The One Who Watches the Scenery
Installation/Relational Aesthetics
SIT BESIDE YOU WATCH THE CLOUDS” Exhibition Site, Chengdu, 2022
Cardboard, Monitoring Enclosure, Network Monitoring, Ladder, Size Variable
The work uses two active monitoring devices as its main thread—one in the artist’s bedroom and the other in the exhibition hall—to explore the potential for wholeness in the relationship between people. By displaying the live feed from the artist’s bedroom on a screen in the gallery, the piece creates an inviting posture towards the audience.
When an audience member participates in the work as a viewer, a second monitoring device, located above the display screen, begins to capture them. This act simultaneously disintegrates the audience’s identity as a mere observer and endows them with the new identity of “the watched.” At this point, the work prompts an exploration into the complex dynamics of viewership and presence.
In the initial stage of creation, the height of the work and the use of hidden cardboard were designed to simulate the layout of real surveillance systems. The choice of hard cardboard as a material serves a dual purpose. On one hand, it helps to eliminate the physiological pressure and discomfort that monitoring can induce in an audience (such as the feeling of exposed privacy). On the other hand, it acts as a filter, engaging more deeply with audience members who are particularly observant.
The underlying logic of the work is based on the “desire to see oneself.” A lack of this desire can increase the difficulty for participants to fully enter the context of the work, making this self-reflective impulse a key component of the experience.