痴人说梦

由蔡丽媛策划 2019

Ask for the Moon

Curated by Cai Liyuan 2019

从梦境通过语言完成的那一刻起，它们独立存在，有了新的意义与结构。那些被描述的全部场景与精神的质感，那些徘徊在家乡山水中的故事与人们，都不再消失。它们只是以另一种的形式，重现在呓语的每一个片段。

从2010年开始，易连开始有规律地记录自己的梦境，“日记”般的叙述与罗列，并在数千个日夜中不断重复，这是作品《痴人说梦》的开始。在这完整且不断延长的时间里，一个介乎于梦境与现实的场景常常出现在他同期的许多作品当中，安静又神秘，充满了不可知与疑问，但又充满想象。《黄灯区》中，被设置在荒山野岭中的禁锢着的双脚，以及无从辨认的身份信息，直接来源于他对超现实梦境的描述，这些关于身体的思考是易连早期工作的一个线索，而梦境则是身体的直接感受。《暖流》中温泉与枝丫交错的树林，动物斑驳隐逸的身影，以及陷溺在感官中的虚无，是否如同记忆中的灵感或画面闪现？《暗流2012》中混合了个人想象中的他人梦境，则将主观的经验延展到他者之中。

时隔5年，那个小男孩长大了，梦境是否随着时间的变化而变化，还有《惊蛰》与《暗流2016》所构建的“平行空间”，经由平静的身体，微微凸出的小腹，细瘦而又有力的手臂，以最静定的方式透露着生命的现象。易连始终保留一个第三人称的视角来观看，而通过作品而体现出的“公共性”正在他作为一个生命个体是如何理解或者试图理解他人（他者）作为另一个生命个体的感受或者处境，比如记录自己的梦境，或是演绎他人的梦境，以及通过梦境编织成的不同个体与现实的网络。作为一种无法直接体验的“影像生产”，所有媒介都成为梦的外化部分，互为解释并体验。而与影像本身，似乎与梦保持某种同源性，也是重新梳理并理解易连作品的途径。完成一段叙述，感觉那些曾经鲜活而生动的情绪依旧存在于影像流动的角落里，而那些没有坐标的，混乱无序的场景与故事，和许许多多其他人的生活一样，还将继续进行下去。梦不会停止。

 

In 2010, with no predetermined system or sequential order, Yi Lian had the idea to begin recording his dreams. Unintentionally, his compulsion to repeat these diaristic accounts persisted for thousands of days. From the moment he transferred his visions into written word, the dreams established independent structures and new meanings. That being said, the textures of the dream landscapes and the spirits of the people of his hometown never disappeared. These elements simply took other forms, re-appear- ing in murmurs or fragments until the end of their first decade.

 

This period of time encompassing the work is long enough to constitute the principal aspects of Yi Lian’s methodology. His videos combine elements of both confusion and optimism; they are quiet and mysterious, but also full of imagination and hope. Akin to bizarre theatrical displays, many forms appear and dis- appear in the dreamscape. Random trees, animals, people, bod- ies, etc. follow their own set tracks but happen to all intersect in his version of space and time. The viewer adopts the role of the other, as an explorer in his strange world, meandering around with no apparent goal or motive. There is an underlying question

following the active observation of the piece: is the artist within the dreamscape alongside the viewer? Looking in, separated by a wrinkle in time?

 

An example of his surreal dreamscape format is the sub- ject of his 2011 work Yellow Light District which features a pair of confined feet situated in a desolate mountain range, unable to distinguish any part of their owner’s identity. Contemplation of the body is one of the threads running through Yi Lian’s early work—dreams are things that the body experiences directly. By the year 2012, the artist’s visions and dreams expounded. Did the hot springs and forests of interlocking branches, the mottled and reclusive silhouettes of animals, and the immersion into sensory nothingness in Warmcurrent come from inspirations or flashing images in his memories? In Undercurrent 2012, other dreamworlds were fused into personal visions, extending his subjective experi- ence with the Other. Somewhere between sleeping and waking, it seemed that either the joy of longing for the strange and unknown in his youth, or the unrestrainable quality of shocks to the body, or the anxiety and grief present in his memories of home are what

became the landscapes that he wishes to depict.

In conjunction with advancing technologies, Yi Lian’s recording of dreamlands became faster and more accurate. From his earlier DV method to his later smartphone recordings, he was easily able to reinforce his personal narrative. The aspect of technology became indispensable, but what Yi continued to focus on in his working method was developing the relationship of the Other’s identity that stood in contrast to the artist’s own. Highlighting the visceral effects on the body, he believes that the experience of delight and the experience of pain are purely elemental. Though the images presented may seem absurd or strange, they are what shaped stories into life. Examining devel- opments in his past works, the boy who appeared in Undercurrent 2012 has grown up, his dreamworld has likely changed alongside the changes in his physical body. Parallel spaces constructed in The Walking of Insects and Undercurrent 2016 feature a quiet body, focusing on a little protruding belly, and allowing those small yet powerful arms to reveal the wonders of life in the calmest way. Yi often constructs his work from a third-person perspective, attempting to relate to the viewer–the Other–through the feel- ings and predicaments in living beings beside his own. He also records other people's dreams in addition to his own, knitting them together in a net comprised of individual realities. Although watching a video is different from physically dreaming yourself, the artist believes that all mediums of expression can be thought of as externalized parts of dreams because of their similar char- acteristic of entangled interpretation and experience. The medi- um of video and the medium of dreaming share an undeniable closeness, which is a way to view and understand Yi Lian's work.

 

After this first decade he turns toward the next unknown journey. As we all look on, we can appreciate those once fresh and lively vestiges that live as one in the flow of images, whose disordered scenes and narratives somehow coordinate with lives of many other people on their own journeys. Dreaming is a phe- nomenon that will neither cease nor discriminate.

Cai Liyuan