《 Two Ends 》

- Liu Yu, Wu Sih-Chin cooperative project

Sculpture, installation, video, documentary film | 2011

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The project is co-produced by Liu Yu and Wu Sih-chin in 2011. The presentation includes sculpture, installation, video and documentary. Works are based on two doomsday prophecies happened in Taiwan. One is from Chen, Heng-min, founder of R.O.C Soul Light Research Club. Chen founded “Salvation of God Church (a.k.a Chen-Dao Church)” in 1993, and foretold that there will be nuclear war, famine, earthquake and other anthropogenic or nature catastrophes occurred in 1998. He said God will send his message to TV show in Channel 18 at Garland city, Texas, US. And send UFO to save them by 10pm, 31th of March, 1998. Chen then built a site in the shape of UFO at Garland city, so as to let God recognize them, and come to save them. Press in Taiwan called this “ The UFO club incident” and it stunned local people and media. The other one was in 2011, the “511 doomsday prophet” announced by Chao-hung, Wang, also known as “Teacher Wang’s doomsday prophet”. Wang foretold that there would be a 14-magnitude degree earthquake at 10:42:37, 11th of May, 2011, which would cause Taiwan splitting into two parts, and be flooded by coming tsunami. Before the day came, Wang built container houses at Ai-lan of Puli township, Nantou county, put them on the foundation built with concrete in Bagua shape, believing that will save them from the catastrophe.

In two doomsday prophecies, the prophets both built vehicles to save them from disasters: UFO site and container houses. And the vehicles then became symbols of the incident. In the prophecies, those vehicles played the role of “Arc”, leading people to keep safe. The daily-life objects such as plank, street light and containers, has become narrative characters and mysterious gestures. In the project, artists “represent” or “remake” those Arcs through artworks, trying to break the stereotype of those incidents in society (the stereotype built by dramatic broadcast of media), and reinterpret those objects, or certain shapes of mind.

There are two short clips in the installation, one is taken while we’re driving to Puli (the haven in the doomsday prophet) with 2 friends. We went there on 10th ~11th of May, 2011, on the doomsday of Wang’s prophet. In the journey of “End of the World”, instead of going for somewhere safe, we went there to approach that “Doomsday atmosphere”. The video we recorded is different from the dramatic narration on mass media. The doomsday we experienced was documented and interpreted in the video. The other one is in autumn of 2011, we took a video of a mundane journey. We edited two clips by weaving them together, trying to catch our point of view and judgment towards doomsday incidences.

Talking about two events, we don’t care if the prophets are correct. Whether the doomsday comes or not, it has never been a scientific question. Ever since the concept of doomsday appeared, it has been discussed and structured, and been shared by the society through broadcasting of media. Counting down to the doomsday, no matter the prophet eventually realizes or not, it will be destroyed completely. With the growing consciousness of the end of the world, we don’t even have to challenge the belief of its existence, the end of the world has become something that can be rehearsed, we’ve been rehearsing the coming of it. Every prophet is a production of narrative, and it composes our endless imagination to the end of the world.
 

《 兩個末日 》

-  劉玗, 吳思嶔合作計畫

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此計畫為劉玗與吳思嶔於2011年共同製作，內容包含雕塑、裝置、錄像、紀實影片。作品以兩件曾經在台灣發生過的末日預言事件作為文本。其一是中華民國靈魂光研究會理事長陳恆明，於1993年創立『上帝救贖教會(又名真道教會)』，1998年預言世界將陷入核戰、飢荒、地震等人為與自然的災難之中，而上帝將會於1998年3月25日零晨在在美國德州的迦蘭市，電視第十八頻道出現救贖信息，並於1998年3月31日上午10點駕乘飛碟降臨救贖。陳恆明更在迦蘭市搭建了一座象徵飛碟的物件，作為招喚上帝的基地，以之安渡末日，此為當時震驚台灣與各界媒體的『飛碟會事件』。其二是在2011年，由王超弘所預言的『511末日事件』，即是媒體炒作的『王老師末日預言』。王超弘預言台灣將於2011年5月11日上午10點42分37秒發生14級大地震，台灣因此而南北分裂為兩半，並引發海嘯侵襲。王超弘在預言的末日來臨前，於南投埔里的愛蘭里搭建數座貨櫃屋，使用鋼筋建材搭建八卦陣型態的地基，欲藉此與信徒們一同渡過劫難。

 

兩個末日事件中，預言者都為了渡過浩劫而搭建了自己的避難器具－飛碟船與貨櫃屋。而這些物件也成為了指標性的象徵物。因為在事件中，這些避難器具的角色就猶如一艘「方舟」，可帶領人們渡過浩劫。這些隨手可拾的材料（木板，路燈，貨櫃等...）透過末日事件，被建構成具有某種敘事性格與神秘儀態的特殊物件。而這次的展覽計劃裡，這些「方舟」透過藝術形式的「再現」或「再造」，試圖跳脫原本我們所熟悉的社會事件既定印象（公眾媒體的戲劇化播送），重新詮釋這些物件，某種精神化的形態。

 

展覽中有兩部紀錄短片，其中一部是我們與兩位友人在王超宏預言的末日時間，2011年5月10～11日，驅車前往埔里(末日預言的的避難地)， 展開一趟末日的旅程，除了避難，也企圖去接近某種「末日氛圍」。過程拍攝了紀錄影像。而有別於媒體訊息的戲劇化事件，我們所遇見的末日，也在這部影像中被紀錄及詮釋。其二是在2011年秋天，一趟平凡無奇的旅行所拍攝的紀錄影片。我們將這兩部紀錄短片交叉剪接，企圖捕捉我們對於末日事件的觀點與價值判斷。

 

對於這兩個事件，我們觀瞻的並不是預言的真偽：末日發生與否。因為末日預言從來就不是科學問題。打從末日預言的出現之際，它就開始不斷被談論及建構，並且透過媒體的放送成為一個社會的集體共享事件，隨著末日時間的接近而越演越烈，在最後時間點的到達時刻，不管預言內容發生與否，都全面銷毀。在近期災難意識的助長之下，我們對於末日的相信與否似乎都變成一個不需被確認的自我意識，末日成為一個可被演練的對象，我們不斷的演練末日來等待末日的到來，而每一次的末日預言，都是再一次的敘事生產，其中建構了我們對於末日的無限想像。