文/策展人 張聰賢


「此端、彼端」所言即是攝影中的看與被看的關係，從文化的過度與穿越到性別的凝視，作為一種最直接的創作語言「攝影」，如何製造影像與影像如何被看見的參照關係，影像怎樣建構一種如索引般的性別想像與文化脈絡的引渡。影像就一個視覺意義「此端」向觀者毫不保留地展項在外，「彼端」是作者的特有的視覺場域，在創作的脈絡下以一種生產之姿再現直觀多面向的影像語言。

此次展出特別挑選貞君一項系列作品，目的在於以一種閱讀索引的方式，讓觀者可以走入她多元的影像世界中。從〈紅眠床〉，作品以直觀的特寫方式，將舊物作為符號隱喻，表達的不僅僅是對於舊事物的懷舊，而是以舊事物去探究屬於她生命的經驗過程，以直覺的記憶及與懷舊意識通過攝影的蒙太奇製造另一層次影像的延異。〈沈澱/虛無〉概念性的敘述語言，影像的漂浮展現出詭異與略帶漂流的情境，結構性影展，即物般的改寫現實的外在觀看經驗，看似一種實驗性的影像，更像一種試著面對影像氾濫焦慮時代的返回與否定。〈紅線的另一端〉表達著大齡女性對於婚姻的一種想像，婚紗是一種鏡像，幸福成為自戀式的渴望，虛構式的描述刻板文化中對女性的壓抑。婚紗象徵女性對於婚姻的渴望或是無形的制約與反諷性的符號。或許在這系列作品中更值得讓觀者思考，所謂「剩女」一詞標示著對女性一種單身稱謂或是性別歧視。

當攝影者藉由影像穿過一個文化的感受，快門不僅是一個瞬間，而是攝影者支配了影像如何展現的意涵。貞君將攝影做為表象世界的意義時間工具，以攝影再現另一種文化語言，在創作中所有的主題意涵被她透過觀景窗安置出一種相互的指涉關係，似乎意圖在影像世界中剝除歷史的刻板觀看印象，並就藝術形式的文本結構，將影像的隱喻以攝影手法安置在觀看的視線之外，無論是可見之身體或是隱喻的性別存在，作品在隱匿的視線邊界，在看與被看之間相互流動。

貞君的影像無非是一種將即存世界透過攝影重新排列給予作品一種自我觀照的理想。她的攝影作品更像如羅蘭‧巴特所言：「沒有符碼的訊息。」攝影對她而言更像是在創作之路自我追尋的方式，自由而沈穩的創作底蘊，樸質的表達屬於她的影像語彙。她的作品所有的意義不僅僅限制在於可見的視線之間，對於記憶與意識的乘載，讓我們可以透過此次作品沉浸其中，與貞君在影像的世界裡，去建構一種性別與物質及社會彼此的關係與想像。


策展人｜張聰賢
藝術家｜周貞君
展期｜2022.03.26 - 05.08
開幕茶會｜2022.03.26 (六) 14:00
講座｜2022.03.26 (六) 15:00
地點｜102當代藝術空間


This End Versus That End discusses the interconnection between seeing and being seen in photography. It is about how photography—providing an entrance to culture and male/female gaze—as one of the most direct creative languages, produces both images and the reference of how they are perceived. It is also about how images can form an imagination of genders that is like a kind of index, and an introduction to its cultural context. As for its visual presentation, this end of image is frankly displayed for its audience, while that end refers to a particular visual realm that belongs to the author, and thus represents an intuitive and diverse language of imagery with the posture of a producer in the creative context.

In this exhibition, to guide viewers into Chou’s diverse world of image in a way that is similar to reading an index, we particularly selected a series work.
In Red Sleep Bed, an item from older generation becomes a symbol and a metaphor through her direct closeup shot. Being more than a feeling of nostalgia for old things, it is a study of her life experience through these things and items. Thus the artist has created the diffêrance of image with her intuitive memory and nostalgia via photographic montage.
In the conceptual narrative language of Reflection/Nothingness, the drifting image displays a bizarre and slightly rootless background, rewriting our external visual experience of reality with a pragmatic approach; like a film festival with structure. As an experimental work, it is more like a kind of backtracking and denial of the era of information explosion and anxiety.
The Other End of the Red Cord demonstrates an imagination of marriage by unmarried women—the wedding dress becomes a mirror, while happiness is the narcissistic wish. This piece is a fictional depiction of the repression of women from a culture with prejudice. A wedding dress may symbolize women’s desire for marriage; it can also be a sign of invisible restrictions and irony. Perhaps this series may stimulate viewers to contemplate that the term “Leftover girl” signifies description of a single state as well as sexism.

As the photographer penetrates through a cultural perception via her image, clicking the shutter button takes more than a moment of time; it requires the photographer’s presentation arrangement of the image. Using photography as a meaningful tool in the world of representation, Chou represents another kind of cultural language through photography. In her creation, all the motifs and themes are in mutual referencing connection under the arrangement via her viewing window. It is seemingly her intention to detach her image from stereotypical historic point of impression. The text structure of her artistic expression places the metaphor out of sight via photographic techniques; her work wanders at the boundary of the invisible, roaming about the distinction between seeing and being seen, whether it is about a visible body or a metaphorical gender issue.

Chou’s images present a rearrangement of the existing world through photography, which provides her work a characteristic of self-reflective ideal. Her photographic work is like a message without a code, in Roland Barthes’s words. Fro her, photography is like a way to quest for self, on a creative journey that provides a free yet steady artistic expression through which she can unpretentiously express in a visual language of her own. The meaning in her work is not limited within the visible; its weight of memory and consciousness brings us to contemplate, and hence, to create a kind of imagination—an interrelationship between gender, material, and society.