New work: SLOW RISE – Taipei 2016

From July 10th until September 30th I will be artist in residence at the Taipei Artist Village in Taiwan working towards a new video artwork SLOW RISE – video installation

During my studies in Taiwan I was struck by the organized ways people moved in the metropole of Taipei City. Millions of people travel in Taipei using both the roads and the underground transport system. It feels a bit like a well orchestrated chaos.

During my visits to other Asian countries, Japan and Korea, I sensed a comparable discipline.

I am fascinated by these seemingly endless choreographies of people. During my studies in Taipei I often have watched these streams of people. Queuing for the bus is a normal thing to do for Taiwanese people. Back in The Netherlands I noticed the differences in the use of the public space between Dutch people and Taiwanese people.

One of the best spots to observe people on the move in Taiwan are the escalators in the Taipei Main Station. I would like to explore the contrast between the escalator’s mechanized movement and human movement in a video artwork. The video installation, working title: SLOW RISE, shows people on an escalator. Although the people are standing and resting, they are nevertheless moved up by the escalator.

It is the contrast of the moment of resting and the movement within a modern city. The people passing on the escalators will differ from each other in age and lifestyle. By staging some additional scenes I will add some alienation effects to the images, for example by introducing some strange characters. I will also show the difference of the use that is made of the escalators, sometimes things are quiet, but when metros arrive, the escalators get packed with people. The video will be shown without music, thus stressing the importance of the image. The onlookers are forced to watch the behaviour of the people in the video.

Like with my previous work SLow (made in Taiwan) I want to present a combination of stillness and dynamics. Asia is getting more and more important, not just economically but also culturally. For me this aspect of Asia is also present in the video installation. People are upwardly mobile moved by the mechanics of escalators.

〈緩緩上升〉錄像裝置

我在台灣求學期間，被台北市市民移動的方式所震撼，數以萬計的人們利用平面道路和地下交通運輸系統在台北市移動，我感到一種被周詳規劃的混亂。相較之下，我在其他亞洲國家旅行時，韓國和日本的交通系統更有條理。

這些猶如無止盡舞蹈著的人們令我著迷。於台北念書時，我常花時間觀察人們的流動，發現台灣人搭乘公車時很自然地會排隊，對於公共空間的使用方式，台灣人與荷蘭人有不同的習慣。

台北車站的手扶梯是在台灣觀察移動中的人的最佳地點之一。我想在錄像作品中對照人的行動和手扶梯的機械運作。這件錄像裝置的名稱為〈SLOW RISE〉，將呈現人們雖只是在手扶梯上靜止地站立，但卻因為電扶梯而緩緩上升的樣子。

這是現代城市中流動與靜止時刻的相對性比較。每位手扶梯上經過的乘客，有著不同年紀與不一樣的生活方式，我將透過加入一些奇怪的角色，以圖片轉場效果增添額外的場景。我也將呈現手扶梯在不同使用時段的差別，有時它相當沉默，但是當捷運到站，手扶梯就會被人們塞滿。影片不配樂，強調影像本身，使觀者被迫觀看影片中人們的行為。