Art review of "Daughter of Time"

By Huang Hei-Ming for Huang Li-Hui (黃立慧)

So far while so close—

The reading about “The Daughter of Time / Li Hui Huang Solo Exhibition” at Haiton Art Center

Preface

There are two protagonists in this exhibition, one is Ying-wu Huang, a leftwing political prisoner survivor of the period of White Terror, and the other is Li-hui Huang, an artist who is the daughter of Ying-wu Huang. Ying-wu Huang was sentenced for 12 years in 1968 and was imprisoned for about 8 and half years. In chronological order, the February 28 incident occurred in 1947, the Martial Law period began at 1949, Ying-wu Huang was released from the jail in 1976, and the lifting of Martial Law was proclaimed in 1987. Li-hui Huang was lucky enough to have her father’s company while she grew up, but she was not present during the most important stage of her father’s life which all occurred before she was born. Therefore, it’s impossible for her to experience the social and political context in which Ying-wu Huang became who he is. Meanwhile, she needs to withstand the influence from her father which has worked on her all of her life. It is not that her father tried to affect her purposely and constantly. His political beliefs have not changed a bit, but the way that he is recognized by the outside world has changed through the time.

In my opinion, this exhibition deals with the subtle interaction between the daughter of a particular White-terror survivor and her father, who is fully conscious of his situation as a former political prisoner. At first, the daughter was the one who passively withstood the impact created by a cause and effect that she had no clue about. As the political environment has varied from time to time, her father’s identity has been perceived by others differently as well. Does that mean that the identity of the daughter as it has been recognized by the outside world also changes through this process? Does her father have any opportunity to demonstrate the meaning of his life completely? Or is his identity still oversimplified and distorted in a complex political situation manipulated by all sorts of strategies? Can the artist develop a relationship with her father, in a relatively more direct and consistent way, by sharing his life experiences in order to establish a solid foundation for her own life, and proceed from that, as most “normal daughters” do? The artist participated in COSWAS (Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters) as a volunteer when she was younger, and was close to many activists in social movements. Therefore, she realizes the sorrow caused by a situation where one’s personal identity and his/her value can only be interpreted by the outside world.

What kind of perception of time forms in this speechless situation while living in this unclear condition enduringly, as an individual? This absence and the distortion of time are irreparable. After the time that the father was released, and after the president announced the end to martial law, things that were previously unmentionable started to become mentionable, with a variety of research articles being released one after another. Many people in the period of White Terror were mis-killed by persecution. Many previous “traitors” who were executed turned into martyrs afterward, and many surviving political prisoners are recognized as heroes. The families of political prisoners became those who need to be compensated and respected particularly.

When some people start to take advantage of this new condition/narrative as their personal prestige/resource, it may arise negative responses/attitude toward this new situation from others. The core issue of this exhibition lies in the process of how those whose identities have been constantly determined by the external, try to reverse this situation in an active way. Indeed, Ying-wu Huang, the artist’s father, was a political prisoner who had been jailed and persecuted, and now is supposed to be respected and honored in the political context/narration ruled by DPP (Democratic Progressive Party). But his ideology of leftwing, especially pro-reunification, is totally opposite from the DPP’s ideology of pro-Taiwan-independence. In fact, DPP is not totally equal to the leftwing power in Taiwan, Ying-wu is also not a fellow-traveler of DPP. The artist’s father’s political belief is oversimplified and misconnected with the political prisoner’s public image by others in general, and it makes the whole thing really ridiculous in the mentioned context. Along with that, people also make assumptions about his daughter’s political beliefs/identity based on the misreading of the father, which makes the whole situation even more ridiculous. As a volunteer of COSWAS since the artist was in school, and also connected to a lot of activists who fight for sex worker’s rights, she realizes how important it is to change the situation where people’s identity and values are constantly interpreted and determined by a simplified narrative adjusted to the changing context.

How to deal with this passive situation where the artist and her father have been repeatedly interpreted with certain identities by others, based on changing political dynamics? It's just like when the artist devoted herself to protecting sex worker’s identities and values, she needed to learn more about the complex relationship between public prostitutes and brothel clients, including the the possibility of intersubjectivity in this kind of scenario. How does she articulate for herself and deal with the external political situation that constantly defines her identity and even distorts it? Again, she needs to fully understand a variety of factors in this condition, and then try to represent it in her own way, based upon her understanding and feelings, in order to turn the condition into a life experience that the artist and her father can share with each other. Only by doing this can she re-establish the hard-achieved balance in her mind, and also take control of the balance back as a subject, instead of passively playing along.

