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藍色警報
策展人：Shormi Ahmed (艾曉湄)
地點：台北當代藝術中心
時間： 2020.03.27 – 04.05，每週三到日，1-7pm.
策展論述
災難與緊急狀況破壞人們正常生活，使其處境變得脆弱，往往為了恢復至常態需要立即採取反制措施。它們既是一體兩面且相互依賴。大多數時候災難濃縮在特定的時空，而緊急情況是災難發生之前，之中或之後發生的持續性狀況。比如說，緊急狀態可以在預期的颱風之前被宣布，也可以作為是對威脅生命的病毒流行的回應，或是大地震後的救災措施。
災難不僅帶來負面影響，也是權力關係和政治協商中的重要策略工具。當宣布緊急狀態成為對災難的反應時，對人們造成普遍的、同時也可能是虛構的創傷經驗。這種經驗建構出可以用來被操縱某社群、地區或國家集體意識的心理模式。不僅在不同人群之間產生了共感，潛在地從表面消除種族、階級和性別等社會差異，同時將個人歸諸集體，塑造出共有的創傷文化。而創傷經驗往往被精心編排以服務特定的社會政治目的，像是重建社區、民族認同或是國際關係等。儘管如此，關於災難的媒體報導，紀念館與展覽往往集中於事件本身，忽略了個人的無形和心理體驗。
追尋台灣921地震影響的軌跡，《藍色警報》探索921後集體意識的視覺隱喻。關於921的記憶一直深烙在台灣人的集體意識，也成為世代流傳的後記憶。參展的兩位藝術家倍帝愛波（Betty Apple）和彭奕軒都有關於這個地震的直接記憶，他們在藝術創作中運用可行美學來塑造對此事件重新情動的可能。藉由多重感官的裝置，在與觀眾的對話中形塑後記憶的過程。同時透過作品創造一個反映在集集的地震災難時的緊急情況及其對於現下影響的等量空間。特別在此刻，展覽期許觀眾思考緊急情況的現狀以及它們如何影響我們的意識。更重要的是，它如何利用當中的脆弱性來實現政治目的。
藝術家與作品
彭奕軒
彭奕軒將繪畫、錄像、雕塑作為藝術思辨的基礎，大量使用日常物件提出自己的藝術主張，並且在辯證法中移除物件原本的脈絡，試圖闡釋它們可能蘊藏的新觀點、用途與慣習，並在此過程中反思社會的當前狀態。
作品《死亡之光》使用在台灣常見的捕蚊燈，營造一種充滿死亡氣息的氛圍。本件裝置對潛在的災難場景提供抽象且富有寓意的想像，替展覽奠定基調，營造充滿熟悉感卻是意料之外的氛圍。在熟悉的居家場景中，提醒著觀眾在參觀時要依舊要保持謹慎。
TCAC呈現的版本中，《死亡之光》增加一個紫外線殺菌燈；這是一種利用紫外線殺死太空細菌的設備。紫外線的使用對人體極度有害，是最為暴力且無法被發現的殺菌措施之一。在此生成一個反差；觀眾遊走於保證無菌的空間，同時保持警戒，以防即刻到來的疏散行動。
倍帝愛波（Betty Apple ）
倍帝愛波（Betty Apple）是台灣藝術家，專注於現場藝術和聲音藝術的表現。2017年9月，倍帝愛波在當地研究墨西哥的死亡聖神的異教信仰身體，探索人們在不同歷史軸度文化下產生的信仰文化語境，然預定於墨西哥 Vernacular Institute 的戶外演出因墨西哥城大地震被取消。在親身經歷此災難後，她決定邀請當地藝術家 Mabe Fratti 共同創作電子音樂《地震中的未來人民訊息》，透過藝術家記憶重建災難時感受的能量。
根據這個經驗，倍帝愛波的新作品裝置《4:4 震能量教》，是一個以震卦動態靜心與內觀的感官聲音聖壇（教堂），在本次展覽中，她與視覺藝術家邱琳窈合作，把TCAC的地下室化身為以易經震掛為概念起源的異教崇拜，包含4:4是震卦的代號等偽宗教肖像圖符的未來朝聖空間場域：「在中國古代易經中震卦之意，震卦上下都是震，有著二元相應卻是變動本質，萬物在變動、震驚中，會被當頭棒喝而覺醒，天災降臨讓人恐懼，然恐懼將使人類覺醒，推波人類開始追求靈性議題」。
該作品嘗試探索恐懼、異教與膜拜儀式的概念，解構台灣民間信仰與身心靈新宗教的身體方法，倍帝愛波（Betty Apple）透過動態展演「震能量教入教儀式」，呼應近日的病毒蔓延時世界驚動時可能的心理操縱與數位時代的神秘主義。
https://bettyapple.art/
https://soundcloud.com/applebetty
致謝：
設計協力： Olivia Tse (oliviatseart.com)
作品視覺設計：
Chiu Lin Yao (https://cargocollective.com/chiulinyao)
Hung Chung Ding (https://vimeo.com/user4555232)
特別感謝以下：
倍帝愛波，彭奕軒，呂佩怡，Francis Maravillas，Rémi Leclerc，徐詩雨，蕭伯均，TCAC 理監事成員，陳芝琪，龔子臨, A. Timmerman.
