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[reflexresidues]

Whose Cloud was it anyway? (2010.04.27)

De.bunked was my first attempt at devising, according to my Oxford Minidictionary, the word devise means “plan; invent” (Hawkins 1981: 116). As my level of experience in ‘invention’ of this kind is close to nought, I shall not comment on our devising method, nor our company as a whole, instead, I must reflect on the content, from my observations as an outsider, who had ultimately been placed in a group under the constitution of the course, with the assumption of devising as a collaborative [1] process that thus came with this ideal of a team of creative individuals.

In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Erving Goffman talks about a social environment as a performance with individuals as performers and observers, working as a team. Directors, on the other hand, although start as “a member of the team, may find himself slowly edged into a marginal role between audience and per[formers], half in and half out of both camps” [2] (Goffman 1990: 103). De.bunked was a team of nine, who simultaneously shifted between being a performer and an observer, within a “set of individuals who cooperate in staging a single routine” (Goffman 1990: 85). I shall therefore use the word showings to refer to the performances that we, as a team, generated for the audience who also naturally worked as a team during their time together in the showings, observing quietly from a distance; and I shall use the term- actors, to refer to our two performers who had the freedom to act, react, reenact and interact with each other and with the audience.

The final showing of Whose Cloud Is It Anyway? was on March 9th 2010, it ran from 3pm to 9pm. There was no backstage- all equipments, cables and members of the company were visible. Audience were invited and asked to stay as long as they wanted and contribute as they wished (Douglas O’Connell, one of the scenography tutors, shredded one actor’s notebook that had been carelessly placed next to the shredder, as a statement to warn us to be careful of what we ask of the audience). There was certainly something exciting in the way that things were presented, but what I found most problematic was not that it was set in a black box space, nor was it the fact that we were communicating online when we could have easily talked to each other in person, but the fact that we were dealing with the topic of cloud-computing.

The showing essentially derived from one article [3] from The Guardian that our director read and got obsessed over. We all did some research, read more articles and watched youtube clips, but would we (I) say we were in a position to comment and debate on this subject? No. Were we able to dig deep enough into the truth and offer something challenging and honest in the showings? No. And to me, it is unethical to deceive our audience and to confuse them into thinking that there was more to see in these showings than what was there to look at.

Ultimately, I feel that form is something that could be, and should be experimented explicitly but to shallowly put together content that is based on so few, and multihanded sources is simply not justifiable.

  The role of the writer

On February 18th 2010, I was asked to write a script over night based on all the discussions that we had had so far. Our main ideas at that point were- ‘traces’, books being digitized (Google Books) and the gradual loss of ‘romance’ with technological advances. Baring in mind the cultural differences between our two actors [4], I wrote a script about two women, for different reasons, working in different areas in a book digitizing warehouse, how by working there, lead them to rethink the romantic notion of having physical objects and human contact. I did the best I could but it was almost immediately rejected when one of our actors claimed to be nauseated by the thought of acting, which I felt, in itself, was a ironically romantic notion.

Having hit a brick wall, we decided to do some improvisation- we were sat around the room and each one of us had a specific task assigned. Our two performers were thrown into the middle of the room to ‘react’ to the Youtube videos that were projected onto screens around the room, sound and lighting were adjusted to create atmosphere. This day, February 25th 2010, was the day when we ‘discovered’ the format (and most) of our showing.

I thought I would use this opportunity to research on my interest in the act of documentation as performance. As recent studies have been about the rivalry between photography and video as the ‘best’ medium for performance documentation, I thought it could be interesting for me to take a step back and use writing.

Paper every fucking where. Who's going to clean it up? What's there to celebrate anyway. Fucking confetti for nothing. Yeah chuck it, throw it, sprinkle it. Why not. Yeah spinkle it everywhere, even do a little bit of translation in it. Why, not.

Truly reusing waste. Genius. I'm out.

(Appendix B: 1)

  This was my commentary whilst our performers were throwing shredded paper onto each other, dancing and rolling around on the floor. In the following rehearsals, I tried to interact with our actors with my writing:

ONLY READ ALOUD WORDS IN "" ONLY RESPOND TO TEXTS AFTER >>

4. You alright? Yeah, just fell over. 5. Clouds in the Bible 6. Virus 7. A chasing lights

>> A, what are you running after?

(Appendix C: 1)

As I sat behind the small monitor, on my laptop typing this, I knew the chances of anyone coming over and engage with it was very low, but I did so to emphasise my role as a performer as well as an observer.

In the final version, I had developed a system of noting events and also become more focused on details and thus more of a documenter. Audience was greeted by a projection of my documentation on the wall as they entered, it was like Dan Graham’s Present Continuous Past(s) (Appendix A) in some way, that the documentation of the actions that were the performance becomes part of the performance itself.

Hello Ayse.

74. A's music 75. A with headscarf, L with box 76. Protest 77. A's pre-recorded monologue about riot 78. L's poetry to Chopin- use me at your convenience, with shredded paper

(Appendix D: 2-3)

In this durational showing, where anyone could come in and go out at anytime, where there was no stage, just a crowded room for everyone to wander around, having this ‘continuous past’ performance i.e. the specific and intended documentation, acting as a focal point for the audience to place themselves immediately in context of the showing at the moment they entered the room, helped reducing the sense of disorientation and confusion.

I would like to point out the fact that there were also two types of video recordings throughout the showing. There were short clips that were elaborately filmed on our performers’ compact digital cameras and laptops, which were uploaded onto Youtube for the actors to immediately reenact and react to; also, there was a camcorder that was hidden in the opposite corner from mine, recording the whole duration of the showing, which, more than “any other form or activity of representation, […] constructed within discourses of documentation and disappearance as at once both the sav[iour] and death of live performance” (Reason 2006: 73). The former type of recording was done solely for the purpose of being put back into the showing; the latter, however, was straightforward video documentation, providing a restricted, dead but raw account of the events, unfortunately, it was unlikely to be of any use thereafter. It bore witness to the parts of the showing where no audience was present, and it contains the evidence of some of the audience reactions, which is theoretically valuable, but it was afterall another product of the obsession to archive.

As a documenter, my position was also, like the director’s, hanging on the fine line between audience and performer. I was simultaneously one of these roles, in both cases, as an outsider, but with differing agendas. The former expects something in return- a question, a feeling or even a gift. She enters naïvely, then observes, ponders and doubts; she then exits, with an objective opinion. The latter, on the other hand, burdened by his duty, must not intervene with the performance of his fellow team members, but rather, to observe from the outside inwards.

  Appendix A

Present Continuous Past(s), Dan Graham

The mirrors reflect present time. The video camera tapes what is immediately in front of it and the entire reflection on the opposite mirrored wall.

The image seen by the camera (reflecting everything in the room) appears eight seconds later in the video monitor (via a tape delay placed between the video recorder, which is recording, and a second video recorder, which is playing the recording back). If a viewer's body does not directly obscure the lens's view of the facing mirror the camera is taping the reflection of the room and the reflected image of the monitor (which shows the time recorded eight seconds previously reflected from the mirror). A person viewing the monitor sees both the image of himself or herself of eight seconds earlier, and what was reflected on the mirror from the monitor eight seconds prior to that–sixteen seconds in the past (the camera view of eight seconds prior was playing back on the monitor eight seconds earlier, and this was reflected on the mirror along with the then present reflection to the viewer). An infinite regress of time continuums within time continuums (always separated by eight-second intervals) within time continuums is created. The mirror at right angles to the other mirror-wall and to the monitor-wall gives a present-time view of the installation as if observed from an «objective» vantage exterior to the viewer's subjective experience and to the mechanism that produces the piece's perceptual effect. It simply reflects (statically) present time. (Doug Hall/Sally Jo Fifer: Illuminating Video – An Essential Guide to Video Art, New York, 1990, p. 186)

Appendix B

25/02/10

Testing

01. Two girls in black and white rolling around inside a white rectangle on the floor. 02. Shadow puppets- rabbit, hare, boop boop. 03. Intense headache on the right.

---

01. Arezou holding her knees at the corner of the rectangle. 02. She is holding her face. 03. Rubbing her eyes. 04. "This is business- fast, better, cheaper. This is improvement." 05. She yawns as I yawn. 06. She stares at something ahead of her. 07. "Wabbits" 08. She is on her knees. 09. Cannot see anymore. Fuck it.

---

One is arranging and the other looking through the remains. One is talking constantly and the other lying down on the floor. Nothing to write now. Bye.

Paper every fucking where. Who's going to clean it up? What's there to celebrate anyway. Fucking confetti for nothing.

Yeah chuck it, throw it, sprinkle it. Why not.

Yeah spinkle it everywhere, even do a little bit of translation in it. Why, not.

  Truly reusing waste. Genius.

I'm out.

---

I am the voice of google. I'm wearing black t-shirt and jeans.

What are you wearing.

How sexy

Do a little dance for me

Yeah why not

do it DO IT

Nice ass.Can't see your face both

Nice one. Nice view. Yeah move it.

Do a little dance with the other girls.

Not bad. I like it. Very nice.

Were you trained

You look pro

Thank you

You made my day

Free google for you.

---

I once watched a Czech film about Laputa- the city that floats in the air. One day in a month or is it a year, the people stop talking, Because they think that talking uses too much oxygen and that it would get used up if they keep talking so much.

But that's just the movie.