Description and cross-reading of the works

1.The life history is written on tissue

In this very homey feeling gallery, Haiton Art Center, the strips of tissue papers filled with Chinese characters written with black markers, are hung upon on a wall in this exhibition.

The content that was written in black marker on these tissue papers by the artist herself is based upon the interview “Historical oral interview of Public Happiness Party from Yin-wu Hunag & Jin-ben Jian” made by Li-ben Chang.

There are two aspects to understanding this installation work. First of all, the hanging white tissue papers with black Chinese characters, immediately brings out the impression of a funeral-related scene, and the wild handwriting describing a miserable life experience on the tissue papers—a material used for wiping biological secretions —arise intense sorrow coming from losing a family member. The artist’s father is still alive, but for him the time after surviving through the hell is way harder than death itself. The funeral is a ceremony to memorialize the time when the father felt as if he was already dead, in order to go through the life transition fully?

The other reading aspect, is that by transcribing the interview of her father’s words on tissue papers, the artist transitioned the printed official texts into a more sensible and communicable format with black marker writing, and then gradually built up an imitate, thoughtful and reliable relationship with her father.

2. The transcription of father’s life history / The fusion of emotion and biological secretions

The Artist combined her father’s words and onions together after she knew that her father used to eat onions quite often in the jail. In the prison, the toilet was built inside of the cell, thus the entire cell was filled with the strong smell of onions, mixed with the odor from human urine and faeces. She adopted two ways to apply those elements: one is to put fresh sliced onions layer by layer on the toilet paper with black handwriting mentioned above, and the other is to use stacks of clean and soft tissue papers that look almost like pads to make a big, white, pure, non-smell and non-colored onion paper relief.

At first, she combines all of the extremely complicated elements together, such as the strong spicy smell from onions / the father’s oral history that is filled with sadness, uncompleted or distorted / the pad that refers to a substance used for soaking the secretions from period and the tissue papers that refer as a material used to wipe the residual of the digested foods/ peeling onion as a metaphor of incomprehensible philosophical language in the reality, etc.

Here, the father and the daughter’s lives have a deeper connection in a more diverse, more sensational, and more private level. According to the artist, this work also sustains an expectation, an expectation about the clarification of her father’s political identity after peeling away all the layers. The expectation of the work is more from her father than herself, but meanwhile she also admits that as an artist, she has a responsibility to keep his political identity away from mis-recognition. I agree with this interpretation as well.

The other Single-channel video work shows the image of the crying artist repeatedly pilling onions on the screen. It is uncertain to the audience for what reason the artist cries, she cries because of the chemical stimulation from the onions? Or she cries because the onions remind her of her father’s suffering in the prison?

We can assume that the artist uses the sliced onion, which was related to her father’s life in prison, to burst tears out both mentally and physically. When she wipes her face with the tissue that is still wet from the fresh calligraphy writing, making her face dirty and nasty, how intimate is her relationship with her father?

These are all methods to re-construct the vanishing past through applying the objects, actions, smells, vision, stimulation for nose, tears and snot. If the tears caused from onions’ stimulation don’t count as “real tears”, what is missing here? What is missing in a specific political-stand-interpreted interview? Does it twist anything?

Without witnessing what kind of suffering her father went through in jail, the artist can't really put herself in his shoes. How could she cry “sincerely” for him when she is totally absent in the process and did not go through the pain like him? Pretend crying from her heart? Maybe she has not yet found a point to really cry about it.

Playing Seesaw to show the interaction between the absence and the presence of Father and/or Daughter

The absence of the father and the generation gap between father and daughter were mentioned in the foreword. The art works mentioned above attempt to rebuild the intimate relationship with various kinds of expressions, rather than storytelling. The artist’s father had been in jail for 8 years. Besides mentioning his preference about certain foods, objects and symbols related to his experience as a political prisoner every once a while, he does not really want to talk about it.

