Play With Words

正在伦敦泰特现代艺术馆举办的“轮机房展览”以“2058年世界末日”为题材。科幻小说作家 M John Harrison 作了一番专业作者的评述。

Another view: Sci-fi writer M John Harrison on Tate Modern’s new Turbine Hall show
M John Harrison
The Guardian,
Monday October 20 2008

It felt as if I had walked into a dull replay of a JG Ballard short story. Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall is lined with bunk beds, the beds are scattered with science-fiction novels, and a screen at the far end of the hall plays excerpts from sci-fi and experimental films.

I thought the work – TH.2058, by the French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster – was rather feeble, to be honest. It includes a “mission statement” on the wall that creates the atmosphere of a futuristic refuge shelter much more effectively than the exhibition itself. I like to feel threatened by installation art. In the past, I’ve come out of Tate Modern shaking my fingers as if they’ve been burnt, but that wasn’t happening here.

Continue Reading »

Shibboleth 是哥伦比亚艺术家 Doris Salcedo 在伦敦 Tate Modern 的“轮机房大厅”(Turbine Hall)的作品。Turbine Hall 中的作品，可以任凭作者想像，限制只是这个原电站轮机房内部巨大的空间，一年换一次。Shibboleth 是第7届作品。

Shibboleth (Oxford English Dictionary):

a word used as a test for detecting people from another district or country by their pronunciation; a word or a sound very difficult for foreigners to pronounce correctly.

Shibboleth 的来源是：

The Old Testament relates that the Ephraimites were trying to cross the river Jordan when they were caught by their sworn enemies the Gileadites, who forced them all to say the word “shibboleth”. Since the unfortunate Ephraimites’ dialect did not include the sound “sh”, this allowed the Gileadites to identify and slaughter large numbers of Ephraimites.

Shibboleth 是件真正利用 Turbine Hall 空间的作品：大厅混凝土地面上的一条裂缝。大厅入口处的垃圾桶地下开始，是地面上的一条细小的裂缝，细缝向厅内延伸，越变越大，在某处分成两支，最粗之处成人可以伸入手臂－－但深不能见底。

这件作品，是如何做出来的？难道真是在 Tate Modern 地面上凿出一条裂缝？艺术馆表示绝不会透露内幕。不过上周《卫报》上有篇非常精彩的介绍文章，而且最后还会透露这件作品的制作秘密。

(11月7日：上周去看了这件作品，果然很有意思)

Continue Reading »