This book is a temporary meeting room, allowing you to move around the space and touch the works, and even occupy it for a period of time, if you wish. As you are present now, we have the opportunity to invite you to participate in these two social events, one is happening in the common space in the hospital, the other is a series of ceremonies taking place after the funeral. Artists I-Chien Tang and Fang-Jui Chang lost their grandfather and grandmother on July 11th 2019 and December 11th 2018, respectively. Over the course of time they observed the chaotic nature in these events and how they affected family members, patients, the deceased and themselves. In the wake of that duration, two visual essays were developed — Hospital and Hospitality and Ceremony as a Form of Imagination.
The work Hospital and Hospitality takes common space in the hospital as the primary scene, inviting viewers to enter a shelter in temporary service. Within this space the patient is no longer obliged to their responsibility as patient, but becoming the host to fulfil needs, desires, placing different demands on discursive formation. Such effective investment not only temporarily releases the tension, anxiety and commitment but also constitutes the psychological dimension of freedom. Emotional contact is the primary concern in this hospitable relationship and those who can activate and modify the current conditions are the ones who behold the power to claim the authority. Looking after those desires to be sustained, nourished, protected and cared for, the communal space is designed to inhabit new configurations of relations and provides a shelter in temporary service.
A selection of black and white photography Ceremonies as a Form of Imagination places the viewer in a theatrical setting, reperforming the memory in participation of families and objects. Reflection and emergence both depart from mourning but are then replaced by a series of actions in the ceremony, such as burning praying money, smashing a ceramic medical pot or offering a bowl of rice or fruit. During the ritual, the goodwill and preparation are trusted to be delivered to the deceased, however the arrival is not able to be confirmed. A fictional story is then built, the imagination of the whole performance dominates the practice in the ceremony and transforms itself into energy to overcome sorrow and their loss.
A Collection of Remedy is also accompanied on the book cover, the ways of healing can be deep breathing, imaging your body is like seagrass, loosening ankles, two hands are like two snakes looking for food, moving from one side of the wave to another. Those remedies are shared as public resources allowing everyone to connect the black dots as desired. Whether in the visible or imaginative world, we all need a social space for mutual dependence and support. The gaze co-performed by I-Chien Tang and Fang-Jui Chang is not only for themselves but for their beloved grandparents on the other side.
這本書是一個臨時的會議室，允許你在空間任意走動觸碰這充滿流動質地的作品，甚至佔領這裡一段時間。因為你在這裡，我們才有機會邀請你參與這個公共空間 — 一個是熟悉的醫院交誼聽，一個是喪禮之後的一系列儀式。創作者唐逸芊和張芳睿分別在2019年7月11日及2018年12月11日失去她們的外公及外婆。她們觀察此事件中作用於家人、病人（往生者）、自己及場所裡混沌的「自然狀態」，發展出兩個子題 — 醫院及待客關係及儀式作為想像的一種形式。
唐逸芊以醫院為基地邀請讀者觀看公共空間中由病患臨時建立起的一個服務性質庇護。病患唯有在醫院的公共空間裡才能除去病患的身份，不被治療，逃逸至私有的想像中，解放慾望。患者成為主體，鬆動那些擁有權力的理性、秩序和意識，這個固定的架構因此被瓦解，患者成為治療別人（自己）的人。而這個暫時性的待客關係比任何其他的關係都來的緊急和需要，能改變現狀的一方就是掌握權力的人。
張芳睿的儀式黑白攝影，則透過再製記憶，以喪禮儀式呈現劇場感的想像空間，將經驗透過瞬間的人與物件的演出，重新呈現回憶、追思、安撫、解放的過程，作為想像力的實踐。那些「行動式」的祝願像是祭拜食物、摔破陶壺、焚燒紙錢，都是在世者堅信的想像，這種想像能夠作為轉換認知、心境與狀態的基礎。
我們需要的是「治癒的集合」(Collection of Remedy)，那些修復的方法可以是深呼吸、身體是海裡的水草、鬆動腳踝、兩隻手像兩條蛇在尋找食物、從波浪的一邊到另一邊等，它們都是這本書封面的黑色點點，公共資源自由取用。不論是在可見或幻象的世界裡，我們都需要互依互持的社會性空間，如同唐逸芊和張芳睿在封面想像他們兩個親人在綠意盎然的另一頭互看及陪伴。
225 x 300 mm
Published in Taiwan in 2020
First print 200 copies
Litho printing and digital printing
Hardcover
English + Mandarin
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Exhibited at
2022 Stour Gallery, London
2021 BOOKED: HONG KONG ART BOOK FAIR, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong