超大的铁箱也是艺术

This post first appeared on ARTivate's blog (www.artivate.blogspot.com) on 16.12.09
Pictures differ for purpose of posting.


最近到了伦敦一游。


闷在新加坡太久会变成井底蛙的，所以决定到国外去看世界。

伦敦有很多世界级的博物馆，展出或收藏物品的量和广度大得让人目不暇给。不管是现代艺术品，古典画作，古董，科学发明，自然科学，历史文物都可以在伦敦的博物馆里找得到。最重要的是，大部分的展览都是免费的，不花钱就可参观。

去伦敦之前，朋友就说在伦敦的博物馆里呆上十天也不一定看的完。当下觉得她也太夸张了。可是当我真正到了那里参观的时候，朋友的话应验了。花了一整个早上，结果只参观完维多利亚与阿尔伯特博物馆（Victoria and Albert Museum）的一楼而已。实在有太多的展出品值得去观赏，去研究了。


出名的博物馆包括国家画作展览馆（National Gallery），泰特古典艺术博物馆（Tate Britain），泰特现代艺术博物馆（Tate Modern），自然史博物馆（Natural History Museum）。其中让我印象与体验最深的，是 Tate Modern 里的其中一件互动艺术品。

这件艺术品从外观看起来真的很不像艺术品。基本上，他就是一个很大很大的货柜箱（以下照片）。当你站在箱子的入口处，可以看见是黑暗的，没有灯，只有少许的光线从外面投射进货柜箱里，内侧的四面墙也是黑的。眼前的画面，就是一个使人觉得有压迫感的大黑洞，等着你进去探险。

和朋友进去的时候，因为不知道里面有些什么，也看不见任何的东西，我们有些许由于，脚步非常缓慢。我甚至觉得有少许的害怕。可是走着走着，我们竟然到了空间的尽头。里面什么都没有。

原来，这个货柜箱就真的是一个空有暗的货柜箱。

我当时第一个反应：这展览品也太笨了吧！为了看设计这艺术品的艺术家怎么把这么笨的东西解释成艺术，我就去看说明的看板（以下照片）。我所看到的说明，出人意表得给了我灵感，启发和难忘的体验。

"How shall I move forward?" you might ask yourself, as you stand at the threshold, confronted by the darkness ahead. The unknown can be terrifying, especially if it is also without light. How you approach it is unique, as your first encounter with anything can only ever be as an individual. Staring ahead into the black void may make you wonder whether to move ahead at all.

'Its fine', you reassure yourself, "what can actually be inside?" How It Is is complete only when you, the viewer, enter. The container focuses you inwards, both physically and psychologically, deeper into the darkness. In choosing how to move ahead- to march in fearlessly, or to kirt along the walls - you create your won journey. But as you bump into others, or mistakenly grab a stranger's shoulder, your trepidation eases and collectively you navigate the void..

说明看板上所说的感觉，行动，思绪我在货柜箱里面都体验到了。顿时间，我对展览品的嘲笑变成了敬佩。这么简单的一件物品/空间，却带出了人内心的复杂情绪和外在行动的可能性。

再说，这些体会不会只停留在货柜箱里面的空间，可以延伸至日常生活。当我们碰到难题的时候，和在走入黑箱那一刻的反应是一样的。当我们面对看不到前景的未来，或算不到后果的抉择，在货柜空间里的反应也会出现。

想到这里，不得不为刚开始的那种无知的判断感到惭愧，也非常庆幸我去看了说明看板。如果没有参考，我可能永远都会是天真的愚人。

后来，我也发现，这个体验只会有一次。之后如果你在尝试进去的时候，你没有办法再找回同样的体验了。你已经熟悉那个空间了。也许人生也是如此吧。生活中的每一个经历，只会有一次。下一次，不管情况多么雷同，也已经不一样了。

