of embracing, individuals have conducted emotional interactions, built connections, and conveyed understanding for one another. YEE I-Lann commenced a series of works with images of “embraces” since 2012. She invites her friends and the Malaysian people to provide photos of hugs. With post-editing, the images of hugging arms are extracted, colored with bright orange and set against a saturated blue background, forming an intense visual work in contrasting colors. Through her design, each of the images implicates a letter of the alphabet, and together they form an inspiring text. The complementary colors of orange and blue echo the idea of an embrace, which carries the meaning of giving support and making up for each other’s insufficiencies. Visually speaking, a sense of dynamics and instability could be detected along the boundary between the two colors. When we look at the work for a short period of time and move our eyes away from the image, the persistence of vision with the exchange of the two colors will surface, reminding us that every story always has two sides. Placing ourselves in the other’s perspective will allow us to have a more well-rounded understanding when facing diversity, and we will be able to handle the situation with more wisdom.

The second chapter of this series is titled In the Dark Dark Heavy Dark Night I Was Listening to the Secret Sounds of the Earth and I Heard You and Your Sweat Became That of Fear Didn't It in the Dark Dark Heavy Dark. This passage, comprised of 136 pieces of prints, is YEE’s latest response to the long-lasting racial and ethnic issues in Malaysia.

While encompassing both a sense of love and its complementary opposite of loss, the work emphasizes and amplifies the aspect of mutual understanding and tolerance in human nature through the embracing act of mutual support.

The Measurement of Emotion Comparing to YEE I-Lann’s gathering, selection, post-production of images, and finally extracting the layered visuality of “embraces,” SHI Jin-Hua also makes use of hugs, but through his actual physical behavior. With the scale of a common mortal and slow accumulation over the time, SHI measures out his relationship to the world.

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Interpersonal relationships are measured with performance art in Hugging Project, which was created from 2003 to 2004 during SHI’s residency at PS1 of the Museum of Modern

Isabelle Kuo

Art in New York. Through a simple act of hug, SHI recorded the measurements of human encounters and friendship from an artistic perspective. SHI invited fellow artists who were in residency with him at PS1 from 2003 to 2004 to co-create this project: he embraced each artist from a different part of the world and cultural background, and marked the 5

circumference of the embrace on the inside of his left arm where his right hand fingers reached. He, then, asked the artist to sign his or her name next to the marking of the measurement, and thus, recorded their encounter in this period of time with this particular friend’s body circumference. At the end, SHI hugged himself with his arms and left the markings on his own back with his own name, putting an end to the project. With his own body and artistic sensibility, SHI Jin-Hua’s Hugging Project also subtly recounted his personal thinking on national and racial politics, reflecting the ambiguous status of Taiwan being a country and its solitary position in foreign affairs with a documentation of his international friendship as an individual.

The Dimension of Warmth in Memory Memory has always been the essential theme of YIN Xiuzhen’s practice. Born in Beijing in 1963, the artist grew up in the utopian fantasy of communism, but had to face the torrents of globalization and economic neoliberalism after her adolescence. Living in Beijing, where the old is replaced rapidly with the new, YIN has always remained highly suspicious of the collective optimism of eagerly throwing away the past and welcoming the new. On the strength of her sensitivity and interest in “objects,” YIN’s work always radiates a nostalgic warmth and unique feminine tenderness while re-examining the existing framework of the reality, cautioning about this competitive, fast advanced world.

YIN Xiuzhen has been using second-hand clothes as her artistic material. For her, the used clothing carries certain warmth and is like the wearer’s second skin, soaked with his or her feelings and stories. Bookshelf No. 22 is one of the many installation pieces that YIN has created with second-hand clothes. She wrapped wood blocks with the collected old clothing, and created a complex sculptural platform that encompassed knowledge and sensibility. The front of this work looks like a bookshelf filled with books, while the back resembles a closet for storing clothes. With the information they carry, books often symbolize the power of knowledge, the elite class, as well as the framework of knowledge passed down through generations. However, YIN’s wrapping of wood blocks with common second-hand clothes replaces the esteemed knowledge system with ordinary objects, not only softening and warming up the austerity of knowledge but also delineating the transformation of the communication system. Here, the knowledge system is no longer monopolized by a certain social class, but belongs to the public. As a result, through the displacement and transformation of symbols, Bookshelf No. 22 states the reflection on contemporary civilization with an attitude that is both warm and powerful.

The Existence with Invisible Traces In comparison to YIN Xiuzhen’s sensitivity to objects, SONG Dong’s interest lies in the exploration of the invisible force or the contemplation on the rhythm of the universe. His work often starts from his personal action or examination of living experiences, and moves onto the collective condition of the society, even to dialectics at the level on the universal spirit. We frequently witness the artist making art in public spaces or his appearance in his works. This method makes SONG’s works, to a certain degree, his own spiritual discipline in this world.

SONG Dong has been studying Taoism thoroughly, and has deep understanding of the movement of time as well as the correlation of the real and the unreal. Writing Time with Water Beijing embodies SONG’s profound thinking of our existence and the essence of

time. He dipped a writing brush in clear water, and wrote down the hour, minute and second of that exact moment when he did so in a hutong (alley) in Beijing. Time was, then, marked on the ground, but disappeared into nothingness as water evaporated with the pass of the time, leaving no traces whatsoever. In this work, the artist attempted to capture the instantaneity of time and makes obvious the relationship between the revealed and hidden as well as the existence and emptiness. With its exploration of the essence of time, Writing Time with Water Beijing insightfully touches upon the issue of existence in life with an act of performance art, and the artist’s writing of time that leaves no traces has precisely corresponded to the Taoist philosophy of “doing nothing and letting things take their own course,” which is exactly “an act of gaining by gaining nothing.”

The Sun Will Rise in the East and Deliver Us from This Long Night In this past year, wars, accidents, natural and man-made disasters kept taking place. Being the year of Jiawu in Chinese lunar calendar, 2014 has almost corresponded to the year of warfare, which Jiawu signifies. However, facing drastic changes and catastrophes is what it takes for civilizations to evolve and advance in the course of history. The glory of humanity is hardly visible in peaceful and comfortable times, thus life must receive the lessons of difficulties through hardship, learn to rise up in consecutive setbacks, and face the nerve-wrecking future in unison. Charles Dickens’s words best sum up this unchanging universal value: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” It reminded us that when facing difficulties, we should not blow them out of proportion. Art will always shin through times of disasters or hardship. Just as what YEE I-Lann has stated in her first chapter in the series based on “embraces”: “The Sun Will Rise in the East and Deliver Us From This Long Night.” 1

1. The first chapter of this series, The Sun Will Rise in the East and Deliver Us from This Long Night, was announced in 2012. In 2014, she published the prelude, Rasa Sayang, and the second chapter, In the Dark Dark Heavy Dark Night I Was Listening to the Secret Sounds of the Earth and I Heard You and Your Sweat Became That of Fear Didn't It in the Dark Dark Heavy Dark. The third and fourth chapter will be released in 2016 and 2018 respectively.

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《在深不可測的黑夜裡我聆聽大地秘音，聽到了你與你的不安變成這樣行為的恐懼，不是嗎？在深深的黑暗裡》 In the Dark Dark Heavy Dark Night I was Listening to the Secret Sounds of the Earth and I Heard You and Your Sweat Became That of Fear Didn't It in the Dark Dark Heavy Dark

于一蘭 YEE I-Lann 數位輸出、水晶裝裱 Digital c type print on metallic paper with diasec framing 21×29 cm×136 | 2014 Edition of 3 + 1 AP

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