我們所謂的影像，是某種存在，多於觀念論所謂的再現表象
，少於實在論者所稱的事物，這種存在位於事物與再現表象 之間。
——伯格森《物質與記憶》
圖像與機制 Imagery and Mechanism
參展者 Artists：柯鈞耀、許戊德、李承翰、吳孟真、李佳祐、楊雅淳、廖建寧、汪正翔
策展人 Curator : 汪正翔
時間 Date | 2016/6/3 – 2016/6/11
地點 Venue | 國立臺北教育大學南海藝廊 (台北市重慶南路二段19巷3號)
Nanhai Gallery, National Taipei University of Education
座談 TALK
時間 Date | 2016/6/5 (Sun.) 2pm
與談者 Panel speakers：呂岱如、李威儀
這個世界與各種「images」纏繞，螢幕裡的火山、耗材組成的海景，還有巷弄間的盆栽，看起來好像掛起的海報。我想要觸碰更真實的東西，像是親人，所以翻找相本與搜尋google，真實與虛構原來都是圖像。我走上了街，那裡有關於圖像的慶典，觀景窗裡面每一個人都瞪著我，像是觸犯了某種圖像世界的禁忌——詢問意義就是一種罪。我不知道救贖之道在哪裡，只想拍下每天經過的花草與事物，它們自顧自的存在，就像人一樣。如果攝影的兩端，自我與世界都是一片虛無，那讓我停留在中間，從圖像中尋找一絲絲慰藉。
這個展與兩件事有關，一是過去二十年，圖像充斥我們的生活，人們觀看手機、平板、電腦乃至各種廣告、報章圖片的時間，已經遠遠超過我們觀看真實的世界。就某個程度上「圖像」是經驗上更具體的真實。攝影作為一個面對真實的藝術，究竟應當如何處理它？
第二件事是，這幾年我認識了一些攝影的朋友，我們一直有一個隱隱的邊緣感，但是說來好笑的是，大家又會以為對方站在某種不邊緣的狀態。或許在我們「想像」中，有一個「中心」的攝影：譬如強調攝影技藝、關懷社會，又或是熟練的使用「當代」語彙。而當我們處理圖像的同時，就像是在尋找一個自我的機制，一個在藝術與攝影之外新的東西。
這兩件事共同指向一個問題：我們這一時代的攝影是什麼？又或著說，每一個「我」的攝影是什麼？這個問題就像定義過去的攝影一樣困難。所以「圖像與機制」只是一個開端，而非答案。如果這一時代的攝影有什麼一致的景觀，那就是無數孤立的心智面對無數的影像，但如果觀看者理解其中的運行的機制，就會發現那其實是一個個宇宙，我們創造，然後靜靜的旁觀它。
——汪正翔 (本展策展人)
The world seems to be inseparably entangled with ‘images’ – similar to that of a hung poster, the volcano on the screen, ocean scenes made up by disposable materials, potted plants sporadically found in alley ways. Since I wanted to touch upon subjects more realistic in nature, perhaps something similar to what ‘family’ entails, I went and looked through all albums and google search hits. At the end of my pursuit, I found reality and fiction are all just constructed simulacrums…
I ventured out to the streets in search of a possible festival of imageries. Everyone seems to be staring back at me through the viewfinder, as if a taboo in the image realm was committed – as if asking what ‘meanings’ these all make is a sort of crime?
I have little idea where the path of redemption is and merely want to record the everyday objects and events I experience, to allow the everydayness a self-serving existence – as if by so doing, they will possess a shared human quality.
If the self and the world are the only two things separated by the viewfinder in the realm of photography and what is between these two places is a void nothingness, please allow me to stay in the in-between where I can seek solace in the captured images.
This exhibition is about two things. First, simulacrums have filled our modern life for the past two decades. Compared to the amount of time we spend looking at the real world, people spend more time browsing smartphones, tablets, computers, all kinds of advertisements, as well as the images in the news. To a certain degree, simulated ‘imageries’ are more realistic empirically. How should photography as a creative medium that is entangled with the very idea of realism and reality deal with this phenomenon?
Second, I have the pleasure to make acquaintance of some friends in creative photography. We all share a sense of marginality, but funny enough, we all think of one another is situated in an opposite position of marginality. Perhaps in our ‘imagination,’ there is a thing called ‘mainstream’ or ‘central’ photography – something along the line of placing emphasis on photographic technique, social awareness, or a lingo that belongs to the ‘contemporary.’ Perhaps what we indeed share when processing photos and images is a quest for a mechanism that delineates a consciousness of the self, something that is beyond both art and photography…?
The two things mentioned above both pointed to one central question: what is the photography of our age? In another word, what is the photography for the individual ‘self’? This might be as difficult a question to answer like attempting to summarize and define photography of the past eras. This exhibition ‘Imagery and Mechanism’ is only a starting point and by no means the complete answer. If there is a universal landscape characteristic of the photography of our age, it must be the phenomenon of countless isolated minds confronting countless imageries – but only if the onlooker unravels the mechanism embedded in such phenomenon, can you really see that this phenomenon is a universe we first created and then stood aside to observe stealthily.
— Cheng-Sean Wang (curator)
Photographs © / courtesy of the artists