Body Memory

“Body Memory” is a video installation work.  In it, I blindfold myself, which suggesting the interdiction of visual sense, and continually make a cross in the air with my finger while pointing at the imagined centre of it.  The image is projected onto a translucent plastic plate hung in the air.  A red cross is drawn on the corresponding point located on the plastic plate.  This “visible” reference becomes a confirmation of the “invisible” cross drawn in the air by means of imagination and body memory.

In daily English, we usually use the expression “I see” to mean “I understand”.  This more or less reflects that in the process of constructing meanings, we are conditioned to rely too much on visual perception.  The prohibition of the visual sense through blindfolding in “Body Memory” forces me to concentrate more on the overall coordination of other senses.  Through repeated practice, the specific actions change from conscious coordinated body senses to a subconsciously conditioned reflex action that becomes a body memory that does not involve a cognitive function of the mind.  As in typing or playing the piano, skilled operator can strike the correct keys without using the eye at all.

With regard to the construction of imagery and media, the work produce distance and maintain the relationship at the same time. I deliberately separated and overlaped the image in the videotape (blindfolded, I make crosses with my finger) and the image that exists in the real world (the red cross on the plastic plate), in order to break the continuity of sensory perception.  This two-folded image is formed in different time and space and my perceptual experience of the two was also broken.  It subverts perceptual experience and its extension on the conscious level.  The sense of absurdity in “Body Memory” again returns to a more primitive imagery field by means of the reference to a transcendent consciousness.

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身體記憶

《身體記憶》是一件錄像裝置作品，記錄我蒙上雙眼(對視覺感官的禁制、不可見)以手指不斷在空中畫交叉並指向想像中交叉的中心點。影像投射到一片懸空掛起的半透明膠片上，膠片相應的位置畫上一個紅色的交叉，這個「可見的」參照物，成為「不可見的」、透過想像與身體記憶在空氣中畫出的交叉的一種印證。

在英文日常用語中，我們習慣用 “I see”這個關於視覺的詞語表示「我明白」、「我了解」的意思，這多少反映了在建構意義的過程中，我們是如何慣性地過份依賴「視覺」這種身體感官。《身體記憶》對視覺感官的禁制(蒙上雙眼)，逼使我更專注於身體其他感官的整體協調，而透過不斷的重覆默練，特定的行為動作，亦由開始時有意識的身體協調，最終潛移默化為下意識的條件反射，變成不涉及思維運作的身體記憶(情況就如打字或彈鋼琴，熟練的操作者都無需用眼睛就能準確按鍵)。

就影像與媒介的構成而言，故意將錄影帶中的影像(我蒙眼以手指畫交叉)，與實存於現實世界的影像(膠片上的紅色交叉)分離與重疊(既要製造距離，亦要保持關係)，是要打破知覺經驗的連續性(此兩重影像在不同時間、不同空間之下被塑造，我對二者的知覺經驗亦是斷裂的)，並對知覺經驗及其延伸的意識層面進行顛覆，《身體記憶》所顯示的荒誕感，再一次用以指涉一個超越意識，回歸到更原始狀態的想像界域。