2020
4 min 16 sec
錄像 video
作品介紹：
該作品將微生物學作為探究「內共生美學」的方法，由微生物的能動性解構人對於個體的執著。系列作品中的錄像及物件裝置試著製造感性的分裂，從縫中滲出污染與被污染的生存模式。
故事始於「腸道中的大腦」，置換認知和能動性的來源。我們現在明白，人類腸道中的微生物群影響著我們的自我認同及行為感受。微生物從很久前便主宰著萬物的發展。
比如說，在人類演化的時間軸中如果沒有一組來自病毒的 Arc 基因造就腦部的神經突觸，人們的「思考」能力會變成什麼模樣？主導著人類自我感官的「能動性」可以是複數的嗎？在《植物的慾望》中，邁克爾·波倫寫道：「我們的語法教會我們將世界分為主動主體和被動客體，但在共同進化關係中，每個主體也是客體，每個客體都是主體。」這是作者在一個炎夏午後跪在花園裡，汗流浹背地照料著馬鈴薯時得到的結論。誰是真正被馴化的？是他還是馬鈴薯？
長久以來，微生物一直是研究體系和產業中的勞動者，但我們對它們了解多少？語言對他們來說是什麼？慾望是什麼？何為生死？在這個故事中，污染被視為與他者成立親屬關係的一種方式。污染作為一個能指，它既是物質的——內共生；微生物群；人類病毒組——同時也是情感的，入侵意識的那一刻——同理心、驚奇或介於兩者之間的東西。
藝術家介紹：
1989 年生於臺北，現居紐約。
畢業於麻省理工學院藝術文化與科技所。作品跨越多種媒材與形式，從玻璃至細菌、證件到糞便。近年創作以「內共生美學」為題，反向操作生物科技的語彙與方法，以探討人類作為共生體，對非人類生命體的義務與責任。目前與MIT Media Lab 太空探索倡議合作，拍攝以解殖為背景的微生物太空西部片，試圖脫離殖民的隱喻看待太空。作品曾獲得「高雄獎」首獎、「全國美術獎」、「臺北美術獎」、「台北數位藝術獎」等。展覽經歷包括：國立臺灣美術館，臺灣（2021）；Mana Contemporary，美國（2020）；BAIT15，阿布達比（2020）；高雄市立美術館，臺灣（2018）；羅德島博覽中心，美國（2017）；台北數位藝術節，臺灣（2016）；臺北市立美術館，臺灣（2015）等。
Work Statement:
This archive engages the science of microbiome and fermentation as methods of inquiry into endosymbiotic aesthetics. The video and its accompanying artifacts look for ruptures to create shifts in senseablilities, oozing with entangled forms of collaboration and contamination.
It begins with the “brain in the gut”— a powerful displacement of cognition and agency. We have gut feelings, we get butterflies in our stomachs, we are gutsy. We now understand that our gut microbiome have much to do with who we are and how we feel. There is no point in our physical development that was not heavily influenced by signals from our microbiota. What would thought itself look like without the Arc gene from a virus that allows for neural synapses to occur? Can agency be plural, multiplicitous? In The Botany of Desire Michael
Pollan writes “Our grammar might teach us to divide the world into active subjects and passive objects, but in a coevolutionary relationship every subject is also an object, every object a subject.” He came to this conclusion as he was kneeling in his garden, sweating and tending to his potato plants. He wondered who was truly domesticated? Him or the potato?
Microbes have been laborers in the research and industrial system for a very long time, and yet how much do we know about them? What is language to them? What is desire? Life and death? Here contamination is invoked as a way into kinship. Contamination is invoked as a signifier that is both material—endosymbiosis; microbiome; the human virome—and affect, the moment that intrudes consciousness—empathy, wonder, or something in between.
Biography:
Born 1989 in Taipei, Taiwan, and currently based in New York, USA.
Her practice is research-based and materially-informed, spanning across multiple disciplines and materials; from hot glass to fibroblasts, passports to fecal sports. Her recent works speculate on microbial ethics within interplanetary travel, reconstructing colonial narratives through alternative cosmologies regarding the celestial and its extended voyages. She has participated in exhibitions include: National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2021); Mana Contemporary, the United States (2020); BAIT15, Abu Dhabi (2020); Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2018); Rhode Island Convention Center, the United States (2017); Taipei Digital Art Fair, Taiwan (2016); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2015).
攝影：ANPIS FOTO 王世邦。國立臺灣美術館提供。
Photographer: Anpis Wang. Courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
