Journey no.13: fragmented bodies/shifting ground - lee wen 李文
Journey of a yellow man no.13:
fragmented bodies/shifting ground
The Third Asia-Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
September 1999
Photograph: Andrea Higgins
Video: Ben Wickes edited by Lee Wen and Ben Wickes
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
September 1999
Photograph: Andrea Higgins
Video: Ben Wickes edited by Lee Wen and Ben Wickes
Cultural production exists in dialectical relationship between society and the individual as also between the artist and the community. We all exists within a social system, which is seemingly internally coherent but may not be easily translated outside. Our interpretations of the world help us to take possible actions to create changes for a positive direction. However the situation changes as one moves from one location to another. We live in complex transnational and global meetings, mixings and clashing of differing cultural perceptions at an increasing rate and pace never seen before.
Each of us exists within a certain axis of cultural and historical location. Are we able to see clearly where we came from, where we are now or where it’s leading us? One finds familiarity and strangeness in every place we go. Our awareness is sharpened in new locations and experiences. Yet it remains difficult to keep a constant vigilance on our perceptions so that we do not fall prey to false consciousness and prejudices. Nor become victims to propaganda of the market and power of the media and other distortions.
Journeys were taken in search of something other than where we came from or as inevitabilities in order to continue our existence and growth as our identities take us. Place and time shifted as much as they affect our perceptions and consciousness. Once again, a systematic chaos, a dangerous trial, endless accumulation, mindless consumption, oppression, abuses, haunting, relentless...
The sun was rising over the riverside where we waited with last night's revelers by the anchored ferry. The sky was turning brighter as birds began to greet the morning with their songs, I rejected all manner of intoxication and watched the performance of lovers communicating their inner desires through pure and simple actions, faded meanings and re-solidified aspirations. I bid unemotional good-byes to all beneath the shower of love and left, to experience unexpected rebirths again yet again. Closing the door, did I not leave those nightmares behind? Those mistaken glories, re-invented into memory, imagined as histories. How many times? How many times more?
- Lee Wen 1999
Each of us exists within a certain axis of cultural and historical location. Are we able to see clearly where we came from, where we are now or where it’s leading us? One finds familiarity and strangeness in every place we go. Our awareness is sharpened in new locations and experiences. Yet it remains difficult to keep a constant vigilance on our perceptions so that we do not fall prey to false consciousness and prejudices. Nor become victims to propaganda of the market and power of the media and other distortions.
Journeys were taken in search of something other than where we came from or as inevitabilities in order to continue our existence and growth as our identities take us. Place and time shifted as much as they affect our perceptions and consciousness. Once again, a systematic chaos, a dangerous trial, endless accumulation, mindless consumption, oppression, abuses, haunting, relentless...
The sun was rising over the riverside where we waited with last night's revelers by the anchored ferry. The sky was turning brighter as birds began to greet the morning with their songs, I rejected all manner of intoxication and watched the performance of lovers communicating their inner desires through pure and simple actions, faded meanings and re-solidified aspirations. I bid unemotional good-byes to all beneath the shower of love and left, to experience unexpected rebirths again yet again. Closing the door, did I not leave those nightmares behind? Those mistaken glories, re-invented into memory, imagined as histories. How many times? How many times more?
- Lee Wen 1999