Inland Sea

Three pieces of wooden stand, iron filing cabinet, clay objects, and three sketches; three pieces of single-channel video
site-specific installation
2019

“There was a fish in the Northern ocean whose name is Kun." - “Zhuangzi · Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease."

“Khun-sin” describes the bulging back of a whale. In addition to being one of Taiwan's many ancient names, it also marks the parts of mainland island in the lagoons. Looking along the coastline of the old Taijiang Inner Sea, they seem like half of the whales sinking in the water.
Just half a year after Zit-Dim art space opened next to Yongfu Elementary School, under the guidance of history buffs, I discovered that there are parts of the Qing Dynasty relics hiding in the high-rise alley behind the elementary campus. They are the two scenes of the "Taiwan Eight Views” in the Qing Dynasty: “Watch the Sea at Chengtai” and “The Crashing Tides of Feiting.” But after the actual visit, I only saw an indistinguishable stone monument with a few bright red characters on it. Living in a city connected by tarred roads, it is hard to imagine seeing the sea and hearing the tides here. I thought it was just a kind of poetic metaphor, but after chatting with the neighbours, I’ve learnt that the Inner Sea of the Taijiang's coastline was the now “Ximen Road” where we pass by almost every day in the Qing Dynasty. Due to river diversion and sedimentation, the geographical “Tainan”we know today was formed.

Back in 2004, a stranded sperm whale was found on the west coast in Yunlin. Its huge body was then Hoisted into a truck and was about to be transferred to Tainan. However, it exploded at the intersection of Ximen Road and Xiaobei Road when on the way to Tainan. Several fixed-angle photos frame the incident by images of different resolutions on the internet and coincidentally covers the coastline we are looking for, inserting an indigestible landmark.
In order to find the bone specimen of the sperm whale, we accidentally stepped into the Taijiang Sperm Whale Museum, which was in a semi-abandoned state in Si Cao. It was raining heavily that day. We brought the photographic equipment to prepare for the negotiation, but I could not even find the ticket booth. The entire Museum was out of power that day and full of moisture. The glass boxes containing whale viscera and dolphins were already full of water droplets on the surface. There then came an illusion, by seeing the pale-white whale bones hanging in the air, we seemed like the creatures that are inopportune and accidentally dived into the deep sea here.

Living in Taiwan where is surrounded by the ocean makes one have an infinite illusion about the inland sea on the island. Taking land or mountains as a frame, the inland sea is like a freshwater lake where rain gathers or a sea view suite next to a highway, engaged and yet divergent at the same time. The exhibition "Inner Sea" starts from the historical landmark "The Crashing Tides of Feiting." However, the work itself does not focus on a certain linear of the human geography of local changes. When the land connected the island, and the Khun-sin submerged into the sea, what kind of spiritual interpretation could we make of the disappeared inland sea? Compared with the clarity of land, the sea seems to symbolise various possibilities. These possibilities can be romantic, tolerant, aggressive, and political. I tried to find out a new sightseeing path from the above seemingly misplaced scenic spots, place names, and events.

內海

木座、檔案鐵櫃、黏土物件、素描三張；單頻道錄像三件
依場地而定
2019


「北暝有魚其名為鯤。」---《莊子·逍遙遊》

鯤鯓（Khun-sin），描述鯨魚隆起的背部，除了作為台灣眾多的古名之一，也標誌著圍繞著潟湖的大陸島，沿著舊時台江內海的海岸線望過去，就像一半沒入水中的鯨群。

節點開幕於永福國小旁剛過了半年，在歷史愛好者的引路下，發現校園後方地勢高突的巷道內，隱藏了部分清代的遺址，正是「台灣八景」中的二景：澄臺觀海與斐亭聽濤，名字聽來壯闊，但實際到訪後，只看見一塊新舊難辨的石碑，題著鮮紅的幾個大字而已。
生活在以柏油路串連的城市，難以想像看見海面、聽聞海濤的情境，原以為只是種文人式的依歸，在與鄰居閒談之中，才得知每日必經的西門路，就是清領時期台江內海的海岸線，因河流改道、泥沙淤積，才形成我們現今理解的地理台南。

回到二零零四年的台南，一隻抹香鯨擱淺在雲林台西海岸，龐大的身軀被吊上貨車，卻在轉運至台南的途中於西門路、小北路交叉口爆炸，網路上流傳著幾張固定角度的照片，但事件本身卻被不同解析度的影像框著，並且在地理位置上巧合地覆蓋在我們所追尋的那條海岸線上，插入了一個難以消化的標地。為了尋找那隻抹香鯨的骨骼標本，意外地踏入位在四草呈現半廢棄狀態的台江鯨豚館中，那天下著大雨，我們帶著攝影器材做好交涉的心理準備，卻連售票亭都找不到，整個標本館呈現斷電的狀態、溢滿著濕氣，泡著鯨魚臟器、海豚的的玻璃箱已經結滿水滴，看見白色的鯨骨懸掛在空中，頓時有種錯覺，彷彿我們才是那個不合時宜、意外潛入深海的生物。

生活在四面環海的台灣，對於島國中的內海有種不著邊際的幻想，以陸地或山巒作為景框，就像雨水匯聚的淡水湖或公路旁併排的海景套房，暨出世又入世。
「內海」這個展覽，從「斐亭聽濤」這個帶有歷史色彩的地標出發，但展覽本身並不著重在針對地方變遷的人文地理上做出某種線性的梳理。當陸地連接島嶼、鯤鯓沒入海中，我們還可以對已經消逝的內海做出什麼樣的精神詮釋？相較於陸地的明確，海彷彿象徵著各種可能性，而在這些可能性裡，它可以是浪漫的、包容的、侵略的、政治的，試圖從上述這些看似錯位的景點、地名和事件之間，繪製出一條新的觀光路徑。