When the artist was born, her father had been released from the jail and back home, but it seemed that there was still a generation gap between the political prisoner father and the young daughter. Even more, it was a generation gap caused by the fact that the father escaped from the death in prison and survived afterward. This extraordinary relationship has been represented in the art works mentioned previously, also in the two parts of the “seesaw series”.

There are 3 sections in the seesaw series. The first one is to create a conversation by the artist rolling a roll of tissue with the handwritten interview on it, back and forth on the seesaw’s two sides. The second is the artist walking on the top of seesaw and interacting with the onions set under the other side of seesaw. The third is a direct interaction happening between the artist and her chubbie old father on the seesaw.

1. The daughter stands at one side of the seesaw. If she and her father sat at both ends, she could go up and down on the seesaw because of his weight, to make the toilet roll run back and forth with the swing movement, and to create a direct conversation with her father through the movement. Instead, because of her father’s absence, she could only walk around from one side to the other of the seesaw like a monkey, and make the tissue roll by lifting up the each end of seesaw herself, but the effort is to fail overall. Without her father responding to this intentional conversation, all of her efforts end up with nothing. The transcription of the interview on the tissue becomes more and more difficult to read, due to the fact that the tissue roll only tangles with the seesaw when the artist tries to display the words on the seesaw.

2. If the daughter sits at one end of the seesaw, and her father sits at the other end with onions set under it, she will be able to connect her father’s present body with the onions and its odor that directly relate to his past. But her father is still absent, so what she can do is walk back and forth like a monkey on the seesaw again, in order to use the seesaw’s weight to crush the onions. At the end, she loses her patience, sits on the end with the onions underneath, and uses her weight to crush the onions. At this point, the onions are still onions that can not represent his past, the artist’s relationship with her father still stays in the imagination.

3.This time, the artist and her father sit on the each side of the seesaw, but the lengths of two sides are not equal. The father is far heavier than his daughter. Due to the father’s clumsy movements, they cannot play the seesaw up and down smoothly. At the beginning, the father sits at the one end and doesn’t make a lot of movement, and the daughter sits at the other end, trying to make the seesaw move with all kinds of weird postures.

It is difficult for the old father to play the seesaw with his flexible daughter. On the one side, the father tried hard to move but stayed still. On the other side, the daughter tried really hard to make two-way conversation. In this process, all of the efforts made by the father and the daughter were passed to each other through the movements of the seesaw, and creates a very close and lover-like resonance between two people.

At the end, they finally meet each other at the pivot by approaching closer to each other on the seesaw. It seems that only through the strong emotional / body interaction, could they bring the father’s presence back to the daughter’s memory to fulfill the absence of his past. The interaction and the exhibition are both happening in family-related / family-like spaces, it is almost like a late ceremony for the family, which I feel is quite intriguing.

Summary

During Li-hui Huang’s graduate school period, she created a performance/ installation called “Make me high and more” by using a vibrator. A big white wooden box was divided into two sections by a thin curtain, one was for the sex-worker-like role played by the artist, and the other was for the audience who participated in the performance. The connection between the two sides was a vibrator, which was set inside of the artists body, meanwhile the controller part was in audience’s hands. The interaction which happened in this work might not totally depict the complicated situations occurring between sex workers and customers, but it still provided an opportunity for the participants to experience the dynamics hidden among those complicated scenes. Also to sense the connections between the outside gaze and themselves as part of it. If she did not have a certain kind of understanding, how did she manage to work for COSWAS (Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters) as a long-term volunteer and fight for the sex worker’s rights? I found the same kind of dynamics/relations connected two sides in “The Daughter of Time” as well.

Li-hui Huang said that she needs to know all the kinds of conditions more thorough, and represent what she truly understands in her own way, in order to turn this representation into a shared life experience with her father, without letting it being distorted by the fixated narrative. Only through this path can she be able to rebuild the difficult balance in her mind, and regain the control of the balance as a subject. In most intimate relationships, like a father-daughter one, this compensation process is very difficult to proceed. Who can imagine how many gaps like this need to be fixed in the current society ?