最深层的意义，往往来自最简单的东西。

最简单的东西，也往往能拉近艺术与生活的关系。

真。假

This blog posting first appeared on ARTivate's Blog

最近在看一部台湾的电视剧集《痞子英雄》。

原本想等电视播放时才看，可是由于看过这部剧的朋友都连声叫好，再加上他们的大力鼓吹，于是我去买了DVD来观赏（注意：是正版的。我没那么贱。哈哈！）。况且，朋友们都说戏到最后有很多人物会死去，世界会显得很黑暗。我喜欢看“草菅人命”的戏，也喜欢黑暗，也许因为自己的世界是黑暗的吧。哈哈！

乍看之下，《痞子英雄》似乎是台湾另一出平庸的偶像剧，可是我可以用我的人格来担保：它绝对不是！

故事讲述两位警察在调查一系列离奇案件的过程中发现了一个天大的阴谋。在他们的世界里，复杂的多角关系模糊了黑与白的界线，使他们在查案时挣扎徘徊在黑暗与光明，正义与邪恶，真相与谎言之间。随着剧情的发展，许多的线索和答案会陆续出现。这似乎让两位主要人物和观众越来越接近真相，可是就因为这些线索答案的出现而引起更多的事端，使得案件变得更复杂，离真相越远。

有如好莱坞电影 'The Dark Knight'，《痞子英雄》情节很紧凑，事件建构的速度非常快，接连发生，环环相扣。每个重要的人物都有高筹码，有失败的可能性。他们在故事里与其他人，事和自我有冲突。这些构成了一部张力超强的戏剧，吸引观众入戏，从头看到尾。

我看戏的时候，几乎可以用‘无法自拔’来形容我的状态。

夸张？哈哈，自己看了你就知道。

《痞子英雄》最吸引我的地方是它的故事似乎没有真相。每一集所呈现的线索与答案都会推翻观众之前所知道的事实，而这一集所谓的真相将会在下一集揭晓为假相或谎言。这使我一直要看下去，因为我一直想知道谜底，可是随着剧情发展，我又好像离真相，真理越来越远。
到了后面几集，当故事被推向高潮的时候，两位主要人物都非常怀疑自己，怀疑他们的世界，怀疑到底有没有‘真相’这回事。

这个问题也让我想起了日本现在火热的一部动画剧集《家庭教师里包恩》。在这部动画集里，有一个‘幻术师’的人物。这位幻术师使用幻觉来和敌人战抖。他常念以下的这一段话：

“幻觉与真幻觉。真理与谎言。真中藏假，假里怀真。真相于之中。”

这句话拿来形容《痞子英雄》的故事情节，也是再适合不过了。

其实，现实生活当中也是这样。很多事情你以为是真相，可是是谎言。有些事你认为是假的，但其实是真的。所以，人生到底有没有‘真相’这回事？而‘真相’又是什么？怎样才算是‘真相’？这也许需要好好想一想。

还没看《痞子英雄》的朋友们，赶快看一下吧！

Rehearsal Month

This is truly the month of rehearsals......

Been doing rehearsals for two shows concurrently. One of them is the Boon Seng play: Bondage and then the other is by us ARTivate: CityS

The only other time I did two shows so close to each other was Zhou Chu and CBL back in Huay Guan...... That time proved to be super-disastrous because I was basically screwing up everything that I was doing.... Also because I was rather new to the professional way and was struggling to learn properly.....

But this time is different..... To my surprise, I managed to keep up and do my work properly.... Maybe because this is just the beginning..... ARTivate rehearsals started just one week ago....

But nevertheless, I am quite confident that I will do my work properly all the way to the end........

I guess I have no other choice.... Neither do I want to have that option.....

Even if I was so busy and sometimes quite tired with rehearsals, I am still quite happy doing it.....

I am truly glad that I joined both productions.......

Rehearsals are always so fun...... You never run out of things to see and learn and do and think about.......

And I really think ARTivate rehearsals are the best.......