  Appendix C

Mock Run 02/03/10 Afternoon

  1. Cloud talk 2. Upbeat music 3. A films L making paper puppets- seaside town/boats postcards

ONLY READ ALOUD WORDS IN "" ONLY RESPOND TO TEXTS AFTER >>

4. You alright? Yeah, just fell over. 5. Clouds in the Bible 6. Virus 7. A chasing lights

>> A, what are you running after?

8. L directing A- A still chasing lights 9. A moves on the floor 10. CompanyC 1st video

I trip twice a day in average, I can't help it, it's like it's too much effort to lift my feet when I walk. Maybe I need to try harder and actually start paying more attention.

11. Facebook 12. Charlie 13. L falling off chair 14. A's recorded rooftop monologue- headscarf- God, please help us. 15. A's sarcastic laugh was good

ONLY READ ALOUD WORDS IN "" ONLY RESPOND TO TEXTS AFTER >>

16. librarian and waitress

>> Why are a librarian and a waitress trying to give a lecture?

17. Cloud computing is for disabled people? What?!

Appendix D

05/03/10 de.bunked - 3rd run (final) - WB Performance Studio 2

[Time 19:11]

Oh hello. Yes, come in.

1. warm up + refreshments 2. IBM cloud ad- looped 3. Arezou's music 4. A + L live feed- paper puppets + notebook 5. beach conversation. L- I'm your father of course... Are you excited to be here? 6. Rolling Stones

Oh hello there, glad you made it.

7. A + L scanning and shredding 8. L's friend Jason in Africa- is cloud culture going to be important to them? 9. blue sweater guy on red sofa Google Books speech 10. where Liz's friend is in Africa does not actually have internet. Oops. 11. ScanTech speech 12. A + L Shakespearean clouds 13. popular youtube video montage

Aw. Babies are funny.

14. A + L making funny noises

Beatboxing? Kind of?

15. livefeed- beatboxing 16. happy music for A to dance to 17. L joins

Lovely.

18. Charlie- performers break 19. No light

Lost sight of the performers...

20. A makes more paper puppets 21. one paper protestor on the box 22. A with headscarf, rooftop video 23. L pushes box over for A to stand on 24. protest continues 25. A's pre-recorded monologue about riot 26. A writing something onto paper and throwing them out

Oh HELLO! Look, more people.

27. A + L scanning and shredding 28. internet censorship video 29. A with shredded paper 30. L- Lizzie West... from scanned notes 31. Lizzie West does not have a drinking problem unless she can't get a drink 32. video of dork with guitar

Oh hello hello.

33. A does a lil dance

Yeah we want to have fun.

34. L talks about Facebook photos 35. A still with shredded paper 36. video of L doing crazy dance 37. L dances to livefeed with youtube 38. Kate Bush 39. video of Rob's thoughts on our piece 40. A talks to audience 41. Jon & Seven Wombs 42. L copies Prae's yoga routine in video 43. A + L walking and tripping and falling 44. ICA speech sound only 45. Break 46. L shredding 47. postcard video

Is that kristen? Yes.

48. Jazzy music, nice. 49. L's rabbit den story 50. Prae making my tea

Amie and Ken, hi.

51. I cannot see either performers again 52. L looking at timeline 53. broken projector. Shit. have our audience see this, shit. 54. thanks Kristen, bloody demo thing. 55. IBM cloud video- looped 56. Prof. Arezou needs her glasses again! 57. Amie gives definition of cloud 58. L calls A a waitress? 59. Ken doesn't drive 60. Charlie's 2 mins 61. L's classical music- Chopin I think. 62. L's flute duet- Jon joins, A takes photographs 63. L talks about ladybird on the pavement 64. video of A + L beatboxing 65. L raps to eminem- nice hood. 66. A dances to L's rap

This is ace. They should do open mic night.

67. oh hello Arezou 68. Dirty old man chat 69. silly dance

HELLO! Yes hello!

70. A + L scanning and shredding 71. video of debate on digitising books 72. L explaining to audience about the future 73. rooftop video

Hello Ayse.

74. A's music 75. A with headscarf, L with box 76. Protest 77. A's pre-recorded monologue about riot 78. L's poetry to Chopin- use me at your convenience, with shredded paper 79. video of Rob's thoughts on the piece 80. waiting for upbeat music, come on 81. virus? 82. video of computer virus 83. Oh no, bad remix of a bad song 84. LOUD 85. Jon does weird sound effect on keyboard 86. Chaos 87. A dies? 88. No 89. IBM cloud video again

[1]  ”collaborate v.i. work in partnership.” (Hawkins 1981: 79)

[2]  The audience is “likely to hold him more responsible than other performers for the success of the per[formance]. The director is likely to respond to this respon[sibility] by making dramaturgical demands on the performers that they might not make upon themselves.” (Goffman 1990: 103)

[3]  Leadbeater, 2010

[4]  Elizabeth West is 23, from the U.K. and Arezou Ali is 30, from Iran. 

[reflexresidues]

A Video Artist’s Guide to Archiving (2010.7.27)

1.

There was the Essential Cinema Repertory- an ambitious attempt to define the art of cinema. A collection of films consisting of 110 programs (330 titles) selected between 1970 and 1975 by Anthology Film Archive [1]’s film selection committee, which was set to screen in cycles of approximately four weeks, three films a day. This would have provided a unique opportunity to any dedicated spectator to see a concentrated history of the art of film. This project initiated at the Anthology was however, never completed due to insufficient physical and financial conditions.

Documentation and archive have become increasingly important over the history of contemporary Art [2], for obvious reasons such as educational to funding purposes, but in this paper I intend to discuss documentation and archive specifically within the artist-art spectrum i.e. the various relationships that we, as artists (practitioners), have with our work (practice) and how the archive, both smaller (private/personal) and larger (public/institutional) scales, comes in the process of making.

We take photographs on holidays because we do not want to forget the good times that we have, and we write memoirs to honour those we respect- we document in order to remember, but often we remember just to forget. To be rid of what has been and should not be, and to confront these mistakes and learn from them, or to make something better out of them, something more meaningful, and worthy, or just to make sense of them… For these reasons, we must remember.

  2.

I remember sitting through the (approximately) middle three hours of Star Spangled to Death (2004) at Chisenhale Gallery on November 2nd 2008. The whole gallery was flooded by the light from the projection of this Ken Jacobs video and there were just several of us scattered around the space. It was quite an overwhelming experience. The video was fast-paced, almost spastic, without time to even process what we had to take in. There is no particular narrative or structure, just footages, sounds and sometimes text passing by. This four-hundred-forty minute long avant-garde epic took the filmmaker close to half a century to make, combining found-films and archival footages with his own materials, illustrating the country that both fascinates and distresses him. “Racial and religious insanity, monopolization of wealth and the purposeful dumbing down of citizens and addiction to war oppose a Beat playfulness.” (Jacobs) Star Spangled to Death is Jacobs’ portrait of America and his attempt to reveal its twisted subconscious and warped ideologies that celebrate the inane and preach obedience.

Jacobs used the archive, not only for research but also as raw materials and means of expression. This particular type of video work, of montage, of splicing, juxtaposing and overlapping, is the essence of collage- its ability to enable artists “to incorporate reality into art without imitating it." (Tomkins 1980: 87) Just as the appearance of text of newspaper and bus tickets in paintings in the ages of Cubists and Dadaists.

In his essay, An Archival Impulse, Hal Foster talks about this particular artist-archive relationship as artists’ desire to “make historical information, often lost or displaced, physically present.” (Merewether 2006: 143) How they sees the possibilities of departure points that these ‘time readymades’ have to offer, and use them as “alternative knowledge or counter-memory”. (Ibid.: 144)

  3.

I have always been a collector, mainly because I value the fragility of the being (of things)- so I keep bits of things, I write things down, I take my camera everywhere I go. On the other hand, I am also aware of the capacity of memory to deceive, so I keep a diary (but not to record ‘accurately’), which I do not often write in, because to me it is not a necessity, I see it as a condensation of my thoughts, not necessarily of the most importance, but rather, of complete spontaneity.

When you document with a purpose in mind, you tend to lose spontaneity and depth. The act of documentation should not be solely to ‘preserve’ but rather to capture in their essence that is most relevant to yourself (and your work), and it should come as natural as your practice, integrated into your working process. Is this not essentially how work evolve- a progression of ideas with all the things that happen to happen on the way leading to a final satisfactory product?

In The Future of The Image, Jacques Ranciere talks about a ‘double community’. One community lies between ‘signs’ and ‘us’, where the presence that signs inhabits and how their familiarity makes them more than mere tools to us- “they are inhabitants of our world, characters that make up a world for us.” (Ranciere 2009:35) The other community is the one that is contained within the conception of signs, the interlacing visual and textual elements that functions right here among us. The former forms speak and communicate, whereas the latter possess the weight of the actual, visible realities, presenting and signifying physical beings.

A ‘sign’ stands for something else other than itself, and it differs according to whom it is signified to, it is a discrete incarnation of ‘meaning’, images, words, sounds… these are the different forms of signs that we communicate with, but as individuals, we understand things differently from one another. This is due to the diversity of social attributes such as cultural and historical backgrounds. It is thus interesting that there would always be at least two possible narratives that an assemblage of ‘things’ would make- firstly, the story that the narrator, or maker tries to convey, and secondly is the one that the spectator is understanding, hearing, imagining.

