Genealogies of The Surpluses 剩餘系譜 Plaster, Pulp, Fluorescent Tube / 石膏、紙漿、日光燈管 Size Variable / 視場地尺寸而定 2016
Blacktown 黑鎮系列 Digital Imaging Output / 數位影像輸出 Size Variable / 70 x 50 cm 2015
Genealogies of The Surpluses 剩餘系譜 丁昶文個展 Dates: January 6 to January 30, 2017 展期: 2017年1月6日至1月30日 Venue: Yancheng Black and White Art Space 地點: 鹽埕黑白切 ( Installation view of Genealogies of The Surpluses, Yancheng Black and White Art Space, 2017 ) In 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson, and William Charles Wentworth embarked on a perilous journey across the Katooma mountainous region in Australia, overcoming the obstacle of the Blue Mountains, which was a hindrance to westward European migration at that time. Today, the Blue Mountains are renowned for their rich Indigenous Australian cultural heritage. Located to the west of Sydney, Blacktown was one of the first areas settled by white Europeans in Australia, with its origins dating back to 1792.
Despite Blacktown's more than 200 years of development, its most notable aspect is not just its long history compared to other regions but also the infamous Anita murder case of the 1990s. This incident represents one of Australia's most terrifying chapters in violent crime history.
The project I am working on, titled "Blacktown," delves into the stories behind a mountain and a local town. Through the lens of cultural anthropology, the artist attempts to unveil the culture of others, reflecting on the impact and feedback of this approach to creativity. This includes exploring collective memories and the subconscious in societal events. As an artist in residence, serving as an observer from elsewhere, the project involves envisioning a sculptural possibility arising from news events.
My work titled “Genealogies of the Surpluses” proposes possible reflections of traditional sculpture over social issues, beyond the frame of art-making related to historical anthropology and examinations of materials. At the start, I was interested in the nomination of “Bopiliao”. Local elders called the place Bopiliao because during the Ching Dynasty, it was the place where China fir carried by merchant ships from Fuzhou in China went through the debarking process. As for the neighboring area at the intersection of Kangting Rd. and Guangzhou St., since it was developed into a distributing center for charcoal selling in an early period, it was called “Tu-Tan City(土炭市)”[1] in general. There used to be prosperous commercial activities in these streets and there were many exquisite mansions. The streets in the area were built around the 1850s under the reign of Ching Dynasty. Today, as an old district for debarking process, Bopiliao’s surroundings have been encircled by beddings and cardboard boxes carried everywhere by homeless people. I employed sculptural objects made with pulp and plaster through molding process; their construction took trunks and beddings as references. The internal meanings of the objects are linked to histories from the past that extend to the present. The project will re-endow objects’ multiple relations and their positions in reality among torrents of time. [1]The two Chinese characters mean “soil and charcoal”.
The exhibition simultaneously presents the two series of artworks mentioned above.
1813年Gregory Blaxland、William Lawson與William Charles Wentworth三人經歷艱險跨越澳洲肯圖巴(Katooma)山區到內地,藍山(Blue Mountain)曾是當時歐洲移民向西推進的障礙,如今以其豐富的澳洲原住民文化遺產而聞名,而位於雪梨(Sydney)西側的黑鎮(Blacktown)是澳州第一批白人定居的地區之一,其最早可以追溯到1792年,儘管黑鎮已有200多年的發展,它最著名的卻不是比其他地區悠久的歷史,而是90年代護士Anita謀殺案,事件背後代表了澳洲最可怕的暴力犯罪史之一。我所處理的作品《Blacktown黑鎮》則是透過一座山和地方小鎮背後的故事,藝術家嘗試以文化人類學的角度揭露他者文化,其對創作思考的影響與反饋,諸如社會事件中的集體記憶與潛意識,駐村藝術家作為來自他方的旁觀者,則在新聞事件中隱約想像一種造型性的可能。