- i told them my camera was on《六度分離∶準備好未？》(25 min.)
- trespassing world cities《搖擺過路人》(28 min.)
- other space/non-place《懸浮半空》(10 min.)
- love diaries《杯點物語》(36 min.)
- chair talks《椅子的變數》(4 min. 30 sec.)
- camera exercises《常常遊戲》 (36 min.)
- the tickled faces of big mansions《房子的變臉》(6 min.)
Artist’s Statement
The work is a video cycle with 7 independent yet connected pieces constructed from video diaries collected for over 13 years. The bulk of material contains more than just home videos set out to document events and others. There is also footage meant for serious observation of moments of historical significance; there are video essays written on the spot in response to a particular emotional state, as well as self-conscious camera exercises and visual games. In fact, the closer the footage was to the present, the more self-conscious of shooting and video-making it showed I was. The tension of creating images with video and becoming reflexive on such activities only intensified as my interest in image-and-text dialogues also grew in my other areas of artistic involvement.
The eclectic nature of the footage subsequently confronted me with, first of all, questions of organization and narrative construction in the broad sense of the term. The act of looking back at images I made myself was alienating. Most of the time, it was like looking at someone else’s story. Reminiscence of my past at times became the deliberate sense-making as I sought new connections and relations. The multiple “I” – the present “I” looking at the “I” of the multifarious moments of the past -- demands a method to images that assumes them to be at once memory and factual existence, the signifier and the signified, as well as expositions and enigmas.
The act of collecting and counting, premised on the ethnographer’s task to classify and to look at the bulk of images as possible inventories of lived experiences, resulted in the final 7-part division. Just for pure play, one additional rule was introduced: that towards the end of each of the 7 parts, the narrative will take on a new style, like an organism about to mutate into a new phase of existence. Certain fragments of an episode and isolated images are deliberately repeated at various points of the 7 parts, each time refueled with new impact as they re-appear in a different context.
As a work of ethnography, the notion of “being there” becomes an area of problematization via the use of video. Narrativity, that is the act of classification and sense making, dissolves the boundary between fact and fiction.
(Linda Lai, November 2005)
1.i told them my camera was on《六度分離∶準備好未？》(25 min.)
I Told Them my Camera Was On seeks for a structure that holds 13 women found in my footage. It subverts mainstream causal narrative logic and shows 13 women’s stories as a network of acquaintances (with me in the centre) based on the rule of playful chain-connectivity. I show each woman in an isolated moment of her life, thus questioning the necessity of an epic approach and structuralist depth-hermeneutics. Instead, a composite story made up of women from diverse backgrounds is invented.
《六度分離∶準備好未？》展示的是我為13個女性尋找可以盛載她們的敍事架構的最後方案。我從自己13年的錄像日記當中，重新發現了她們、她們之間的隱而未現的文化關連，以及她們各自的獨立性。敍述活動所假設的因果邏輯過於理所當然。我想，難道隨了史詩式的傳記法，以一個人的過去解釋一個人的現在，為一個人尋求一件生命事件與另一件之間的延續性之外，就沒有別的方法嗎？於是我發明自己的敍事遊戲，提了好些疑問∶一個人的某個專注的一刻難道就不可以述說一個人嗎？以種族、年紀、年代、背景的差異去解析人與人之間的差異一定有效嗎？這個作品原先希望做到的是述說我自己，最後，我把自己放在她們的中央，把自己編為她們的旁觀者、｢她｣者；而她們，合成了一串因我而起的連鎖鏈，卻又各自各。橫豎，關連、整合等等都是一回虛擬吧。
2. trespassing world cities《搖擺過路人》(28 min.)
Trespassing World Cities records my struggle for an alternative to the tourist video style to pose my response to a world of big cities in which cultural differences are increasingly blurred. I walked through a dozen of cities around the world with repetitive routines between 1999 and 2005. The mythology of diversity shatters. Inside my mind is often a world totally irrelevant to the places I visit. Globalization is a popular catch word. Personally speaking, it’s sheer irony.
該如何去記述旅遊呢？遊走於世界名城聽去很浪漫，我心知肚明，我的遊蕩是綿綿的重複 -- 瘋狂的徒步走（因為我家香港人擠路狹不好走），每日兩杯風雨不改的特濃咖啡，念平時沒空看的書，更多是帶著趕著完成的工作沿途處理。城市一個個的走過，我開始留意到自己的偏好，也留意到全球化默默的把城市面貌逐步統一。文化差異在小街角在樓梯底在小店餐桌上的醬油瓶裏等待著閱讀。旅遊開廣見聞是消費神話、個人欲望的化身，是親身到鄰舍那裏挪用他們的外來品化作可咀嚼的“本地色彩”。然後，一天，…。《搖擺過路人》是我對機械性與重複再一次的揣摸。
3. other space/non-place《懸浮半空》(10 min.)
Other Space/Non-place, mainly compiled from images of the city space in Hong Kong and Macao, is an alternative to Trespassing, asserting the possibility of many spaces and temporal sheets in one single place. The notion of “walking through” in a typical travel journal becomes precarious. Instead, one penetrates, dives into, emerges and immerses in…
《懸浮半空》是存在也沒有存在過的空間。它在看見與看不見之間，於消失了與頻將臨至之際，緊緊地扣著視聽，闖進我的意識。其實不過是漫遊香港澳門雙城的有意無意的隨拾。有時，我看見了，錄像留住。有時，則是錄像捕捉了，我因而發現。然後，某年某天的一片聲、另一刻某種我腦海中可以隱約觸得到的音塊波動，我都隨手拿來，混進這個無以命名的一片虛地。
4. love diaries《杯點物語》(36 min.)
Love Diaries, too, plays with time: many moments are the same moment, many different places form the backdrop for the same event. Does the mobility of bodies necessarily lead to the fluidity of emotions? Strange repetitions call my attention.
《杯點物語》述說關係，能夠展現的，是述說的可能性。我找到時間這角度。從時間出發去找找看，看到生活中很多不同的時刻其實是同一種時刻；不同的時刻在不同的地方，看清是同一類活動、同一種心情。時間向前走，感觸、思潮卻不住回望。不是懷舊，而是發現穿梭於飄散的時間點線面之間的是多向而變調的回音跌宕。
5. chair talks《椅子的變數》(4 min. 30 sec.)
Chair Talks does not explain my love for chairs, but is the very articulation of such unfathomable indulgence, a focused attempt to apply minimal structure to carry forth the unspeakable power of things and objects beyond the service of signification for the world of humans.
《椅子的變數》是我對法國新小說的新寫實主義的回禮。把一種非理性的私人愛好，以最表層的方法去唱詠一番，沒有深層解釋，無須結構，這於我來說是一種大解放。椅子是我？我是椅子？我像椅子？我為什麼感於椅子？椅子椅子…我還有很多不同外形的椅子沒有放進作品裏…我還在找、還在收集。在此谨向物件世界致敬。
6. camera exercises《常常遊戲》 (36 min.)
Camera Exercises is a history of my playing with the camera. It has to be part of this cycle: for this is the first phase of my life in which the camera has played an essential part in my forming my relation to the world.
7. the tickled faces of big mansions《房子的變臉》(6 min.)
Almost like an epilogue, the Tickled Faces of Big Mansions salutes to the passing away of time and the window view at home that has inspired many of my creative and intellectual activities.