Special Interest Section

BACKGROUND I was invited by curator Carollyn Kavanagh to exhibit a selection of my video work in the exhibition 1000 Forms of Fear at The Australian Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide. I exhibited 14 different video works some going back 18 years. Many of the video works explored the visceral human body and its relationship to the contemporary media environment. While some of the works have been previously seen, many others have never been exhibited before. The retrospective of 14 video works provided an entirely new configuration to view many of my video works at a significant venue. Soundtracks for the works were produced by PH2, Darrin Verhagen and David Haberfeld
CONTRIBUTION
Has fear become the zeitgeist of our era? We fear ageing, disease, disfigurement and death as well as an ever-expanding list of phobias. Cultivated by media and politics our current culture of fear is all encompassing: from fear of terrorism, migration, pollution and pandemics. 1000 Forms of Fear examines the aesthetics of fear and terror. The range of video works I exhibited all explored ideas of body horror and body fear. Official and established discourses and histories on the body, abjection and confrontation of the body in contemporary art have often avoided the horror film and in particular the genre of body horror and the visceral confrontation of body. Many of my works re-visit the genre of body horror while exploring ideas around the de-familiarization of the body and notions of attraction and repulsion of the body.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Australian Experimental Art Foundation is the oldest experimental art space in Australia. The significance of the research sees a rethinking of the body in contemporary art practice and its relationship to the contemporary media environment and the ways in which the rational, logical world of technology confronts us with its aesthetic opposite in the form of the messy, irrational and illogical human body.

【背景】我受策展人卡罗琳·卡瓦纳（Carollyn Kavanagh）邀请，于阿德莱德的澳大利亚实验艺术基金会（The Australian Experimental Art Foundation）举办的「千面恐惧（1000 Forms of Fear）」展览中展出个人影像作品。本次展览共呈现14部不同的影像作品，其中部分创作可追溯至18年前。多数作品围绕感性人体（visceral human body）及其与当代媒介环境的关联展开探讨。尽管部分作品曾公开展出，但其余绝大多数均为首次亮相。此次收录14部作品的回顾展，为在这一重要场馆中完整观览我的影像作品提供了全新的展陈架构。本批作品的原声配乐由PH2、达林·弗哈根（Darrin Verhagen）与戴维·哈伯菲尔德（David Haberfeld）制作。
【贡献】恐惧是否已成为我们这个时代的时代精神（zeitgeist）？我们恐惧衰老、疾病、毁容与死亡，同时还面临着持续扩容的各类恐惧症清单。在媒介与政治的双重塑造下，当下的恐惧文化无远弗届：从对恐怖主义、移民、污染到流行病的恐惧。「千面恐惧（1000 Forms of Fear）」展览探析恐惧与恐怖的美学意蕴。本次展出的系列影像作品，均围绕身体恐怖（body horror）与身体恐惧的议题展开探索。当代艺术中关于人体、卑贱（abjection）与身体对抗的官方既有论述与历史，往往回避了恐怖电影，尤其是身体恐怖类型片与人体的感性对抗（visceral confrontation）。我的诸多作品在重新审视身体恐怖类型的同时，也探索了人体的陌生化以及身体的吸引与排斥的相关理念。
【意义】澳大利亚实验艺术基金会（The Australian Experimental Art Foundation）是澳大利亚历史最悠久的实验艺术空间。本研究的核心意义在于，重新审视当代艺术实践中的人体议题及其与当代媒介环境的关系，以及理性、逻辑的技术世界，如何以混乱、非理性且不合逻辑的人体形态，与其美学对立面形成对抗。