28 Apr Passing by/Emplacing – sealing one’s reminiscence and oblivion
Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University
Professor Pai Shih-Ming
What is the question to one’s life? There must be different versions depending on the individual. However, there seem to be an un explainable and undeniable knowledge in the encounters of love and men, or the beginning and the end of life. Why are men born? What do men live for and where do their lives lead to? These questions about life are inevitable, and would one be able to deduce the antecedent from karma? In other words, the beginning and extension of life must lead to an end, is there a logic that can be proved by scientific analysis?
The film “A Theory of Everything” narrates the love life of British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who had recently passed away. The film can be seen as a record of the legendary scientist’s private life, and memory is the most important source to this narrative; at the same time, it points out that science has no control over love, separation and other difficulties that the humble humans may encounter. The choice of forgetting and leaving behind the pain is ineluctable if one wishes for a closure. Despite Hawking’s believe in the existence of a theory that would explain everything, he was still unable to break away from the chains of fate disguised in different forms, including physical pains and the restrictions of human intelligence. “Isn’t it beautiful if there’s an equation that could explain everything in the world?”, the statement explains that the knowledge one gains from science is still reflective of the human nature.
What would the formula that explains love, encounter, life and death be like? Would there be a logic to explain the gatherings and separations caused by war, travel, birth or social behaviour? Perhaps though our emotions, we would be willing to believe that the circle of life, the connection between gathering and separation, are contradictory yet cannot be disassociated.
To possess and to let go, religious and atheistic, reminiscence and oblivion are the normal phenomena in life experiences. Through sensible thinking and sentimental choices, the relationships between such incidents are determined. As stated by Michel Foucault: “Cogito as a foundation cannot be altered by either the intellectuality of science or the characteristics of life science” (Dits écrits II, 2001), that even when the body, desire, death and sensibility are now being analysed scientifically, “cogito” remains dominant. The meaning of existence originates from speculation, but is determined by choice.
Even though to possess and to let go, religion and atheistic, reminiscence and oblivion are normalities and experiences in life, they are reflective of the relationship and status of the body. Reminiscence represents possession and religion, oblivion means letting go and releasing; the decision of taking away or giving something is based on “cogito”, the speculation and choice of the self. If memory is a forgetfulness caused by speculation, then oblivion is determined by selective memory. There exist too much unbearable burdens in the forms, conditions and relations of life, and one “passes by” by liberating oneself though oblivion; whilst the “emplacement” of one’s memories helps to sustain one’s soul. Passing by and emplacing are like two sides of a coin that represent the reappearance and experience of the body, the former indicates the dynamic relationships between men, whilst the latter symbolise the static position of an individual.
Lo Chan-Peng is an expert in the representation of the connections between different parties. Though the still and silent sets, the relationship between the spectator, the participator and the individuals that take part in the scene are presented. The link is reflective of the status of men (including the author) and the outer world (the sitter and the spectator), the three parties are bounded yet independent. Any changes carried out by any of the party indicates the rearrangement of authority, hence the gaze of the sitter, the position of the body, the placement of the gesture, the representation of the facial expression, the actions between the spectator and the spectated, all these factors break the existing rules and reflect on the verdicts of the author towards the ties between the three parties.
Huang Meng-Chin’s video works often portray wonderers of the delusional world whose body parts like head, face, hand or back are presented in the anatomical manner in reflection of unpredictable phenomena. According to this logic, the individual forms a temporary connection with the outer world which cannot be defined by the norm, and both parties are liberated though this act. Visual and auditory senses are the tools for understanding others, yet their existence may be passive and awaiting for a response. At the same time, the shuttle and freezing of the images symbolise the unstable and complex relationships between men. Though the complicated networks a handsome labyrinth of the body which none can escape from is established. Fate is like a body landscape that can be reiterated and forwarded, circling independently in the reincarnation of reminiscence and oblivion.
Lin Shih-Yung prefers to keep the limbs but conceal the faces of the figures in his works, by doing this, the subjectiveness of the spectator and the participator is misplaced, hence building a visual logic that is anti-ideological and anti-labelling. By reducing the facial expressions, facial features, characteristics and personalities, the danger of being overly dependent on one’s appearance (mainly the face) is then brought down. The humorous, allegorical and surreal visual metaphor points out that the human heart connects strangers separated by distance. The banana can be seen as a noun in spectroscopy, and a metaphor of collective memory, or the events from the artist’s life that he deliberately chosen to “forget”. Oblivion is when one can reprise the past from broken pieces of memories; whilst “reminiscence” can be seen as the souvenir that has been sealed up. Between oblivion and memory, lay the fragments of the shared bodily experience of the individual, the others and the ancestry.
Among the light and shadows in the paintings, Yu Sheng-Rui narrates his biographical story via his meticulous paint brush. To light up means the physical representation of the extension of energy, and also the means of maintaining the memory, which refers to the author’s response to the outer world. The association of light and shade may seem contradictory and complex, and it also symbolises the author’s physical dependence on the possession and the missing of the two. Life and death, gaining and losing are the norm of life. Though the invisible exchange of energy and the connection of mind, a clearer link between self and others (family, friends) is established. However, rapid changes occur on a daily basis, and one often loses more than gain in life. The personal experience from childhood to adulthood is a history that reiterates and repairs itself though light and shade, truth and imaginary, reminiscence and oblivion.