About Chun-Yi Chang's Carousel

The ‘Carousel Waltz’, a distant yet crisp melody ringing in the ears. The images of Carousel on the screens are only in grey and without any details. Implying that brilliance and dream are one. The opening of ’Carousel Waltz’ is different to its original broadway musical ‘Carousel’. The artist chose a music box version of the same music which removes the Magnificent and imposing feel of the original music, maintaining low profile, but the atmosphere will change totally once you enter. 18 Carousel shots from 18 different locations in Paris, filled all three walls of the exhibition hall in a single line fashion. Colourful, yet in different shapes, rotating simultaneously with the slightest rhythmic differences. And the Carousel Waltz was played at 18 different speed. The artist cuts away the top and bottom of the carousels intensionally, taking away the frames to pull the audience closer, providing an immersive experience for the audience. Once you are in it, it’s difficult not to be affected by its nostalgic happy atmosphere. Feels like if you can ride on one of the carousels in the next second and enter another dimension. 

Growing up in Taiwan, maybe it’s difficult to see carousels. But not in Paris. From the Eiffel tower, Champ de Mars, Sacred Heart Church, Luxembourg Gardens and other well-known tourist attractions, to Saint Lombard Square, someplaces only the locals would know, it’s not difficult to find carousels. These carousels are usually the long residence in the area, and has became the collective memories of the local residence. A father who brought his son to come and have a ride on the carousel might have ridden on the exact same carousel after school in his childhood. And may be just like his son, once got on the carousel, never wants to get off even after the music has ended. Here, the carousel has nothing to do with the amusement park, it has become a product of everyday life and festival. And memories to be passed on must be collective, therefore if the carousel is not bustling with noise, it will seem a bit lonely. However, memory is individual, only ‘I’ know what happened when the carousel started rotating. So, from Sky Blue±1, Fairy Lake to Carousel Waltz, we come back to the monologue, like what St. Augustine said at the beginning of this review: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.”

The procedure of image is irreversible, this is one of the most depressing facts when it comes to video recording works. Different to painting or photography, the audience’s view can not stay freely at any specific poing, if one missed any second of the video, he/she has to replay the whole video to be able to view the same spot again. This raises another question, ‘what can be considered as completely finished viewing a video recording work?’ Is it viewing the whole video recording from start to finish once? Or maybe not from start to finish, but viewing it several times back and forth? With Chun-Yi Chang’s works, maybe we can  use the latter method. View every entry point as the suture point. This also what’s fascinating about ‘Instant d’entre’, there are some refined disorder hidden in the works, which cause the audience to come back and reinspect the works (feeling not finished with the viewing of the works). But there’s no need to deliberately look for the linear starting and ending point of the image. With the sudden feeling of déjà-vu, experiencing the feel of the instant when we stand in front of the work, and how the instant of our thoughts when we are viewing the work intertwined with  the limited eternity within the work.