Like yesterday, we were tasked to improvise a short play..... All you can see among the ARTivators are helping each other complete the task, coming up with ideas generously, accepting other people's ideas instead of fighting with each other to be heard, voluntarily helping to pass information around, practising hard to make sure they get things right and doing their part very eagerly instead of standing around waiting for the leader to do everything......

I am really happy and grateful to be in ARTivate...... All of us are so good together and the creative energy is just so........... touching.......

And yesterday was like proof of what I was talking about.......

Its just wonderous how the 10-plus of us young people work well together.....

And Wanjing and Junwei are very fun directors to be with....... Both very different directors, but both fun to work with......... And you can learn quite alot by just observing how they do their stuff.....

Jiayou everyone! Lets put up a good show in July and August!

And I pray I will go through safely as well.....

Wayward Taiwan 2

Finally received some pictures that we took from Taiwan...... Kudos to Weiliang, Nat and Karin cause we took all these photos with their cameras.... I don't have a digital camera.... I didnt even brought a camera along... Haha

In Kenting..... We went to find some of the shooting locations of Cape No. 7, Taiwan's hottest film of 2008...... This was the house for the main lead Van Fan, which is now turn into a major tourist attraction for fans of Cape No.7.... Didnt take too many photos here cause I was not a particularly big fan of Cape No.7, unlike the others..... and Nat thought she was Tomoko (female lead) so much that she left her camera in Tomoko's bag, which was on exhibition and picture taking purposes..... The irony is, if you realise, I insisted on no photos please but a photo was taken of me. HAHA.

The MOST disgusting dinner that we had in Taiwan.... To come to think of it, it is the only time we ate something not nice in Taiwan.... Was in Kenting and this was some restaurant by the beach highway........ The sashimi was frozen with ice crystals in them when we were served.... The fried fish was so tough it could kill Gekleng if we hit him with it.... The variety of food not nice and limited.... Bleh.....

On our way back to Kaoshiung from Kenting..... We were all burnt by the sun...... And I was really in a not-good mood because my skin was burnt so badly that I couldnt move my shoulders.... Once I move my shoulders I can feel pain like the skin was torn apart..... And we were all quite tired... And then NAT can STILL PRETEND to smile even though she is having mensus...... To think later she shout at me for something damn small..... Haha.... Not lah.... Nat and I are very good friends okay.......

In Taroko National Park in Hualien.... We had to wear yellow helmets because of falling rocks.... But no rocks fell on us when we were there...... No animals were harmed during the taking of this picture....... iBun (the name of the rabbit) apparently wanted to travel down the river below us so we made a makeshift boat for it.... Rabbit is cute.... Person is also cute...... Haha.....

When not busy baby-sitting iBun, I had a chance of practising my martial arts..... This move was from 降龙十八掌(18 Dragon-Slaying Palms) ...... made famous by Hong Qi and Guo Jing. Look at the huge indentation I made in the rock.....

Taroko reminded me of Hua Mountains where the top exponents would scale to have a gongfu observation event.......



Makeshift birthday celebration..... The first time I celebrated my birthday away from home.... The first time I am overseas on my birthday....... But was damn touched cause I forgot it was my own birthday that day..... It was just like any other holiday day..... Was in the middle of singing when the screen froze and my friends burst into the room with the cake.... Took me quite awhile to realise they were celebrating my birthday because I was still wondering why my song was jammed in the middle..... Although the cake was made out of slices provided by the KTV buffet..... But I was very very very very very very touched...... See my shocked face..... Thank you everyone.... CK, Nat Karin, Weiliang and the pig Gekleng.....




My ex-fiancee and me..... HAHA kidding...... that night on the rooftop of our hotel..... But behind the camera there were like three other people HOR.... So don't think we were doing any indecent thing on the rooftop hor......

I can't remember whether this was before we had the showdown or after..... but either way that night was way too fun to forget in a long long while.....

On our way up Ali-Shan....... The train ride was damn interesting but we were all quite tired..... But Alishan temperature is so suitable for me..... Cause it is like 17 degrees celcius..... Literally cool right? Haha

More photos coming up.....

Haha