WONG WINSOME DUMALAGAN

The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps: Revisit no.1-19 is a series of video reshooting the video The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps. That is, in The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps : Revisit no.1,  The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps is being reshot with handheld DV camera when it's being played on a computer monitor ; in The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps : Revisit no.2,  The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps: Revisit no.1 is being reshot with the same method as the previous, and so on. During an exhibition where The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps is displayed as video installation, the video could be looped for about 20 times a day; the electronic files do not seem to wear out easily and the images will remain identical. The footage could be so easily repeated as such, which is so different from the inevitable deviation and incomprehensible strangeness derived from repeatedly recounting a piece of memory. However, if the footage itself is shot nineteen times over, something may be lost, as if it's a burial of something, while something as well may emerge. 
 

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About The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps : 

There was a time when I was constantly on the move. But in recent years I have been forced to stay. The rapid change in the outside world twists and pulls the quiet past, which occasionally emerges, almost detached from the present self. A line from a poem comes to my mind, but I cannot remember every word of it, nor can I read it again. I want to write a song that can soothe my soul, but I am not capable of doing so. Therefore, I can only create a forest planted with those barely-remembered memory pieces, letting the deer sleep inside.

 

The Forest Where the Deer Sleeps is made up of footage occasionally taken in different situations and places over the course of six to seven years (from 2014 to 2021), recorded with portable filming tools such as mobile phones, DV, cameras, and toy cameras. Some parts of the sound is composed of fragments of ambience and also music being played on site when the videos were recorded. While they are assembled with parts that are composed of sounds and noise that I played with immature skills and not-well-functioning/broken musical instruments like guitar, erhu and bass recorder. The video was made during the pandemic when there’s lockdown everywhere and also during the times of drastic political change in Hong Kong.

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《在森林酣睡的鹿: 重回 no.1-19 》是一系列重複拍攝《在森林酣睡的鹿》的錄像：《在森林酣睡的鹿: 重回 no.1 》以手提攝錄機拍攝電腦屏幕上播放中的《在森林酣睡的鹿》，然後《在森林酣睡的鹿: 重回 no. 2 》以同樣方法拍攝《在森林酣睡的鹿: 重回 no.1 》，如此類推。在某一次放置《在森林酣睡的鹿》錄像裝置的展覽中，一天之中這段錄像大概能播放20次，電子檔案似乎不會輕易耗損，影像依然會一模一樣，如此輕易的重複著。不同於我們重複訴說一段記憶時無可避免的偏差甚至衍生的莫名陌生感，然而假如把同一段錄像重複拍攝19次，當中可能有些什麼會失去，恍如埋葬了什麼，也可能有些什麼會浮現。

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有關《在森林酣睡的鹿》：
 

曾經不停的往外跑，而近幾年必需或逼著要停留。日子這樣過著，外界的變化速度扭曲拉扯著在內在沈靜著的過往，而那些過往偶爾浮起，卻幾乎與現在的自己脫離。腦內浮現來自詩的一句，卻不能清晰記起每一隻字，也不能再翻閱那首詩，想譜寫一首能安撫靈魂的曲，卻也沒有那個能力，所以只能把這些幾乎要飛脫卻勾住了身體的片段慢慢種成一個森林，讓鹿睡在那裡。

《在森林酣睡的鹿》由這六、七年間在不同處境和地方偶爾拍下的片段組成，片段用了隨身的拍攝工具如手機、DV、相機和玩具相機等記錄。聲音則由拍攝時所錄下的環境聲和當時播放中的音樂以及由我後來用破爛的樂器如結他、二胡、低音笛等與不成熟的方法奏出的聲音的碎片組合而成。
 

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2021 Noble Rot, Group Exhibition, Para Site, Hong Kong

 

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