Image
In Issue No. 3 of White Text, Tse Ming Chong[1] earnestly criticizes images in contemporary societies, using the word “colonial” to describe those duplicated images: fragmented, mimic, unable to reflect reality. What he points out is that the photographic images have departed from the original intention of photography in pursuit of reality. When photographic equipment is popularized in daily lives, anyone can take snapshots anytime, cross-reference, share, discuss or experience the instant joy brought about by technology. What an image shows may not be where the focus actually lies.
In August 2006, a Hong Kong magazine published a photograph showing a female star getting changed[2]. The incident aroused strong reaction and public opinion about law, morality, and professional conduct etc., all one-sidedly accused the magazine for publishing the photograph. Yet, that issue of the magazine was reprinted and copied by other media, and many people still wanted to have a look at the content of the image. Without movie star, stalkerazzi, and advanced technology, that blurred image might not have aroused much response. Through the different situations behind the image, spectators explored the truth, extended the meaning of the image, and eventually their focus will very often end at a controversial topic.
Artwork
The incorporation of spectators’ participation has made the art scene more colourful, but has also made artwork the most controversial and problematic issue. The nihilistic nature of images will easily become a place for power struggle, enabling the crowds to sometimes override individual artist and become the most influential interpreters of an image. The drifting quality of artwork has become obvious.
Artwork is an artist’s pursuit of visual representation of his/her authenticity, in which he/she visualizes his/her established visual language into visible object of essence. The age of Postmodernism may not be completely right in denying absolute meaning, putting one’s experience of reality into doubt, considering artwork as an independent entity of existence, and encouraging viewers’ active seeing. Discrepancy between viewers’ experience and imagination may easily tend to a compromise, making the repetition of images possible within the scope of public recognition, leading to mutual colonization of images.
Entering Tam Wai Ping’s “Temple”
In 2005, Tam Wai Ping’s[3] “Temple” (Figure 1) was exhibited in White Tube in Hong Kong. White Tube is a students’ gallery of the Hong Kong Art School. The space, which started from zero, is an experimental venue with no particular plan for art development, no historical burden, nor any selection, refusal or examination of renters’ works[4]. When Tam Wai Ping[5] was interviewed, he frankly explained that the reason why he had chosen White Tube to exhibit his work originated from the venue’s absence of pre-assumption. In fact, what has this to do with his work?
The most important image of the work is the image of a temple called Cheng Huang Temple (Figure 2) in Taiwan. The temple, originated in Xia County of Tong An Prefecture of Quan Zhou Government in Fujian Province, was subsequently relocated to the present location. The religious root of the temple originated in being the guardian angel of the city, which later on experienced social changes together with the borough over time, creating a close tie between the temple and the community, and is therefore closer to being the centre of the community. The author has visited the temple. It is located in the Ta-Tao-Cheng old area in Taipei, surrounded by densely populated buildings, looking condensed but with a sense of neighbourhood. There are different kinds of statutes inside, in which the god of matchmaking occupies the largest space. The present manageress is Chen Wen Wen, whose family has managed the temple for more than a hundred years. As you listen to her happily and actively telling you about the history of the temple and the happenings around, you can feel her contentment and enjoyment of her current status. Without pre-assumption, Tam Wai Ping narrates the living culture of the temple, which changes with people’s participation over time and shapes its unique identity and creates all kinds of living conditions.
Tam Wai Ping considers life experience as the most realistic thing. He thinks that there are no adjectives in reality, nor does it need anyone’s interpretation[6]; it is the most primitive state, in which things in process or being pursued are the most substantial and are beyond reasoning. On the contrary, there are too many virtual and limited restrictions in reality. In order to revolt, one has to return to reality. His utopia is a world starting from zero, in which one learn to know and feel things afresh without being influenced by preconceptions. What can make him feel that kind of substantiality?
Interaction between man and land is the most direct sensation and novice experience. Rectangular photographic papers in the elongated venue presented the whole process of making the image. The PVC model of the temple was manufactured by a medium-sized factory with about 30 to 50 workers in China. Tam Wai Ping explained that finding the right factory was not easy, not because of political sensitivity, but mainly because of communication and budget. The completed temple, on its way to Taipei, was subject to scrutiny at the immigration. Eventually, the blown-up temple was flown into the air right above where the original temple was located. The blowing of the temple lasted for the whole night, started at midnight and finished the following morning. The artist himself was the photographer who documented the whole process. The creative journey came to an end as the process was documented. The project has last for a total of six years. Six years of hard work, from blowing air to releasing air, leaving behind a pile of images and people’s stories in the three countries for us to ponder over.
This artistic journey was one of personal intention and creativity, in which the artist experienced the relationship among human, identity, land and history. Hand-written text is the imprint of that experience, enabling him to recall the journey in detail. The use of text in this context is not for supplement or revision, but for direct visual expression of abstract meaning. The juxtaposition of text and image is not a new method. Since the popularization of images or application of materials on artwork, text has been deliberately placed on artwork as one of the visual elements, which may not necessarily carry any meaning[7], or text has been used as a way to revolt images[8]. In this piece of work, however, text carries equal importance as images, as text possesses the readability of visual imagery. Tam Wai Ping’s work does not directly narrate what the relationship between land and history is, but only uses an alternative method to convey his concern for land in his creative process.
This work of private but sharing quality reveals the real side of life by using the artist as an individual. Unlike Christo’s work in which the mass public and political tension are very often involved, Tam Wai Ping’s work, though appears to be complicated, has not entered the public domain. He completed his whole work alone. Even at the moment when the temple was flown into the air, there was no advertisement, no opening ceremony, nor any performance item, but only a few workers and passers-by. This creative process shows a strong sense of individual belief, in which exists a demonstrative concept and also descriptive non-conceptual content.
Images themselves carry many layers of meaning, in which validation is necessary to explore and reflect the reality. A piece of art comes into existence out of the artist’s aspiration, which provides the art work with personal meaning in the first place, after which come other meanings as time goes by. If the creation reflects certain level of reality, the artist’s aspiration remains the most important source of reference in the creative process. In the case of Tam Wai Ping’s Temple, if the content of his strong personal aspiration is neglected, then nothing but only the narrative side of his work remains.
(Text / Stella Tang)
Reference List
謝宗榮，李秀娥編撰。《台灣霞海城隍廟》。中華民國九十五年二月（即2006年2月）。
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[1] Please refer to Tse Ming Chong’s article ‘Image Colonization’ published in White Text, No. 3, September 2006.
[2] The magazine Easy Finder published a candid photograph showing a female star getting changed indoor. In addition to reprint of the magazine, Mingpao subsequently reported on the same day that a magazine in Beijing had republished that candid photograph.
[3] The main medium of Tam Wai Ping’s work exhibited was photography.
[4] The author is the Head of White Tube.
[5] The author interviewed Tam Wai Ping in July 2006.
[6] Please refer to Tam Wai Ping’s ‘Artist Statement: Here, I Look at Me over There’ in White Text, No. 3.
[7] Similar to the work in Pop Art movement.
[8] René Magritte, The Treachery of Images, Oil on canvas, 1929, Collection: Los Angeles Country Museum of Art.
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