We remember things (events, people etc.) not as its entirety, but rather, in fragments and attributes. We choose what to remember and often these resemblances differ from the ‘truth’. “Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.” (Faulkner 1950: 104) As these ‘things’ get filtered through again and again, it really does not seem to be important to ‘remember’, as things are anymore, often it is what you choose to remember and to be reminded of, or what it makes you think of. Of course, I do not mean this in the absolute sense- certain things are worth remembering and passed on in its bare truth, like history, as George Santayana famously wrote in The Life of Reason (1905-1906) “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But again, I am only speaking as an artist in relation to herself and her work, and what I am trying to say is that ‘accuracy’ is not the most important thing when it comes to documenting your work.

In 2006 I started filming. I filmed things that I cared about, and things that I found beautiful, same reason why I took photographs of trees, strangers and playgrounds. I used my camera to capture things that happen around my life or because of it, in the flux of events. They are documents of the glimpses of beauty that happen in my life that becomes part of that life. These are raw materials that I make my art with, however, through a fictional filter. These are honest pieces of my life that I use to make something new and different with, fictional and yet truthful and the beauty remains and new meanings are born.                                           

In “Three Times”, I used a series of photographs and video footage that I had taken of my parents, then from the final film I wrote three separate narratives, describing three versions of the narrator’s relationship with the woman in the video, making three (versions of the same) film. This simple assemblage of images, both still and moving, and of text, creates new meaning for its fragments and for its audience, which includes its maker. Just like the final product, my documentations of everyday life have an explicit sense of distance, distance that I need and enjoy as both the documenter and in a sense, the subject. I shoot and observe voyeuristically behind the lens, and I assemble my images with care to create narrative. In all aspects, my relationship with my private archives is fundamentally different from that of Jonas Mekas'.

  4.

“ I just film my life. I have no plan, no script. I have no idea what I will do with the footage.” – Jonas Mekas

Film has a long history of being associated with poetry, tracing back to Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet (1930), however this goes under Surrealism. This film-poetry relationship is very different from the kind that was practiced by the avant-garde purists. The Surrealists illustrated images by visualising poetry for its audience. The avant-gardists, on the other hand, had an analogical way of using of poetry in their filmmaking, which allowed them “to do imaginative work that used the camera the way a poet uses his pen: as an instrument of invention.” (Tyler 1958: 42)  

In the 1950s, the avant-garde had found the aesthetics of snapshot photography within the context of fine art photography. In Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes writes about how a photograph of his mother as a child distills the essence of photographic reproduction for him- the certainty that the depicted scene existed in the past, that it "has been". In this photograph, he sees an image of his mother just as she was for him. He refuses to reproduce this snapshot of his mother as a child for our scrutiny, "I cannot reproduce the Winter Garden Photograph. It exists only for me. For you, it would be nothing but an indifferent picture" (Barthes 1981: 73). He knows that this photograph would have no meaning, nor familiarity for an outside viewer, who has no kinship with this image of his mother. It would be a mere curiosity, another casual snapshot of an anonymous little girl from another era. “[V]iewers often cannot determine from a family photograph the range of contextual data necessary to interpret the events depicted, and they clearly cannot anticipate the range of significances attributed to the images by their users" (Musello 1980: 40) Similarly, home movies clings to the past delicately with the passage of time. In the 1960s, Jonas Mekas had found this new aesthetic material in home movies and started endorsing this new, inexpensive and technically simple style of filmmaking, which was later on practiced by Andy Warhol. 

Poet, filmmaker and archivist, Mekas is one of the pioneers in American avant-garde cinema [3]. He was one of the founders of the Anthology Film Archives, and has remained its president. His aim was to establish a permanent home for cinema of the avant-garde and independent productions. Mekas also has a really intimate relationship with his private archives- he documents his life and his personal archives become his work. He writes poetry and films his life, all out of necessity. Filming is what he does and film is his life. He films without any plan or script, and he does not collect material for specific ideas, therefore he emphasises that he is a ‘filmer’ rather than a ‘filmmaker’. He uses his footages as they are, without disguising what they are meant to be, they are his sketches, his diaries, and he makes art out of these collected fragments of everyday life through the collage of images and sound. One example of this would be Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (1990), where he simply extracted from his collection of footage that he had of Andy Warhol over the period of their acquaintanceship, and this thirty-six minute long montage was exhibited in the Andy Warhol retrospective at the Centre Georges Pompidou (February 1989- September 1990).

Better yet, is As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000), which covers about twenty-five years of the artist’s life. It is about five hours long [4]. Several years later, an opportunity came along and the 365 Day Project was made- 365 short film-poems for Apple’s iPod, using the remaining footage that he intended to use for As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, without any set theme. It is a simple, accessible piece of work but with complex connotations- it is about the artist’s life (his culture and community and his time) and its significance in our time (technology, art and culture).

This analogical use of poetry makes the domestic and private materials used in this kind of films more accessible to the public as they are used as means to connect to the disjointed histories and realities portrayed out of context of their origins.

2010.7.27

[1] Anthology Film Archives was founded by Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas in 1969. It is the first film museum exclusively devoted to the film as a form of Art.

[2] I include Theatre under the umbrella of Art, just as I do with Cinema, together with Fine Art, which includes photography, video and performance art etc.

[3] Or the New American Cinema, as he dubbed it in the late 1950s.

[4] 288 minutes at the Berlin Film Festival, 320 minutes at the London Film Festival.

[reflexresidues]

Skin Weave 织皮

Like many introverts, Zhang Shujian (born 1987, Hunan province) is a creative mind and a thinker, at the same time he is also a rebel with an underlying toughness. He dedicates most of his time painting in his apartment just outside of Beijing. Since an early stage of his career as an artist, Zhang already had a clear idea of where his interests lay and how he wanted his practice to develop, this instinct drove him to explore beyond the technical aspects of his practice and it is also what distinguishes him from many of his peers who lack confidence and persistence in their own artistic pursuit. 

At the first glance, Zhang’s often small-scale paintings would seem to be photorealistic portraits, and although there is a strong emphasis on details, if you give it just a few more seconds to sink in, you would realise that the artist’s intention is not merely to portray his subjects in a way that is closest to reality, but rather, he aims to express his simple yet unconventional concepts in a way that exceeds reality. During this time consuming process, a certain aspect of the “reality” – the most basic, the normally overlooked details are amplified to a distorted and even unreal state. In the case of this latest series of paintings, it is none other than the texture of our own skin.

Skin Weave is a series that Zhang has been working on since his first solo exhibition in 2010 Self Portrait. Moving away from those who surround him daily, he has borrowed from the sketches of masters from different eras that he found inspiring, including Dürer, Baldung Grien,   Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Grünewald and Kollwitz. While the forms in his paintings remain very close to the original sketches, by ridding of elements such as their medium, style and era, leaving the form alone as basis, he then adds his own unique element, which is the hyper-realistic depiction of the texture of the skin, by doing so, Zhang has brought these forms to life through his own imagination, within his modernist visual context, creating a certain incoherency and absurdity in the final images. “I just want to depict what my eyes can see – the veins under the skin, pores in various sizes and all kinds of dirt on the surface of the skin.” said Zhang while describing the series Skin Weave, “I weave the nerves, little by little, as though knitting a sweater, into a texture that is visually most akin to our skin”.  On the surface, his act of painting might seem to be a straightforward representation of the most direct “truth” seen by the eyes, but there is much more within his subtle brushstrokes, in what he presents to the spectators is a truth that we would normally find difficulty in seeing and would perhaps unable to accept. We instinctually reject it because it forces us to see beyond looking and to not take what is in front of our eyes for granted, thus allowing us to actively question “reality”.

Heidegger had said that, while an artwork creates a world of its own, it also opens up for us other worlds and cultures. Concealment is a necessity in the seek of truth, and unconcealment, that is the existence of truth is a product of the struggle that happens in the process of art, something which takes place within the artwork itself. Although there are conflicting elements in Skin Weave, which is partly due to the artist’s exploration in the medium itself, also because of the tension between his modernist visual language and those of other eras, it is also this incoherency and forcedness that question us and opens up a path for us to look at the past in a different light. Within these gaps created by conflict, spectators are given space for imagination, and while the realness of the subjects has been unconcealed, it also allows a possibility for coherency between the unrealness within the images and our “reality”.

