Family Album |
Single-channel videos x 4, LED screen, pictures, histrorial archives, frames, architectural freehand drawing print on acrylic, acrylic frames.
Dimension Variable 2016 |
The unexpected appearance of a personal family photo album spanning the years of Japanese colonial rule and the arrival of the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan must be an inexplicably special experience for an artist whose interest in Taiwanese history is long standing. As a descendent of a family line, Fei-Hao Chen sees a complete life history, documenting his grandmother from girlhood to her later years; but from his perspective as a Taiwanese historian, the photo album reveals how the transition and dissolution of power in a nation can determine the fate of an ordinary family. Caught between the personal and the national, between individual historical perspectives and historical perspectives dictated by each regime, Chen attempts to use his family history as a main blueprint through which he interprets the far-reaching implications on the Taiwanese people, of regime changes from the Japanese colonial era to the years of the Republic.
Family Album comprises two parts; the firstis entitled National Archive, and the second, Family Documents in Translation. Both focus discussion on issues of “private memory and public memory” and “discrepancies in individual memories under regime change.” Public buildings that appear in Family Album--the Taiwan Governor Museum (now National Taiwan Museum),the Taiwan Education Association Building (which became the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council after World War II, then the AIT American Cultural Center; now National 228 museum), and the Taiwan Gokoku Shrine (now National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine) provide a basis from which contemplation extends forth. “Fragmentation,” the main conceptual axis that connects the works in this project plan, is apparent in the executive archives of the government institutions, language, culture, national identity, and cityscape. This fragmentation may have created the contemporary condition of difficulty in solidifying a Taiwanese national identity, but relatively speaking, could the name “Taiwan” signify a medium for open perspectives based on its multiplicity of imagination and cross-border historical contexts? This is a main point of focus for this project.
Family Album comprises two parts; the firstis entitled National Archive, and the second, Family Documents in Translation. Both focus discussion on issues of “private memory and public memory” and “discrepancies in individual memories under regime change.” Public buildings that appear in Family Album--the Taiwan Governor Museum (now National Taiwan Museum),the Taiwan Education Association Building (which became the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council after World War II, then the AIT American Cultural Center; now National 228 museum), and the Taiwan Gokoku Shrine (now National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine) provide a basis from which contemplation extends forth. “Fragmentation,” the main conceptual axis that connects the works in this project plan, is apparent in the executive archives of the government institutions, language, culture, national identity, and cityscape. This fragmentation may have created the contemporary condition of difficulty in solidifying a Taiwanese national identity, but relatively speaking, could the name “Taiwan” signify a medium for open perspectives based on its multiplicity of imagination and cross-border historical contexts? This is a main point of focus for this project.
對於一個長期關注台灣歷史的藝術創作者來說,一本記錄自我家庭,時序跨越日治與民國照相簿的出現,想必是一個難以言喻的特殊經驗。身為家族後代,我看到的是一位至親女性,即祖母從少女時代到年老的完整生命歷程,但另一個台灣史研究者的身份又讓我在這本相簿中看到了整個國家政權的轉換與消解,如何左右平民家族的命運。在私人與國家,人本史觀與各政權主導的史觀之間,我試著以家族故事為主要藍本,詮釋由日治到民國時期的政權更迭,對台灣人民的深遠影響。本作共分兩個部分,一為〈國家檔案〉(National archive)二為〈家族史翻譯文件〉(Family documents in translation),各以「私人記憶與公共記憶」和「私人記憶與政權更迭下的落差」為探討重點,並以三座出現在家族照相簿中的公共建築:台灣總督府博物館(今國立台灣博物館)、台灣教育會館(戰後台灣省參議會、美國文化中心,今二二八國家紀念館)與台灣護國神社(今國民革命忠烈祠)為基礎思考延伸。在這個計畫創作中,「斷裂」是串起整個作品的主軸概念,也顯見於日治台灣與民國台灣這兩個不同時期中,統治機構的行政檔案、語言、文化、國族認同與城市地景,這樣的斷裂雖造成現今台灣國族認同難以凝聚的狀態,但相對來說,這樣多重想像且跨越國界的歷史情境能不能讓「台灣」這個名詞作為一個開放觀點的想像媒介?即是本作思考的重點之一。
家族史翻譯文件
日本與中華民國是台灣歷史上透過標準化國民教育進行「國語教育」的唯二政權,其截然不同的日本語和中文教育體系,更造成了台灣社會在世代溝通與文化傳承的語言斷裂。生於當代社會多以中文為主要溝通媒介的我,對於祖父母輩過去在日治時期以日文為社會通用語的生命經驗,更充滿著難以言喻的疏離感,我透過一張張的家族舊照片,用自己熟悉的中文寫出他們的故事,最後將這些文字翻譯成日文,並刻意將文中的漢字與平、片假名分開。中文與日語使用者雖能從零星的漢字約略地猜出照片背後的故事,但卻無法理解完整的情節,我也透過該種「無法解讀」與看似熟悉實則不然的尷尬情境,詮釋政權更迭後,台灣人民面對的文化崩壞和語言斷層。
家族史翻譯文件
日本與中華民國是台灣歷史上透過標準化國民教育進行「國語教育」的唯二政權,其截然不同的日本語和中文教育體系,更造成了台灣社會在世代溝通與文化傳承的語言斷裂。生於當代社會多以中文為主要溝通媒介的我,對於祖父母輩過去在日治時期以日文為社會通用語的生命經驗,更充滿著難以言喻的疏離感,我透過一張張的家族舊照片,用自己熟悉的中文寫出他們的故事,最後將這些文字翻譯成日文,並刻意將文中的漢字與平、片假名分開。中文與日語使用者雖能從零星的漢字約略地猜出照片背後的故事,但卻無法理解完整的情節,我也透過該種「無法解讀」與看似熟悉實則不然的尷尬情境,詮釋政權更迭後,台灣人民面對的文化崩壞和語言斷層。
Video installation |
Family Documents in Translation_ Condensed version |