Code Blue
Curated by: Shormi Ahmed
Venue: Taipei Contemporary Art Centre
Date: 2020.03.27 – 04.05，Wed. to Sun., 1-7pm.
Curatorial Concept
Both emergency and disaster destabilize ordinary life, produce vulnerability and require immediate counter measures for recovery. They are inherently linked and codependent on each other. While disasters are concentrated in time and space, emergencies are durational conditions occurring before, during and/or after the disaster. For instance, an emergency can be declared prior to an anticipated typhoon, as a response to the outbreak of a life threatening virus or as a relief measure after a major earthquake.
Despite its negative impact, a disaster has proven to be an important tactical tool in power relations and political negotiations. When a state of emergency is declared as a response to disaster, it creates a widespread, and possibly imaginary, traumatic experience for people. It fabricates a psychological mindset which can be manipulated to influence the collective consciousness of a community, a region, or a nation. It generates a shared experience across diverse groups of people which, potentially and superficially, eradicates social differences such as race, class and gender and categorizes individuals as a collective entity, forging a shared culture of trauma. This experience is often carefully orchestrated to serve certain socio-political agenda–be it re-building of a community, national identity or international relations. Nevertheless, media representations, dedicated memorials and exhibitions commemorating disastrous events predominantly focus on the incident itself, leaving out the intangible and psychological experiences of individuals.
Tracing the influence of 921 earthquake in Taiwan, Code Blue explores visual metaphors in representing the psychological state generated by the collective consciousness of 921–one that continues to linger on the psyche of Taiwanese people as an intergenerational postmemory. Artists Betty Apple and Peng Yi-Hsuan, both of whom harbor first-hand memories of the earthquake, employ practical aesthetics in their artistic production to reconfigure the event in creating affective encounters. Through multi-sensorial installations, both artists moderate the process of postmemory in a discursive dialogue with the viewers. Their artworks create a space to reflect on 921 earthquake, the emergency of the disaster, and its present day equivalence. The exhibition demands viewers to contemplate on current states of emergency and how they shape our consciousness. Most importantly, it brings our attention to how this vulnerability is mediated to achieve political agendas.
Artists and Artworks
Peng Yi-Hsuan
Peng Yi-Hsuan regards painting, video art, sculpture as the basis of artistic speculation. He uses everyday objects to make artistic propositions; decontextualizing them in a dialectical fashion. Yi-Hsuan attempts to reveal new perspectives, uses and practices of these objects; and in the process, reflect on the current state of a society.
Peng’s The Death of Light repurposes commonly found mosquito lights in Taiwan to create an atmosphere tinged with the anticipation of death. The installation offers an abstract yet allegorical allusion to a potentially disastrous situation. Peng’s work sets the tone for the exhibition which is marked with familiar yet unexpected encounters. Despite the familiar domestic setting, viewers are reminded to remain cautious as they navigate the space.
For this edition, The Death of Light also includes an UV germicidal lamp; a device that uses UV rays to kill bacteria in space. The use of UV rays, highly harmful to the human body, is one of the most violent and undetected cleaning measures. Thus, creating a contradiction; while the visitors are assured of a bacteria-free space, they are required to remain alert for the impending evacuation for its operation.
Betty Apple
Betty Apple is a Taiwanese artist with a focus on live art and sound art. In September 2017, she traveled to Mexico to research the local belief of Santa Muerte and heretical body, exploring different religious contexts and cultural praxises throughout history. Because of the Central Mexico earthquake, Apple’s scheduled performance at the Mexican art organization Vernacular Institute in Mexico City was cancelled. Having experienced the disaster first-hand, she invited local artist Mabe Fratti to co-produce the electronic music track Future People’s Message in Earthquake to memorialize the disaster.
Developing on this experience, Apple will produce a new artwork titled 4:4 Zhen Energy Church–composed of a dynamic Zhen hexagram meditation and a sensory sound altar (church). She will collaborate with visual artist Chiu Lin Yao, turning the basement of TCAC into a futuristic worship altar. Patterns of Zhen hexagram and other pseudo-religious iconography will be used to reconfigure the space. “In Yi Ching, Zhen hexagram means trembling happens above and below. It means changes and shocking trembles are essential and are meant to awaken you. Disasters bring fear but fear is to awaken people. It is then that people will begin their spiritual pursuit.”
4:4 Zhen Energy Church explores the concept of fear, cult and worship rituals, deconstructing Taiwanese folk belief and bodily approaches of new spiritual religions. Through her dynamic “Zhen energy conversion”, Betty Apple responds to potential psyche manipulation against the recent virus outbreak, as well as Mysticism in the digital age.
https://bettyapple.art/
https://soundcloud.com/applebetty
Acknowledgements:
Collateral Design: Olivia Tse (oliviatseart.com)
Artwork Visual Design:
Chiu Lin Yao (https://cargocollective.com/chiulinyao)
Hung Chung Ding (https://vimeo.com/user4555232)
Special thanks to:
Betty Apple, Peng Yi-Hsuan, Pei-Yi Lu, Francis Maravillas, Rémi Leclerc, Shih-yu Hsu, Bo-Chun, TCAC Board members, F. Gong, W. Chen, A. Timmerman.