如此親近又如此遙遠 讀海桐藝術中心「時間的女兒」─黃立慧個展

評論的展演: 黃立慧個展「時間的女兒」

前言:

在這展覽中的主角有兩個,一個是作為白色恐怖時期左派政治犯倖存者黃英武,一個是這位政治犯倖存者黃英武的藝術家女兒黃立慧。黃英武於1968年被判刑12年,實際坐牢8年半左右,228事件發生於1947年,戒嚴時期開始於1949年,黃英武於1976年被釋放,到1987年才宣布解嚴。雖然黃立慧幸運地一出生就有父親的陪伴,但是她父親最重要的生命階段是她完全沒有機會參與的,當然她更不可能親身體驗讓黃英武成為黃英武的稍早社會政治環境,但是她卻要承受自於她的父親所造成的影響,並且這個影響還在持續。不是她的父親要持續影響她,事實上他的信念沒怎麼變過,只是她的父親因為外界政治情勢的改變,而被外界辨識的身份認定也不斷地改變。

我認為這個展覽處理了一個白色恐怖政治迫害下有名有姓的倖存者的女兒和她的父親─完全自覺的政治犯倖存者─之間的微妙交互關係。至少在剛開始,她完全是被動的必須承受她所不清楚的沉重因果的人,但是隨著政治情勢的改變,她父親被外界辨識的身分認定不斷的變化,他的女兒被外界辨識的身分認定是不是也跟著改變?她的父親有沒有機會完整的展示他自己的生命意義?還是持續在複雜的政治局勢以及策略中被過度簡單甚至扭曲地定義?而藝術家她能不能像大部分的女兒透過更直接的、更長期的分享父親的生命而相對主動的確立她與父親的關係,進而確立她自己生命的堅固基礎,進而從哪裏出發?藝術家做為一個非常年輕就以義工身分進入日日春關懷自助協會,接近過大量運動參與者,她清楚個人身分認定以及價值完全由外在認定的悲哀。

在許多事情都不可說的狀態下,長期在不明究理的狀況下如此這般的生活。這是怎樣的時間狀態?這段空缺、扭曲的時間是無法彌補的。父親被釋放、解嚴、不可說的開始可以說,各種零零星星的研究的文章陸續出爐,事件中許多人根本就是被誤殺、冤死的。當初許多叛國罪死犯後來變成了烈士,許多倖存的政治犯更是變成英雄,牽連的政治犯家屬變成需要特別補償以及尊敬的對象。

當這種新的處境被部分人長期利用為一種特殊的資源,可能接著會有一些再度負面化的面對態度,這種個人身份認定價值不斷的被動的改變的事實以及在事後如何去扳回這種被動的態勢,正是這個展覽的核心的議題。藝術家的父親黃英武是被關過、被迫害過的政治犯沒錯,在民進黨的脈絡中應該享有某種光輝,不過他除了認同左派也同時認同兩岸統一的思想,除了他的統一與民進黨的台獨思想有巨大差異之外,實際上民進黨並不能和左派畫上等號,因此他也不是民進黨的同路人。藝術家的父親被外界過度簡化的身分認定,放在前面的整個脈絡中就顯得格外的荒謬。連帶的,這樣的政治犯倖存者的女兒的身分認定也就跟著荒謬了起來。做為一個在學生時代就以義工身分進入日日春關懷互助協會,接近大量的保障公娼權益的社會運動參與者,正是要一起去改變人的身分價值認定完全受制於外在不同的狀況下的決定的這個還持續存在的事實。

如何去面對外在政治情勢不斷改變下使父親以及她一再地被動成為極為不同的對象?就如同投身保障性工作者的身分認定以及價值的工作,要做得心裡踏實,她需要較為具體、深刻的理解嫖客與公娼之間的複雜關係,還包括其中可能互為主體的關係。回到因為外在的政治情勢而不斷被動的被定義為極為不同的對象,甚至扭曲罔顧真實對象的時候,她又如何發聲?又如何自處?她需要深刻地了解各種狀況,就她真正了解、體會的部分用她自己的方式加以再現,使它成她與父親所主動共享的生命經驗,只有這樣才能夠重建她心中非常困難的平衡,她要奪回做為一個生命主體應該擁有的主動性平衡,而非配合演出。

作品描述及交互閱讀:

