
VOIDGAZER
Curator
CHU Lok Ting, Natalie
Participating Artists
CHU Lok Ting, Natalie FOK Tsz Hong, King LEE Kam Ching, Lewis Tiff Chun
策展人
朱樂庭
參展人
朱樂庭 霍梓航 李錦青 馬屬真
5 June 2022 – 26 June 2022
Cheng Ming Building, New Asia College, CUHK
2022年6月5日至2022年6月26日
香港中文大學新亞書院誠明館

Voidgazer – the one who gazes into the void.
Art historian WU Hung points out that huaigu (lamenting the past) is a general aesthetic experience. [1] Artifacts, ancient architecture, and similar creations embody their age value, suggesting their past brilliance through their imperfect beauty and reminding us that the past cannot be retained through their decay. They serve as symbols, carriers, and monuments of what has vanished. Ruins are common images and sources of inspiration in Chinese poetry and literature. Although there are many literary works that describe ruins, traditional Chinese culture has not typically expressed ruins in visual forms that realistic depictions of architectural ruins are virtually absent in Chinese painting. [2] WU Hung suggests this is because ancient Chinese understanding of ruins is based on the concept of "erasure." Ruins often refer to the void left by the disappearance of timber structures, and this gaze into the "void" evokes a sense of mourning for the past. [3]
Ruins serve as material remnants of history, while writing extends historical memory. Every book can be rewritten; every painting can be redrawn; every date can be arbitrarily revised; statues and buildings can be renamed or gradually erased. This act of substitution and transformation may occur every day, every minute, every second. The void created by the disappearance of historical materials or textual traces becomes a space for mourning, a subjective imagination, and an invisible monument. What crystallizes history within this void are the memories and insights of the observer, rather than tangible items like abandoned structures. The observer imbues this void with a "subjective reality," forming a unique, perceivable "site." Here, we can borrow WU Hung's interpretation of "void": "...it is the visitor's recognition of a place that stimulates emotion and thought", [4] "...one feels that one is confronting the past, both intimately linked with it and hopelessly separated with it". [5] It is this gaze into the void that evokes sorrow for the past. Faced with the silent void left by the erosion of history, when something familiar disappears from sight. In the act of gazing into the void, amidst recollection and imagination, perhaps only memory can fill the gaps left by historical traces. In this exhibition, artists, as "voidgazers", explore the voids that follows the disappearance of historical traces, expressing the transformation of time and space, shifts in circumstance, and experiences of viewing, showcasing "the tension between transience and continuity, between destruction and survival, between disappearance and visibility." [6]
The exhibition begins with the confessions of the previous generation: in recalling, the eyes seem to gaze, yet what fills the vision is not the present image but a replay of memories. "Awarding" recreates the father's recollections; "Far-off" reflects the various frustrations of that era through its calm landscapes. "Holy Statue I" questions whether we can discern the essence of what we worship. "Ink Rubbing of the Entrance Plaza" and "Opening" similarly record the void of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's entrance square, the emptiness left after the statue was removed, with only a framed trace suggesting its former presence. Yet above this frame is an invisible monument formed by human memory. However, the cycles of destruction and survival in history ultimately repeat. "Holy Statue II," "Evader," "Excel," and "Moving in Excel" convey that we can spiritually transcend the barriers of systems, material, and time. For in the face of time, eternal hope is difficult to achieve; we are all merely passersby in history.
[1] Hung, W. (2013). A story of ruins: Presence and absence in Chinese art and visual culture. Reaktion Books. p. 18.
[2] Ibid., p. 94.
[3] Ibid., p. 23.
[4] Ibid., p. 26-27.
[5] Ibid., p. 18.
[6] Frankel, Hans H.,The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady: Interpretations of Chinese Poetry (New Haven, CT, 1976), p. 109-110.
Voidgazer——凝視虛空的人。
藝術史學家巫鴻指出,懷古是一種普遍的美學體驗。[1] 古物、古建築等人造物凝聚時間價值(age value),以其殘缺美暗示它曾經輝煌的整體,以其敗朽提醒人往昔不可留,是象徵逝去的載體、符號與紀念碑。廢墟是中國詩詞文學中常用的意象和靈感,雖然在「懷古詩」等文學作品中對廢墟的描寫甚多,然而,歷代中國人並不用視覺形式表現廢墟:在中國繪畫中,表現建築廢墟的寫實圖像幾乎不存在。[2] 巫鴻提出這是因為古代中國對廢墟的理解是建立在「消逝」(erasure)的概念之上的。廢墟所指的常常是木質建築結構的消失了所留下的「虛空」(void),而正是人對「空」的這種凝視引發了對往昔的哀傷。[3]
廢墟是歷史的物質性遺存,文字則是歷史記憶的延伸。每一本書都可以經過改寫;每張圖畫經過重繪;每個日期都隨意修訂;雕像、建築可以換了名字,或逐一消失。這種偷天換日、改頭換面的工作,可能每天、每分、每秒都在進行。歷史物質或文字痕跡消逝後形成的虛空,是一場悼念、一個主觀想像、一座無形的紀念碑佇立。在虛空中凝結著歷史的是觀者的記憶和感悟,而不是荒廢建築等有形之物,它被觀者賦予一種「主觀的實在」(subjective reality),形成一個特殊的、 可感知的「現場」(site)。在此可借用巫鴻對「虛空」之詮釋:「......激發情思的是觀者對這個空間的記憶和領悟,而非可視、可見的外部特徵」[4]、「......面對著歷史的消磨所留下的沈默虛空,觀者感到自己直面往昔,與它絲絲相連, 卻又無望地與它分離。」[5] 正是人對虛空的這種凝視引發了對往昔的哀傷。面對著歷史的消磨所留下的沈默虛空,視線中某個熟悉之物消失了。在凝視虛空、回憶與想像間,可能只有記憶能夠填補眼前歷史痕跡的遺失。在這次展覽中,參展者作為「凝視虛空的人」探究歷史痕跡消逝後的虛空,以作品表現時空的轉換、處境的轉變、觀看的經驗,展現「轉瞬即逝與綿綿不絕、毀滅與存活、消逝與可視可見之間的張力」。[6]
展覽由父輩的自白開始:回憶時,雙眼似是在凝視,映入眼中的卻不是眼前物像,而是記憶之回播。〈授勛〉重現了父親的回憶;〈無期〉平淡安然的風景,反映那個年代種種的無奈。〈聖像一〉在此詢問,我們是否能辨清我們所崇拜之物的本質?〈入又廣場的部份拓印〉與〈口〉不約而同地紀錄了中文大學入又廣場的虛空,銅像被移走後的空廓,僅餘下一個方框的痕跡暗示她曾在此,但在方框之上所凝聚的是由人的記憶形成的一座無形紀念碑。然而,歷史的種種毀滅與存活,終究是循環往復,〈聖像二〉、〈遁逸者〉、〈Excel〉和〈Moving in Excel〉均寄語我們能夠以精神超越體制、物質與時間的藩籬。因為在時間下難盼永恆,我們都只能是歷史的過客。
[1] 巫鴻:〈廢墟的內化:傳統中國文化中對「往昔」的視覺感受和審美〉,載巫鴻著,肖鐵譯,《廢墟的故事:中國美術和視覺文化中的「在場」和「缺席」》,上海:上海人民出版社,2017,頁17。
[2] 巫鴻:〈廢墟的誕生:創造現代中國的一種視覺文化〉,載巫鴻著,肖鐵譯,《廢墟的故事:中國美術和視覺文化中的「在場」和「缺席」》,2017,頁107。巫鴻觀乎公元前5世紀至公元19世紀的中國繪畫,僅有出自石濤(1642—1707年)、吳宏(1615—1694年)等人的寥寥幾幅繪畫描繪了荒廢頹敗的建築。
[3] 同註1,頁24。歐洲古代建築以石質為主,故得以恆久存在,具備一種特殊的「紀念碑性」,對古代廢墟的寫實描繪在18世紀歐洲繪畫中乃「吊古」的常用視覺語言。但大型石質紀念物直到1世紀才在中國流行,且建築物料以木為主;木質結構因其短暫無常的物質性,永不能與石質結構的堅實恆久比擬,故中國對廢墟的概念在於對木質結構消失後的「空無」。
[4] 同註1,頁28。
[5] 同註1。
[6] Hans Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady, p109-110. 載巫鴻:〈廢墟的內化:傳統中國文化中對「往昔」的視覺感受和審美〉,2017,頁33。


