Showing posts with label 現代藝術. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 現代藝術. Show all posts

Sunday, August 16, 2009

紐約現代藝術館: 宋冬「物盡其用」

In psychiatry, sometimes patients do not want any help. Sometimes they positively refused help. At other times the help may not be all that good. As a result, children often had to grow up in very unusual environments. However, we sometimes get unusual outcomes as some individual can turn such an experience into something ……well, something quite extraordinary.

Obsessional Compusive Disorder (OCD) is one such condition that many families prefer to cope with secretly and often for many many years.

In a chapter in The Cockroach Catcher called: Who Is The Real Patient?

Wayne is a teenage boy I have been seeing because he could not face school:

“……After nine months, Wayne finally opened up to me.

Mother never threw away anything. Nothing at all!

Except wet waste, which was a relief.

This was a serious case of OCD (Obsessional Compulsive Disorder). It was still a great shock to have the full extent of the things that were kept detailed to you. Even a five bedroom house soon ran out of space.

Wayne told me that as far as he knew, mother had always been reluctant to throw away anything but it seemed to get out of control about five years ago when she discovered that father kept a woman in a port in the Far East. She moved out of the master bed-room and the rubbish moved in. Everything was neatly put in big rubbish bags and properly tied up. Some were in apple or other supermarket boxes. Even vacuum cleaner bags were kept.

Mother did a good job of it so that there was no bad smell at all, Wayne would reassure me. Just no space.

All these months, I had been thinking that the bullying was the cause of Wayne’s problem. Did I get it wrong? All the time I spent trying to improve his self esteem, was it time wasted? Was there something I could have done earlier? Why did he take nine months?

Perhaps he needed that time to find out if I was going to send his mother to an asylum. Perhaps he needed all that time to trust me enough to talk about the sickest person in the family. Perhaps he never had any plan but the secret just came out.

Perhaps these were all valid explanations, but what could we as a clinic do?”

Chapter 19 The Cockroach Catcher

Recently, I visited The Museum Of Modern Art ( MOMA)in New York and saw something that reminded me of my patient’s mother.

Mr. Song Dong is the artist and his mother is called Ms. Zhao.

紐約現代藝術館: 宋冬「物盡其用」

新浪周靜然紐約報道


Waste Not: Projects 90 MOMA /©2009 Am Ang Zhang

驟眼看上去,以為是拾荒者檢來人家的棄物,當這所有棄物整整齊齊地置放一起,充斥一片大空間後,就逞現了一種獨有的歷史味道,尤其是中國文化大革命時期的生活氣息,那一代人的生活種種。

  這是中國藝術家宋冬「物盡其用」(projects 90: Song Dong)的裝置藝術展,也是紐約現代藝術館(The Museum of Modern Art 簡稱MoMA)第一次為中國當代藝術家舉辦的個展。


Waste Not: Projects 90 MOMA /©2009 Am Ang Zhang

  專程從北京來紐約的宋冬不但把所展出超過千件物品運來紐約,而且展場中間的木屋,也是他一家曾經在北京四合院住過的一木一板房間。地下僻出每個角落放置數百對大大小小的舊鞋,陳舊的建築雜誌一堆堆,一張雙人床上放了數百件衣物,充滿歷史味道的衣柜上放了大大小小的暖水壺,也有數之不盡的膠水瓶,破舊的梳化椅放了很多過時的洋娃娃,最令人驚奇的是那一支支壓得扁平而直的牙膏和鈕扣整齊地放在一起,你能想到的生活用品,都可在展場看到.

Waste Not: Projects 90 MOMA /©2009 Am Ang Zhang

宋冬表示,這其實不單止是他的個展,而且是他與年初過身的母親趙湘源在2005年起共同創作的。他母親一向都不喜歡扔東西,所有不合用都收藏起來,而他有一個大家庭,宋冬與姐姐不但與父母及祖父母同住,更與叔伯親戚共住在北京四合院中,因此多年下來,所累積物品不計其數。宋冬表示,「物盡其用」的靈感始於2002年父親去世後,為了試圖令母親從悲痛中走出來,母親把曾經她家用過的東西一一安排的過程中,打開舊有的包袱,解開過程中賦予新生命。今年年初母親也過世,因此展覽場的牆上,以藍色霓紅燈寫上「爸爸,別擔心,我們和媽媽都挺好的。」流露了作者對親情的懷念。


Waste Not: Projects 90 MOMA /©2009 Am Ang Zhang

宋冬1966年生於北京,致力於影像、裝置及行為表演等具實驗性的藝術創作,其作品過去曾在紐約畫廊及亞洲協會展出過,紐約MoMA是世界重量級的現代藝術館,在國際藝術領域具重要影響力及學術地位,這次MoMA為宋冬辦個展,代表了宋冬多年來藝術生涯中一次重要的肯定。