1.在衛生紙上的書寫的生命史

在海桐藝術中心很有家庭溫暖感覺的展場中,垂掛了一條條寫滿了黑色簽字筆字的衛生紙捲,內容是藝術家女兒根據研究訪談者張立本所做的“大眾幸福黨相關口述歷史 / 黃英武先生、簡金本先生口述歷史紀錄”。以黑色簽字筆所親身製作的部分抄寫。這件裝置作品可以有兩種的理解的方式:一條條垂掛的寫著黑色簽字筆字的白色衛生紙條,立刻會給人喪禮的感覺。而用狂亂的黑色簽字筆書寫在一般用來承接身體上最生物性分泌衛生紙卷上的悲慘遭遇,更讓人感受到面對親人死亡時哭天喊地的悲慟。父親明明還活著,可是那個從死亡裡復活重生的人的那段時間是活著面對比死亡更為痛苦的日子,這些舉動正是為那段如死的日子所補辦的喪禮?以便真正的過渡?另一個閱讀是,透過親自抄寫父親在訪談中的口述歷史文字,藝術家多少將較為疏離的印刷體文字轉化成更為敏感、 能夠傳達悲慟情感的黑色簽字筆,而逐漸讓女兒和父親之間建立更為親近、設身處地,甚至交互共生的關係。

2.抄寫父親的生命史/情感與生理排出物的交融

特別是藝術家又將那些文字和洋蔥結合在一起,是她輾轉知道父親在獄中經常吃洋蔥,另外監獄中因為廁所與牢房設在一起,整個牢房中除了瀰漫著嗆人的糞便尿液的臭味之外其中還包含了濃濃的洋蔥味。她採取了兩種方式來運用那些元素:一種是直接將新鮮的洋蔥片貼在剛剛提過的書寫了黑色簽字筆的衛生紙上面,另外是用厚厚一疊一疊有點像很純淨柔軟的衛生棉的衛生紙塑造成一個巨大的潔白、潔淨、無色、無味的紙雕洋蔥。首先,將散發辛辣氣味的洋蔥/父親充滿傷痛可能有空缺或扭曲的口述歷史紀錄/吸收生理期生命的排出物的衛生棉、承接擦拭食物消化過後的殘渣的衛生紙/以剝洋蔥來隱喻真實無法理解的哲學語言等等極為複雜的元素結合在一起。

在這裡女兒的生命又與父親的生命,在一個更為多元的還包括了更為官能的更為私密的層次又有了更進一層的關聯。之後依據藝術家的說法,這組作品還包括在層層剝開之後,她父親的真正政治份身分能夠清楚的辨識的期待,這裡比較接近她父親的期待,對藝術家而言是有責任不要讓他被誤認。我也同意這樣的詮釋。

在另一件錄像藝術作品中,螢幕中播放的是藝術家女兒淚流滿面,以及不斷的剝洋蔥的動作,在這裡我們還很難確定那是因為洋蔥的化學成分讓藝術家流淚,還是因為透過洋蔥想起父親在監獄中的種種折磨而流淚。當然我們可以說她用和父親在監獄中的生活有密切關係的洋蔥切片,從身心的兩種管道來催淚。當藝術家用這些寫了毛筆字並且還濕濕的衛生紙擦拭臉上的一把眼淚一把鼻涕而把自己的臉弄得很髒很噁心的時候,她和父親的關係是多麼的親近?

這都是讓過往幾乎消失的時間,透過各種方式的再現而逐漸的具體化,透過物件、動作、氣味、眼睛、鼻子的刺激、眼淚,鼻涕。假如在這裡那被嗆鼻洋蔥味弄到一把眼淚一把鼻涕的還不能算是哭,那麼其中還缺少了什麼?多少帶有特別的政治詮釋學式的訪問內容可能會缺少了什麼?會扭曲了什麼?沒有親身看到親人的痛、無法設身處地理解。沒有親身經歷自己的痛、沒有親身經歷其他家人的痛如何能夠真正的哭?如喪考妣的噴淚嚎啕大哭?也許她終究還沒有找到一個可以嚎啕大哭的確切基礎。

透過蹺蹺板進行的在場與不在場的父女關係

在前言已經提過藝術家女兒和隔世的、不在場的父親的關係,前面這幾件作品給人的感覺,正是藝術家女兒用各種方式表達或不如說重建和隔世的、不在場的父親的最為親密的關係。藝術家的父親被關了8年多,出獄之後除了表達對於某些物件、食物、符號的排斥外,並不願訴說先前的經歷,雖然藝術家女兒出生的時候父親已經出獄回到家裡,但是年幼的女兒和那個被關了8年多後被放出來的政治犯父親之關係,幾乎是一種隔代的關係,甚至是一種死裡逃生後隔世的關係。這種奇特的關係在前面的作品中被呈現,在這一個系列的前兩件作品也同樣地被呈現。

