如果在適當的條件下 莊培鑫 個展
Under Right Circumstances – Pei-xin Chuang
2017/11/11-12/24
▼開幕會Opening Reception | 11/11(sat) 15:30
▼地點 Venue | Powen Gallery（紅野畫廊） (台北市松江路164巷11號 / 捷運松江南京站8號出口)
紅野官網 | http://www.powengallery.com/
面對資訊爆炸的網路時代，各種訊息在無國界、無時差的條件下便捷地傳遞著，身處於龐大資訊的洪流中，不論文字、影像或聲音，隨時都在型塑某種觀念，而屬於網路世代的人們，又該以何種判別方式去建構個人的閱讀經驗？又或者如何在虛實交疊的世界裡，定位個人的價值觀？
莊培鑫近年來的作品聚焦於真實與虛構間的轉換和延伸，嘗試探討當代社會與網路世界相互影響後，所產生變異的觀念意識。此次個展「如果在適當的條件下」，他匯集了大量且無章序的網路資訊，主觀地組織訊息樣貌，並邀請觀眾感受科技聚集下所散發的不舒適感。
「如果在適當的條件下」以兩個部分並行述說，分別是敘事錄像和訊息雕塑。莊培鑫運用網路共享影片重組、拼貼出三段短篇劇場，一幕幕的山林景致遞送出深遠寧靜的氣氛，同時他將影片原文透過google中文翻譯成貫穿內容的重要文本，並搭配旁白，平和地述說這段看似深奧優美的文字。然而，熟知翻譯工具的誤差解構了原文的每個片段，雖然整體形式飽含詩意，邏輯卻無法通順，失能的字句不停出現在影片中，產生閱讀上強烈的斷裂感。藝術家巧妙利用科技(翻譯工具)尚未發展完全而導致「錯位」的文字，重新與圖像、錄像串聯出一部部當代奇景，試圖冷靜地呈現這弔詭的資訊經驗，並誘發觀者對影片訊息的後續想像。
在動態影像之外，莊培鑫設置了多件扭曲的壓克力立體雕塑，每一件作品如布幔般凹折、扭轉，或豎立或垂掛於展場之中。雕塑表面堆疊的網路圖像虛實不分，皆呈現破碎與混亂的狀態，各式的視覺記憶充斥其中，藝術家冀望觀者能在作品皺摺中，找尋遺失的故事碎片。
科技與人性的互動一直存在著可議論之處，而世界的進步不斷提醒人們思考兩者的界線，莊培鑫消弭了數位、實體交疊的痕跡，藉此點燃觀看方式的激辯。「如果在適當的條件下」像一座迷宮，每一個路口的選擇都將影響著出口的方向，亦如我們面對資訊，任何方式的解讀也都將造成迥異的意識養成。
With the explosion of information in the age of the Internet, all kinds of messages are easily communicated swiftly and conveniently in the absence of borders and without time differences. In this massive torrent of information, whether it is text, images, or audio, for us members of the Internet generation, what method of discrimination should we use to build a personal reading experience? Or how should we position our personal values in a world where truth and lies overlap?
In recent years, Pei-xin Chuang’s works have focused on the transformation and extension between real and fictitious, and have attempted to explore the conceptual awareness of disassociation produced by the mutual interactions between contemporary society and the world of the Internet. In this solo exhibition, ‘Under Right Circumstances’, he brings together a large amount of unclassified Internet information, subjectively organizes the appearance of the messages, and invites viewers to feel the discomfort brought about by the collection of technology.
The two parts of ‘Under Right Circumstances’ which are related separately and in parallel, are narrative video and information sculpture. Pei-xin Chuang utilizes the Internet to share the reorganization of videos, bringing out a collage of three short plays. A series of landscape scenes delivers a far-reaching tranquil atmosphere, while at the same time he puts the original translation of the film through Google Translate to translate the Chinese, making an important text which runs through the content, and then adds narration, narrating this seemingly esoteric and beautiful text in a moderate and unaffected tone. However, due to the erroneous deconstruction of each fragment of the original text carried out by this well-known translation tool, although the overall form possesses a poetic quality, its logic is incoherent, failed words and sentences appear continuously throughout the film, resulting in a powerful sense of breakage in the work’s reading. The artist makes ingenious use of a not yet completely developed technology (the translation tool) to lead to a ‘dislocation’ in the text, which is re-linked together with imagery and video to produce an extraordinary view of the modern age, attempting to calmly convey this bizarre and paradoxical information experience, and thus set in motion the subsequent imagination of viewers towards the message of the video.
Apart from dynamic imagery, Pei-xin Chuang has installed a number of twisted acrylic three-dimensional sculptures. Each piece has deep folds like a cotton curtain, and has been twisted, erected or hung in the exhibition. The Internet images stacked on the surface of the sculpture are a mixture of virtual and real-world images, all demonstrating a broken and chaotic state, and they are replete with all kinds of visual memories. The artist hopes that the viewer will be able to find the fragments of lost stories in the creases and folds of the work.
There have always been aspects of the interaction between technology and human nature worthy of debate, and the progress of the world continually reminds people to think about the boundaries between the two. Pei-xin Chuang has eliminated the traces of overlap between the digital world and the real world, and used this to ignite debate on the method of viewing. ‘Under Right Circumstances’ is like a maze; the choices taken at every intersection will affect the direction towards the exit, and as we face information, any method of interpretation taken will also induce the development of a totally different consciousness.