Body experiment artist: Zheng Yuanyuan
Sound performance artist: Chen Hongli

When covid-19 broke out nearly one and half years ago, no one, including artist Chen Qiulin, anticipated it would become an unprecedented global pandemic. The fear and anxiety brought by the pandemic aroused struggles and constraints and emphasized the conflicts and resistances. Chen Qiulin sees the fragility and vulnerability of humans and our contemporary society. In her most recent site-specific body experimental project Drown (2021), Chen uses tofu – a traditional Chinese food ingredient and a cultural symbol, fragile in nature – as her creative medium, combining installations, body performance, live sound creation, and video output to visually showcase the human presence. Through exploring fragility and struggle under the pandemic induced confinement, Chen Qiulin sets out to re-examine the reflections of female identity and local traditions in the context of a global epidemic which has highlighted and exacerbated geopolitical constraints and cultural conflicts.
Drown (2021) continues Chen Qiulin’s artistic exploration of using tofu as a creative medium dating back to 2003. As a quintessential oriental food, tofu stands in for the artist’s reflections on her own culture and identity. Inspired by the tofu making process, the large tofu covered wooden mold becomes both a stage and a cage for the performer, alluding to the geopolitical constraints of the current global pandemic. A female protagonist dancing in the wooden mold – her body touches, entangles and confronts the tofu, performing a tragic struggle, as if a bird with a broken wing screaming while flying against the wind. The vocalizations and bodily sounds piercingly tear through the powerless fragility and resistance, revealing the struggle and concealed vulnerability from the female perspective.
Unlike Chen Qiulin’s usual solo performances, Drown (2021) is a collaboration with modern dance artist Zheng Yuanyuan and sound artist Chen Hongli. The performance abandons the conventional background music, but instead, the sound is captured and produced through a live sound performance – the sound artist is invited to use his own body to perceive the dramatic changes brought by the dancer, interact with body language, improvise on the sounds he collects onsite, and eventually compose the holographic sound for the Drown video piece.

肢體實驗表演:鄭媛芫
聲音行為藝術家:陳弘禮

當Covid-19在近一年半前爆發時，沒有人想到它將成為史無前例的全球流行病，藝術家Chen Qiulin也沒有。 疫情帶來的恐懼與焦慮， 衝突與爭執，禁錮與對抗無形中揭露了人與當代社會的脆弱。 陳秋林捕捉這其中人與社會的極致脆弱。 在她最新的綜合媒介現場肢體計畫《溺》(2021)中， 身為女性藝術家的陳秋林，沿用易碎的中國傳統食材豆腐作為創作媒介，結合空間裝置、肢體行為表演、現場聲音創作以及影像輸出等 綜合媒介，從直覺展現人在禁錮下的脆弱與掙扎出發， 重省女性身分以及本地傳統在全球化疫情以及地緣禁錮環境下的意義。

《溺》 延續了陳秋林自2003年來對以豆腐作為創作媒介及文化符號的創作探索。 作品透過豆腐，這極具代表性的東方食物，投射出藝 術家對其所在本地文化及身份的思考。 現場那從用以製作豆腐的模具中抽象而出的木質裝置與當下全球疫情下的地緣禁錮建立起微妙的聯繫， 伴隨女性表演者在該木質裝置中的肢體實驗—— 她的肢體與豆腐進行 不斷觸碰、交纏與對抗，呈現給我們的是一場悲壯的抗爭， 彷彿像折斷翅膀的鳥兒卻依舊逆風而行。 而那因肢體在對抗過程中發出的哼唱與聲響， 驟然撕裂了那份無力的脆弱與掙扎，從女性的角 度揭示了當代社會下的脆弱與抗爭。

有別於以往陳秋林的行為作品，《溺》是一件現場集體創作的公共項目，聯合了現代舞蹈藝術家鄭媛芫和聲音藝術家陳弘禮。 該計畫也摒棄常規的現場配樂，而是加入聲音行為藝術的方式: 邀請聲音藝術家透過對作品環境及現場的感受，用自己的身體以全息聲的方式感知現場舞者帶來的戲劇變化，和 肢體語言產生互動關係，即興捕捉和創作聲音，最終形成《溺》作品現場聲音的全息文本。