Event horizon. Peaceful place. Instant In-between

Text｜Tong-Hong HUANG

Carousel Waltz Series (Video + Video Installation)

Imagine you want to ride a carousel—under the Eiffel Tower, in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, next to the Gare Montparnasse, or within the Paris Zoo. Carousels from different eras, some brand new and others aged, adorned with unicorns, cars, space shuttles, donkeys, bears, elephants—various animals representing the fantasies of children from different times—all endlessly revolving around the center, marking the passage of time. You find yourself never wanting to get off the carousel. If this wish were to come true, where would you go?

Every dream of childhood, if it survives long enough, will turn into a nightmare. For instance, you might find yourself trapped in the eternal orbit of gravity, endlessly circling. In contrast to the linear progression, the ongoing life, and the reality of hardship, the carousel becomes a singularity. When dreams come true, it's the moment you pass through the singularity, disappearing from the field of events. The singularity leads to an elusive place, to an eerie place. On the third floor of the Eerie Gallery, your surroundings consist of eighteen carousels, eternally rotating. Eighteen life universes, with no breakpoints, no exits, and thus no possibility of returning to reality. They remain forever vivid, and forever devoid of people, except for you. (Chun-Yi Chang mentioned that if I could find a breakpoint in the work, it would be a free gift for me.)

Blue Sky, ± 1 (Photography + Video)
The blue sky, the beach, and the sea, divided into three parallel sections. The sky is too vast, so the sea is compressed into a thin line. At times, the scenery on the beach seems out of focus, and at other times, the horizon appears to be changing. It tilts to the right, then to the left, forming sharp angles. Or perhaps, it is the beach that is tilting, or maybe it's the sky. It's just an illusion due to the frame of the painting, or perhaps it's because humans, situated on this vast earth, are unaware of the curvature of the planet, believing it to be true. However, the sky and the beach remain eternally bright, as if the angle of the sun never changes. Even if I were to look at it at midnight, it would still be the same bright beach. But the sea always has sound; the waves crash onto the beach, sounding like rushing water, approaching from afar and then receding. It seems as though I wait until midnight, and they disappear into the stream.

Fairy Lake Series
The corridor twists and turns, and the voice of a little girl overlaps and comes through. Because each end has a screen playing, the little girl in a red floral jumpsuit plays hide-and-seek by the lake, burying her head in the trees, counting and recounting. Counting how many, and then jumping back to how many, she can never finish counting. It's as if she's the only one playing hide-and-seek without anyone else. It's like all of us in reality, turning left and right, finally passing through the corridor and arriving at the end of the screening room, watching her, watching her in the endless hide-and-seek in the Maple Dan Bai Lu Forest. The entrance to the forest is a photographic work with crystal ornaments, a reflection of an inverted lake, and the girl at the end is also the same.