2013.11.15

如同很多内向的人，张书笺（1987年湖南生）是一个具有创造力的思想者，同时他在骨子里亦带有一丝倔强和叛逆。他将大部分时间都投入在绘画中，而在艺术生涯的早期他就已经明确自己创作的方向和目标，这种本能驱策他创作的欲望，亦有助他脱离纯粹技术上的探究，也是使他区别于众多在实践中因缺乏坚持和自信而迷失自我的年轻艺术家之处。

张书笺一般的画作体积都比较小。它们在第一瞬间也许会让人觉得是一些图片逼真的肖像，而虽然画面上最为突出的是那些微妙的细节，但是如果我们多给自己紧紧的几秒渗入画面，你就会发现艺术家的目的并不是在于运用一种最与现实相近的方式去描绘他的主题，而是通过一种超越现实的手法去表达一些简单而非传统的概念。在这个长时间积累的过程中，他将“现实”中的一些方面——一些最基本、被忽略的细节放大至扭曲、近乎不现实的状态。而在这一组新的画作中，这些被放大的细节正是我们自身的皮肤。

《织皮》是张书笺只从2010年首次个展《自画像》后的第一组完整油画系列。脱离身边的人和物，这次他借用的素材是来自不同时期的大师——其中包括丢勒、格里恩、米开朗基罗、达·芬奇、格吕内瓦尔德和珂勒惠支的素描作品中的人像。虽然在外形上与原作相近，但是在将它们的材质、作画方式、年代等因素消除过后，留下的是单独的形象作为他作画的基础，以加上他独特的因素——皮肤的超真实描绘，在自身的现代视觉语境里重现他对这些形象的想象，令最终的作品带有一种不合逻辑而荒诞的感觉。 在描述这一组新的画作的时候他说—— “我只想画我眼睛看到的：皮肤、皮肤下的血管、大小不一的毛孔和皮肤上附着的各种污渍。我用所有的神经像织毛衣一样，一点一点的编织出皮肤的质感。”从表面来看，他只是在呈现眼睛看到和想象中最直接的“真实”，然而在他的画笔其中带有更深远的用意， 呈现给观看者的是一种肉眼难以看见和无法接受的真实。我们本能性的抗拒它，因为它让我们质疑眼前的事物，从而必须重新尝试理解什么是“真实”。

海德格曾经说过，一件艺术作品会建立它自身的世界，同时它也为我们打开往其他世界和文化。隐蔽是通往真理的前提，而无蔽，即真理本身，正是存在于艺术发生过程中出现的矛盾与挣扎之中。虽然在《织皮》中，形式上充满着矛盾，一部分原因是基于艺术家在媒介上的探究，另外也是他的现代视觉语言与不同艺术时代之间的冲突，但亦正是这种不协调与强迫感为我们提出疑问，让我们必须通过作品观看过去。在因矛盾而出现的空隙之中，画面为观看者创造了想象的空间，而在物的真实性被表露无遗的时候，也令画中的不真实性与我们的“现实”产生了相关的意义。

2013.11.15

[reflexresidues]

The Visual, the Image and the Other

Softcore: Subverted Superstructure and the Systemic Sublime comprises of a wide range of works from both Chinese and non-Chinese artists, spanning from still and moving images to sculptural and installation works. Here, “softcore” does not imply passivity or “softness” per se, but rather suggests a notion where the message within the artworks is embodied in suggestion and carried out by imagination, whereby the audience is required to be proactively engaged with what is presented in front of them, to see pass the surface and to read into what is open to interpretation.

As spectators we are immediately drawn to the vivid colours and the eye-catching, perhaps overwhelming mixture of imageries, while at the same time, we are also put in the position of displacement and hence, doubt. The juxtaposition of the grotesqueness and the humble masking of elements taken from daily life, in the depiction of our neighbourhood with playful use of animated text in The Outsiders by Aspartime; a surrealist banquet as portrayed in Serving Suggestion by Doubleluckiness; candid and voyeuristic family photographs in Wedding Photos by Roma Mokrov… the exhibition welcomes us with its open arms where the cultural superstructure has seemingly been subverted into, in Marxist term – the base, or so to speak, that the superstructure is represented through the appearance of such. Ultimately, this subversion provides for us an access point into the underlying messages through the suggestive elements within the works presented – something that Jacques Rancière refers briefly to as “the Other” in The Future of the Image, where the difference between the Image and the Visual is distinguished, while the former refers to an Other, the latter refers to a notion that is devoid of content and ultimately nothing other than itself.

The Other exists in, and relies on the balancing of the dual functionality of the Image – between the visible and the invisible; an emotion or an incident and the linguistic tropes that express it; the artist’s translation and the linguistic tropes that express it; and his translation and what it transposes. By assembling words and forms, people define not merely various forms of art, but certain configurations of what can be seen and thought. While visible forms can be arranged in meaningful tropes and yield interpretable meanings, words can function as either a clarification or obscurity of an idea – they express what the eye might see, as well as what it will not, through narration and description, and by means of strength and control. In Ilona Sagar’s Human Factor, a montage of close-ups, of seemingly unrelated events and bodily movements, combining with the voice of a narrator who is neither a protagonist nor an antagonist, but something that holds all the visual fragments together, therefrom creating a sentence-image that is extended between the dialectic and the symbolic.

If the dialectic aims at the secret of a heterogeneous order through the tension between unrelated elements, the symbolic would assemble elements in the form of mystery. Here, mystery does not entail any forms of enigma or mysticism, but stands as a form of aesthetic. In Softcore, the symbolist machine of mystery relates elements that are foreign to one another, and assemble them in accordance with both logic and illogic. It works to establish a familiarity, to create something common, in a sense that, instead of contrasting these collocating entities, it sets to demonstrate a more fundamental relationship of co-belonging, where the conveying and understanding the Other is made possible through the Image that is hidden within the Visual.

2014.7.28

[reflexresidues]

奥沙：《亲密，传送中》／《移／现》

《亲密，传送中》是位于香港观塘区的奥沙画廊最近的一个群展，呈现的是三个香港本地年轻艺术家的作品，其中包括曾梓洋的雕塑装置、黎郎生的录像装置及余迪文的网络互动作品。该展览通过这三个不同的视角去探讨在当代社会中的空间关系，以及新沟通媒体在这个数码时代如何影响到我们消费影像的方式及在消费社会中的定位。“空间关系”，即“人际距离学”（Proxemics）是人类学者E.T.Hall在1963年发起用于研究有关人与人之间对于空间的利用。根据他的理论，在社会中有一种非正式的空间的存在，这种个人空间或“泡沫”会根据个体和环境而改变。

在主展厅中呈现的是曾梓洋近期的多件作品，其中包括由从宜家家居购买的现成品，如抽屉、桌子、水杯等改装成的一系列大型针孔摄影机。在位于主展厅后侧的小展厅中独立展示了一件唯一一件能现场互动的作品。它由布衣柜改装而成，观众能坐在里面把拉链拉上，在DIY的“即影即有”证件写真照相亭里拍肖像(fig.1)。这次在奥沙的呈现是一次并合了艺术家自身对摄影原理及美学的理解与其父亲的手工艺的共同合作项目。同时在主展厅里展出的一个影像装置中，放置在地上的电视机播放着艺术家与他父亲在测试其中一件改装摄影机的时候之间的互动，旁边有一张有现成画框改装而成的桌子，画框的两块压克力板夹住他们当时拍摄的宝丽来照片。在每件改装的摄影机的旁边其实也展示了用该机器拍摄的底片或照片，有些在画框里，有些随意地放在机器上或地上。同时亦会有一卷卷的菲林及宜家家居的安装手册随意地放在机器旁边，家俬和家居用品上的标签也很刻意地保留着。曾梓洋简单地跟我解释了这些机器的原理，原则上其实是有实用价值的，但是他的用意明显不在其机器制作的精准度及操作上的可用性，而是通过“改造”这些平庸的商品的过程中，与他的父亲重新建立更亲密的相处关系。

同时在位于主展厅后侧的小展厅中呈现的是黎郎生的录像装置——《去看电视》(2011-2014)，与艺术家一贯的作品相呼应的是对个体与资本主义社会之间关系的探索。投影在一面墙上的是两段纪录片，它们记录了艺术家在两不同个商场里的影音店外用万能遥控器操作店铺里的电视机的过程(fig.2)。在上半段中，她未能成功操作店铺里的商品，但是在下半段她成功在店铺外使用这台不属于她的电视。在她的自我陈述中她写到：“这台电视机是店铺里的陈列品，我短暂地拥有了这台电视机，然而我什么都不用拿走。”同样在小展厅里在投影的对面墙上有一部电视，播放着香港本地的电视台。电视机在画廊里的呈现，与在陈列在店铺橱窗的商品一样地失去了在现实生活中的用途及与人的互动，这种脱离感与纪录片中艺术家与消费品之间的矛盾相呼应。

如果不仔细的去看，很有可能会错过余迪文在画廊各个墙面上贴着小小的QR代码（fig.3)。QR代码即快速反应码，是一种由一系列黑色模块在正方形的白色背景上组成的短阵式二维条码，它隐藏只有在近年推出的科技才能读取的资讯，是一个让我们重新思考在当下电子时代中人际关系及资讯的消费之间的关系的技具。余迪文的背景是绘画，他一贯的作品都能把观众引进一个介乎符号、 现实与表像之间的角力赛内。 他在作品中参照的图像来源广泛，其中包括历史文献、电子媒体、 社交网络、市场宣传推广及日常随意拍等。这次通过他布置的QR代码重定向至网上呈现的一系列GIF动画，其低调和间接的呈现方式及简单而付视觉冲击力的图像，似乎更能贴切地表达作品其中的内容。比如，他在《Puzzle》的一个GIF动画中，呈现了2003年3月在柏林的一次反对拆卸东边画廊开发豪华公寓的示威活动期间站在墙前的警察，与一张在柏林墙被建立的时候军人站在墙前面与围观者对视的照片之间不断地切换（fig.4）。早期在艺术创作中运用OR代码的有同样有绘画背景的意大利比利时艺术家Fabrice de Nola。他是第一个真正尝试在绘画中加入信息架构的方式及实践因素的艺术家，在他2006年的互动绘画作品——《开放信息绘画》（La peinture en plein info， fig.5）的画面中呈现的是一个隐若看见人体的马赛克图像，而在右下角有一个观众能够用手机进行互动的黑白QR代码，扫描代码会重定向一个关于“阿���西博信息”（Arecibo Message）的维基百科页面。这件作品亦是他发起的Active Project的一部分 。就如过往的波普艺术家在作品中纳入大量生产而世俗的文化要素来强调当时文化中平庸而肤浅的元素，QR代码在当代艺术的语境里也类似地强调了在这个媒介中关乎电子、编码信息及其可达性的问题，从而抛开叙事性及建立与当下的数字环境之间的相关性，让我们能够更纯粹的消化眼前的信息。

