I remember in my mother language, there is always an old saying: One objects can provide two perceptions. When I was doing my foundation year, I found it in the nature of photography. I took a picture of the Big wheel in the city centre; the big wheel was under deinstallation, I thought it is so interesting in its form and the stillness of being a wheel without the entire structure. The photo was developed and placed on my desk under desk lamp the other night, I realised the stillness is even more obvious; the stillness of a void pervaded in my room from the photo inside. I couldn't tell if the big wheel was being installed or deinstalled anymore. The photo has no space for time to give me any knowledge but clearly I understand it is a photo, the camera captured a particular moment of time. It is the past.
However I think photography is not enough to express this sense of paradox. It even overlaps the sense of time and confuses the viewers in a way that getting the wrong information.
I don't consider myself as an artist to tell viewers any information. It is more like showing an situation, an unknown state. A live installation with object components in a space allows viewers to decide what they want to believe. Imaging if I move the big wheel into a project space, removing all those workers,
almost like viewing a photo, only the photo becomes a live picture with the eyes of frame from viewers.
I suppose the two perceptions don't need to be paradoxical, as long as they are different to each other.
Because then art is very powerful to show things are not what we think they are, or even beyond the territories and floating in between the possibilities. Unknown is a way to know more. Showing an unknown stage is to understand uncertainty can allow us to know more.
In everyday life, we see things that are not what they are. The earth spins but we don't seem to see that.
But around sunrise and sunset, we understand the earth is spinning. So every day we are living in a space of illusion and reality. We choose to believe what we can't see. I enjoy walking and finding places in a city, with my sense of direction or a help of maps. I hate google maps, I never use it in my phone. I don't want to be told I am in where i am, I want to find out where I am. Unless I am very hurry, I will ask for help. But the funny thing is, since living in a foreign country and travelling in big cities, it is sometimes very hard to find a local. Anyway, I enjoy finding and exploring. I know when I have found the place, the way I did won't be the only way and there would be a shortcut.
Result isn't matter too much, the most important is to find the destination with senes, sounds contradicted, doesn't it?
Yesterday I attended a lecture, and usually I carry a drinking bottle with me. The bottle has its logo, and very interestingly the time when i looked at it, the water level was right under the logo. I wondered does it relate to the never-settled idea of 'half empty or half full' glass of water. But I was like, 'Yea, but the logo just ruin the whole thing, apparently it is half full.' Because the logo tells me the sense of direction, information. I was kind of refused to think like that, because I like the coincident a lot. It could take ages to find out how many times do I need to drink in order to get the right water level.
I still think it is half empty hahaha.....
