Temporary Physical Evidence 暫時性物證 Sandbag, Aluminum plate, Stick, Mirror, Digital printing, Cement, Wire rope, Single channel video ( 6'15" ) / 沙包、鋁板、鋁棒、玻璃鏡、雷射印刷、水泥、鋼索、單頻道錄像 ( 6分15秒 ) Size Variable / 視場地尺寸而定 2020 ( Installation view of Temporary Physical Evidence, Taipei, 2020 ) The work Temporary Physical Evidence investigates "material culture" and "images of the times" for a spatial transformation of "7 by DOUCHANGLEE". Based on an imagination of "modern", it explores the remains of colonial modernity in modern life. "Café" interpreted through a single-channel video features a café waitress in the image of a "modern urban woman" of the 1930s, along with all kinds of alcohol, forming a space with functions similar to those of contemporary bars for social intercourse and nightlife. With the flashing neon light reflected through the mirror, and the music flowing from the phonograph, the sentiment is mesmerizing, echoing the pursuit of rhythm and speed in modern life. "Café" provides a space different from those in daily life, and, along with the interplay with the stimulation from the café waitress’ service, forms an impression of the hedonism in people’s lives in the late Japanese colonization period, which continues to the present.
In a way, the "images of the times" also remains in clothes. In the mid-1930s in Taiwan, suits and dresses became more and more common. Those who wore clothes tailored in Western styles looked upright and spirited. As a self-identity and one of the media linked with "modern" imageries, clothing also corresponded with the achievements of the colonists’ promotion of modern education. Being imitated or transplanted, diverse cultures pass through the steps of recognition, definition, reproduction, digestion and regeneration, and often carry levels of difference from the original cultures. Whether significant or not, such difference can still be perceived when browsing historical images. Portrait photos of the late Japanese colonial period reproduced with glass mirrors resemble dry-plate negatives. Being gazed, they also reflect the visage of the viewer. When the clothes in a photo are partially enlarged, the details are revealed, but the period is blurred. The term "modern" in the trend of thought of a past era is extended through material transformation, and constantly updated by memory through combinations with the “retro” design trend.
As the "physical evidence" of the transformed space characteristics, piles of transparent sandbags and the giant cement block necklace turn "7 by DOUCHANGLEE" into a pseudo-relic. The so-called "relic" refers to the buildings or traces left from the lives of the predecessors, such as tombs, foundations, ateliers, etc. When the Mihashicho cemetery went from illegal settlement to urban renewal, and became a park completely renovated in 2003, its real "remains" have disappeared or been deeply buried underground. Clothes are wrapped in or carried by transparent, temporary and fluid sandbag structures, endowing a monument for "memory" to depend on. When a monument becomes a mediated space, the "reality" and "memory" it carries not only begin to integrate, but also start to flow, and attempt to make every object in "7 by DOUCHANGLEE" a temporary "physical evidence" supporting the history of "Tiaotong". 作品《暫時性物證》以「物質文化」與「時代的圖像」作為考究,對「7 by DOUCHANGLEE」進行空間上的改造,從「摩登(Modern)」作為想像,探討殖民現代性在現代生活中的遺緒,以單頻道錄像演繹的「珈琲店」,即是1930年代「摩登都會女子」形象出現的女給陪侍,加上販賣各式酒類,與現今作為應酬、聲色場所的酒吧功能相似的空間,閃爍的霓虹透過鏡面的折射,留聲機中流轉出的樂音,情調迷離,符應著近代生活中對於節奏與速度的追求,「珈琲店」提供異於日常生活的空間,及女給服務的刺激相互影響,構成日殖晚期大眾享樂生活的面貌,亦延續至今。
作為改造空間屬性的「物證」— 被堆疊的透明沙包,以及巨型水泥塊項鍊,則將「7 by DOUCHANGLEE」化為一處偽遺跡;所謂「遺跡」指的是前人生活所遺留的建築物或跡象,如墓葬、地基、工坊等;當三橋町公墓歷經違建區到都市更新,並於2003年完成公園改建,其真實的「遺跡」已不見蹤影,或者深埋地底,以透明性、暫時性、流動性的沙包結構,包覆或乘載衣物,使「記憶」有一座紀念物(Monument)得以依附,當紀念物成為媒介空間,其承載的「真實」與「記憶」不只開始相融,也開始流動,並嘗試使「7 by DOUCHANGLEE」內的每一件物,都成為佐證「條通」歷史的暫時性「物證」。