同时在展出的是吴世杰的个展——《移／现》，在这次展览中呈现的是艺术家用他手机拍摄后用Instagram应用程序编辑过的大量图片中筛选的部分图片。由于展厅的位置（就在主展厅的隔壁）及在空间里缺乏任何关于艺术家和展览的信息，同时也因为展出的照片与艺术家过往的作品截然不同，身为观众一开始会很容易混淆以为是《亲密，传送中》的一部分。吴世杰在1980年代初开始摄影创作，当初由彩色胶卷开始实践摄影创作，但到学习暗房技术之后就以黑白摄影创作为主。用特殊的视觉角度去呈现在城市里到处能看见的事物是在吴世杰的实践中主要的元素之一。比如在《Found Landscape》中，以切近人类视觉领域的全景式拍摄，但是以直幅构图呈现的城市景观，与我们平常观看周遭环境的角度及面向不一，然而恰恰与香港这个地少人多之地互相呼应 (fig.6)。在一篇2009年信报文化版的采访中他提及到，身为一个全职摄影师让他能够投入更多的时间和精力去创作，“但普通人同样可以创作，或许可以接近一般人对艺术的看法”。这批原来只给手提式显示器用的图片，被放大打印成55x55cm的图片，在一方面手机相机为艺术家提供了一个能够迅速记录眼前事物的媒介，另一方面也呈现了一种更“接近一般人”的图像表现方式。虽然图像本身并非平常在Instagram看见的日记式或推广式的图像，而更是艺术家在日常生活中发现的有趣的视觉元素：有偏抽象的特写（《Landspaces｜84132013》，2013）及超现实的中间状态（《The Faces of the Other｜25272014》，2014）。在它们被放大而摆放在类似于俄国构成主义摄影师及设计师亚历山大·罗德琴科设计的《工人俱乐部》中的长条倾斜桌上（fig.7)，让观众能够更近距离地看图片，同时图片之间也有一定的距离，给予每一张无论在画面上或美学上都有关联性的lo-fi照片独立被观众欣赏的空间。

fig.1

  fig.2

fig.3

fig.4

fig.5，图片来源：flickr

fig.6, 香港大埔道 (10072008), 2008, 145x51cm, 图片来源：Blind Spot Gallery

fig.7

2014.9

[reflexresidues]

Ren Han: Emulating Nature 任瀚：模仿自然

1.

Ren Han (b. 1984, Tianjin) started practicing art from a very young age, graduated from the oil painting department of the Fine Art Academy of Tianjin in 2006,but it wasn’t until he had experimented with various mediums such as video and performance during his time in France that he realized after all it was the most basic tool that was a particularly suitable medium for himself, and that is the pencil. Humble, straightforward, semi-translucent with a metallic shine, the pencil is one of the cheapest and most accessible artistic tools today. Pencil drawings are also easy to adjust, erase, supplant and if necessary – discard. It’s a fluid means of anticipation, often made prior to translation into a different form such as painting and sculpture, though for Ren, it is the simplicity and the unique characteristics of graphite that he finds comfort and inspiration in his choice of tool.

In the long history of drawing as a representational art, imagination has been disregarded of its importance for the medium, though in the contemporary context, drawing serves not only as a mode of thought, but also as an abstract visual means to probe the infinite possibilities of form – it is capable of conjuring not only what is seen in the world, but also to a certain extend what is seen in the mind, thus providing us with the freedom of excessive hypothesis. 

2.

Ren has described in his own account about his relationship with the act of pencil drawing as something comparable to a kind of spiritual practice. He demonstrates in his delicate but powerful drawings, a kind of meditative quality that is manifested during its making process where imagination and introspective efforts are required. His execution is always rational but never contrived, his style controlled, yet not confined. The in-between space that is “sculpted” with his painterly application of graphite embodies a theatrical presence, which is created by the strong contrast between light and dark, especially in the presence of light, where depth is conveyed by the subtle interchanges of textures. The overlaying strokes of graphite present a sense of volume on the matte black, or white backgrounds in which they sit, whereby creating the illusion of mass. Richard Serra wrote in Notes on Drawing that, “Black is a property, not a quality. In terms of weight, black is heavier, creates a larger volume, holds itself in a more compressed field. It is comparable to forging.” (Serra, Notes on Drawing, Rizzoli, New York, 1987) In Ren’s drawings, the magnetic density of the graphite, whether it sits on white as with the Waterscapes series or on black with the Snow Mountain series, it is able to draw its audience into the fragments that resemble and suggest actual places and scenes taken from our physical reality. This engagement is reciprocal, as with the artist himself with the images he finds online, where the images act as a prompt that is then rendered in the mind of the spectator, thereby giving it meaning and relevance in the physical world where it takes its cue.

3.

Snow mountains and waterscapes are the two main subjects in Ren’s recent practice. They embody a certain quietness that is out of this world. We rarely come in contact with them in our daily lives, but rather, imitations of such. We have admired the replicated images of these sceneries far more than we have been in contact with nature directly. This artificiality is particularly evident in the later works of the Snow Mountain series, such as 1f5f528610608323a2b51599c5a9b789a7889a6136632-eRswwR and FA7DE98A-C617-463D-8216-B3D9909BB53B, where selective elements of the found images are crafted onto a black canvas, completely omitting all manmade elements, leaving silhouettes of the “unnatural” traces behind, while at times there are also clear signs of artificiality, such as the pixilation of the found images. Ren also kept the original file names of the found images as the title of the relative works, which further emphasizes the overlapping of the juxtaposing worlds. 

As described in an interview, Ren references actual places in these works, places depicted in images that he finds online, “but the actual subject depicted in these works are not the actual places in our physical world, but rather, the visual information taken from computer-processed photographs taken by others.” This passivity and imitative quality in the found images are also elements that are conveyed in his own representations of the real world. These fragments of nature, rendered by the selective process and manipulation of the artist himself after that of the producers of the found images, are also constantly being interpreted by the spectators thereafter. In other words, the drawings of Ren are a continuation of the repeated editing of elements taken straight from our physical world, which prompts a different kind of imaginative reality – another emulation of nature. 

4.

The two-dimensionality of drawings connotes their limited means in relation to the physical world, as the world that a drawing depicts is non-tactile and therefore only accessible through the imagination and interpretation of the spectator. We can represent the visual complexities of what we see to a certain extend, and only if we agree to surrender to the suspension of disbelief before the receding depths of what we have in front of us. On the other hand, the materiality of volumetric art promotes the notion that simulation is in favour of actual existence, and as a result, sculpture is seen to be a form that we could engage on our own terms, rather than suggesting a world that, however seemingly real it may be, will always be understood to be imagined.

This relationship between drawing and sculptures is an important part of Ren’s research, and this aspect of his practice is heavily influenced by his mentors in France, one of which was Noel Dolla, a member of the radical French art movement – Supports/Surfaces between 1960s and 1970s, while the other was a student of Dolla’s – Pascal Pinaud, who has continued exploring painting as a deconstruction of physical painterly elements such as canvas, frame etc. in another words, to investigate painting as sculptural objects. 

Emulating Nature is the most prominent presentation of Ren’s Snow Mountains and Waterscapes series up to this day. The audience enters a narrowed room, where the Snow Mountain series is delicately hanged onto the matte black walls. In this conflicted space the drawings interact with one another, as well as with the surrounding spaces, through their relative and conflicting elements. Along the end of the right wall around the corner, we would find the entrance into a self-contained white space. In this smaller space, we would find the Waterscape series is presented on the walls in a simpler and more formal manner. The metallic black lines emulating the movement of water are in immense contrast with the whiteness of their background, frames and the walls, immediately situating the spectator in a hypothesis as though looking at a scenery from afar through a window, which correlates with the predicament in which our interaction with nature itself is made increasingly distant through the invisible barriers of modern civilization, as depicted in the Snow Mountain series.

2014.6

任瀚（1984，天津）从小学习绘画，2006年在天津美院油画系毕业。在他留学法国期间对影像、行为等媒介的尝试后，发现了最适合自己的媒介就是最简单和基本的绘画工具——铅笔。低调、直接、半透明，同时带有一种金属的亮泽，铅笔是当下最便宜及最容易买到的工具之一，它能被轻易地调整、擦除、取代，在没需要的时候亦能被废置。它是一种流动的预知载体，一般会被转换成另一种更“正式”的形式，如绘画、雕塑等。对于任瀚来说，铅笔的朴素和石墨的独特质感是最为吸引他的。 

在绘画普遍作为一种具象性艺术的悠久历史中，想像力对这个媒介的重要性一直被忽略，而在当代艺术的语境里，绘画不只是一种思维的模式，也是一种能够探测无限可能性的抽象视觉媒介。绘画既能够让我们眼见的事物实体化，亦能够在某一种程度上表现我们所想象的，因此给予了我们无限假设的自由。 