LEE Kam Ching, Lewis 李錦青
Single channel digital video 單頻數碼錄像
3' 05''
That ten years was blanked.
父親憶述起空白的那十年。
1

LEE Kam Ching, Lewis 李錦青
Awarding 授勛
Digital photographic images 數碼攝影圖像
A set of 5 一組五件
20 × 25 cm each 每件
2022
Every child was thirsting for it in that time.
那時候,每家的孩子都渴望從大人手中得到它。
2

LEE Kam Ching, Lewis 李錦青
Far-off 無期
Oil on canvas 油彩布本
60 × 90 cm
2022
No one knew the destination.
遙遙的風景,無期的盡頭。
3

CHU Lok Ting, Natalie 朱樂庭
Holy Statue I 聖像一
Stone Guanyin statue 石觀音像
38 × 8 × 10 cm
2022
The external features of a stone Guanyin statue was grinned off.
將石觀音像的表面特徵磨去。
4-1


FOK Tsz Hong, King 霍梓航
Ink Rubbing of the Entrance Plaza 入口廣場的部份拓印
Ink rubbing on paper 水墨拓印紙本
150 × 158 cm
2021
Her frame.
這方框是她留下的
Tiff Chun 馬屬真
Opening 口
Single channel digital video 單頻數碼錄像
11' 19''
2022
“Entrance Plaza”.
「入口廣場」
缺
口
Watch the video 影片連結: https://vimeo.com/707658127
5
6

CHU Lok Ting, Natalie 朱樂庭
Evader 遁逸者
Ink rubbing on paper 水墨拓印紙本
62 × 207 cm
2022
7

CHU Lok Ting, Natalie 朱樂庭
Holy Statue II 聖像二
Powder of the Guanyin statue 觀音像粉末
10 × 10 × 10 cm
2022
The powder of the Guanyin statue was collected and casted into a cube.
以石觀音像的粉末倒模成一個立方體。
4-2

FOK Tsz Hong, King 霍梓航
Excel
Digital image 數碼影像
180 × 81 cm
2022
The QR code of a document is drawn in Excel, as well as the Lion Rock.
Excel 中繪畫了一份文件的QR code,以及獅子山。
FOK Tsz Hong, King 霍梓航
Moving in Excel
Digital video 數碼錄像
50 × 50 cm
2022
Noise textured block moving in Excel repeatedly.
在Excel中重複移動的雜訊方塊。
8-1
8-2