邪念樹

『究竟多少邪念才可栽種^{自编x3209609}樹？』

《邪念樹》盤根錯節，追溯想法如何凝煉成思識形態、集體平庸如何勾引出惡行。項目受冷戰時期的情報^{自编x3209604}員生命故事所啟發，揭示了集體主義下人性和個人能動性的複雜性。

我腦海中浮現出多年前的一系列採訪，令我重新糾纏於意識形態與身份的兩難之間。‘Y’與^{自编x3209602}的「伴侶/夥伴」皆為常人眼底下的情報人員；^{自编x3209603}們遊走於英屬香港和中國大陸之間，其生命故事透過他們的後代之口口相傳到我手上。故事如真似幻亦娓娓道來、自行顯化，並賦予我正視人性的力量。

這研究式藝術項目縱橫交織個人證言、訪談記錄、創意寫作和檔案，希望打打撈^{自编x3209601}宿諾中被埋藏的個體。《邪念樹》是其母項目——《白雲山冷》的前奏。

Tree of Malevolence unfolds how ideas crystallised into ideologies, and collective banality resulted in evil deeds. Inspired by human intelligence life stories during the Cold War, the project unveils the complexity of human nature and individual agency under collectivism.

In the multi-channel video installation, an enigmatic narrator ‘Y’ murmurs in the shadow, proceeding with her fragmented and anachronic narratives along with her missions in Hong Kong and the Canton Fair in Guangzhou. The Fair was the foremost and only occasion open to international traders in the planned economy era. Among the guests from Hong Kong, Macau and foreign countries, ‘Y’ was assigned to take charge of the country’s first-ever urban greening campaign in a public square facing the newly built Fair Centre, where the historical southern Canton city gate was once located. At the gateway to the world, ‘Y’ disguised her counterintelligence duty as a forestry officer, she had to change her name to many aliases, comply with political stances that are ever unstable, and work with anonymous fellows who could be her adversaries. As Y’s voiceover suggests, one may not intentionally do evil, but what causes such collective karmic retribution? Y’s struggle, which was against her protocol as an agent, the multiplexity of humanity urges me to question: what makes a human a human in dire strait.

When thinking about and being entangled in the dilemma between ideology and identity, a series of interviews conducted many years ago goes adrift in my mind. ‘Y’ and her partner were both undercover intelligence officers across British Hong Kong and Mainland China. Their life story came to me through the mouth of their descendant, which manifests itself and grants me the agency to face humanity. Interweaving personal testimony, interview transcript, creative writing and archival records, the research-based project unearths individuals dissolved in the reclamation of unfulfilled promise. Tree of Malevolence is a prelude to its mother project The Cold Mountain (2021-).