任瀚曾经自述他与绘画有一种近乎修行的关系。在他柔和而有冲击力的画面中，反映了一种在绘制时再想像和反省的过程中的沉思性。他的画一贯理智，笔触精准而自然。他以画笔的笔触用石墨绘制的空间由于深浅光影之间的反差及质感的细微变化，体现了一种戏剧性的存在感。在哑光黑色或白色背景上重叠的石墨线条形成了一种体量，同时营造了一种重量的假象。理查德•塞拉在《关于绘画的笔记》(Notes On Drawing) 中写道：“黑色是一种性质，而不是一种特征。黑色更为沉重，能够创造更大的体量，将自己置于一个更高密度的平面上。它犹如锻造。”在任瀚的绘画中石墨金属性的密度，无论是在《水景系列》中白色的背景上，或是在《雪山系列》中黑色的背景上，都能够引领观众进入画中所隐喻我们物质世界中存在的一些碎片。这种相互关系就如艺术家自身与他在网上找到的图片，观看者的想象给予了图像在世界中的意义和关联性。

雪山和水景是任瀚近期画作中两个主要的题材。它们体现了一种远离尘世的安静。 在我们日常的生活中已经罕有接触这些自然风景。我们所接触的“自然”总有某种人造因素，我们也往往会接触的这些景色的复制品多于自然本身。这种人造性质在《雪山系列》的后期画作中尤其突显，比如1f5f528610608323a2b51599c5a9b789a7889a6136632-eRswwR 和 FA7DE98A-C617-463D-8216-B3D9909BB53B，在这些画作中呈现的是从网上找到的图片中勾勒出的一些细节，完全忽略了图片中的人造的元素，隐晦地留下了这些“非自然”的痕迹和轮廓。然而，人造的痕迹在这些后期的画作中显而可见，如现成照片中的像素点。任瀚还保留了网络图像的文档名称作为作品的名称，进一步强调了反差世界的重叠。

在一次访谈中解析他在画中描绘的景色，更正确的说是在网上找来的这些景色的图片的时候，任瀚说，“作品中真正表现的主体并非现实世界中的地方，而是被他人电脑处理过后的图片中的视觉信息”，这种被动和模仿的性质也是在他对这些图片的重新表现中体现的元素之一。这些大自然的碎片经过了图片制作人的处理后，被艺术家重新筛选、描绘，随后也被观看者不断地解读、定义，换句话说，任瀚的这两个系列的绘画作品是一个在不断被编辑而转换的物质世界的延续，它打开了另一个想象的现实——一个仿真的自然。

画的二维性意味着它与物质世界之间有限的相关性。画面中的世界是不能触知的，它只能通过观看者的想象和解读而被理解。只要我们能够以暂时搁置怀疑的态度去观看眼前的事物，我们就能在一定的程度上感受视觉上的复杂性。在另一方面，有体量的作品的物质性指向模拟与存在的相关性，从而雕塑这个媒介也显得更容易与我们达成直接的关联性，而非一个模仿真实的想象之物。

绘画与雕塑的关系是任瀚再作品中探讨的主要题材之一。他艺术实践的这一方面亦受到了他在法国的两位导师的影响。其中一位是Noel Dolla，他是在1960年代至1970年代法国一个艺术运动——Supports/Surfaces 的成员之一和Pascal Pinaud，曾是Dolla的学生，也对这个运动有所继承，强调将绘画的组成元素和载体，如画布、画框等以物理的方式重新审视，也就是用雕塑的方式看待绘画 。

《模仿自然》是目前为止《雪山系列》和《水景系列》最为完整的体现。首先观众会进入一个较狭窄的展厅，黑色的墙上有被破坏过的痕迹。《雪山系列》中的黑色背景融入了展厅的墙面。 画面与画面之间及它们与墙面和空间之间的相互关系形成了一种矛盾而协调的空间。通往沿着右面的墙拐弯的入口，《水景系列》在这个白色的独立空间中的墙上以更为简洁、正式的形式呈现着。画面上模拟水流动态的石墨线条与其白色的背景、画框及墙面形成了很大的对比，将观看者放置于一个犹如从远处观看景色的设想，同时表现了在《雪山系列》中隐喻，我们与大自然之间的互动因近代文明的介入而变得陌生的困境。

2014.6

1f5f528610608323a2b51599c5a9b789a7889a6136632-eRswwR, 布上铅笔、乳胶漆 emulsion paint and graphite on canvas, 40x50cm, 2014

FA7DE98A-C617-463D-8216-B3D9909BB53B, 布上铅笔、乳胶漆 emulsion paint and graphite on canvas, 90x150cm, 2014

[reflexresidues]

Victor Răcătău: Dreams and Hopes

  I felt infinite wonder, infinite pity.   – The Aleph

There is a certain uniqueness in Victor Răcătău’s paintings - distant and discreet, subtle, yet intriguing. Relatively small in size, some of them are stand-alone, some scattered across the walls in sets, as spectators we are immediately drawn to them. As we walk towards the paintings, we would try to see beyond the images that just seem slightly otherworldly, at the same time, we would associate these fragmented images in relation to one another. What Răcătău conveys in his paintings is of the social and political issues that he faces and observes daily, and his fear and unrest seep through his work. Some might say, from the suffocating murkiness that underlies a lot of his work that he must be an ultimate pessimist, but if we were to look on a deeper, more hidden level, he is in fact a man with hope – Răcătău is an artist who believes in the necessity of the poetics concerned with the fragility of life and human conditions. Although on the one hand, the overshadowing grey suggests oppression and suffering, and there are connotations of more specific issues such as the effects of technology and media on life, the impact of utilitarianism and barbarism and the deterioration of nature etc., on the other hand, the purpose of this outer membrane in fact has its metaphysical significance rather than a mere tool of representation.

In Jorge Luis Borges’s short story – The Aleph, the protagonist (a fictionalized version of the author himself) describes a small mythical sphere where all aspects of the universe could be seen from every angle simultaneously. He narrates, “All language is a set of symbols whose use among its speakers assumes a shared past. How, then, can I translate into words the limitless Aleph, which my floundering mind can scarcely encompass?” It is true, that it is without much difficulty to describe what is in front of the eye, but to capture the essence of something of a broader spectrum, of an experience, is infinitely more complex. It is therefore not a coincidence that Borges’s words are being cited here. The literary symbols in the Argentinian writer’s magical realistic style, where fantasy is incorporated into reality, enables his readers to access, and thus interpret the complex themes in his writings in contexts relevant to themselves.  Similarly, through expressing his concerns and thoughts in his paintings in a subtle, suggestive manner through symbolisms both chromatically and pictorially (animals, maps, labyrinths, flowers, butterflies etc.), the connotations in Răcătău’s paintings would become relevant and apparent as the spectators penetrate the enigma within, through our own interpretations whereby imagining and reflecting upon questions that concern us. In an essay, while discussing the possibility of salvation in the chaos that is the world we live in, he writes “we live in virtuality, between dreams and hopes”, as we observe the world as though it were a stage in a theatre, we see the essence of being between light and its shadows and we dream of freedom and joy. The artist’s ultimate aim might be seen as idealistic, or even naïve, that is to awake a part of our consciousness where we would reflect upon our present and the issues around us, whereby renewing our hope for the future.

2013.6.4

[reflexresidues]

关于《窄门》

他毁灭了我，而我重生于 缺失，黑暗和死亡；种种不存在的东西 － 约翰·邓恩 《圣露西节的夜曲》

  约翰·邓恩在《圣露西节的夜曲》里表达了对于女儿和挚友先后去世的事实的否认和彻底的绝望，这种来自挚爱的人的离去所带来的脆弱性更是无可避免的。在试图寻找“理由”和“答案”的同时，也清楚明白最终的“理由”和“答案”并不是我们的救赎，也不会在我们再度失去的时候减少苦楚。我们只能从每个人都会经历这种痛苦的事实当中得到慰籍。 

记得在一篇专访里，蒋志说过他觉得诗歌能够表达一般言语无法表达的事情，这，也影响了他对自己艺术创作所持有的态度 。不久之后，在一个群展 里，我第一次接触了他近期的两件作品。《5》在一间黑暗的房间里播放着——慢镜头拍着一对男女在形体上的沟通；一个朴素但刻意的场景，既像是个舞台，又像是个竞技场；男女双方之间有着迷惑、悲痛、矛盾；彼此之间的挣扎和抗拒导致最后两败具伤，但同时带来平息。 在隔壁的展厅里展出一组反射巴洛克绘画的照片——《哀歌》，细腻的光线（钓鱼线）附在物体（花、猪蹄、心脏）的皮肤上，犹如从它们的体内喷射出来。这两件既令我感动又令人忐忑不安的作品是我理解蒋志的创作的一个入口。当我离开展览的时候，想起了在多年前看过的一件比尔?维奥拉 的录像作品——《伊索德升天——光在死后的空间中的形状》，那是维奥拉为一个瓦格纳的《特里斯坦与伊索德》 演出所创作的一系列录像的其中一个。《伊》呈现的是伊索德临死之前灵魂脱离身体的瞬间，一个关于光的录像，十多分钟的慢镜头，那束光似乎在照亮也像是在穿刺那穿着长裙的女人的身体。反复的看着她的身体冲击着水面，时间似乎被歪曲，几乎处于停顿状态，光也逐渐地变得稠密；同时，蒋志在《哀歌》中运用的光线，透过它的厚度和密度，在照亮和强调肉体的同时也在戳破、撕裂伤口。

在《片刻之光》中，光这个元素被另外一种方式运用着——它不再是强硬的、暴力的，扑捉到的，而是那种无期的等待，和稍纵即逝的美丽。在《片》中，观看者与艺术家一同处于被动而停顿的状态； 而被意指为缺席的爱慕客体（amorous object），则漂泊不定、难以捉摸 。也只有我们在等待的它处于缺口（absence）当中的时候才会通过“我”与“它”这二进折射着“存在”与“不存在”。相反，在《安静的身体》里呈现的，不是烟花短暂的美，而是它的遗留物——被刻意地放置在我们面前的是燃放过的烟花筒。如同很多美丽的事物，“它”转瞬即逝，处在永久的流离过程中，而爱慕主体（amorous subject）——那就是“我”，则是充满期盼，被钉在原处，又忐忑不安 。

