【RMCA | 一件作品】Touching My Father 抚摸父亲
This artwork is displayed in exhibition
[ OutLook ] in Redtory Museum of
Contemporary Art (RMCA)
本作品正在红专厂当代艺术馆（RMCA）
【出窍OutLook】展览中呈现
Venue 所在展馆：RMCA E7/E9馆
©VART
▲Touching My Father 1997
第一次抚摸父亲 1997
▲Touching My Father 2002
第二次抚摸父亲 2002
▲Touching My Father 2002 / 2011
第三次抚摸父亲 2002 / 2011
Song Dong | Touching My Father
Performance by Video | 1997-2011
宋冬 | 抚摸父亲
用录像实施的行为三部曲 | 1997-2011
Recording performance art is always more important than the art. Being aware of the significance of the media, Song Dong is taking it as a part of the work. In Touching My Father 1997, he recorded a hand in advance and then he projected the hand on his father by a projecter, through which, he touched his father by the virtual hand. The records of performance art is not only a record, but also a performance art. Reality and virtuality talk inside the artwork. The utlization of real image and virtual image becomes a distinctive style in his work.
"Touching My Father 1997 While I was touching him with my video projected hand, he was smoking. Unexpectedly, with his eyes on my 'hand' ,he started to take off his jack, the shirt and the vest until he was half naked, feeling my hand with his bare back…"
"Touching My Father 2002 I was not brave enough to touch my father with my real hand until he passed away. But he could not feel me anymore. His body was cold, so was my heart and the ineffaceable sadness… I recorded this touching with video. The forever-lasting sorrow has caused me incapable of watching the video. The touch therefore has been sealed up in the videotape and will never be opened up."
"Touching My Father 2002／2011 In the video, my father was teaching my sister’s daughter Zhu Mo how to play a peg top, a game he played during his childhood. This was the last family video before he passed away and it was happened to be shot at the Ancestral Temple. Since father's death, I had always wanted to do this third 'Touching Father'. But it was 8 years later when I first had the courage to face father’s image. This time, the touching was so hard."
When I was young, my impressions of my father were taken from photographs; sometimes pictured alone, sometimes standing among a group of people. I was aware that he was always on business trips, while I was attending kindergarten. We hardly saw each other. During the late 1960s, my father was sent to Wu Qi Carder School in Hubei. (Carder Schools were set up by the Communist Party to “re-educate” citizens to transform their thinking to align with the ideology of the Cultural Revolution). He was gone for a long time. My mother once brought my sister and me to visit him. I did not know that he was denounced as a counter-revolutionary. I have a very blurred memory of the Wu Qi Carder School. All I can recall was the “scorching weather”, “a dog named Xiao Huang”, and “a big trench” we had to cross in order to watch outdoor movies. What was left in my memory about my father’s appearance was a man wearing “the yellow uniform used during the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea” with “a face with a prickly beard”. I knew that he had never joined the military but I still had a moment of fear. During that time, soldiers were symbols of veneration and dignity. I knew he loved me so much. While his beard was poking my face, I felt warmth, affection and pain. I seem to still be able to feel all these sensations today. One day in 1973, I saw my father walking towards me from the entrance of the hutong. I did not step forward to welcome him but turned around and ran home instead. I knew it was because of the double effect of happiness and fear. My father was finally home!
Then there was my unlimited admiration for my father. I loved to listen to the stories he told me; to play with all kinds of wooden guns and knives that he made for me. I thought that there was nothing he could not make. I was trying so hard to imitate him. My father was the authority and my idol. But there was still a quality of fear within me, accompanied by strangeness and respect. I gradually grew up and my feeling towards my father greatly changed. I started to challenge what he said and started to make my own decisions. I realized that there was a very deep generation gap between us. I was still scared of him. I always knew that he was my father and he never lost his dignity as a father in front of me. Whenever I had disagreements or conflicts with him, I kept silent and “refused to confess to the enemy” as if I was the little hero from the Eighth Route Army. I was rebellious and passive aggressive.
In 1996, I was thirty, an age when a man is supposed to have matured and have an established career. In Chinese culture, we have a term for this, “san shi er li”. I made a work entitled “san shi bu li”, which literally means “not being mature and established”, the opposite of “san shi er li”. I asked my mother about things that had happened every year since I was born. I wrote down these stories told to me by my mother and my own memories throughout those thirty years using Chinese calligraphy, accumulating a total of thirty stacks. But I never asked my father about anything. I knew I was trying to do things my own way and to be special. But my father was still awe-inspiring to me. “Father guides son” is one of the three cardinal guides (the other two are “ruler guides subject” and “husband guides wife”) in the feudal family ethical code, which is still emphasized in China today. I also grew up in a tradition that believed in this.
