sweetwatersolo exhibition | video installation | 2016
《甜水sweetwater》 「甜水」是陳嘉壬在印尼駐村創作後,回台的成果發表,在駐村期間主要鎖定在探訪流經城市的河川以及近郊河域的生活模態,陳嘉壬擇取了幾件錄像以及攝影裝置展現自己對於當地某種人文景觀的觀察。 展名「甜水」的概念來自於每日外食時,所點的飲料無論是茶品或是果汁,若無特別交代,店家必定給予數大茶匙的砂糖或是冰糖,而這樣甜膩而過飽和的飲品,似乎間接反映了一種農產品以及生活需求間的關係,那麼的邏輯是否也可對應上人對於周遭環境的態度? 甜水的另一層想法在部分的影像畫面處理上,陳嘉壬以一種恬適或是美化的手法來呈現某些景象的反差,猶如中國以「糖水片」來貶抑某種唯美俗氣的攝影表現。而在「甜水」的英譯想像上,陳嘉壬選擇了sweetwater一詞來代用,sweetwater意為相對於海水的自然水源,這裡似也回返到這個創作計畫的初衷。 Sweetwater is Chen Chia-Jen’s public showcase in Taiwan that features works inspired by a residency program in Indonesia. During the residency, the artist focused his investigation on rivers flowing through the city as well as different ways of life within urban and rural water systems. A few video and photographic installation pieces are selected to demonstrate his observation on local human landscapes. The title Sweetwater came from beverages of tea or juice that one would order on a daily basis when eating out. Teashops often dose their drinks with large amount of sugar if no specific requests on intensity of sweetness are made. These excessively sugar saturated beverages seem to implicitly reflect the relationship between agricultural products and everyday necessities. Can similar logic be applied to how human treat the environment? Another idea behind the word choice “sweetwater” came from the process of image manipulation. A sugarcoating, or euphemizing, method is employed to create contrasts within certain images, coinciding with the term “sugar tablets (tang shui pian)” often used in China to derogate a stylistically pretty yet tacky form of expression in photography. Finally, the English translation to the title, “sweetwater,” referring to non-oceanic natural water sources, brings us back to the original context of this project based on water systems in Indonesia. |