匿名的想像 重做 Anonymous Imagination reenact

匿 名 的 想 像  重做   Anonymous Imagination reenact

葉 子 啟  Yeh Tzu-chi

Singapore Council of Women’s Organization, Singapore, 2013/11/1

Photo by  Nel Lim

curator:  Daniela Beltrani

Making Space, Body as Woman

在新加坡的展場裡﹐我重做八月在台北新樂園空間做過的〈匿名的想像〉這件作品。因為場地裡有紅色的毛毯﹐所以我改用策展人提供的淡紫色毛線。短時間內找不到符回期望的塗身顏料﹐於是改用自己的黑色眼影。表演的順序有點更動（不自覺地）。以及因為毛線球在毛毯上滾不動﹐無法將毛線漸次收進黑衣裡﹐所以只能拖著它跟著我在空間裡移動。

活動結束四個月後﹐我收到策展人Daniela Beltrani自新加坡寄來的紀錄手冊 Making Space, Body as Woman裡﹐出身夏威夷﹐長居於新加坡的日裔美國人Jane M. Shishido對此作做了有趣的論述：

大約從嬉皮﹐自由戀愛﹐和普普藝術文化盛行的1960年代中葉的紐約開始﹐亞洲著名藝術明星小野洋子和草間彌生即已使用裸體做為表達方式和不必感到羞赧的活力所在﹐至今已有數十年光景。子啟受到日本激進藝術家霜田誠二的高度影響﹐使用大膽毫不妥協的裸身去定義及面對身體論述。

子啟的表演從剝吃洋蔥開始。接著她手握一對裝有水的酒杯研究水的本質。接著有點像是性別倒置﹐她把臉塗黑摸擬男性的鬍鬚。但當這個男性形象出現在觀眾眼前時﹐子啟很快就將她的長袍往上拉露出她淡紫色的底褲來﹐然後就這樣一路在房間裡爬行。過程當中並無令人眩目或激情的演出﹐但是卻帶來了有趣而不斷湧現的曖眛不明。 身體是我們的自我與身份的最終庇護所﹐是個人歷史的載體﹐而且正如子啟在表演裡所明示的﹐它絕對是不折不扣地隱藏在層層疊疊的神秘繁複中。（頁15）

In the room of Singapore, I did the performance Anonymous Imagination again which I had done in Taipei last August.  There’s red carpet in the room so I used the lavender yarn offered by the curator.  We couldn’t find the proper body paint in a very limit time, so I used my black eye shadow instead.  And I changed the orders of movements without even knowing it.  Furthermore, I could only drag the yarn with me along the space without collecting it little by little into my black dress simply because the yarn couldn’t roll on the red carpet! 

Four months later, I receive the documentary catalogue Making Space, Body as Woman by the curator Daniela Beltrani from Singapore, where Jane M. Shishido, a Japanese American who lives in Singapore, thus writes about my performance:

….The usage of the naked body as expression and unabashed vitality has been around for decades with notably the Asian iconic art stars Yoko Ono and Yayoi Kusama in New York at the height of hippy, free love, and pop art culture of the mid 1960s.  Tzu-chi herself is highly influenced by the radical Japanese artist Seiji Shimoda and uses the bold and uncompromising unclothed body to define and confront physical discourse.

Tzu-chi’s performance started with a whimsical peeling and eating of an onion.  She then proceeded to hold up a pair of wine glasses full of water and examine the properties of the liquid.  It was a sort of gender reversal, next, as a quick make-up fix made her face smeared with black to mimic a rough moustache and masculine facial hair.  But as soon as the faux male character appeared in front of the audience, like a bored and antsy pre-schooler, Tzu-chi shed her clothing yanking her dress above her shoulders as she dragged herself around the room with lavender underwear showing.  There was nothing glamorous or titillating taking place, but an almost amusing and restless ambiguity.  The body is our last refuge of self and identity, it’s a vessel for personal histories and as Tzu-chi had shown with her performance, it is literally hidden beneath layers and layers of mystifying complexity. (p. 15)