无声的生日贺卡，与曾经属于它们的“歌喉”分别在不同的空间中展出。身为《窄门》的观众，我们很清楚这没有贺卡的《歌喉》是一个已经发生过的“演唱会”的记录；同样地，燃放过的烟花和它的“残骸”也是有着同样的关系。这些爱慕客体曾经代表的与现在的，在缺口当中的不一——假如“它”与“我”同在，那么缺口不再成立的话，“它”的意义也就不再——只能在缺口当中“它”才能成为“我”追求的客体，才能满足、复修；同时，身为观众，站在与“我”并行的立场共同逗留于原地，单向的表现对客体的思念；这并不代表我们对那缺口的渴望，而只有在缺口当中，在分离的情况下，无时不在的“我”只有通过与总是不在的“它”对峙才能显出意义。

正如《窄门》的策展人维洛尼卡写道，我们相信重复是表达欲望的唯一方式，相信从中，我们能够得到满足；我们亦试图通过不断的重复，从而获得差异。这也许就是重访记忆的目的。我们重复的并非思念的痛苦或疼痛的回忆，而是在每次的重复中重申痛楚，从而令它获得新的意义。在每次的重复，我们希望在差异中找到的“理由”和“答案”可以成为我们克服回忆的基础，因为通过克服，才可得以忘却，因此这些差异可能就是本雅明所说到的，弥赛亚，即救赎，在每一个“当下”都有可能进来的一道窄门。

 2012.12

[reflexresidues]

The Lifelike Art of an Un-artist 一个非艺术家的生活性艺术

Wang Zhongjie was a painter whom I knew nothing about when I was first shown his recent body of work - canvases covered in muddy palettes with inclining rectangular lines to the edge of the frame. I felt completely lost then. The only initial thought was that, well this man must've been around a while - people don't just go on painting like this. A few months later I finally got to see his earlier works in his hometown in Henan province, over two-hundred paintings done over the span of a decade, most of them have never been shown before. It was a sight I did not expect - it was overwhelming, it was then that became clear to me that he had come a long way to get to the point where he is at now, both in his art and in his thinking.  When I finally sat down to write this essay, what Allan Kaprow wrote about artlike art and lifelike art immediately came into my mind - he wrote that these two types of art fundamentally represent two contrasting philosophies. While artlike art holds that art is autonomous, separate from life and everything else, lifelike art holds that art is the opposite, that it is connected to life and everything else. In Western art historical tradition, the former is regarded as "serious", part of the mainstream and supported by high culture's institutions and the latter has never fit into traditional art institutions. While the separateness and distinctiveness of artlike art is much like individualism that is valued highly in Western culture, the connectedness of lifelike art is like the emphasis of the importance of family and community in Eastern cultures. In The Real Experiment, Kaprow wrote：

The usual questions of subject matter and style become relevant once you accept certain cultural givens, like the specialist notion of “art,” the subnotions of “poetry” and “music,” and the notions of “exhibit,” “audience,” “creativity,” and “aesthetic value.” These are normally taken for granted. But Western culture appears to be changing so markedly that these givens are at best uncertain. What if they weren’t “givens”? What if I had a vague idea about “art” but didn’t know the conventions that told me when I was in its presence or was making it?  - Essays on the blurring of art and life (p.201) Kaprow is referring to the Avant-garde in the eighties here, and what he then proceeds onto defining the term lifelike art, becomes increasingly conceptual and applied in a more performative notion. I am only borrowing the term in its essence in order to explain and help understanding the artist's motives (even if there isn't a conscious one, when there's an action, there's a motive).  Wang was never educated in any art institute, but this is unimportant, nor is the fact that he has not been influenced by any styles of art true, as one with an passion of art would naturally be in contact with art and be affected by it. We could probably tell which masters he admires from looking at his works, but I do not believe that there is any sense of mimicry, as that would imply a sense of deceitfulness. He is a purist, although not in a sense where Amedee Ozenfant and Le Corbusier had propagandised Purist art to be between 1918 and 1925, what Wang does holds true to what the movement intended to do at the very beginning - " to conceive clearly, execute loyally, exactly without deceits" (The Purist Manifesto). To him, painting is a thinking process, every decision that Wang makes while completing a piece of work is in favour of nothing but his own growth. It is never to prove any theory, to make any statement or in order to progress onto anything else on purpose. Wang's painting and his thinking are as one and his art is inseparable from his life. He is obsessed with his search for answers, answers to something as mentioned in the curator's foreword, possibly too huge of a question in life but it is also such determination that drives him to create, and it is this determination that unifies his large body of work, thus in Wang's paintings it is never about narrative nor form, but resonance on a deeper level, something more immediate and drastic. This is the reason why as spectators, we must look at Wang's body of work free from conceptions of "art" but with an instinctive eye and a gut feeling. Wang is an introvert. He might not stand out as a skillful painter, nor come across as an exceptionally intelligent man (he is a man of few words), but when you talk to him you would be immediately drawn to his unpretentiousness, you would want to listen to him, and when you look at his work, you would get a similar feeling, that it is truthful, even sometimes when it puts us at unease or even appals us, but what is certain is that he is not trying to create for anyone else. He is in essence an un-artist as his art takes a lifelike form and setting, his art functions in the world as if it were life, but naturally these thinking processes evolve and would become irrelevant to the un-artist himself over time. 

Wang's art and his life are truly one – lifelike art, and that is why those of us who feel something while looking at his work, are especially moved. This goes back to what we consider to be "good" - works with a sense of profoundity? Something well-executed, conception supported by recognised, approved theories and so on? While lifelike art is just something that is parallel to life, "inflecting, probing, testing and even suffering it, but always attentively." (Essays on the blurring of art and life, p.206) It took Wang over a decade to finally have his work shown to the public, and it will continue to be difficult for him to find his place in the system, let alone the mainstream, as he is not the type to compromise, he has no reason to. He will continue on his search for answers, to inflect, probe, test and suffer, while being around his small community away from everything else, and nothing else matters. 

2012.6

在欣赏到王忠杰的近期作品前，我对这位画家一无所知。印象中，只有那些边缘歪曲的矩形框架内，镶嵌着一幅幅满铺着泥泞般色彩的画布。那时候，我并没领会到其作品中的含义。掠过脑海的只是，“好吧，肯定他在这圈子已有一段时间，很少人一开始便有这样的创作”。几个月后，我在艺术家的家乡河南省看到了他早期的画作——横亘十年，过两百幅的作品，绝大部分从未公开过。这个出乎意料，震撼的景象，使我了然到，他从开始到现在，无论是他的艺术还是他的思考，走过的都是一条漫漫长路。 当我开始写这篇文章时，阿兰•卡普罗 (Allan Kaprow) 的言辞立即浮现脑海，在论述艺术性艺术 (artlike art) 和生活性艺术 (lifelike art) 时，他概括道：归根结底，这两种类型的艺术，代表着两种截然相反的哲学。艺术性艺术认定的艺术是独立的，与生活和其他事物分开；但生活性艺术的观点则恰恰相反，它与生活和其他事物有着千丝万缕的联系。依照西方艺术史的传统，前者被定义为严肃的，是主流的一部分，有高端文化机构的支持，而后者，则从未融入传统艺术机构。艺术性艺术的分隔性和独特性，如同个人主义，在西方文化中广受推崇，而生活性艺术的关联性，则好像强调家庭和社群重要性的东方文化。在《真正的实验》一文中，卡普罗写道：

一旦你接受了某种文化的预设，那么即使普通的问题，也会变得饶有深意，即使是平凡的风格，也会变得富于关切。就像业内人士口中“艺术”这一概念，以及“诗歌”和“音乐”这样的子概念，还有“展览”、“观众”、“创造力”以及“美学价值”这些意涵，它们通常被视为理所当然。然而，西方文化发生的巨变，令这些预设变得模糊不清。如果它们不再是预设的？如果我对艺术的观点是模糊的，在创作或展出时，我对这些成规会一无所知？ ——艺术和生活之间的混淆，201页

卡普罗所讨论的，是上世纪八十年代的先锋派艺术，而他在此基础上，对生活性艺术 所做出的定义，更为概念化。而我之所以在此借用他的这个概念，仅仅为了更好地诠释和帮助读者理解艺术家的动机（即使他并没有意识到这种动机，然而只要有行动，就必然有动机伴随）。 

王从未在任何一家艺术机构接受过教育，但这并不重要。说他从未受过任何艺术流派的影响，这也是不正确的（作为一个对艺术充满激情的人，自然而然会对艺术保持关注，受其影响）。看他的作品，我们可以找到他所景仰的大师的影子，但我并不认为，这是一种模仿。因为“模仿”意味着一种虚假。他是个纯化论者(purist)，尽管不是阿梅德•奥占芳(Amedee Ozenfant)和勒•柯布西耶(Le Corbusier)在1918年到1925年吹捧的那种纯化艺术，这场运动的初衷却与王的理念不谋而合，那就是去“清晰地构想、忠实地执行，毫不欺瞒”（《纯化主义者宣言》 The Purist Manifesto）对他而言，绘画只是一个思考，而在创作的过程中，每一个决定都是为了自身的成长，从来不为了证明某种理论，也不是为了某些意图。

