“The Racing Will Continue, The Dancing Will Stay”, 2019, exhibition view, Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
New Neighbor
2019, Installation, wood & metal frame structure, stainless steel anti-skid board, marbling wallpaper, literature & ready-made comprehensive materials, 600x400x400cm
In the early 1980s, the alternative development in method and language of modern stage art in this period has alienated from the realist and abstract; and classical and modern discourse debate. For one thing to move forward from the center position of illusory realism and longing for legitimization of the “presupposition” of formalist language.The works refer to the method of modern stage art in this period and make a series of interwoven space narrative between stage art structure and background props. In this open performance space, the inter-reflection of the metaphor in the art industry reality has woven into the plot.
Part of this work refers to the stage drama Good Fortune Building, which was completed and staged in 1984 by the stage drama playwright and film screenwriter Ms. He Yiping. The play depicts the everyday conflicts of the capitalist class stratification in a high-rise residential building in Hong Kong, such as the introduction of the playlist, “They live together on this small island, the rich are stirred by money restless, the poor are fighting for two meals day and night. Endless competition, brings prosperity, brings greater disparity between
the rich and the poor, and also brings the horrible alienation estrangement and indifference between people.”Through reasoning and speculating the artist’s life experience, the affect and empathy emerged during the travel between Hong Kong and mainland at the early period of the Reform and Opening-up of China right after the Cultural Revolution.Artist hopes to bypass the surface of the obvious criticism of the class stratification and conflicts under the capitalist society in this play, rather, to re-suspend the empty critic jargon vocabularies, through a new stage design that helps the audience to enter the scene by themselves.
Like today’s art industry that seemingly abstract, ad hoc, multi-faceted stage background – in the double absent position of both actor and their performativity – can we also shift a perspective and reflect the narratives that took place in the coexisting performance stage.
《新邻舍》
2019年，装置，木板&金属架结构，不锈钢防滑板，壁纸，文献&现成品综合材料，600x400x400cm
80年代初期，以摆脱幻觉现实主义为中心，又渴望形式语言上“假定性”的合法，成为了这一时期舞台美术语言上的写实与抽象、古典与现代之争的另一类异化演绎。作品参考这一时期现代舞台美术的方式方法，以舞美架构与道具布景相互钩织进行了一系列空间叙述，在这个开放的舞台空间中，与艺术行业现实相互反照隐喻的剧情被编织在其中。
这件作品的其中一部分参照来自舞台话剧剧作家、影视编剧何冀平女士———于1984年完成并上演的舞台话剧《好运大厦》，其剧中描写了一栋香港高层居民楼中资本主义式的阶级分层所带来的市井矛盾，如话剧戏单中的介绍，“他们共同生活在这个小岛上，阔的被金钱搅得坐卧不安，穷的每天为两餐一宿拼命。无休止的竞争，带来繁荣，带来了更大的贫富悬殊，也带来人与人之间可怕的隔阂和淡漠。” 通过推测和查考作者本人的生平经历，以及作者在文革结束后和改革开放初始阶段在香港与内地之间往返，其复杂的情理感受。我希望跨越其剧表面流露的对资本主义社会制度下阶级矛盾的批判，而是通过一个新舞台的设计重新将空乏的批判语言悬置，让观众自己先往返其中。
如同今天艺术行业看似抽象、又临时多面的舞台背景一般，在演员与其表演性双重缺席的位置上，我们是不是也可以挪移至另一视角，回想一番这个共处的舞台中所发生的叙述。