生命字典：白無常、黑無常、青衣人

Biodictionary: white impermanence, black impermanence, and the man with a blue shirt

 

2020 / 雙頻道影像 / 8分鐘

2020 / dual-channel video / 8 mins

 

由林宏璋發起的〈生命字典〉創作計畫，主要在典藏消逝或正在消失中的人、事、物，將其檔案化，作為生命政治依存的證明。同時，也對不可再現、難以呈現的現象，以文字、影像、聲音等方式保存，以凸顯權力技術所企圖煙滅的痕跡。

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去年，為2019綠島人權藝術季限地製作的〈生命字典〉，以綠島在地食物「鹹包子」為起點，聯繫過去與現在的綠島歷史，並關注綠島在地居民與台灣省保安司令部「新生訓導處」 （1951-1965）時期關押的白色恐怖政治犯之間，相互依存的關係性生命政治。

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今年，這件〈生命字典:黑無常、白無常、青衣人〉，從藝術家父親病危時發作的譫妄症幻覺作為起點。從未入過監的父親，幻見一位身著青色襯衫的調查局人員、與黑無常、白無常一起對他進行審問。以父親為例呈現個人記憶、病理上的真實與幻見，呈現白色恐怖如何讓整個世代陷入極端的沈默恐懼之中。事實上，雖然大多數的人並未真的具有身陷牢獄的經驗；然而，集體心靈卻受到長期的恐怖監禁。藝術家父親臨死前的譫妄，即為此種深刻恐懼的表徵。藝術家重新審視一批1954到1974年間老照片，觀察影像中的活動，發現某些刻意安排的擺拍痕跡。藉由連結綠島監獄內「媒體化」的影像，和綠島之外，當時普遍台灣人內在的心理空間，從而，建構權力無所不在的監控敘事。與此同時，也藉由牢房和影像空間的並置，編織權力如何在邊緣 / 中心、綠島 / 台灣、個人 / 集體等不同敘事之間，展現生命治理的暴力。

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「創傷」本身便具有抵抗的潛能，藉由牢房、病房、影音的並置， 以及對施明正小說《喝尿者》的致意， 編織個人生命／身體／社會的歷史敘事， 展現生命治理的暴力。

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The art project, Biodictionary, launched by LIN Hongjohn aims to archive disappeared or disappearing figures, activities and objects as proofs that biopolitics depends on. Meanwhile, the project also preserves phenomena that are not representable or hard to present with text, image and sound to highlight traces that techniques of power attempt to erase.

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Last year, LIN created this site-specific project, Biodictionary, for the 2019 Green Island Human Rights Art Festival, using “savory steamed bun,” the local delicacy of Green Island, as a point of departure to connect the past and present of the island. It also focused on the interdepending relational biopolitics between the island’s residents and political prisoners during the White Terror period, who were imprisoned at Taiwan Garrison Command’s “Reeducation Department” (1951-1965).

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This year, Biodictionary: black Impermanence, white Impermanence, and the man with a blue shirt begins from the delusions of the artist’s father before he passed away. Although he had never been imprisoned, he was interrogated, under the delusion, by an investigation bureau officer in blue shirt, together with black Impermanence and white Impermanence. Using his father’s example to bring together personal memory, pathological reality and illusion, the artist delineates how the White Terror had immersed an entire generation in silent fear. In truth, although most people were never really imprisoned, their minds, as a collective whole, were in a long-term incarceration. Before the artist’s father departed from this world, his delusion symptomatically manifested such terror. The artist reviewed a batch of old photographs taken between 1954 to 1974, and discovered traces of staged photography when observing the activities in the images. Through connecting the “mediatized” images from inside the Green Island Prison with the psychological space of most Taiwanese outside Green Island at the time, LIN constructs a surveillance narrative of omnipresent power. At the same time, the juxtaposition of prison cells and video space has interwoven narratives of the peripheral/the center, Green Island / Taiwan and the individual / the collective to expose the violence of biogovernance.

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“Trauma” itself carries the potential of resistance. Thejuxtaposition among prison cells, wards, sights and sounds, in particular referencing to SHI Ming Zheng’s Pee Drinker is to weave the historical narratives of the individual/social, the body and mind, which doomed with the violence of biopower.