12 BW-prints, video of making process and 60 wine bottles
80 x 120 cm x 7, 120 x 80 cm x 3, 100 x 100 cm x 2
Documentary video: http://vimeo.com/29083475
Mountains, rivers, birds, and beasts form black‑and‑white landscapes upon clear, ebony glass bottles. By chance, wine labels enjoyed by drinkers around the world often evoke the atmosphere of medieval European architecture and nature. Through collecting and reconstructing these labels, one can uncover the delicate relationship between people and products. Producers influence one another, and—shaped by marketing trends, consumer purchasing power, production costs, and craftsmanship—products develop a kind of cultural inertia that helps construct our fundamental knowledge. Yet such inertia can also narrow our perspectives. How, then, can we break free from it?
I set out to search for these hidden landscapes. From a collection of 60 wine bottles, I carved into the labels, leaving only the images adhered to the glass. Using photographs of these carved labels, I created a digital collage to form a fictitious city. To deepen the understanding of this imagined place, I produced 12 photographs, each depicting the same location by identifying related and corresponding elements across different images.
You are the traveler. Welcome to Yi Shui Xi Cheng
山水飛禽，黑白色的景觀映襯烏黑清透的玻璃瓶。各地飲者，巧合地把酒瓶招紙圖案設計成帶有中世紀歐陸韻味的建築及大自然環境。將它們收集並串連，可以發現人們跟產品的微妙關係。不同生產者相互影響，根據市場風潮、消費者的購買力、生產成本及技術等考量，產品本身就形成文化慣性，從而建構人的基礎知識。然而，慣性僅提供單一角度，局限之下如何可超出習慣？
我在裡頭尋找被淹沒的景色。透過收集六十瓶不同的酒，再將招紙上除圖案以外的部分除去，由得其依附瓶身。然後給它們拍照，並透過電腦拼貼出一個虛構的都市。十二張照片所描繪的是同一處地方，可憑藉不同相片裡的共同景觀推斷出這個都市的全貌。
你是一個遊覽者，歡迎來到一水西城。
