Anchoring the Presence

安生之流 
策展人語

日常生活充滿弔詭。它往往伴隨一些負擔，即最現實的處世艱難，使其慣性顯得無需置疑，或無從說起。然而，它又突然真空起來。你只有眼前的事，彷彿跟過去與將來的重量割開。那不代表輕盈，卻是隔離。

因而，生活是一連串斷層，飄在時間的海。我們一直在注定的流逝裡，感到不安。

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哲學家漢娜．鄂蘭在其論文 Love and Saint Augustine 從聖人奧古斯丁（354-430）的思想梳理時間和空間。她寫及，人生在世要不處於「不再」（no more），要不處於「尚未」（not yet）。生命，就如時間一樣，來自所有尚未發生的事情，然後消失至不能復返。日復日的無聊也好，激蕩也好，委曲也好，它總來回消弭。鄂蘭要談「愛」，而說明了時間。愛之所以難，在於它總伴隨失去的恐懼，因為時間正在倒數，萬物終步向死亡。如果一切邁向消解，那「愛」是什麼，愛還可能嗎？鄂蘭由此重新定義時間，她著眼過去和未來的微妙夾縫，即是當下。

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如果沒有空間為載體，時間便沒法存在。她提供了一個看法——只有當下能夠因為「人」作為一個「空間」（space）而真實存在。她寫及：「只有靠著把過去及未來，召喚成現在的記憶與期待，時間方能存在。因此唯一確鑿的時態是現在。」（註1）隨著鄂蘭的思考，人的當下充滿可能，時間在某程度可被克服。正正因為這種超越的特質，「當下」是人能夠愛的一個起點。反過來，若要愛，或者就不得不透過體察（連接過去和未來的）當下，透過內在錨點連結自己，連結這個世界。

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那麼，藝術如何讓我們重新看待日常，並決意下錨？日常生活由大量重複的行為集合而成。肉身、心靈和動作均可成為當下存在的「空間」。藝術透過捕捉日常，重組這些時間的錨點。黎倩華（阿步）的創作圍繞行為、in-situ （就地、臨場）方法，作品經常思考身體、動作經驗與所在環境的關係。多年來，她經歷數次移居，搬離又搬返香港，並在疫情中展開漫長的舊居裝修歷程。本展覽記錄她在復修實體的家後，安居變成更為內在的狀況。

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在展覽中，阿步將以日常兩大基本行為——進食、步行為素材。這些重複且有時麻煩的行為包括煮飯、備菜、趕車、行路等。她探索動作中、物料中、與他人關係中的「定」與「動」，從而發掘經驗中的微光，好好地微觀、放大、回顧、感受，甚至抵擋或重奪。作品將充斥著「動詞」，其裝置、影像、行為（和其痕跡）邀請觀者一同參與這場現在進行式。

首部分展區，主要圍繞阿步如何回應外在世界。在影片《行行下》，阿步留意街上「半臨時」的接駁物料，在公共空間塑造親密感。她聚焦這些支撐著城市急速運作的物件，透過邀請它們一起遊玩，變相轉移其被預設的功能和象徵意義。《夢遊開心果 - i》進一步帶觀者走入半虛半實的空間，重塑上述城市物料之餘，融入夢境、記憶和與母親的點滴，讓私密與公共重疊。

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不止於獨步，《步行者筆記 - 痕跡》邀請友人進行步行練習，記錄他們在路上衍生的有機對話。藝術家試著面對與人相處中的不確定性。當交換視點時，無論相同或各異，他們亦引發互相對現實環境的重新演繹，集體加以抵抗，與他人培養共存的社群韌性。

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由展場中間六角型結構起，作品漸趨藝術家的內在，而憶記（remembrance）就像一個個錨，待被拋到錨點。裝置作品《提子Jam》呈現提子不同的時態和形態。阿步收集吃完提子剩下來的提子莖，風乾並小心儲存；將提子煮為果醬，稍為延長和保存營養，防止衰壞。這些重複的動作慢慢累積成一種介入行動，以延伸片刻的感悟。而《7天份的急凍廚餘》裡，藝術家把食物渣滓凍結凝住，將此殘餘物化為臨時雕塑，從死亡中拖拉出來，暗示日常記憶的幽靈狀態。即便如此，阿步試著捕捉，並留下一個存檔。作品邀請觀者坐在餐桌前，稍稍休息，藉藝術家提供某段靜止過去，讓人對照他們當下那晃動的鏡像，進入內心的現在進行式。

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展覽本身就是一場物質的消亡，它有固定的時期和空間。阿步將透過每天在展場發生快閃行為創作，作為一場一場的探索，甚至改變。短暫的、微小的⋯若能專注地對待，或能成為非物質的累積，刻在人肉身裡。

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在時間裡，我們不斷留下痕跡，又消失，又再現。

註1
“It is only by calling past and future into the present of remembrance and expectation that time exists at all. Hence the only valid tense is the present, the Now.” Arendt, H., Stark, J.C. and Scott, J.V. (2005) Love and Saint Augustine. Chicago: The University Chicago Press. 

