Explanation of To Live Elsewhere
If both the Western of the 60’s and the Chinese culture of the 80’s were “problem” cultures, then have they now been replaced by cultures which are problems of problems? We can relate a famous spiritual slogan, “to live elsewhere,” to an old traveling suitcase, because both share the same spirituality of the 60’s. However, in the present reality, full of verbal strategy and media operations, the suitcase, which represents a spiritual journey, no longer refers to a spiritual departure. It merely exists as a kind of cultural performance, which fictionalizes the “spiritual departure” by providing a stage for it, an image, a prop, or a performer. When this kind of performance stays far away and refuses a problematic authority center by taking a critical “stand,” its voice, however, has never left not intends to leave the site of this authority center, (which could also be called the site of the “table’s center.”) This piece is based on the premie, that when we problematize reality by taking a critical stand, the so-called problems reflect on out criticism at the same time. This resembles a double-edged sword, cutting both ways, namely, the outside reality and the reality of the criticism in the art itself.
Materials:
Suitcase, radio-tape-recorder, amplifier, table, speaker, chairs, and table cloth.
Procedure:
1.Use a meeting table and make a hole in its center, in which a speaker can fit lever with the table’s surface. Put a translucent, white table cloth on the table, which is to be located in the center of the exhibition hall, surrounded by chairs.
2.Choose an old suitcase. Put an automatically rewinding radio-tape-recorder and an amplifier inside it. Put the speaker in the center of the table and have it place the sentence “I refuse” repeatedly, the speaker being connected with the amplifier via the audio wire. Put the suitcase against the wall and keep it a certain distance from the table. Put quotation marks on the walls so that they enclose the suitcase.
Detail pictures:
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