2001.9
电视、投影、房间、盛有牛奶的方盆、参与游戏者。
《推背图》是中国古代一部秘笈，分为图、谶、颂等，经过诠释之后相当巧合地预言了中国历史上若干大事。
这件录像装置分为内外两大部分。外部的四个画面中，手书的《推背图》的谶语叠加在表现小人物命运的电影《马路天使》的画面上，每个屏幕上的单个文字同时切换，这样在一段数秒种的时间内，四个屏幕所形成的横向的共时关系使文字之间形成语义，即一个成语短句。与此同时，图像里纵向的电影情节推进着叙事，这是第一组对比。而每个屏幕中的电影又分别有两秒的时间差的错位，使形象之间在共时的横向关系中又具有时间关系，每一瞬间四个屏幕中的形象都构成一种“连环画”。在空间的内部：地面上投映着周而复始的运转的罗盘影像，强大的宇宙规律，而罗盘又与《马路天使》中的《四季歌》形成呼应，众生的身影溜冰般地掠过其表层，这是中国人对人生的形象化理解。而推背图的画面叠加在罗盘的画面上，成为画中画，在其中无序地运动、翻转，参与游戏者端着盛满牛奶的盆子，无望地追踪着推背图的影像，试图用盘子“接”着它，他们随着“画中画”的运动而转身，移动，事实上在录像的控制下他们已经成了身不由己的提线木偶。
“The Prophesizing Catalog of ‘Pushing One’s Back’”
TV, Projector, Small Pan with Milk, Participants.
“The Prophesizing Catalog of ‘Pushing One’s Back’” is an ancient Chinese secret book categorized into drawings, prophecy, and songs. This book has been determined by many to have quite correctly prophesized the major events in Chinese history.
This video installation consists mainly of two parts, an interior room and exterior wall. The four screens on the exterior wall display the words of prophesy in this ancient book, juxtaposed with scenes from a 1930’s classic movie from Shanghai, “Street Angels,” which tells a story of the fate of a layperson. While the four screens, with each screen displaying one letter, together makes up a Chinese idiom, the scenes from the movie displayed behind these letters are shown with slight time difference from each other, creating a temporal relationship between the letters and the images. At every moment, the images displayed in the four screens construct an interlinking relationship. Stepping into the room, an image of a rotating Chinese compass is projected on the floor. Such great order of the universe as represented by this compass, the recollection of the tunes of “The Four Seasons Song” from the movie “Street Angels,” and the sense of ephemerality as if one’s shadow only passes the surface, such are the representations of the understanding of life by the Chinese. During the exhibition, the drawings from the “Catalog of ‘Pushing One’s Back” are projected onto the image of the compass, becoming part of the whole image and also moving constantly. Amidst such disorderly movement and the rotating compass, the participating “players” hold a pan containing milk, following the image from the “Catalog of “Pushing One’s Back,” attempting to “catch” what has fallen upon them, but in actuality, their movement is restricted by the movement of the image and the rotating motion of the compass. Thus, they are trapped under the control of the video just like string puppets.
