《白晝之眠》劉曉蕙（Liu Hsiao-hui）環境錄像線上展 | “Daytime of Sleeping”--Liu hsiao-hui’s Online Exhibition of Documenting an Environment in Video Art

創作論述：

設置一張鐵床置立於白晝蒼穹與大地之間，我邀請三組參與者進入錄像中的鐵床上進行睡眠，白晝並不是一般人習常的睡眠時間，更何況旁邊還有十幾位拍攝團隊的工作人員環視在側，受邀的參與者在3小時內要「努力」的在戶外環境中睡眠，整個事件過程中是沒有行為的行為。

Artist's Statement:

Setting an iron bed during a bright day under the sky, I invited three participants to be recorded sleeping in that iron bed. Being obstructive to habits of sleeping,not to mention with a whole shooting crew with more than ten people surrounding them, participants need to “try hard” to fall asleep in three hours in an outdoor environment.The whole process can essentially be deemed as a mute presence. 

With my face being painted blue which symbolizes a metaphorical mask,the loss of my personal identity brings me back to the state of being a mere temporal-spatial object on earth, equal to birds and beasts, insects and reptiles. In the video, I do watering and filling water into the pot, gathering seeds, or sieving them into dividing lines over and over again. There is zero interaction and conversation between the person with blue face and those sleepers. All the elements come to a place in which their relations are exhibiting in an awkward manner, exhibiting a repose without any reason.

我在臉上塗滿藍色顏料，這面具般的彩繪讓我失去個人的身份，還原為土地上生存著的存在者，是與鳥獸、甲蟲、蛞蝓等同樣層次的生物，影片中我行為著汲水澆水、採集種籽、或篩出分隔線，藍臉人與睡眠者既沒有互動也沒有交流，兀自存在同一時空，創作的所有元素之間的關係突兀並列著，是無來由的午後假寐之夢。

Most activities, ranging from building a house,a bridge or paving a road, to hiking and leisure activities, need to be accomplished with a lot of physical exertion. However, some activities have to be achieved without any physical exertion, and sleep, as one has to remain in a state of doing nothing in order to fall asleep, is one of them. My work“Daytime of Sleeping” asks participants to sleep under all the conditions which are unusual when it comes to falling asleep: they have to sleep during daytime, in a public place, without privacy, and with a great deal of physical exertion. What is the point of making such an unusual scene? Is it to ridicule modern people that we have to work very hard even to sleep? Or do we really want to return to nature and settle down under the sky? Or to express the preciousness of contemporary people's sleep? Or angrily protesting that the post-industrial age has no real nature to speak of, along with sleep? Or do we want to magically create spectacles on our own and put people to sleep in a dimly lit world?

大部分的事情是需要人的努力才能成就，不論是造屋、築橋、鋪路等生業行為，或是登山健行的休閒活動，一切皆是如此的需要被努力達成，但卻有一些事情反而是要不努力才能達到，例如「睡眠狀態」是人要保持不活動不努力的狀態，睡眠才會主動不請自來，但我在「白晝之眠」創作中，安排在不該睡眠的時間睡眠，在不該睡眠的地方睡眠，在無隱私之空間「努力」的進入睡眠，完全違反睡眠所需的條件，完全無視睡眠的常理法則。

為什麼要營造這麼不尋常的場景?是要嘲諷現代人連睡眠也得非常的努力？還是真的想要回歸自然在蒼穹下安身立命？或是要表達當代人安眠的難能可貴？或心理忿忿地在抗議後工業時代已經沒有真正的自然可言，連同睡眠？抑或想憑一己之力魔法般地創造奇觀，讓人在亮恍恍的世界裡安眠？

For the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, the anxiety presents itself most acutely in the experience of insomnia which is the experience in its highest metaphysical dimension of an empty, mute presence. With people being put in an environment which makes people feel insecure in their body, facing the fear that makes people feel like walking on thin ice, and being exposed to the universe with no way to escape, how will the concept of being-in-the-world become one’s ontological proof of their existence? In the process of making a piece of artwork, does it suggest the possibility that art itself has already proven us the fact of being-in-the-world? Can I be at ease with what I want without asking for anything?

哲學家列維納斯所言「失眠」的焦慮正是自身感知存有得唏唏作響，身體又無法行動作為，如果身體無法感受到被安全地置放，如果存在的不安像氣球與針尖的距離僅剩指縫之間，如果人必須暴露在遼闊的世界毫無遮蔽，這樣的境地世界會對我「實顯」什麼？在藝術創作的安排中，其本身是否已經包含存有真實顯現的一部分？是否我能安心以對而無欲所求？

Praying for living safely when one is in an unsettling world, praying for peace when one is left unguarded, praying for the truth when one resides in these socially and politically troubling and disorienting times, creators become a vessel for people living without a shelter and a comfort to people whose home has been shattered and become homeless. The world is full of images of the mother earth singing lullaby to children who haven’t accustomed to this unsettling world, waves being beaten down by concrete tetrapods, abandoned bridges being overgrown with weeds, concrete buildings standing upright as planted windbreaks with ghosts roaming in between, and people whose relationship as mother-and-daughter or husband-and-wife being intertwined with one another. One’s existence is carried out by prescribed orders laid down by the Universe. Creators are a vehicle for expressing universal emotions as well as the invisible presence retreating to their world of art in which my work “Daytime of Sleeping” presents itself to its viewers. Humans come to their place as a temporal-spatial object in the world, just as other creatures and objects existing in this Universe.

在不安的世界之中祈求著安住，在無護衛的空間之中祈求著平安，在無常理的事件之中祈求著真理，創作者是多麼想護衛沒有庇護的存在者，多麼想安慰失去房舍的無家可歸者，海天如母親般對著那還不適應這風雨無定的世界的孩子輕唱搖籃曲，而擊碎浪花的消波塊、覆蓋植披的廢棄座橋、巨型雕塑般聳立在防風林的水泥群塊正幽靈般浮現在當代地景，母女、夫妻或自身的關係人參與其中，如是宇宙有序，遭逢有時，創作者是人類藝術通過的產道，是隱退到作品後面的存在者，我的環境錄像「實顯」自若是，人物實存蒼穹沙鷗自若是。

文字 | 劉曉蕙（Liu Hsiao-hui）

翻譯 | 林弱水（Lin Rou-shui）

照片提供 | 劉曉蕙（Liu Hsiao-hui）

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藝術家簡介:

自高中時代開始學習紀實攝影，藝術創作內容以關注人類和自然環境的關係為主； 2000年於花蓮七星潭海岸創作環境藝術，2010 年後嘗試結合地景裝置、行為藝術、裝置藝術交互呈顯，2017年後以錄像藝術為主，經由觀景視窗攝獵影像，進而開始謀劃自身行為涉入影像，邀請民眾參與行為藝術進入拍攝，其影像作品猶如天地和人物互為自顯的宇宙中詩意存有的劇場，「我即是風景」自然成其為是。

Having been learning documentary photography since high school, the artist’s content of art creation is mainly concerned with the relationship between human beings and the natural environment. In 2000, she created environmental art on the coast of Qixing Lake (Qixingtan), Hualien. After 2010, she tried to combine landscape installations, performance art, and installation art for interactive presentation. After 2017, the artist focused on video art. She hunted images through the lens of the camera, and then began to involve herself in the video, inviting the public to participate in the performance art to enter the shooting. Her works are like poetry in the universe where the world and the characters are self-evident. In the theater of existence, "I am the landscape" naturally becomes what it should be.

藝術家網站: http://tienartist.weebly.com/

Artist’s website:http://tienartist.weebly.com/