藝評

圖片說明：

1. 陸浩明的裝置作品《產物．殘物》，現於德薩畫廊展出。
2. 2020年4月21日，陸浩明在大角咀街頭留影。
3. 2020年4月20日，新界大圍鄰近車公廟已關閉的足球場中，一位青少年在射龍門。
所有照片由作者提供

Captions:
1. Andrew Luk’s Haunted, Salvaged installation currently showing at de Sarthe Gallery.
2. Andrew Luk on a Tai Kok Tsui street, 21 April 2020.
3. Teenager shooting at an open goal on a closed football pitch, near Che Kung Temple, Tai Wai, New Territories, 20 April 2020.
All photos: John Batten



(Please scroll down for English version)


2019新冠病毒繼續在全球肆虐，與此同時，香港感染人數字大幅放緩，與此同時......

西德州中級原油的4月期油價格跌至負數：因為全球產油過剩，儲油設施供不應求，產油商要把原油出貨，便有可能需要給買家付錢。關閉油井並不像關掉水喉般容易：過情既困難又昂貴，而同樣地，要把石油生產重新啟動也是既困難又昂貴。衷心希望油價大瀉不會變成要把實體石油丟進海中。因為價錢已低成這樣，可替代的再生能源變得相對昂貴。這樣的話，緩減氣候轉變的行動將會受到什麼影響？幾個月之前，葛雷塔．桑伯格（Greta Thunberg）每天都見報，但現在報章看到的卻全是病毒消息。

期油反映了世界實體經濟的一面：因為飛機不再起航、汽車也沒多少人在用，石油需求出現了突如其來、前所未見的急降。相對而言，各國股市，特別是華爾街，幾乎沒有把在未來六個月、一年和三年的時間內，各國經濟所面對的困難計算在內。實體經濟已即時出現了失業率攀升、店鋪十室九空、酒店無人入住、廣告宣傳銳減、按揭違約等。然而，股票市場方面卻未有反映出全球在2019新冠病毒下鎖國封城後所做成的經濟。

我在大角咀跟藝術家陸浩明（Andrew）喝咖啡見面。雖然戴上口罩，但Andrew仍然很好看。事實上，大部人戴上口罩也會好看。口罩可以像帽子一樣裝飾臉孔，令人臉更富神秘感和更吸引：就像威尼斯嘉年華舉行時，面具充滿魔力一樣。各位有沒有發現，即使家人、朋友和街坊戴上口罩，我們仍然可以認出他們，這不是很令人驚訝的事情嗎？是眼睛，就是眼睛：我們透過眼睛看到事物，看到被口罩遮蓋下，臉上所展現的笑容或愁眉苦臉、喜悅或憤怒。

大角咀的街道擠滿了人。人們都外出玩樂、購物、吃東西、工作，做著日常的事情。那天稍後時間，政府宣佈延長酒吧、公共圖書館和多種娛樂場所的關閉期兩星期。但是孩子們都只想再次玩耍，當然，打網球、踢足球或在公園運動時，應該有安全的社交距離吧？又或者，到郵局排長龍等候服務，會比安坐圖書館溫習安全嗎？政府有沒有計劃在5月7日後重啟香港的各行各業和公共設施？公眾人士不等政府了，他們都在為自己做決定：現在就以自己能做到的最佳方式出來玩樂、購物、吃東西、工作。

警方拘捕了16名民主派人士，包括貴族李柱銘、事事細心的吳靄儀、中西區區議會主席鄭麗琼。讓他們上庭吧！香港最資深的大律師和民主代表人物李柱銘，將會像曼德拉那樣發表慷慨激昂的講話。然後，他會在世界各地印有「釋放李柱銘！」的海報和T 恤上變得永垂不朽。

立法會正就政府最新一份施政報告緩慢地進行辯論，民主派與建制派立法會議員就警察獲得增加25%撥款一事不斷互有狙擊。另外，在各方就何謂「干預」香港管治發表意見之際，中聯辦和政府也對兩辦在香港的角色，以及《基本法》第22條是否適用於這兩個中央政府機關的事宜多次出了急就章的澄清聲明。我們現在得知：沒有任何干預，而且第22條並不適用！

這種匆忙湊合地要把訊息說出來的做法，反映北京對泛民在最近區議會選舉取得成功，可能在9月立法會選舉再次重演的恐懼。如果談判是真正的政治藝術，那麼香港實在少有就其測試，因為內地和香港政府官員一直以來都拒絕和泛民見面和談判。立法會和現在立法討論停擺的情況實在混亂不堪，但當談判從來沒有展開過，你又可以有什麼期望？儘管坊間現時對立法會停擺有很多咬文嚼字和嚇呼的批評，立法會是個獨立的機構（感恩地至今仍然未改），必須讓其以自己的方式走出這種停滯不前的狀況。

陸浩明現正於黃竹坑的德薩畫廊（De Sarthe）展出其本年度極具野心的混合媒體裝置作品《產物．殘物》（2020）。這是一件部份為動力的雕塑，閃閃發亮而且會轉移，像蜂巢地勢般移動，也像一個幻想中的抽象生態系統。陸氏解釋說：「藝術品的核心概念是將人類看成大自然的一部分，而從人類延伸出來的產物和動力，例如文化和科技，也是自然世界的一部分……這些生存的特質亦包含自我毀滅的能力。」

真是一矢中的。儘管北京向香港施加更大「權力」，泛民正好藉此難得的機會，重奪因為宣誓風波而親手斷送的立法會議席；而要令香港不要再因為去年的暴力示威走上進一步自毀的道路，另一方法卻可以簡單得多，正如在真正你來我往的民主選舉中，偉大的政治家會在競選活動所說的：「讓我們以選票投走所有混蛋！」


原文刊於《明報周刊》，2020年4月24日



Some thoughts on last week

by John Batten


Covid-19 continues its spread around the world, meanwhile Hong Kong’s infection rate is dramatically slowing. Meanwhile….

