黄永砯 HUANG YONG PING / 2001 – 2005 THE BAT PROJECT 蝙蝠计划

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RLF / SO MANY OF THE TITLES OF YOUR WORKS ARE POETIC WHILE ALSO POSSESSING A PHILOSOPHICAL TONE—HOUSE OF ORACLES, BANK OF SAND, SAND OF BANK, CRANE’S LEGS, DEER’S TRACKS, THE WISE MAN LEARNS FROM THE SPIDER HOW TO SPIN A WEB. IN SOME WAYS, THEY PROVIDE A NAVIGATIONAL KEY FOR ENTERING AND EXPLORING YOUR WORLD. WHAT INSPIRES YOUR TITLES?

HYP / ARTWORKS, BEFORE OR AFTER THEY ARE PRODUCED, ARE ALWAYS CONFUSINGLY DISGUISED BY LANGUAGE, LIKE BEING IN FOG. THE VISIBILITY OF AN ARTWORK, AS IS THE BIRTH OF TEXT, IS INVOLVED WITH LANGUAGE. HOWEVER, THE TITLE OF AN ARTWORK IS NOT ARTWORK. TEXT IS SOMETIMES LIKE A WINDOW THROUGH WHICH ARTWORK REVEALS ITSELF & SOMETIMES A TUNNEL IN WHICH ARTWORK HIDES. IN THE END, ARTWORK IS JUST LIKE TONGS THAT HELP GIVE BIRTH TO BABIES. WHEN YOU LOOK AT ARTWORKS, OR WHEN YOU ARE IN ARTWORKS, YOU CAN THROW IT AWAY.

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RLF / YOU HAVE DESCRIBED THE DISMANTLING OF THE AMERICAN SPY PLANE AS A DECONSTRUCTION OF POWER ITSELF. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON POLITICS & POWER? DOES ART HAVE A POLITICAL POWER?

HYP / COMPARED TO POLITICS & POWER, ART IS JUST A GAME, & IT IS SO INDEED. HOWEVER, IN THE EYES OF ‘GOD’, POLITICS & POWER ARE ALSO OTHER KINDS OF GAMES. BUT THEY ARE NOT TOTALLY IRRELEVANT. ART CAN APPEAR IN POLITICAL EVENTS FROM TIME TO TIME. I USED TO CALL A SPY PLANE AN ARTWORK WHEN IT WAS CUT INTO PIECES & THEN SUBSTITUTED BY ANOTHER PLANE. ACTUALLY SOME EVEN MORE OCCASIONAL & SPECTACULAR POLITICAL EVENTS CAN ALSO BE TAKEN AS ARTWORKS.

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RLF / YOU HAVE MENTIONED THE STRATEGY OF ‘USING THE EAST TO FIGHT THE WEST; USING THE WEST TO FIGHT THE EAST.’ CAN YOU EXPOUND ON THAT NOTION FURTHER?

HYP / ‘USING THE EAST TO FIGHT THE WEST, USING THE WEST TO FIGHT THE EAST’ COMES FROM THE SIXTH STRATEGY OF THE OLD CHINESE MILITARY STRATEGY ‘THIRTY-SIX STRATAGEMS’. I REFERRED TO THIS SENTENCE FOR ITS FLEXIBILITY FOR APPEARING NOW IN THE EAST & THEN IN THE WEST, ITS HIT-&-RUN ATTACKS. EAST & WEST REFER TO WHAT WE CALL THE EAST WORLD & WEST WORLD. ‘MAKING A FEINT TO THE EAST BUT ATTACKING IN THE WEST’ IS A TARGET & A BATTLE FIELD. ‘USING THE EAST TO FIGHT THE WEST, USING THE WEST TO FIGHT THE EAST’ ARE TWO TARGETS & TWO BATTLE FIELDS. IT IS NOT ONLY A STRATEGY BUT ALSO A WAY OF THINKING OF USING DICHOTOMY AGAINST DICHOTOMY. TO DIVIDE THE WORLD INTO EAST & WEST IS DICHOTOMY. BUT COMBINING ‘EAST’ & ‘WEST’ BECOMES A ‘THING/OBJECT,’ SUCH AS A TABLE (IN CHINESE, THE TERM DONGXI, OR EAST WEST, MEANS A GENERAL THING OR OBJECT). IF WE DISMANTLE A TABLE & USE ONE OF THE TABLE LEGS TO HIT ANOTHER ONE, THE OTHER TWO LEGS ARE SPARED TO WAIT & TO WATCH. THAT IS WHY IN CHINESE WE SAY ‘NOT A THING’ WHICH HAS A NEGATIVE MEANING BECAUSE WHEN IT IS ‘NOT A THING’, THE OBJECT IS DESTROYED. WE CAN ALSO SEE EAST & WEST AS POWERS OF SELF-DESTRUCTION. ‘FIGHTING’ MEANS NEITHER WAR NOR DIALOGUE, NEITHER COMMUNICATION NOR SOME HYBRID. ‘FIGHTING’ IS ACTIVELY SEARCH FOR RESOURCES IN ORDER TO SURVIVE.





THE ENTIRE 8 PAGES ARTICLE ON THE BAT PROJECT WITH AN EXCLUSIVE 3 PAGES INTERVIEW BETWEEN HUANG YONG PING & RAINA LAMPKINS-FIELDER ONLY IN THE PRINTED EDITION OF SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE ISSUE002 / THE BLACK BOOK