Grandpa Tang "2017" 鄧爺爺「二零一七」

Grandpa Tang, 2017
Single channel video, things left from the artist's ancestors and Grandpa from 1800s to 2000s, boxes made by common materials from Hong Kong walled villages, previous works selected from the artist from 2005 to 2015, aluminum cabinets, cabinets, glass, mixed media
Dimension variable

video: http://vimeo.com/240440282, 13min36s
























Grandpa has passed away for over ten years, so many rituals he persisted in have gone with him, and festivals are gradually simplified to dinner party and gods-thanking. Nothing could resist the atmosphere of pursuing capital and efficiency. 

What may every grandpa, inadvertently or deliberately, leave something for descendants? One day, I tidied the darkroom under the stairs in our house and took out a tin trunk under a pile of things, which is full of my ancestors’ and grandpa's remains. Photos, letters and paintings from my great-grandfather; marriage certificate, books, notes, suitcases from my grandpa; passport photos; red cloth autographed by dinner guests, all of these could date back to several decades, even a hundred years, ago. 

I was raised in a walled village. One year I recorded Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festivals. I made unique boxes by current daily objects with my grandpa's remains at home, as well as placing parts of my creations in the past ten years like a fragmented relic-like map. How can objects evoke generations and human lives? They create a temporary rest in the changeable world. With a sense of belonging generated from the past years, it is a way home. 


爺爺離開十年多,好些他堅持執行的儀式沒繼承多少,節慶逐漸簡化作聚餐及酬神,一切無法抵抗講 求資本及效率的氛圍。 

每一位爺爺,不經意的、或特意的,為後來者留下什麼?一天,執拾家中梯級底下暗室,取出被雜物 堆疊的鐵皮箱,箱內是祖先及爺爺的遺物。曾爺爺的照片、書信、畫作;爺爺的結婚證書、藏書、札記、 手提皮箱;一堆護照照片;晚宴嘉賓題名的紅布匹,等等來自數十或過百年前的物件。 

我在圍村長大,某年記錄它的春秋二祭,同時以家中現代的物件為祖先及爺爺的不同遺物製作獨一的 盒子,並置自身過去十多年創作的某些部分,如同延續碎片般遺物的圖譜。物件如何勾起世代和人事?浮光掠影的現世中閃過可暫且歇息的歸處,經年而成的歸屬感在鋪陳回家的路途。