10:10
The fake clock
61 Quicks Rd, London SW19 1EH
This is a documentary project on continuous daily actions which amplify the sense of the interaction between human and object, and perturb the dominance over an object that mankind presume they have.
The motive for doing this was uncertain at the beginning, it happened to me to have a glance on the Clock while I was on bus in a traffic jam. Then I realized no one was paying attention to it, “Is it because it’s not functioning”, or “Maybe they are just used to it”, I thought to myself. It was just a simple thought, “What if I drop by here at the same time as how it is painted, and pay my awareness toward it, will this make you a real clock?”
I began this project on 31th May. Since I wasn’t sure about the intention of this project, it took many days for me to exam different means of documenting it, such as film and photography. At beginning, regarding the time shifting, I chose to film the Clock from 10:09:50 a.m. to 10:10:59 a.m. to specify this very period of a day that the Clock was working. After a week filming, the outcome disappointed me cause of its pointlessness. I came to realize the seconds from 10:10:01 to 10:10:59 would get me into side track since there was no Second hand painted on the Clock. Struggling with whether 10:10:01 to 10:10:59 was defined included in 10:10, I cut it off, left only 10:09:50 to 10:10:10 and hided the seconds on the display. It turned out more focused but still not satisfied me.
20-seconds footage was still lacking something, as I dwelled into it deeper the intention became clearer: “I want to get closer to the Clock”. If what was lacking was the Second hand, then why wouldn’t I play the role of the Second hand for it? So in the next week, I set up the video camera tripod, tried to align with the second of the time and film me walking through in front of it. The Clock is located at a very bustling intersection with vehicles passing by almost every half minute in the morning, and to film it, I needed to set the tripod at the middle of the road, I succeeded about three times, but failed to film it continuously.
The experiment on the means hit the end of the Jun, I still couldn’t find the best way to tell the linkage between the Clock and me. I stared at the photograph I took on 31th May and pondered myself: all that matters is the exact moment.
I restarted the project on first August. By simplifying it to the minimal level, finally came out the most direct, unimpeded way, photograph. The fact of the 10:10 is merely a slice of the loaf named time; it has no thickness, no time period within. Every moment in time flow is unattachable and exists solely which should not be presented by a thing with length such as video.
My initial idea was to make the Clock clock. “Attain or register (a specified time, distance, or speed)” cited from Oxford dictionary as I looked in to the definition of the verb of clock. And by choosing a proper action, taking photo, I finally could start to play the role of hand for the not-functioning clock.
It was a one-month project documenting it by taking photographs, collecting them and perceiving the interaction among this continuous behaviour. As the project went on, the aim of it revealed itself. The motive of making the Clock function as its appearance, was out of sympathy, a mankind affection but shared with an object. This alluded to an obsession with objects which differs from Fetishism. When it comes to Fetishism, the inherent power of human-made object over human would be implied; somehow in this case, though the Clock may have its appealing force due to its linkage with the great nature—time, the affection of sympathy toward the Clock declared no dominance from the Clock, but from human.
Regarding the complexity and the main purpose, I would like to put the idea of time aside as a kind of background, the great nature that I and the clock both bath in. As the project continued, the affection I mentioned above became more intense and clearer. Since the sympathy derived from empathy, this emotional projection revealed that there was a process of anthropomorphization underwent in my perspective. I was unconsciously personalizing the Clock, building up the relationship and the connection with the Clock, even till the end of August when the project was supposed to end, I cancelled my originally plan for September and decided to carry on this project as long as I can.
In the first month, there were several times I felt bored, exhausted even irritated because of the over-regular timetable, it was not like work that you know you can rest on the weekend, nor eating or sleeping that brings you physical joy. In the first week I felt my mobility, freedom, even humanity were deprived. Tehching Hsieh, a Taiwanese performance artist, his work” One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece)” associated with time and human being in a much longer scale. My project was similar to his in the term of doing something at certain moment, and we suffered the same feeling from the repetition. However, what made the differences was that his project aimed to depict life itself by aligning with time; mine was to do something for the object I care about via the repetitive action.
When the project continued in September, all the pain and bad feeling just ceased without being noticed, instead I felt calm and careless about the jammed traffic, two-hours communicating, or even the peeping from the passer-by. I stopped questioning why I did this, just focused on doing it. I assumed that while I was anthropomorphizing the Clock, the reification by the Clock also happened on me. It was mutual process; somehow I only saw the personalization but ignored the objectification. Things I struggled were the symptoms of the discomforts while being objectified.
