Water and Sugar, Tsai Kuen-Lin exhibition｜蔡坤霖個展—糖混水

• Kuenlin
• 5 月 14, 2021
• Comments Off on Water and Sugar, Tsai Kuen-Lin exhibition｜蔡坤霖個展—糖混水

“In lives akin to a drop in the sea, we presume ourselves as protagonists of this world, but we are in fact only supporting actors in the natural world, no different from other species.”

A century ago, the Japanese engineer Hatta Yochi designed the Wusanto Reservoir and Wushan Hill Tunnel, then followed by the National Government of the Republic of China which built the Tsengwen Reservoir and upstream sediment traps in the Liutengtan Gorge in accordance to the plans devised during Japanese rule, including transbasin diversion tunnels, desilting tunnels, and various interception, storage, and discharge facilities. The numerous canals of the Kanan Irrigation System transformed the downstream farmlands into the production site for the sugar industry in Taiwan.
During the same time, dense wufenchelu (narrow gauge railways) were arranged on the plains, first to develop mountain forests and for industrial transport, and then used to meet the demand of sugar transport.
And so the majestic canyons disappeared, the homeward waterways for aquatic creatures were obstructed, the coastline receding, with construction of the reservoir changing more than a sole relocation of a village.
This exhibition expands on Tsai Kuenlin’s work on underwater sound samples, inadvertently initiating a narrative topology of manmade water management systems for sediment traps, reservoirs, and canals, extending to land resource extraction and transportation, casting a net of exploration of the land against the axis of time.
This provides the artist a new entry point into the history of Taiwan. Not unlike the wars between man in Tainan Fucheng (Government City), the accretion of resources in the Tainan Plains is the history of contention between man and nature. Tsai encourages the audience to observe and consider new possibilities for relations between man and nature.

「在滄海一粟的生命中，人總自以為是這世上的主角，但事實上我們只是這自然環境的配角而已，與其他生活在這大地上的物種無異。」

百年前，八田與一建設了烏山頭水庫、烏山嶺引水道，之後國民政府又參照日本政府遺留下來的計畫，在柳藤潭峽谷興建了曾文水庫、上游攔砂壩，接著又加上越域引水道、防淤排水隧道等大大小小的攔截、儲存、排放設施，讓下游的看天田一躍成為了臺灣糖的主要產地。
同一時間，先是為了開發山林與工事運輸，後又有糖業的輸送需求下，在這片平原上又安排了密密麻麻的五分車路。
於是，曾文溪上游的壯麗峽谷就消失了、水中生物回家的路斷了、沿海的海岸線也退縮了，這不只是因為興建水庫而造成遷村這麼單一的變化而已。

本次展覽延續過去對於水下聲音採集的進行，卻無意間開啟了一系列對於攔砂壩、水庫、水圳的人為水治理行為，然後一路延伸到陸域的資源開採與運輸，像撒網一般的對土地的踏查展開時間軸線的敘事拓墣。
這使得蔡坤霖對於土地歷史有了新的切入點，相較於臺南府城多是人與人的爭戰，臺南平原的資源採集意圖則是人與自然的爭奪史，因此希望透過此次呈現來讓觀眾可以觀察到並進一步去思考—人與自然的關係是否有新的可能。

 

 

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本展覽B展間是一整件裝置作品，作品名稱為「糖混水」，取自淌混水的諧音，意指本作品主要談論的兩個對象「製糖與曾文溪水」，原本曾文溪水是來協助、幫忙我們生命延續的母親之河，但延續至今的河川治理與資源運用之術，卻導致曾文溪水系本體的穿腸七孔、面目全非。紅樓為日治時期最大的糖業行政中心，B展間在當時是主要行政辦公室，藝術家面對如此具歷史厚度的空間，不似以往使用此空間試圖抹平其個性方式，而是正視其空間語言，並試圖置入物件嘗試與空間合作，呈現糖與水交織交融、不可分割的歷史與地理關係。

二樓D展間展出版畫兩幅，一幅是本次藝術家駐村田野的創作「古港水圳烏山遊」，範圍大致北從曾文水庫，南至麻豆古港、麻荳社，東起曾文水庫，西抵將軍溪出海口，主要刻畫人與自然在大地爭奪的圖像，版雕塑則是「烏山嶺」，以其山為造型對象，將版製成立體雕塑，另兩件是舊作「半月沉江府城遊」與「鷲嶺」，刻畫的是台江內海、五條港、府城等，市區、中西區一帶人與人之間的爭奪圖像。

相關連結：2021 Tsung-Yeh Arts and Cultural Center AIR｜總爺藝文中心藝術家駐村計畫