Persona Swap
2017-2019, Synchronous dual-channel 2K video, black and white & color, 4.0 stereo channel, 15 min 30 sec
Persona Swap constructs a theatrical dimension parallel to the history of art through its stage art, costumes and make-up, performance. In the three chapters of the video, “Thinking in front of the mirror”, “The fox and the grizzly bear, the vulture and the crocodile” and “Besides the indistinguishable illusion, who the hell are you?”, an “abstract realism” is reconstructed out of the photo archive collection, the juxtaposition of roles and scenes, voice-over monologues, and dynamic playwright. The film began in 1958 when the Soviet expert V. V. Terevtzov came to Shanghai Theatre Academy to open a makeup workshop, by the early 1980s, China’s stage art design advocated breaking away from the “illlusionism” in the 19th century European stage art system, and promoting and admitting the “assumption of stage”. At the moment when this “assumption” did not have self-analysis, the tone of realism once again brought it to an abrupt end. Just like those “supporting roles” in the film, no matter in which gesture they fall down, it was just a sort of disguised “game”, that nationalist “wandering soul” never exits.
《摇身一变》
2017-2019,同步双频道2K有声影像,黑白&彩色,4.0立体声道,15分30秒
《摇身一变》以舞美、服化、表演切入了一个与艺术史同构的立体空间,在影片的三个章节:“对着镜子思考”、“狐狸与棕熊,秃鹰与鳄鱼”、“除不灭的幻觉,你到底是谁?”中,照片文献收藏、角色场景摆拍、配音模仿独白以及多变的影像写作重构了这个“抽象的现实主义”。影片从1958年苏联专家瓦·瓦·捷列夫佐夫来到上海戏剧学院开设的化妆研修班开始讲起,直至80年代初,中国的舞台美术设计主张从摆脱十九世纪欧洲舞台美术系统中的“幻觉主义”,到推行和承认“舞台的假定性”,而当这种“假定性”并未拥有自我解析那一刻,现实主义的语调再次使其戛然而止。就像影片中那些重新摆拍的“配角儿”,无论以何种姿态倒下,都不过是一种变装“游戏”,那个国家主义的“游魂”的从未退场。