I went to Berlin in 1997. I was solitary and homesick in the midst of a strange language and cultural environment. I re-thought the communications I had had with my father. I started to realize that my father had his own reasons for what he did and said, which was, in many aspects, his truth. My respect for him was gradually restored. I wanted to express my love for him. I wanted to touch him many times. I understood this would be very difficult because there was a big gap between us. Finally, I came up with the idea of using video with the image of a hand that is “visible but not in a materialistic form”. I projected the video of my hand touching the air onto my father’s body. I used my “virtual hand” to touch my father. He accepted this “hand” and I experienced a complex feeling. It was very hard to explain and my father was experiencing a complex feeling as well. We did not have any conversations about it. But my “virtual hand” was breaching that invisible gap between us. I truly felt the power of, and am truly grateful for, art.
In touching my father, we had built a bridge between the still-deep generation gap. We began to try harder in our communication. We did not define each other by each other’s ideas anymore. We both had our own way of living. Although father still did not agree with my choices in many aspects, he told me “you’ve grown up. My opinions are only suggestions. Your choices need to be your own.” While before he often used imperative terms such as “you should” or “you must not”, he started to change his vocabulary to “I suggest” or “I will keep my opinion to myself”. I was moved. I felt my father’s strength.
Touching My Father became the most important event in my life. Although the work has never been shown before, it opened the door for Art to enter my family life, becoming the center of our lives. It also turned into the lifeline that brought the relationship between my father and me into a new era.
1997-2011 Song Dong
“记录行为”往往成为比“行为”更为重要的表现手段。基于对媒介重要性的认识，宋冬进一步把媒介发展为作品的一个表现要素。在1997年《抚摸父亲》中，艺术家预先用录像拍下一只手，然后用投影机把这只手投在艺术家的父亲身上，艺术家端着投影机用虚象的手去抚摸对象。影像从记录延伸为行为，真实和虚拟在作品内部构成了一种对话。对于“实像”和“虚像”的运用使宋冬在他的录像作品中形成了鲜明的风格。
第一次抚摸父亲 1997
当我用影像的手抚摸他的时候，他在抽烟。出乎我的预料，他一直看着我抚摸他的“手”，他脱掉了夹克，之后又脱掉了衬衫、背心，每一次脱掉后都拘谨地恢复成原来的坐姿，最后赤背承接着我抚摸他的手……
第二次抚摸父亲 2002
我父亲去世之后，我才敢用我的真手去抚摸他的身体，但这时的他已感觉不到，我感觉到的是他冰凉的身体，还有我同样冰凉的心，以及永远无法抹去的遗憾和深深的悲伤……
我用录像记录了这次抚摸，但永远的悲伤让我不能看这个录像，这次抚摸就永远地封在录像带中，永不打开。
第三次抚摸父亲 2002／2011
录像中的父亲正在教我姐姐的女儿朱墨如何玩他小时候的陀螺游戏，这是他去世前我们家最后一次的全家录像，而这次恰恰是在太庙。父亲去世后，思念一直驱使着我再次的去抚摸他，但他不在了，只留下了他的影像。艺术又一次给了我抚摸他的机会，我要抚摸倒映在水中的父亲，但等了内心煎熬的八年才有勇气面对父亲的影像，而这次抚摸太难太难……
