Following
Around —
她是從本島來的駐村藝術家
一年半前我帶著駐村藝術家的身份，抵達了一座島。島上觀光客們赤身發亮、愉悅歡笑，這也難怪，機車、民宿、潛水、酒吧，島像是為了他們的需求而存在的海上公園。除此之外，島作為本島的遠方，在不同時代蓋起了數個不同的監獄，被驅逐的人們被送到島上，一待就是經年累月。
我從民宿窗戶、咾咕石岸頻頻望向大海，試圖尋找中央山脈的輪廓，卻無法確認，那究竟是熟悉的土地，又或者只是水氣所形成的幻象？
一間店招牌寫著「居福潛水」，是在口述歷史中常常出現的名字，他曾住在流麻溝旁的蔡家莊，因為監獄的興建搬了數次家。起初，只是想找居福阿公做訪談，沒想到從此之後，我每天傍晚到他們家報到，先是和阿公坐在門口聊天，等春玉阿嬤從菜園工作回來一起去港口游泳，上岸後沿著她幼年工作的路線散步一圈，再回他們家沖澡、吃晚餐、按摩、聊聊天、坐在路邊吹晚風。
春玉非常擅長立泳，腳踏水、上半身挺直、手划動，使得頭部得以抬起和我聊天，告訴我那是什麼魚、這是什麼生物。隨著陽光、風、氣溫，以及海水共構成的海浪，我與他們的生命糾纏。原來，游泳可以不是為了速度與競爭，而是為了一起在海裡度過一段時間。
經由關係的展開，那些身處其中卻毫無察覺的現代化基礎設施，慢慢從風景裡頭現身原形。鋼筋水泥蓋起之前，一邊撈魚苗一邊玩水的小春玉，以及在夢裡飛翔追著魚的小居福，他們各自悠遊的公館澳與鰻溝湖從什麼變化為什麼？生活跟著現代化急速改變，他們繼續過日子，走向不曾想過的工作，卻似乎與童年的夢境重疊又背道。或者，夢早已悄悄預告未來——山谷成為容器、涼亭沒於水庫、石頭炸為粉碎、男孩潛入海裡。
｜展期｜ 2022/11/19 — 2023/1/15
｜展覽支援｜
空間｜海馬迴光畫館
行政｜小玉
製作｜嘉修、子峻、紀汎、禮瑛、倧源
水族｜海洋水族館
設備｜政憲、振鈦營造、絕對空間
佈展｜宗龍、修修、倧源、伯豪、小南、小優、盈潔、瑋恩、世育、冠雯、明岳
攝影｜李旭彬、劉紀彤
｜展覽影像紀錄｜觀看連結按此
｜她是從本島來的駐村藝術家 出版品｜訂購按此
Following Around —
She Is the Island’s Resident Artist Who Comes from the Main
Island of Taiwan
A year and a half ago, I arrived on an island as an artist-in-residence. The tourists on the island were smiling happily and shone in their swimming suits. It’s no wonder that the scooters, hostels, diving tours, bars, and the island itself were like a marine park for their needs. In addition, as a distant part of the main island, several different prisons were built at different times on the island, and the deported people were sent to the island for years and months.
I frequently looked at the sea from the window of the hostel and the coral stone, trying to find the outline of the Central Mountain Range, but could not confirm whether it was a familiar land, or was it just an illusion formed by water vapor.
A shop sign "Jufu Diving", is a name that often appeared in oral history. The man used to live in Tsai Village next to Liuma River but moved several times due to the construction of the prison. At first, I just wanted to interview Grandpa Jufu. I didn’t expect that after that, I would visit their house every evening. I normally sat at the door and chatted with Grandpa first, and when Grandma Chunyu came back from working in the vegetable garden, we would go to the port to swim together. After that, we would take a walk around the route of her childhood work, and then go back to their house to take a shower, eat dinner, massage ourselves, chat, sit on the roadside and enjoy the evening breeze together
Chunyu was very good at treading water. With her feet in the water, her upper body upright, and her hands paddling, she could lift her head up and chat with me, telling me what kind of fish and what kind of creature it was. With the sun, the wind, the temperature, and the waves from the sea, I was entangled with their lives. It turned out that swimming can be done not for speed and competition, but for spending time together in the sea.
Through the development of the relationship, those modern infrastructures that were in it but not aware of it, slowly emerged from the landscape in its original form. Before the reinforced concrete appeared, what did the places, Gongguan Harbor and Marbled Eel Lake, where little Chunyu, who was playing with the water while catching baby fish, and little Jufu, who was flying and chasing the fish in his dreams, change to? Life had changed rapidly with modernization, and they continued to live their lives and went to work they never thought of, but it seemed to overlap and betrayed their childhood dreams. Or, the dream had already quietly foretold the future—the valley became a container, the pavilion fell into the reservoir, the stone was blasted to small pieces, and the boy dived into the sea.
| Link to full video record |
| Link to Buy Artist Book |