有蹺蹺板的系列創作共有三件,一件是藝術家透過在蹺蹺板上來回地滾動寫在衛生紙捲上的文字的對話,一件是藝術家和放在蹺蹺板另一端的洋蔥作對話,前面這兩件,父親仍然是缺席,第三件是藝術家直接和胖胖的老爸爸的對話。

1.藝術家女兒坐在蹺蹺板的一端,如果父親也坐在蹺蹺板另一端,她就能夠藉著蹺蹺板正常的一高一低的交互擺動,讓寫著父親經歷的衛生紙捲在她與父親間來回滾動,形成她與父親之間的一來一往的對話,但是父親不在場,她只能像猴子一樣在蹺蹺板兩端來回移動,讓衛生紙捲來回的滾動,但是這個努力完全是徒然的,這個強烈的的對話企圖沒有父親的接應,最後這些衛生紙捲上的口述歷史手寫文字只能捲成完全不可讀的狀態。

2.藝術家女兒坐在蹺蹺板的一端,如果父親也坐在底下放一堆洋蔥的蹺蹺板的另一端,她就能夠藉著蹺蹺板正常的一高一低的交互擺動,讓父親的當下身體的存在與那些與父親的過去有直接關聯的洋蔥以及洋蔥味重疊在一起。但是父親仍然不在場,她只能像猴子一樣在蹺蹺板兩端來回移動,好讓蹺蹺板的另一端去壓碎那一堆洋蔥。最後她更急了,乾脆就跑到另一端直接用蹺蹺板去擊碎那些洋蔥。這樣,洋蔥還是洋蔥,洋蔥和父親的關係還是想像的。

3.這一次藝術家父親也坐在蹺蹺板上,蹺蹺板的兩邊並不對等,父親的體重遠比藝術家要重。更重要的是父親的身體不靈活,無法順暢地形成一高一低的擺動,先前父親不動如山,而女兒在蹺蹺板另外一段移動位置坐到遠端,甚至站起來做各種奇怪姿勢試圖讓蹺蹺板交互地動起來。

年紀大的爸爸要和年輕靈活得像猴子的女兒玩蹺蹺板是困難的,一邊是雖然父親也有努力但依然不動如山,一邊是着急得想盡各種辦法促成有來有往的對話。這期間所有的身體的,迫切的努力都透過蹺蹺板直接傳遞到對方,形成一種非常親密,如同情人身體之間的直接共振。

最後兩人都靠近蹺蹺板的中軸而能夠直接接觸,似乎要經過這麼激烈的身體以及情緒的互動之後,才讓父親的身體在女兒空缺的近乎隔世的父親記憶中逐漸恢復。這展覽的製作以及展覽都在一個很有家庭氛圍的空間中進行,根本就是一個遲來的補辦的過渡儀式,我覺得非常有意思。

小結:

在研究所時期,藝術家曾經製作一件使用跳蛋的行為裝置作品<讓我一次愛個夠>,連結在一起的兩個立方體中間只隔一層花布,一間是扮演類似性工作者的藝術家,一邊是參與活動的觀眾,中間的媒介是一個跳蛋,跳蛋在藝術家的體內,而控制器在觀眾的手上。這種關係當然並不全然類似,但至少可以局部地體會嫖客與性工作者之間的極為複雜的關係,以及各自與外部的凝視的關係。沒有這樣的體會,她如何在日日春關懷互助協會中擔任長期的義工以及出去抗議吶喊?我認為在「時間的女兒」的這件作品也有這種極為密切的兩端的設身處地的關係。

黃立慧說,她需要深刻地了解各種狀況,就她真正理解並且親身體會的部分用她自己的方式加以再現,使它成為她與父親所主動共享、不被外在扭曲的生命經驗,只有這樣才能夠重建她心中非常困難的平衡,她要奪回做為一個生命主體應該擁有的主動性平衡。在最親密的父女之間,這樣的彌補工作竟然這樣困難。在當今社會中,有多少需要彌補的裂縫?


Source: ARTALKS / Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture