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In her body, landscape flourishes

她的身體長著一片風景

photography 

攝影(底片/噴墨輸出,金屬相紙)
2015, 2016
SLY Art Space, Museum of National Taipei University of Education, JingLü Gallery 

於新樂園藝術空間、國北師美術館、靜慮畫廊展出

It wasn’t until a long time after, I learnt from someone else, that I never really understood how to embrace. I dared not embrace a woman’s body, as she was too delicate. The flowing lines of her body and every inch of her skin, each part was too soft to the touch, and with too many intimate messages.

Women’s body is like a landscape, and they have all walked many paths with their own feet, and the passage of life have now become strokes of beautiful and extraordinary scenes on their bodies. Different choices bring varying views, and this is what is most cherished about women’s autonomy. As I look at these exquisite and refined bodies, I try to imagine, what hesitations do they have over the choices they make? What expectations of their bodies and bodily functions are assumed upon them? What roles and identities do their lives have to bear and assume?

A silicone belly stiffly pressed up against a woman’s body is a form of protest, bringing to light questions of — whom this body belongs to and whose offspring it is? This alludes to the choices most often taken away from women, by our society with its uniform values regarding marriage or birthrights, in which women have only been able to accept and given a soft response to. But the meaning and existence of women, does not lessen by not becoming someone’s wife or mother, as marriage and children is only a part of the scenery in their splendid and beautiful lives.

No matter if a woman decides to become a mother or not, as each crevice of her body, or her pregnant belly, or the small life within it, is a separate flourishing landscape of its own. I want to start from the idea of appreciating women, especially in our society, which does not provide a balanced tolerance to them. To salute all mothers, and in this time, emphasize that this choice which deeply affects women’s bodies and a whole lifetime, requires more empathy and respect, as each one of us views the scenery of the landscape differently, but what we all see is something absolutely beautiful.

一直到很後來,我才從別人那裡知道,原來我不懂得如何擁抱。我不敢緊緊擁抱女人的軀體,女人太過細緻,女人身體的每一個線條、每一寸肌膚、每個部位的柔軟度都透露出太多私密的訊息。

女人的身體像風景,她們用自己的雙腳走過許多條道路,走過的生命路途畫成了身上一片片獨特的風華,不同的選擇帶來各式不同的景色,這是女性生命自主的珍貴。我望著精緻細膩的女體,想像她們猶豫過哪些不同的選擇?而她們的身體又經常被賦予哪些(功能性)期待?她們的生命背負了什麼樣的角色設定和身份認同?

一只矽膠肚皮用稍微抗衡的姿態硬生生地掛上了女人的身體,提出了這是誰的軀體和誰的香火的疑問,暗示了女性不婚或不生的選擇權在過於單一的社會文化價值觀底下被剝奪的困頓,於此女人卻往往給予柔軟的回應及接受。然而女人存在的意義並不因為不成為媳婦或不為人母而失去價值,結婚生子只是她們豐美細膩的生命歷程裡其中一道風景。

不論女人是否決定成為一位母親,她身體的每一寸枝微末節或是孕肚或肚子裡的另一個生命,皆是獨自生長的綺麗風景。我想從珍視女性的角度出發,尤其在尚未能提供平衡包容的社會中,向母親們致敬,與此同時,這項關乎女人身體和生命的個人決定也需要更多的同理與尊重,因為每個人眼裡所見的風景不盡相同,卻都是全然美麗。

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