Forget Sorrow Grass: An Archaeology of Feminine Time
忘忧草：考古女性时间
14 Septerber-17 November, 2019
Co-curated with Sirui Zhang
Participated Artists:
Doreen Chan, Patty Chang, Cécile B. Evans, Jes Fan, Christopher K. Ho, Hsu Che-Yu, Ma Qiusha, Ad Minoliti, Peng Yi-Hsuan, Aki Sasamoto, Rose Salane, Wang Tuo, Zhang Xiaogang, Yunyu “Ayo” Shih, Zijie.
“Forget Sorrow Grass” is one of the most common roadside plants, but can also be an online profile name of a woman, one that we can find in our everyday lives. To name oneself “Forget Sorrow Grass” implies a conflict solution that is common among females, which is to rely on individual agency to process and ultimately forget the pain inflicted on them.
“Forget Sorrow Grass” points inward, and this orientation is no accident. The habit of swallowing takes shape gradually in an expanded period of time. By “decompressing home” in the dimension of “feminine time,” the exhibition reviews and rewrites an informal history of the orientation and constructions. As compared to a linear timeline, which is goal- and progress-oriented, feminine time is a sensual dimension extracted from linear history. Within feminine time lies economically unquantifiable housework, undercurrents of emotions bound with intimate relations, as well as personal anecdotes that are being ignored in formal historical writing. The exhibition aims to further investigate the question that if such feminine time is relative, what is the power structure that is shaping the construction? In reality, how do we use the feminine timeline to reorganize experiences and materials that already exist, and process the emotions and entanglements within intimate relationships and our own devotions?
Feminine time folds in home space, like a singularity, where movements, judgments, communications, constructions, and deconstructions all become symbols to be invaded and released. Through decompressing home, the works in the exhibition discuss the physical environments around females, along with the desires, intimacies and violence generated in the surroundings, responding to the challenges inherited from historical and traditional values, as well as the new ones emerging from contemporary new liberal situations and ever-developing technologies, especially biotech, and questioning traditional femininity and kinship.
參展艺术家：陈泳因、张怡、赛西尔·B·埃文斯、范加、何恩怀、许哲瑜、马秋莎、艾德·米诺利提、彭奕轩、笹本晃、罗丝·萨拉恩、王拓、张晓刚、施昀佑、子杰
“忘忧草”是一种路边常见的野生植物，同时也是一位普通女性的网名，是你我身边都能找到的一种典型女性。“忘忧草”的自我命名暗示了具有女性特质的人在面对内在冲突时的处理方法：来自外界的忧愁只能靠主观意志的遗忘来自我消化。
“忘忧草”的自我指向不是机缘巧合的个案，自我消化的习惯是在漫长的时空中一点一滴发展而来。展览通过“女性时间”和“解压家庭”这两个角度去重新阅读这种自我指向和书写，时空中进行一次非正式考古。女性时间是从线性的历史时间中抽离出来的时间感知，比起以目的和进步为导向的历史时间，女性时间度量着没有明确经济价值的家务劳动、亲密关系中暗涌的情绪、在正式的历史书写中被忽略的个人往事。展览试图用女性时间进一步提问：如果女性时间是相对的，是什么权力结构在左右这种相对性的塑造？在现实中复杂的亲密关系和奉献中，我们又应如何用女性时间的时间轴来重新整理我们拥有的经验和素材，并理解其中的五味杂陈和纠缠？
女性时间在家庭空间中被集中折叠起来，如同奇点，其中人的行动、判断、沟通、建造、破坏都成为劳动、情绪、记录的表征，等待着被刺透和释放。通过“解压家庭”，展览的作品探讨了女性及其所处的物理环境以及周围所产生的欲望、亲密关系和暴力，同时也回应了在历史所遗留的传统观念和当下的新自由主义的情境中，乃至不断发展的技术，尤其是生物技术对传统的女性和血缘观念带来的挑战。
Patty Chang, Letdown (Milk), 2017
Photo installation, dimensions variable
Aki Sasamoto, Do Nut Diagram, 2018, film still
HD Video, color, sound, 20 min 1 sec
Ma Qiusha, right:
“Story of Space” My Grandma's Living Room No.1, 2007-2008,
digital print, 148 x 200 cm
Left: Fog No. 9, 2012,
watercolor on paper, 136 x 153 cm
Ma Qiusha,
“Story of Space” My Grandma's Living Room No.2, 2007-2008, Digital print, 148 x 200 cm
Cécile B. Evans, How Happy a Thing Can Be, 2014 (film still)
HD video, color, sound, 9 min 30 sec
Doreen Chan, Window, 2019
Resin, paper, light, 91 x 122 x 30 cm; 46 x 77 x 20 cm
Commissioned by the HB Station, Guangzhou and Para Site, Hong Kong
Christopher K. Ho, Blobfish, 2019
Commissioned by Guangdong Times Museum for the exhibition Forget Sorrow Grass: An Archaeology of Feminine Time in 2019Christopher K. Ho, Imperial Ruler Stand, 2019
Commissioned by Guangdong Times Museum for the exhibition Forget Sorrow Grass: An Archaeology of Feminine Time in 2019Zijie, Keana and Wonderful Lives (1—3), 2019
Digital print on glass, dimensions variable
Ad Minoliti, Cube-Cats-, 2019
Digital print on canvas in four parts
100 x 100 x 100 cm
Cube-Space Lab-, 2019
Digital print on canvas in four parts
100 x 100 x 100 cm
Back: Froggy, mural, dimensions variable
Zhang Xiaogang, Pine and Medicine Bottle, 2010
Stainless steel plate, oil, fiber glass, acrylic, 140 x 220 cm
Wang Tuo, Meditation on Disappointing Reading (middle), 2016
HD video, color, sound, 27 min 30 sec
Commissioned by the Guangdong Times Museum for the exhibition Forget Sorrow Grass: An Archaeology of Feminine Time in 2019
Echibiton visual designed by Suzy Chan