“Did I make the Clock clock? Or part of myself became the clock?” Whether these questions were answered seemed no longer matter. In the end of September, I ended the project without feeling relieved or reminiscent. By collecting all the photographs and making the two-months project into a less-than four-minutes film, the mutual movement of both reification and anthropomorphization was documented and revealed.
Carpet
“Carpet” is a morally disturbing installation, which is just how I wanted it to be. By allowing viewers to interact (destroy) it directly, the action of consumption would be precisely elaborated solely without the joy of obtaining goods that consumers wanted, viewers were forced to face the consequences of consumption, naked and unfortified.
Before the work “Carpet”, I’ve been working on the material, bubble wrap for half year, experimenting different means of its utility. “Meant to be broken”, the spirit of bubble wrap is just so contrary to the fact it is produced, which is the paradox that kept intriguing me. I thought about using other disposal materials such as disposal chopsticks, cups, and plastic bags a year ago before I found bubble wrap, and tried many ways to make use of them in my work, but none of them reached the simplicity I expected, because there were always other actions (eating, drinking, carrying) involved before they were disposed or destroyed.
I started with an idea which is to apply a contrary intention to the material. I collected the bubble wraps from my parcels, nicely cut one bubble from it, and then attached it to my wedding ring, as a disguise of a diamond. There were many paradoxes in this piece: hardness and significances between diamond and bubble. A diamond on a ring represents the expectation toward marriages, which people wish it to last forever and stay the same; these elements are totally opposite to bubble wrap. Though I found this practice interesting, too many layers of metaphors within made it somehow a bit pretentious and clamorous.
Then I moved on to the practice. Influenced by the work of Hirose Satoshi “Beans Cosmos”, by using crystal resin to incise the moment from a constant time flow, I lead viewers’ eyes through a transparent lens which amplifies the sense of lights, distance and ambiance that apply on the sealed bubble wrap. Turning a meant-to-be-destroyed item into a permanent form when it was still intact, I drew a question mark upon the object. I enjoyed in the calmness and steadiness in this sculpture, as well as the process of creating it. For me, it expressed more by saying less. Without the ideas and metaphors, this piece became elastic and direct for viewers to zoom in the appearance and material itself.
Recently I happened to know the artists that changed me: Hans Haacke and Francis Alÿs. Hans Haacke’s idea of art works don’t need to be preserved in physical way, and Francis Alÿs’s work “Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing”, set my mind on fire, I desired to make works that affect people with the process, not the substance.
My statue work could still be improved in scale and arrangement. However, since I would like to create more aggressive and non-substance works, this kind of statue seemed too safe to disturb the senses of viewers. Thus, I needed to start a new project.
25th September 2018, I went to see the art work of Urs Fischer —“Dasha”. It was a larger-than-life-size wax candle depicting Dasha Zhukova, a personal friend of the artist. The thing that triggered me the most was that, this work would be burned out during the exhibition, just as how a candle should be. Then I pondered to myself, if the bubble wrap is the only material that I’m going to use, how about just processing it as the way it should be? And throughout all the experiments I’ve conducted, I realized what that is worth experiencing of the bubble wrap, is the action of consumption at all time. I wanted to abuse the viewers by making them carry out the action, which is to consume (destroy) the bubble wrap.
After I made my mind, I began to seek the proper way to display. Carl Andre: Things in Their Elements inspired me on the usage of materials within the space. And his work “Copper Ribbon” was such an amazing work that the material lied in on the floor, it lived freely in the room. If the viewers weren’t told the title, they won’t link the work as a ribbon; but after knowing it, it would amuse your brain will brilliant joy. I appreciated this method a lot; it was like playing with the space, material and naming.
Furniture like chair, sofa and bed were all considered as a form to display bubble wrap. Eventually I decided to choose the carpet due to its simplicity and the way it interacts with human. Viewers would need to step on it: think about stepping on something, it often related people to the idea of humiliation or carelessness. But when viewers were forced to consume an intact thing for no purpose which was actually wasting, then people would become refusing to such a disputable action. Comparing the work to their daily consumption, the scale of this Carpet was way too exaggerated that amplified senses and disturbing feelings, which made the experience of the action intense and aggressive.
Setting the installation of Carpet, and observing the reactions of viewers satisfied me so well, which made me know that I found the purpose of creating art. My works are meant to confuse, disturb people and create chaos among this seemed reasonable world. By amplifying, ceasing or interrupting the experience among the linear sensing process, put holes in happiness of granted nature, and drop question marks on objects, actions and intentions. As an artist, I deem confusing people as my obligation and where I found my joy.
“we consume, but how?”