我记事儿的时候对我父亲最深的印象是在照片里，有时是一个人，有时是在一群人中间站着。他给我最初的记忆是影像中的他。我知道他总是出差，我又在幼儿园整托，我们很难得真正的见面。我记得在六十年代末，我父亲被下放到湖北五七干校，一走就是很久很久，我母亲曾带着我们姐弟俩儿去湖北干校看望他，我长大以后才知道那时他已被打成了现行反革命。我对那时在五七干校的记忆十分模糊，我只记得“炎热的天”，“名叫小黄的狗”和去看露天电影必须迈过的“一条大沟”。我对父亲的形象记忆也只剩下“穿着黄色的抗美援朝军装”和“有着胡须扎人的脸”，我知道他从没有当过军人，可我还是感到一丝的惧怕。那时候，军人象征着敬仰和威严。我知道他很爱我，我的脸被他有胡须的脸扎到时，我能感到温暖、爱和疼，我的这种感觉一直持续到今日。我在七三年的某天，我看到父亲从胡同口向我走来，我没有迎上去，而是掉头跑回家。我知道是喜悦和惧怕同时在作用着，我父亲终于回到了我的身边。
我知道接下来是作为儿子的我对他的无限崇拜。我听他给我讲很多的故事，我玩儿他亲自给我做的各种玩具和木制刀枪。我觉得他什么都会做，我也努力地学他的样子做事，我仍然有一丝惧怕，我知道这里有陌生也有敬仰，他是我心中的权威和偶像。我在这不知不觉中长大了，我的感受也发生了大的改变。我认为他说的都不对，我的主意越来越大，我认为我们有很深的代沟，我还是有一丝惧怕，我知道他是我的父亲，他在我的面前从没有失掉过做父亲的威严。我一旦与他发生分歧和冲突，我马上就成为了英雄小八路——“一声不吭”，我独往独行。
1996年当我三十而立之时，我做了一件名为“三十不立”的作品，那时让我母亲讲我出生后每年的事儿，我用毛笔沾水将这些事记下来，再加上我的三十年记忆，一共写了三十摞纸。但我并没有向我父亲问过一个字，我知道虽然我是我行我素，但我对父亲的威严仍然敬畏，父为子纲仍为中国家庭论理的中心，我是在这样的环境中长大成人。
1997年我去了柏林，不同的语言和环境，让我安静而思乡，尤其是对家庭的思念。我反思了很多我与父亲的交流，我发现父亲说的好多事都有他的道理，我渐渐地对他又有了往日的敬仰。我想表达我的爱, 我很多时候想去用我的手去抚摸他，我知道做这件事是十分困难的，我也知道这在父子之间也有一道鸿沟。我想了很久终于想到了用那“看得见摸不着”影像，我将我正在抚摸空气的手的录像，用录像投影机投射到我父亲的身上，我用我的这只虚像的“手”抚摸我父亲。我父亲接受了我的这只 “手”，我得到一种复杂而丰富的感受，我知道这是说不清的，我也知道我父亲也在这“复杂”的感受之中。我们俩没说任何话，我知道我的“看得见摸不着”的手在抚平那看不见的沟，我真的感受到了艺术给我的力量，我非常感谢那个叫“艺术”的东西。
“抚摸父亲”之后，我知道虽然我们还有很深的代沟，但在这个代沟之上已建立了一座桥梁，我们双方都在努力地沟通，我们不再用自己的观点去限制对方，我们也都有我们独立的生活方式，我父亲虽然在很多方面不同意我的选择，但他对我说：“你已长大成人，我的意见只是参考，你的选择应由你自己定。”他之前总是用“你应该”、“你不能”这样的命令词汇，而后来总是用“我建议”、“我保留意见，你决定”的商议词汇所代替。我很感动，我感到了父亲的力量。
“抚摸父亲”成为了我和我父亲一生中最重要的事件，虽然在之后的14年中从未展出过，但它开启了艺术进入我家庭生活的大门，并成为了我们家庭生活的中心，也成为了我与我父亲的关系进入新纪元的血线。
1997-2011 宋冬
ARTIST 艺术家简介
Song Dong
Born in Beijing, China, 1966. Works and lives in Beijing.
宋 冬
1966年生于中国北京，现工作和生活于北京。
Song Dong has emerged from a strong Chinese avant-garde performing arts community and developed into a significant contemporary art figure in the progression of Chinese conceptual art. Song graduated from the fine arts department of Capital Normal University in Beijing in 1989. His work ranges from performance and video to photography and sculpture, exploring notions of impermanence and the transience of human endeavor. His works have been collected by The Museumof Modern Art, New York, U.S.A, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, U.S.A, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, U.S.A, The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Belgium, M+ museum, Hong Kong and many art museums and cultural organizations.
宋冬从中国先锋艺术运动中脱颖而出，成为中国当代艺术发展中重要的艺术家之一。他从九十年代初开始从事行为、录像、装置、摄影、观念绘画和戏剧等多媒介的当代艺术创作，并参与策划当代艺术的展览和活动。宋冬大多数作品都关注艺术的过程而非最终成品，因此也创造了其独特的媒介和装置方式。他的作品被美国纽约现代艺术博物馆、美国大都会博物馆、纽约古根海姆美术馆、比利时尤伦斯艺术基金会、香港M+视觉艺术博物馆等重要美术馆及艺术机构收藏。
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