Circle City

video and spatial installation
dimensions variable
2023

Circle City focuses on the square in front of the Changhua Station in Central Taiwan and Sanjiao Park from Taiwan’s Japanese colonial era, highlighting the circumstances and the changes that have occurred at these two public facilities.

Public bicycles can now be rented at the square in front of the station, and it has also become a meeting place for migrant workers on weekends. A fountain stretches around the square, and an opening gap in the fountain’s circular waterway connects to a pedestrian crossway that leads to the city in different directions. The different conversations among the migrant workers there can feel like an invisible and incomprehensible barrier. Every time I pass by the square when returning home, I would feel like the dichotomy of subjective/objective is swapped between me and them, but we are all on the move and trying to make a living somewhere else away from home. It is where home and a foreign land overlap, and a unique space-time is enwrapped by the connected fountain and waterway. It is there where those in a foreign land can momentarily congregate, where they can temporarily find some emotional support. The flowing water suggests the migration of people and the shifting concept of home and state.

Two blocks away from the square is a roundabout that has been converted from Sanjiao Park, and after several twists and turns, the public artwork that was installed there was dismantled in 2022 and turned into a circular platform paved with artificial grass. The turf appears like a set and reflects a detached and empty imagination that people have for their dwelling place. Sanjiao Park’s changes have transpired into a series of events related to this place, perhaps pointing out a way to think about how something should be commemorated or how communal memories should be reflected. The square and Sanjiao Park are located at a bustling hub in Changhua City, and the flat structure that is supposed to present the city’s development appears like a black hole of communal memories. The artwork, Circle City, seeks to excavate this urban space and analyze the realities of the foreign and the local through corresponding perspectives.

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圈圈城

錄像、空間裝置 
尺寸依場地而定
2023

圈圈城聚焦在彰化火車站前的「廣場」與日治時期留下的「三角公園」，兩處公共設施的空間狀態與變遷。

站前廣場除了是公共自行車租賃的場所，也是外籍移工週末的聚集地，廣場四周環繞著一座噴水池，水道中斷的缺口則連接著斑馬線通往市區的四面八方，而移工間語言紛雜的交談成了一道難以理解的無形屏障。每每返鄉經過此地時，我感覺自己與他們就像彼此錯位的主客體，都是因為在異地謀生而往來移動。家鄉與異鄉在此交疊，相連的水池與水道包裹成一個獨特的時空，那是異鄉人凝聚的片刻，暫時性的人情庇護所，水的流動隱含著人的移動與家國概念的遷移。

與廣場相隔兩個街區的三角公園改建成圓環以後，原有的公共藝術在幾經波折後於2022年拆除，徒留一塊鋪上人工草皮的圓形基座。有如佈景般的草皮反映出人對於生活場所的陌生與空洞想像，三角公園的變遷成了一系列的空間事件，也許是一條用以思考紀念為何，抑或是公眾記憶的路徑。站前廣場與三角公園皆位於彰化市車流與人潮來往的中心，扁平的建設形象彷彿集體記憶的黑洞，作品《圈圈城》嘗試從城市空間切入，並以異鄉與在地的相對應視角剖析兩者的現實場景。