是日—蕭禹琦個展
藝術家：蕭禹琦
➤ 開幕：2024年9月28（六） 15:30
➤ 座談：2024年10月26（六）18:30 – 20:00
與談人：葉佳蓉（館長／策展人）、梁云繻（策展人）、蕭禹琦（藝術家）
展期：2024年9月21日（六）－11月3日（日）
地點：鳳甲美術館（台北市北投區大業路166號11樓）
周二至周日10:30 – 17:30｜周一休館｜免費入場
禹琦的《是日》
文／梁云繻
《是日》是禹琦在西班牙巴塞隆納Hangar.org的駐村創作。以駐村作品來說，她提出了一個乍看頗「I型人」（註）的作品：錯落的雙頻道螢幕上，分別播映著窗戶的開闔，和專屬於巴塞隆納清晨與傍晚的斜陽。當影像播畢，一盞燈亮起，光線穿透一界彩虹薄片，魔幻結界顯影。
窗景自古以來鏡映著創作者的內心世界。在這經典主題前，禹琦卻有異樣的邏輯操作，她說：「房間是最狂野的地方，收束也發生在這裡，才能走出門。」
問及禹琦的駐村日常，密集的遊歷、交際、藝術踩點，一樣也不少。但她終究把浸泡在巴塞隆納的體感，全數收斂進房內的一面牆面上，異國的風景瞬間被取消，觀者一時頓失解讀的熟悉路徑。
北緯41.38度光感
禹琦和巴賽隆納的光，玩起了遊戲，她實驗「只透過一扇窗戶描述一個地方」的可能。秋入冬之際，太陽與巴塞隆納形成的角度，把光拉成幾何形銳角，和我們所熟悉的北緯23度光感，形成直接的體感差異。
影像描繪也對比出了，相對柔和的清晨光影 vs. 銳利的傍晚光影。空氣從濕潤的地中海風情，在同一天裡，被加泰隆尼亞大地抽乾，以爽脆的姿態迎接是日的夜晚。
更確切地說，禹琦僅利用「窗戶篩濾過的光和影子」為畫面元素，以抽象的方式，玩起抽象的材質。又經由重複的開、關的動作，計算每天入晝入夜的時刻變化。《是日》中的窗不只引進光，窗的物質實體也遮蔽了光，在光與影的交界處，造就了北緯41.38度專屬的「光的質地」。
而景框外，日復一日的定點拍攝，是私密的執念，也是徒勞。影像外，時間流動、日子堆疊，影像卻終究只描述當下的身體。
破綻的詩意
這個實驗遊戲，也包含了手動的鑿痕：擺弄了幾下的藍色絲巾，像是對詩意的擾動，也使人不禁懷疑，這一切是否真的就發生在巴塞隆納？
而接在畫面之後亮起的燈光裝置，以彩虹薄片為濾鏡，其現實功能，是貼在浴廁窗上遮羞用的。它勾動的是生活裡的不便與尷尬。霓光漫起一種廉價的普世懷舊風情，在北緯42度跟北緯23度之間，有什麼東西相通竄流。
於是乎，事實與虛構的界線，在禹琦手下彼此揭穿。這個刻意留下的穿幫，說明駐村這件事情在哪裡或許也不太重要，反倒是「創作的本質是？」這老掉牙問題再度浮現。
巴賽隆納魔幻時刻
《是日》的光與影，合力說明了地理刻度和季節的關聯，也透露藝術家所在的某種抽象「座標」。在影像失重的時代裡，回到低技術的影像處理、回到不起眼之處，闢建一個只屬於自己的結界，而這個時空奇異點 也讓觀者被引回自己的私密空間。
關於何為創作，蕾拉．司利馬尼（Leïla Slimani）在《夜裡的花香》定義：「就是自己讓自己永遠活在邊緣。」而《是日》裡創作者把自己坐落在光／影、在窗外／窗內的邊緣，對著緯41.38度的光影，進行一次次渙散的凝視，又把它取消。
展覽述說了身體泡在此時此刻，感受時節變化的質地，使這一切更加的巴塞隆納，也顯得無關乎此。
巴塞隆納魔幻時刻於是顯影，在這破綻的詩意遊戲中。
※ 註：I代表Introvert，常見於時興的MBTI人格測驗。
➤ 關於藝術家
蕭禹琦畢業於國立台北藝術大學新媒體藝術研究所，目前從事錄像、編織及裝置的創作，曾參與日本第九屆中之条雙年展（2023）、文化部選送巴賽隆納昂格藝術中心駐村（2023）、台南生活美學館藝術轉動社區駐村（2024）。錄像作品多次獲選於法國、保加利亞、澳門等地放映。
蕭禹琦透過創作思考周遭與自身的關係，觀察人類表層生活痕跡，關注於日常生活中的不尋常小事。近年來創作以自己最常待的「房間」作為開端，時常思考自身身體所處在的環境相對應的關係，對於思緒、行為反射等感到興趣，以及如何將內心的行為呈現在作品和日常環境之對應的關係，作品隨著思緒推移前進。
指導單位｜文化部
主辦單位｜財團法人邱再興文教基金會 鳳甲美術館
撰文＆展覽製作陪伴｜梁云繻
文章翻譯｜謝雨珊
視覺設計｜莊禾
佈展協力｜也許有限公司
In This Moment- Yuchi Hsiao Solo Exhibition
Artist: Yuchi Hsiao
➤ Opening: 28th Sep. 2024 (Sat) 15:30
➤ Artist Talk: 26th Oct. 2024 (Sat) 18:30 – 20:00
Speakers: Zoe Yeh (Director/Curator), Soma Liang (Curator), Yuchi Hsiao (Artist)
Dates: 21st Sep. – 3rd Nov. 2024
Venue: Hong-Gah Museum (11F., No.166, Daye Road, Beitou District, Taipei City)
10:30 - 17:30 TUE. to SUN. | Closed on Monday | Free Admission
Yuchi Hsiao: In This Moment
Text / Soma Liang
In This Moment is a residency project by Yuchi Hsiao at Hangar.org in Barcelona, Spain. For a residency piece, she presents what, at first glance, appears to be a rather Type I (*) work: on two staggered screens, images of windows opening and closing play alongside scenes of slanted sunlight unique to a Barcelona morning and evening. When the video concludes, a light switches on, shining through a thin rainbow film, conjuring a magical boundary.
