In Between
間
2019-2022
First created in 2019 as reflection to a field trip to Blackwood of Rannoch in Scottish Highland,
showcased in group exhibition "REMNANTS", Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh, UK.
In 2022, a new version and meaning had been developed for "Never the Same Forest" Solo Exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan.
2019
On-site Installation 現場裝置
Screen Printing onTracing Paper
(W:40cm, H:40cm for each window)
Chasing the sun, stepping on rocks, walking along trees.
Between light and dark; solid and void; black and white.
Things that fill every interstice, space, and place.
From point to point, those things are in between.
This work reflects my inner status while walking in the forest. During a field trip to Scottish Highland, I went into this so-called Caledonian Forest. The forest has remained its appearance as a woodland for more than a thousand years, although interfered by all kinds of external force. It therefore was without the tidiness of artificial maintenance or any clear path. There were full of lives and breathes in the forest. I couldn’t tell my location, so I followed the sunlight and took every step carefully. The air was filled with whispers from the trees, lichens and mosses. I recognized that I was genuinely “in” the forest. I was surrounded by trees and the tiny organisms living around them. Even for the spaces between things which seemed empty was actually containing light, breeze, wave, and all the particles that I couldn’t name.
這個作品是關於我在森林行走時的狀態。在一次旅行中我進入了蘇格蘭高地的原始森林Blackwood of Rannoch，這個稱作Caledonian Forest 的林地，儘管無可避免地受到各種外力介入，千百年來始終維持著森林的樣貌，不曾作為其它用途使用。它毫不整齊，沒有路徑，充滿各式各樣的生命。走進這樣的森林中，完全無法辨識自己的位置，我只敢循著陽光的方向走，感覺四周的樹木以及在他們身上滿滿攀附著的苔蘚似乎正在竊竊私語。隔天我爬上山，才發現蘇格蘭的山竟是光禿的，三月底仍有積雪，遍地礫石，風強勁又寒冷，而植物無法長到人的高度；放眼的一切都比我低矮，是真正的走在山的表面上，我就像一針會移動的大頭針，孤挺挺地把自己插在山上再拔出來。我忽然很強烈地意識到在森林中的我是在森林「中」，受到樹木的環抱和微小生物的窺視，而在那些看似沒有東西的空間中，是各種光線與氣息的包圍，以及不知名的物質與粒子穿梭其中。
2022
On-site Installation 現場裝置
Screen Printing onTracing Paper, sew on to a white cloth
Dimensions Variable
Three years ago, when this work was exhibited, the rain had completely ruined the tracing papers installed on windows. Therefore, the original work had already gone, this work was doomed to be shown that one time.
The work you are looking now is the same batch of prints I made back then. However, the work can’t be the original one, and the forest is also not the original one, moreover, the image on both original work and this work is not the original forest I referred to. The image was taken on the next day after I went to Blackwood of Rannoch, at a mountain whose name I didn’t know. You see, the forest will never be the same forest, and it was never the same forest.
三年前展出時，我將描圖紙貼在展場的窗上，連日大雨濕氣滲透，讓描圖紙皺得不成人形，因此曾經展出的那幾張紙早已損毀，那件作品注定只能展出一次。
如今展出的是當時同一批多印的部分，剛好能拼出完整的圖像，而我也趁機承認：這個圖像其實不是Blackwood of Rannoch森林本人，是隔天我爬上的不知名山丘的山腳，以籬笆做為分界，一邊是整齊的工業用林，一邊是石楠荒地（Heather Field）。
這件作品不僅完全不是當時那件作品；這個森林也不是當時作品中我談到的那個森林；再者這個圖像的地點現在也絕對不會與當時拍下來的樣貌一模一樣，2022年於台灣展出的主題「Never the Same Forest」便由此而生。
Documentation Photos Credit: Tatsuro Mizutani (2022), Hsin Shyu.