West Texas Intermediate oil futures prices for April crashed into negative territory: oil producers potentially need to pay buyers to take oil off their hands as there is dwindling storage facilities for the world’s surplus oil. Closing an oil well is not like turning off a tap: it is difficult and expensive and, turning it back on is equally difficult and expensive. I hope this dumping of price doesn’t spillover to the dumping of physical oil into our oceans. And, at these prices, alternative renewable energy becomes relatively more expensive. Where does this leave action to alleviate climate change? Just a few months ago, Greta Thunberg was in the news every day, now it’s just the virus.   

Oil futures mirror one aspect of the world’s real economy: a sudden and unparalleled drop in demand for oil as airplanes don’t fly and cars aren’t driven. In contrast, stock markets, particularly Wall Street, has hardly priced-in the future difficulties facing the world’s economies over the next six months, one-year and three-year time frames. The immediate, real economy is seen in rising unemployment, vacant shops, empty hotels, plummeting advertising, mortgage defaults. Stock markets, however, are not yet reflecting the economic fallout of worldwide Covid-19 lockdowns.

I met artist Andrew Luk for coffee in Tai Kok Tsui. Andrew looks great in a face mask. Actually, most people look great in a face mask. Face masks adorn the face like a hat, but masks are much more enigmatic and tantalizing: it’s Venice at Carnival time, magic in a mask. And, isn’t it remarkable how we still recognize family, friends, and neighbourhood acquaintances who wear a face mask? The eyes, the eyes: through them we can see, beneath the face-covered mask, a smile or grimace, pleasure or anger.

Tai Kok Tsui’s streets were full. People were out and doing what we always do: playing, shopping, eating, working. Later that day, the government announced a further two weeks for bars, public libraries and leisure facilities to be closed. But, the kids just want to play again – and, surely, there is safe social distancing when playing tennis or football or exercising in a park? Or, is waiting in a long line for post office services safer than sitting and studying in a library? Does the government have a plan to re-open Hong Kong businesses and public facilities after 7 May? The public’s not waiting for the government, they’re making their own decisions: playing, shopping, eating, working, as best they can – right now.

The police arrested 16 democrats, including the patrician Martin Lee, the meticulous Margaret Ng, and the committed Chairwoman of the Central & Western District Council, Cheng Lai-king. Give them their day in court! Martin Lee, Hong Kong’s most senior barrister and an icon of democracy, would give an impassioned speech in his own Nelson Mandela court moment. Then, he would be immortalized on “Free Martin Lee!” posters and T-shirts around the world.

There has been constant sniping between pro-democrats and pro-establishment legislators over the police being given a 25% increase in funding in the government’s recent Budget, which is slowly being debated in the Legislative Council. And, amidst differing opinions on what is and isn’t ‘interference’ in Hong Kong’s governance, the China Liaison Office and the government made numerous hurried clarifying statements about the Liaison Office and the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office’s role in Hong Kong and whether Article 22 of the Basic Law applies to these two Central government entities. There is no interference and Article 22 does not apply, we are now told!

This scrambling to get that message out reflects Beijing’s fear of the possibility that pan-democrats will replicate their recent District Council successes in September’s Legislative Council election. If negotiation is the true art of politics, then it has rarely been tested in Hong Kong as mainland and Hong Kong government officials have consistently refused to meet and negotiate with the pan-democrats. The Legislative Council and its current impasse to debate legislation is a mess, but what do you expect if negotiation is never initiated? Despite all the rhetoric and bluster criticizing the current deadlock, the Legislative Council is (still, thankfully) an independent body that must be left to work its way through that impasse.

Andrew Luk is showing Haunted, Salvaged (2020), an ambitious mixed media installation, at de Sarthe Gallery in Wong Chuk Hang. It is partly a kinetic sculpture that sparkles and shifts: it moves as a honeycombed landscape and as an imaginary abstracted ecosystem. Luk explains: “Fundamental to the artwork is the realization that humanity is not only a part of nature, but by extension the entities and forces that humanity creates – such as culture and technology – are (also) part of the natural world…Contained in these entities is the fundamentally human capacity for self-destruction.”

That hits the spot. Despite Beijing pushing to exert more ‘authority’ over Hong Kong, there is a remarkable opportunity for the pan-democrats to regain lost ground in the legislature after the self-inflicted oath-taking debacle and for the city to not go down the road of further self-destruction by repeating last year’s violent protests. The alternative, as great politicians would say as they campaign in the pull-and-thrust of true democratic elections, is much simpler: “Let’s vote the bastards out!”


Originally published in Ming Pao Weekly, 24 April 2020. Translated by Aulina Chan.