Week 5, Message from 3.1412

Dear Tauren Shaman,

Your virtual gift and blessing are well received, thank you so much! The white pulp is so fluffy and inviting

Yes of course please feel free to share my story with your cousin. I was deeply touched by my friends and relatives’ sharing of love and their experiences to encourage me in my fight too.

I like what you said, that in life, “Sometimes there will be stagnation, repair, and restart.” That is so true in life and art.  

I’ve recently been thinking about a kind of motto that threads through works in my art and life -- “The difference of one”. Many of my art projects probe at logical equivalences, which I seek to connect to larger systemic issues. In a journey, the first step starts it off. In life, an action becomes a practice. When a critical mass of individuals decide to act together, change happens. Time accumulates and also flows, blurring the many instances into a gush.

I’m curious, what threads through your projects? What is your mantra?

Warm regards,
3.1412

Week 6, Message from Tauren Shaman

Dear 3.1412,

Thank you for granting me permission to convey your story :)  

"The difference of one", the differences and commonalities exist between different "ones". By starting from the individual and expanding to the whole, by observing the small to understand the big, and by accumulating small pieces to form a tower. I think in terms of function, art is a very good bridge that links different "ones", being both restrained and profound.

My past artistic practice is mainly concerned with the narrative relationship between images and texts, the barriers to communication in the context of war, disaster and violence, the fictionality of archives and memory, and the function and effect of photographic images in the construction of history and the operation of power. Currently, my practice attempts to deal with the topics of memory, post-memory, trauma and aftermath in the context of the history of my hometown. Among them, the "absence" mentioned earlier has been the keyword throughout. 

Furthermore, due to my personality, I don't like to directly convey my opinions to others. This is also because I believe the complexity of the world makes it impossible for me to take sides or choose a position. Therefore, I tend to present those aspects that touch me and the possibilities they contain in my artistic practice. At this level, I think my creations are like small doors, inviting the audience to pass through them with their own experiences. During this process, the audience can look back. And among these look-backers, a small portion of them might be moved by certain details in my works and resonate with me. For me, this is enough. 

How can I approach those people and things that I lack and cannot reach through artistic creation? This has been the most fundamental issue that I have been trying to address in my decade-long artistic practice. 

Due to the terms of this collaboration, I am currently unable to view your work. I look forward to the moment when the game ends, hahaha. 

Best wishes!
Tauren Shaman

Week 7, Message from 3.1412

Dear Tauren Shaman, 

Thank you for sharing your concerns and topics. Memory, archives and interpretation of history are fascinating to unravel, with deep layers of trauma and relationships intertwined within the presence and absence. It is not easy to uncover the complexities, not oversimplify, and recognize that history has biased lenses. I am guessing there may be some related personal family history that is also a driver in your commitment to such work. I would love to see your work too later.

The idea of doors is interesting. How can we design such doors or pathways for the audience to pick up and engage with, and yet be open enough for their own world views to color their experience and shape their takeaways walking through the door.

I recently visited an exhibition that was powerful and poignant, of a photography project called “The Blue Skies Project” done by Anton Kusters, which is now showing at the V&A Museum in London. The exhibition comprises more than a thousand polaroids showing blue skies over Nazi concentration camps, and an accompanying audiovisual that uses the data to create a soundscape.

I believe art has potential transformative power, and artworks that can achieve this activate the subconscious instinct to empower our thinking. 

I wish you all the best in your artistic practice, to create more doors for movement and reflection.   

Warm regards,
Tauren Shaman

Week 8, Message from Tauren Shaman

Dear 3.1412,

Thank you for your blessing at the end of your last letter.

I checked Anton Kusters' "The Blue Skies Project" and found that I seemed to have read articles about this work somewhere before, but I forgot.

In a broader sense, this kind of forgetting is, of course, also associated with many artworks about memory. Just like what I felt at the Auschwitz concentration camp site a few years ago: although most of the time, the tourists were very quiet, during my walking, I still encountered two or three waves of teenagers, whose laughter was louder than the heaviness of the atmosphere in the place. At that time, I was thinking: shouldn't those who haven't experienced it be less harshly judged and forced to show reverence for something serious? (They don't remember anyway, how could they forget?) I haven't figured this out yet. I only know that for things without direct say, I often have to remain silent and try to listen clearly to the sounds around me in silence.

So at that time, I recorded with my phone the sounds of the path from the deepest part of the concentration camp to the exit - from history to reality, to safety, to a space where one can laugh. Here I also share this recording with you. I once thought about whether to put it in a certain work, but I haven't implemented it yet.

If I can contact the "door" mentioned in the email, I think sometimes, it might not be an easy thing for an artist to know when, where and how to open a door:)

Wish you good health both physically and mentally!

Best,
Tauren Shaman