An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing)
2016
archival inkjet print face-mounted to diasec acrylic, in artist’s frame
70×100 cm each, set of 7
Dusk is the time when the conflict between freedom and belonging becomes the most irreconcilable: to embrace the sense of belonging would compromise freedom, while one’s yearning for freedom would always bring fears of solitude. Engulfed under the stratosphere of the dimming light, one has no choice but to bear the weight of this eternal dilemma of human experience. Taking Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon as a point of departure, the artist expands the story through viewing and reading. The experiences are then translated into a combined presentation consisting of seven "tinted" photographs (viewing) and three sets of modified “dialogues” (reading).
Drawn from the remnant impressions of the original story of The Red Cocoon, the artist selects seven images from her photographic archive that correspond to the afterimages on her mind and tinted these images uniformly. Photography is a medium known both for its precise representations of reality and its susceptible nature, while language specializes in anchoring rootless images and creating context, which consequentially lessens the ambiguity of meaning inherent in the image. By “tinting” its narrative, the moment encapsulated by the photograph is no longer unidentified or arbitrary, or even embodies the initial intention. As in this example, what the photographs aim to imitate are the imaginations floating in the artist’s mind.
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）
2016
收藏级喷墨照片，亚克力三明治装裱于艺术家自制框
70×100 cm, 共7件
黄昏是一天中自由和归属的愿望冲突得最为激烈的时间：若寻求归宿，就要牺牲自由；向往无拘无束，又对孤独感到不安。身处于黄昏，就意味着不得不承受人类永恒的悖论愿望所引发的震颤。以安部公房的小说《赤之茧》为母本，艺术家在这对同源的作品里分别通过“看”与“读”对故事拓写，最终在空间里整体呈现为七张被“染色”的照片（看）与三组被“重组”的对话（读）。
遵循着阅读留下的心理残像，艺术家按图索骥，从过往的拍摄中打捞出七张照片，并进行统一的染色处理。对于摄影这一兼具高仿真性和“易染性”的媒介而言，文字是赋予其意义的“染料”。它擅长将无根的图像锚定，削弱摄影本身的暧昧含混。经过叙事的“染色”，照片所重现的瞬间从此不再是无名的、任意的，它甚至不再献身于最初被拍摄时想要保存的时刻。比如在这件作品里，照片仿真的对象即是一段飘荡在艺术家脑中的想象。
An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing) I
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）之一
An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing) II
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）之二
An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing) III
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）之三
An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing) IV
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）之四
An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing) V
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）之五
An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing) VI
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）之六
An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Viewing) VII
对《赤之茧》的拓写尝试（看）之七
