[Mending Years, 2023.06.28-07.12] Elaine Wong recalls her Mom listening to Shirley Kwan's “A Solo Song” alone in the dark, and finds the same sentiment in a line sung by Cantonese opera diva Fong Yim-fun, “I've done nothing wrong, why am I suffering?” – which speaks of many grass-root females's mind in the 1970s. 黃淑賢的媽媽喜歡唱歌，偏偏聲帶出狀況，發不了高音。有一段日子，她經常獨個兒在漆黑的客廳坐在沙發上，播放着關淑怡的《一首獨唱的歌》，令她想起七十年代草根女性愛聽的芳艷芬的一段細訴：「今生我無做錯 何以何以累我受此折磨。」
黃淑賢 Elaine Wong: 《冷風中 我在》 I’m here. In the cold wind.
獨自在縫紉機旁
收音機 - 開著
燈 - 開著
她
手指滴血
腳踩在踏板上
循環的機器聲音
「今生我無做錯 何以何以累我受此折磨」。
獨自沉沒於沙發裡
電視 - 開著
燈 - 關閉
她
臉上藍光閃爍
雙目無神
循環的耳語
「人在冷風中 哭過也恨過。」
也許那是她的時間
也許歌曲是她的心聲
也許她想唱歌
也許她想從夢中醒來。
我想化為聲音，
為了她，
在那裡，
與她在一起。
She sat alone at the table with the radio on, lights on.
Blood dripping on her finger.
Her feet on the treadle.
The looping sound of the machine.
"I have done nothing wrong in my life,
Why do I suffer from this?”
She sat alone on the couch with the television on, lights off.
The bluish flickers on her face.
Her blank stare.
The looping murmur.
"In the cold wind,
I have wept and I have loathed.”
Perhaps that was the time she had for herself
Perhaps the song spoke her mind
Perhaps she wanted to sing
Perhaps she wanted to wake up from a dream.
I would like to be there,
be a voice,
for her,
with her.
編者注 Editor’s notes
歌詞參考 Reference (song lyrics)：
《一枝紅豔露凝香》 ，唐滌生原著，金鳳屏粵劇團於1952年初演，由芳艷芬、任劍輝、白雪仙、白龍珠主演。福達影業公司於1955年改編為粵劇電影，由黃岱執導，芳艷芬、任劍輝、梁醒波、陳錦棠、何驚凡、陳露薇等領銜主演。 1959年由大成影片公司再改編，左幾導演，仍由芳豔芬、任劍輝主演。“Sweet Dew on a Lone Scarlet," original Cantonese opera work by Tong Dik-shang in 1952, and adapted into opera films several time, with Fong Yim-fun remaining the lead..
《一首獨唱的歌》，1993，關淑怡唱，陳淑兒作詞。"A Solo Song," 1993, Shirley Kwan, lyrics by Chan Suk-yee
Background to the Creation of the work 創作背景：
音是情緒，詞是獨白。
歌曲是密室的小窗口。
七十年代的草根女性愛聽芳艷芬，聽那斷腸的聲音細訴：
「今生我無做錯 何以何以累我受此折磨」
我媽喜歡唱歌，偏偏聲帶出狀況，發不了高音。
有一段日子，她經常獨個兒在漆黑的客廳坐在沙發上，播放着《一首獨唱的歌》，那時候我聽不懂，只覺得那首歌有點悶。
「人在冷風中 哭過也恨過
只想這是一場夢 夢醒掠過 」
: (
現在的我很想唱Serrini給她聽：
「天空若突然沉重得暗影不退
困倦裏 放心去吧 你有我 在這裏 」
Sounds are emotions, lyrics are monologues.
A song is a small window in the chamber.
Grassroots women in the 70s loved listening to Fang Yan-fen, her heartbreaking voice chanting:
"I have done nothing wrong in this life, so why do I suffer from this torment"
My mother likes to sing, but she cannot make high pitches because of her vocal cord problem.
There was a period of time, she often sat alone on the sofa in the dark, playing "A Solo Song". At the time, I did not understand what the song was about, I just thought it was a boring song.
"People have cried and hated in the cold wind
I just want this to be a dream, wake up and pass by
:(
Now I want to sing Serrini to her:
"If the sky is suddenly so heavy that the shadows do not recede
In sleepiness, don’t worry, you have me, in here.”
On-site components 作品構成：
透過轉化《一枝紅豔露凝香》、《一首獨唱的歌》及《Let us go then You and I》歌曲、歌詞，並混合多個不同婦女生活空間及虛構場景，編輯成為錄像，想像一場穿越時空的對話，抒發作為女性的可愛可恨，以聲影編織一場跨時空多重唱。
作品將以單窗錄像播放，再增添擴展實景(AR)濾鏡效果，在女性封閉、抑壓的生活空間加上色彩，以虛擬影像互相了解、支持。
The songs and lyrics of "A Branch of Red Beauty", "A Solo Song" and "Let us go then You and I", will be transformed and combined with multiple different women's living spaces and fictional scenes, to become a single channel video that portrays an imagined dialogue through time and space. The cross time-space ensemble discusses the love-hate of being a woman.
The work will be screened as a single-channel video, an augmented reality (AR) element will be included in the work to spice up the living space of depressed women, and to support each other through the virtual images.
ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY
黃淑賢於2019畢業於香港城市大學，獲純藝術（創意媒體）碩士，並擁有皇家墨爾本理工大學文學士（純藝術）學位。對藝術能衍生的經驗和情感特感興趣，黃透過創作，探索並揭示日常和內在精神狀態的多種摺疊。她的作品多以錄像、聲音和裝置呈現。
黃曾在香港和新加坡舉辦個展，其作品亦於里斯本藝術週末（2022）、新加坡藝術週（2021）、奧地利林茲電子藝術節（2021）、香港國際攝影節（2020）、巴塞爾藝術展（2020）、香港文化博物館 (2018), 香港視覺藝術中心（2018）、Oi!藝術空間（2017）、EXiS 韓國（2017）等展出。 黃於2020年獲1a Space選為當代藝術新秀、於2017年入選韓國Art-Uni-On（AUO）藝術家指導計劃藝術家之一，並在2013年獲香港藝術中心獎學金赴紐約School of Visual Arts進修。
黃淑賢是獨立藝術團體 Altermodernists 的創辦人，致力記錄本地藝術家創作過程，推廣視覺藝術。她現於香港生活及工作。
Elaine Wong
Hong Kong-based ELAINE WONG received her MFA (Creative Media) from the City University of Hong Kong in 2019 and holds a BA (Fine Art) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University. Wong explores and unveils the manifolds of daily encounters and inner conditions. She regards her practice as an investigation of the potentials of art beyond representation, its relation to sensation and experience. Her interest in the experiential quality of works leads her to engage in experiments with videography, sound and installations.
Her works have been shown in solo shows at Hong Kong and Singapore, and in group shows at Lisbon Art Weekend (2022), Singapore Art Week (2021), Ars Electronica Garden Hong Kong (2021), Hong Kong International Photo Festival (2020), Art Basel Hong Kong (2020), Hong Kong Heritage Museum (2018), Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre (2018), Oi! Street Art Space (2017), and EXiS Korea (2017). She was one of the selected artists for 1a Space’s Emerging Talents in Contemporary Art (2020) and Art-Uni-On (AUO) Artist Mentoring Program (2017) in Korea, and was awarded a scholarship from Hong Kong Art Centre to study in New York School of Visual Arts (2013).
Wong is the founder of Altermodernists, an independent art group that is devoted to the documentation of artists’ creative processes and promote visual arts in Hong Kong.