The window, historically, has served as a mirror that reflects the artist’s interiority. Grappling with this classic motif, Hsiao adopts a subversive approach. “The room is the wildest place; it’s also where seclusion takes place. That’s how one ventures beyond the door,” she says.
When asked about her life during the residency, she describes it as a whirlwind of intensive travels, social interactions, and visits to art venues. Eventually she distills the sensory experience of her immersion in the Barcelona scene into a single wall in a room, where the foreign landscape is instantly erased, the viewer left with an elusive sense of loss at interpreting what lies before their eyes.
Light Sensation of 41.38°N
Hsiao and the light of Barcelona engage in a playful interaction as she experiments with the possibility of portraying a place through a window. As autumn segues into winter, the sun in Barcelona moves through acute angles, a stark contrast to the light sensation of 23°N that the artist is familiar with, evoking a tangible sensory difference.
The imagery contrasts the relatively soft morning light with the sharp evening shadows. The air transitions from the balmy Mediterranean atmosphere to a crisp dryness, as the land of Catalonia draws out the moisture, welcoming the night with an invigorating briskness — all within the span of a single day.
More precisely, the artist adopts “window-filtered light and shadow” as her sole visual elements, investigating abstraction through abstract materials. The repetitive act of opening and closing maps the nuanced shifts between day and night. In This Moment allows the window to let the light in; at the same time, the physical presence of the window disrupts the light, eliciting a liminal space where light meets shadow, and a texture of light that belongs to 41.38°N is conceived.
Beyond the frame, the daily fixed-point shooting reflects an intimate fixation and a ritualistic endeavor that borders on the futile. As time flows, and days build upon one another outside the confines of the image, the captured scenes portray only the immediate corporeal presence in the present.
Poetry of the Flawed
Hsiao’s experimental game incorporates deliberate traces of manual intervention: the subtle rearrangements of a blue silk scarf act as a disturbance in the otherwise seamless poetry of the scene. This intervention introduces a sense of doubt, prompting the viewer to question the authenticity of the experience, and whether it is genuinely unfolding in Barcelona.
The light that turns on following the video shines through a rainbow-tinted film, which is originally designed to cover bathroom windows for privacy. It hints at inconvenience and awkwardness. The neon glow evokes a kitschy sense of nostalgia, a shared connection coursing between 42°N and 23°N.
In the artist’s hands, the boundary between reality and fiction is laid bare. This deliberate act of breaking the fourth wall suggests that the specific location of an artist residency may not matter as much as one might think. Instead, the age-old question of “What is the essence of creation,” though perhaps clichéd, reemerges with renewed relevance.
A Magical Moment in Barcelona
In This Moment illustrates the connection between geographical context and seasonal shift through light and shadow, revealing the abstract coordinates of the artist. In a time where the image has lost its pertinence, the artist opts for low-tech image processing, studying seemingly insignificant details to create a personal sanctuary, where a space-time singularity transports the viewer back to their own private space.
“To be a writer, for me, is on the contrary to condemn themselves to live on the sidelines,” Leïla Slimani writes in Le parfum des fleurs la nuit. In this Moment sees the artist place herself at the threshold between light and shadow, being at once outside and inside the window, engaged in a diffuse gaze at the light and shadow at 41.38°N, only to ultimately cancel it.
The exhibition limns how the body changes, drenched in the moment, faintest seasonal shifts magnified: everything becomes more — and less — Barcelona.
A magical moment in Barcelona, at last, manifests itself in the poetry of the flawed.
* “I” stands for introvert in the now-popular MBTI personality test.
About Artist
Yuchi Hsiao graduated from the Graduate Institute of New Media Art at the Taipei National University of the Arts. She works in video, textile, and installation. She has participated in the 9th Nakanojo Biennale in Japan (2023), and the artist residency at Hangar.org in Barcelona, Spain (2023), additionally, she has been selected for the artist residency program "Art for Social Change" in Penghu, Taiwan (2024). Her video works have been screened in France, Bulgaria, and Macau
Yuchi Hsiao’s artwork explores the relationship between oneself and the surrounding. Through observing the traces and marks of people’s systematic life, her creation focuses on the unusual events in daily life. Her latest works were inspired by the space where she spent most of time during the creation process-a room that reflects her intimate emotion and expression. She is interested in people’s thoughts and feelings, and behavioral reflections. She is also concerned about how to present inner behavior into the correspondent relationship between artwork and daily life and make the work moving forward through thoughtful exploration.
Advisor | Ministry of Culture
Organizers | Chew’s Culture Foundation, Hong-Gah Museum Sponsor
Article & Production Companionship | Soma Liang
Article Translation | Catherine Y. Hsieh
Graphic Designer | Ho Chuang
Installation Technical Team | Mad B Ltd.
