
The inter-play of present and past tense is deliberate in contemplating the nature of memory — the fixing of attention onto nit-bits of the chaotic ocean of the past. I am also influenced by moving image creation — every work being the negotiation between the present continuous of the camera at work and the “already-past” of its articulation. 現在進行式與過去式時態的交替共用是「不假思索」法」而來的必然對策,也是現象學的意識論的創作性延伸,在猶如汪洋大海混沌波濤翻滾的「過去」投擲零星的關注點,構成接點的「回憶」,以至構成可被陳述的「經驗」。
An accidental death in February (?) 2018 ended young artist Anna Chim’s barely started exciting journey of creative adventures. While revisiting principles of economizing in image-making in film and art history in preparation for my teaching, I accidentally returned to this saved message Anna sent me.

FPC dialogues… Jess Lau wrote a poem and shared it with Linda Lai, who wrote a poem in response. The exchange develops into that of images. 劉清華隨心寫了一首詩,分享了給黎肖嫻。黎回了另一首詩。後來這個對話由文字推至圖像。

她(黎肖嫻)寫了一首別人的情詩。已沒有話可述說愛情,只知道「想」之際自覺存在多一點。找文學對愛情的書寫,總覺女作家和男作家的視野不盡相同。沒有性別基要主義。只是好奇。想聽讀者們的回贈,讓她不落入自說自話的荒涼。Linda Lai wrote a poem contemplating the phenomenology of being in love and losing it. Great quotes from the internet were grabbed in search of the male protagonist’s voice, says she. Let’s have a conversation!

腹語系:微敘思考 “Thinking Narratively… the Ventriloquists” | video dreamworks, thought paths as montage sequences, sight-and-sound data visualization of well-known moving image works | 63 works by young artists from the School of Creative Media’s BA program. Why do we install so many voices into Floating Project’s limited space? | 夢式敘事。影像/圖像蒙太奇。聲影數據圖像分析名作 | 63 個創意媒體學院文學學士課程的年青創作者的聲影訴說。為何在此時此地在「據點」有限的空間群星匯聚?

Permanent youthfulness — a thought of no comfort at all! No certainty about the words I have, but those moments spent with Joey, a lasting imprint. Combining Joey’s writings she had shared in class with faint, ineffectual words I could barely utter, I post this buried poem today as a ritualist container for infinite nothingness. 這首詩是由我的文字和陸姵妏生前在我的文字創作工作坊裏分享過的作業的片段混合而成的。在黃花綠影之間虛實無分,是一個人?兩個人?多少種心情?精神思想記憶都漫飛無涯,涓湧成氣。除此,我對她的思念無以啟齒。十七年過去了,比我先行的學生還有幾個。…我總是為過去了的人寫詩。懷緬詩注定就是跟死亡手牽手的。奈何。

An unpublished text by Linda Lai as an observer’s soliloquy on a 12-part interactive sight-and-sound sequence she created with Theresa Junko Mikuriya at the HK Art Biennial 2003.11-2004.01. Lai’s attempt to make sense of their automatic creation… Not an annotation, but an extension in the form of automatic writing describing what she sees on screen, an assertion of narrativity. 一篇於2003-04年香港藝術雙年展隨作品出現過卻重來沒有發表的文字,與組織緊扣卻多處留白的聲畫流隔岸對話。不假思索,想像眼前碎斷的畫面背後的世界。是延伸創作,推開無限可能的下一個小步。

The 31st year, 35 May 2020, thoughts and words gathering … 如何說香港?從上世紀的呼蘭河到此時此刻的香港。

Push: Scary Stories is a story about story-telling in Linda Lai’s childhood, her land of fear and fascination co-created with her Grandma before bedtime. 「推」,推開了神秘的門,領進魔幻之地。《推:怕怕故事》推開了作者童年時候床頭說書的外婆伴著編織的幻想世界。這門,不過是眾多要推開的門的一道。

Push! And a door will open. Push is a special charm to Linda Lai, a magic word she has used for several of her artworks, “PUSH Push – automatism” shares glimpses of her mind-scape, an enigmatic zone with strides of montage and poetry.「推」,推開了神秘的門,領進魔幻之地。《推。推。不假思索》推開了作者某幾個時刻的紛繁思潮世界。斷、折,又絲連。是詩與蒙太奇的步履。