Anchoring the Presence
Curatorial Statement

Everyday life is steeped in the uncanny. A blend of burdens and mundane challenges makes it seem unquestionable. It often feels vacuous, leaving you with just the present moment, as if disconnected from the weight of past and future. This doesn’t suggest easier coping, instead, it highlights a sense of isolation.

Life unfolds through ruptures, navigating the vast sea of time. We feel unsettled in the inevitable passage of time.

Philosopher Hannah Arendt explores time and space through the thoughts of Saint Augustine (354-430) in her thesis. She writes that in life, we are either in the state of “no more” or in the state of “not yet.” Life, like time, comes from all that has yet to happen, then disappears into irretrievability. 

Arendt delves into “time” as a means to elaborate on “love”. Love is challenging due to the constant fear of loss, as time counts down and all things move toward death. If everything is heading to disappearance, what then is "love"? Is love still possible? In this context, Arendt redefines time, emphasizing the gap between the past and the future—what we experience as the present.

Without space as a vessel, time cannot exist. Arendt offers a perspective that only the present can truly exist with human beings as a “space.” She wrote, “It is only by calling past and future into the present of remembrance and expectation that time exists at all. Hence, the only valid tense is the present, the Now.” [1] Following Arendt's thinking, the present is filled with possibilities, and time can, to some extent, be overcome. Due to this transcendent quality, the “present” becomes a starting point for human love. To love may require an understanding of the existence of the present (connecting the past and future), anchoring oneself and one’s connection to the world.

So, how does art allow us to re-examine the everyday and anchor ourselves? Daily life consists of a multitude of repetitive actions. The body, mind, and actions can all become “spaces” of present existence. Art captures the everyday and reshapes these anchors of time.

Artist Sin Wah Lai’s work centers on in-situ methods, reflecting on the relationship between the body, actions, and the surrounding contextual environment. Over the past few years, she has experienced several relocations, moving away from and returning to Hong Kong, and she embarked on a lengthy renovation of her old home during the pandemic. This exhibition focuses on her state of mind as an inner home after settling into the physical one.

In the exhibition, she closely examines eating and walking—two fundamental experiences in life—as materials. These repetitive and sometimes troublesome acts include cooking, preparing ingredients, catching a bus, and walking. Lai explores the notions of “anchoring” and “moving” within these actions, along with materiality and relationships with others, thereby discovering the light within our experience by examining, magnifying, reflecting, feeling, and even resisting or reclaiming our everyday reality. The exhibition is characterized by “verbs,” inviting viewers to participate in the present tense within the works.

The first part of the exhibition focuses on how Lai responds to the external world. In the video Busking Walk, she discovered the temporary metallic structures on the street. By playing along with them, she transforms the functional nature of the ramps and traps, and their symbolic meaning as a gear to the rapid operation of a capitalistic city, into intimacy. Sleepwalking Pistachios - i invite viewers into a semi-surreal space, reshaping the aforementioned urban materials while incorporating dreams, memories, and moments with her mother, overlapping personal and public realm.

Beyond her solo endeavors, in Walkers’ Note—Traces, Lai invites friends to participate in walking practices, documenting the organic dialogues that arise along the way. The artist confronts the anxieties of interacting with others. By exchanging viewpoints, whether similar or different, they provoke reinterpretations of the urban reality encountered on the journey, collectively resisting and cultivating communal resilience with one another.

From the hexagonal structure at the center of the exhibition, the works gradually delve into the artist's inner world, with remembrance serves as anchors waiting to be lowered. The installation Grape Jam presents different temporal states of grapes. Lai collects the stems left after eating grapes, drying and storing them with care; she cooks the grapes into jam, extending their shelf life and preserving nutrients to prevent decay. These repetitive actions take time and effort, turned into an act of intervention. 

In 7-day Frozen Waste, the artist freezes food scraps, transforming these remnants into temporary sculptures, pulling them from a state of death and suggesting a ghostly presence of everyday memory. In doing so, Lai seeks to create an archive. The work invites viewers to sit at the dining table, and through the artist's offering of a still past, allows them to observe their own changing imagery in the mirror, wandering through their inner selves in this continuous present.

The exhibition itself is material destined for disappearance, constrained by a fixed period and space. Lai is committed to creating through daily flash happening performances at the exhibition space. These fleeting and glimmering moments of life, if articulated with care and time, may transform into a non-material accumulation embodied in our bodies.

In the passage of time, We consistently leave traces, disappearing and reappearing.


 

[1]

Arendt, H., Stark, J.C. and Scott, J.V. (2005) Love and Saint Augustine. Chicago: The University Chicago Press.