王的画作和他的思考是一体的，他的艺术和他的生活也是如此。如策展人在前言所提及，他一直在寻求的答案，对一段人生而言，或许过于宏大，但这份执著，同样是他创作的动力；这份执著，也成就了那些堆积如山的作品。王的作品重点不在于叙事和形式，而是深层次上直接而极端的共鸣。也正因为如此，作为观众的我们，在欣赏王的作品时，要摆脱艺术概念的范畴，依靠直觉和本能去感知。

王是个内向、 沉默寡言的人，作为一个画家，他的技巧不算出众。然而，在和他交谈后，你会被他毫无做作的质朴所吸引，愿意聆听他。当你观看他的作品时，不但会产生同样的感觉，更被他的真诚所感动。即使，有时候他的作品会令我们不安，甚至反感，但有一点是肯定的：他是不会为任何人创作。本质上，他是个非艺术家 (un-artist)，因为他的艺术具有生活性的形态和模式，运作上也与生活本身同步，但他的思考自然而然地随着时间不断地改变， 最终难免与这个非艺术家分离。

王的艺术是和生活合二为一的生活性艺术。 在欣赏这些画作时，某些人能够有所体会而被感动。我们会问：什么才是好作品——意涵深刻？巧夺天工？理念明晰？证实理论？说到底，生活性艺术是一种和生活并行的东西，“曲折、求索、尝试甚至忍受，但却永远是专注的。”（艺术和生活之间的混淆，206页）。历经了整整十年，王的作品才为人所知。对他来说，要在这个体系中寻找自身的定位，仍会困难重重。他会被主流孤立，因为他的不妥协和那份坚持。他会继续寻觅那些答案，继续经历曲折、求索、尝试和忍受，沉溺在自己那个远离大众的狭小圈子里，而所有的其他事情，也都不会重要。

2012.6

[reflexresidues]

Regarding Keren Cytter’s Videos: Estrangement and the Role of Text 关于凯伦·赛特的影片：间离和文本演的角色

Over the last decade Cytter has developed a distinct style of storytelling both in text and image, sometimes of absurdity and often with a pinch of humour. Watching her films we could identify clear references to filmmakers she admires, and the content of her works often deal with magnified human conditions that at times seem personal, as if travelling through her daily jittery mind. Her use of Déjà vu[1] is like a light nudge to her audience, asking them – Are you sure you are following me?

Cytter is an artist on a mission to break the boundaries between her audiences and how they perceive her ideas. As spectators we try to make sense out of what is presented to us, and often a great deal of that process is done prior to our actual contact with the piece of work. Cytter on the other hand, resents this kind of spoon-fed mediation between ideas and the receiving end, and challenges us by layering images and words in a way that forces us to chew through her material thoroughly before moving on or coming to any conclusions of our own. Like her theatre work where she constantly reminds the audience the superficiality of their whole experience, in her filmic works she also likes to highlight the artificial nature of the filmmaking process, such as visual manipulations and acting. Cytter shoots and edits all her films, she also writes all her materials. Her scripts are precise down to every last detail, but the way the lines are delivered does not seem to be one of her concerns, perhaps another enforcement of estrangement (Verfremdungseffekt[2]).

  Susan Sontag in Spiritual Style in the Films of Robert Bresson talks about a kind of art that arouses feelings and another that “appeals to the feelings through the route of the intelligence”, the former involves and creates a sense of empathy, where the latter detaches and provokes reflection. The emotional power is mediated in such reflective art, where “the pull toward emotional involvement is counterbalanced by elements in the work that promote distance, disinterestedness, impartiality.” Bresson insists on realism in his avoidance of “acting”, that is to say, without attempting either to project or suppress any emotion. In regards to Cytter’s choice of performers, of a mixture of amateurs and professionals, is perhaps another method of emotionally distancing her audience by further reminding them the superficiality of their experience, that these performers are the same opaque creatures who speak, gesture and feel as themselves sitting off-stage. Bresson believes that the text he has his models[3] deliver and the gestures he has them make deliberately in a non-intentional way could evoke human depths, similarly, the relaxed, uncontrolled, almost spontaneous delivery of words and gestures from Cytter’s performers, however absurd the scenario they are in, could convey a great sense of truthfulness, thus without the fourth wall[4], we are put at ease as spectators and able to digest the real and the unreal simultaneously.

In one interview Cytter says that she sees herself more as a writer than a storyteller or anything else, it is because that her ideas lie within text. Words are her means of mediation – the text underlying her works are often more important than everything that it conveys i.e. characters, story… Her films are challenging, with such intensity, sometimes even tiring to watch, but once you pick through its surface (perhaps after a few extra views and some thinking) you would see much depth underneath.

   [1] I use Déjà vu here, rather than repetition, because repetition implies some sort of copy, rather than Déjà vu that coveys a sense of familiarity. [2] Verfremdungseffekt is a termed coined by Brecht in the 1930s – a method of distancing the audience from the illusory narrative world that is portrayed on stage and in the emotions of the characters that are presented. Brecht believed that spectators required emotional distance to have a true reflection on what they are perceiving in critical and objective ways, rather than being taken out of context of their own. [3] Bresson calls his actors “models” as he asks them to project or suppress as little emotions as possible. [4] The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage, through which the audience observes the action in the world of the play.

2012.4

 初次欣赏凯伦·赛特的电影式作品时,“未经打磨，奇异，紧张”几个词映入我脑中。我在网络上欣赏到她的作品，而非如同往常的在展览中观看。凯伦·赛特将她的大部分作品都上传网络供所有人观看（能连接到那些网站的人，不幸的是，那只包含少部分中国人），就像乔纳斯·梅卡斯对待他很多的项目一样－ 一种往往被很多艺术家所排斥的做法。

在过去十多年间，赛特建立了独树一帜的叙事风格，无论是在文本还是图像方面，时而荒唐，通常带有一丝幽默感。通过她的电影我们可以清晰地辨别出她敬仰的电影人。她的作品内容常常夸大人性中的微妙，有时显得特别私人，仿佛游走在她平日神经质的思维中。她使用的记忆幻觉[1] (Déjà vu)，仿佛轻轻地用肘触碰观众，问他们“你确定你有跟上我吗？”

赛特是一位致力于打破界线的艺术家。这条界线存在于观众自身以及他们感受赛特作品的方式之间。作为观众，我们尝试在观看过程中寻找意义。很多时候，这种琢磨往往在我们真正地与作品接触前已经做了一半。赛特反感这种思想传递方式，她通过层叠图像和文字来迫使我们彻底地咀嚼她的作品从而得出自己的结论。如同她的剧场作品，赛特不停地提醒观众他们整个经历的肤浅性��在电影式作品中，她也喜欢强调电影制作过程的做作本质，比如视觉上的操纵和演戏本身。赛特自己拍摄、编辑她的影片，并且亲自撰写所有的文字材料。她的剧本包含她构思过程中的所有细节，但其实际的表达方式却似乎不在她的考虑范围之内，这大概就是她的另一种提升疏离性（间离效果[2]）的方式。

 在《罗伯特.布列松的影片中的灵魂实体》中，苏珊·桑塔格探讨到两种艺术： 一种直接激起情感，另一种“通过智慧的道路来呼唤情感”。第一种带有或制造共鸣，而第二种营造脱离感而引起反思。这种反思性艺术调解的感情动力“利用在作品中为观众带来的距离、无兴趣、不偏袒来抵销着牵连感情的引力”。布列松因坚持现实主义而避免演员“演戏”，他要求演员不要特意表现出或压抑任何情感。至于赛特选择的表演者，里面既有有业余的，也有专业的，也许是想进一步指出观众所体验的虚伪，提醒他们：台上说着话，指手画脚而缺乏生气的生物其实与坐在台下的他们没两样。布列松坚持要他的“模特儿[3]”不经意地讲的话和做的动作能够唤起人的深度，而“演戏”终究会为人物加上的滤色镜而令他们显得畸形和捏造。同样，无论情节有多荒诞，赛特演员的那种轻松、不受抑制、几乎像是即兴的表达方式也能传达一种真诚，而作为观看者的我们会在没有第四面墙[4]的情况下显得不拘束而能够自在的同时琢磨戏里的真和假。

在一个访问中，赛特表示，与其说她把自己视作一位叙事者或者其他身份，不如说是一位作家。因为字里行间都渗透着她的思想。文字是她的传达方式－她作品里蕴含的文字比它实际表达的一切都重要，她的文字通过图像和不同形式的表演方式而“奇异化”，延长感受过程。欣赏赛特的电影具有强烈的挑战性，有时甚至会令人疲惫，但只要能击破它的表面，你就会发现其底层的深意。 

[1] 我用记忆幻觉（Déjà vu）, 而不是重复（repetition）因为重复意味着一种复制，而非一种似曾相识的感觉。 [2] 布莱希特在三零年代新创了间离效果这个术语，它是一种疏离观众方式，对一个事件或一个人物进行陌生化。把事件或人物那些不言自明的，为人熟知的和一目了然的东西剥去，使人对之产生惊讶和好奇心。 [3] 布列松叫他的演员“模特儿”，因为他希望他们尽量能减少投射和压抑的情感。 [4] 第四面墙是一面位于舞台前方的想象的“墙”，观众通过这面墙观看戏剧里的世界。

 2012.4