P012 → I Vaguely Remember
When I thought about this series, I remembered that many years ago my dad had shown me a photograph—
a group photo of a family trip from when he was still a boy. As I remember, in the picture, my grandpa and grandma were leading the six children standing in front of a rented black car. Behind the car was the Eluanbi Lighthouse in Kenting, Southern Taiwan. My aunts, uncle, and dad all wore neat, white school uniforms, probably the most decent clothes they had at the time. Dad said that when the crammed car made its arduous journey to Kenting, everyone—
except him—would keep throwing up all over the place. Many years later, my dad took the photo to be copied and laminated. The fact that he treated the photo with such great care showed me what an important memory it must represent to him.
After drawing the sketch for this piece, I asked my dad to look up the photo again, and found that many details were different from my memory. The blending effect created where glazes overlap merges with the indistinct images in memory. My memory of my father's family trip.
記得阿爸以前給我看過一張照片，是他小時候的家庭旅行合照。印象中，是阿公、阿嬤領著含阿爸在內的六個孩子，排成一列站在租來的黑色轎車前，車子後面是鵝鑾鼻燈塔。姑姑們、阿伯和阿爸穿著整齊白淨的學校制服，可能是他們當時最體面的衣服了。阿爸說他們全部的人塞在一台車裡，風塵僕僕開到墾丁，全部的人除了他之外都吐得東倒西歪。阿爸後來把相片拿去加洗並且護貝起來，鄭重其事的樣子，一定是他很棒的回憶吧。
畫完這張作品的草圖之後，我請老爸再把照片翻出來，發現許多細節跟我的記憶有所出入。釉跟釉交疊處產生的暈染效果，與記憶中模模糊糊的畫面合而為一。記憶中的阿爸的家庭旅行。
Work in progress and installation view, Taiwan Scenery and Its Tail 寶島風情畫, The Hall, Taipei, Taiwan, 2021