88 PIPELINE Electric Spaces 89Sep Oct Nov 2015

Passion encoded in the sinews

肢體中的激情解密Sherman Ong

Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore

原文 Ruyi Wong

Rendez-vous Jun 20 - Aug 2, 2015

90 PIPELINE Electric Spaces 91Sep Oct Nov 2015

A trilogy by Sherman Ong (b.1971, Malaysia) is one of the various works, from video to sculpture, presented at the Rendez-vous exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, as part of an inter-biennial curatorial platform initiated by the Biennial of Lyon to promote emerging artists. Sherman Ong’s trilogy of three of his earlier short films, re-edited to last an hour and a half, carries a mix of social-realist aesthetics with dance and explicit visual references to the everyday in Southeast Asia. In a social climate where only homogamy is acceptable, Ong’s dissident characters represent nuggets of social and political resistance to larger social forces and the status quo. The places depicted in his films are localised portraits that reflect human desires and the socio-psychological confinements that accompany them. Meanings and sentiments are embodied in the films through every sinewy stretch and turn of the actors and their glances, revealing only the most rudimentary story.

Exodus – Wanita yang berlari (2003, short), the first in the trilogy, set in a sultry, chaotic Jakarta, stages a beady-

eyed Chinese-Indonesian girl who is strikingly anomalous to her lover, a brown-skinned indigenous Indonesian woman. The choreography visualises the implied lesbian relationship without defining and explaining the women’s affection and affinity for each other, letting audience’s sensibilities determine it.

The second film, When the end of Winter is almost Spring (2010, dance film), leaves the grubby setting of the first film dramatically behind, opening with a couple dancing tenderly on the balcony of a sterile high-rise Singapore apartment. As the film unfolds, so does the ambiguity of a three-person household. Ong’s ingenious cinematic treatment favours choreography over dialogue in expressing the relationships between a woman and two men, a prowess that peaks with a dinner scene in which the rhythm of chopsticks dancing — a sensory delight — epitomises conflict.

The last film, I want to Remember (2011, dance film), recounts the story of the pain and bliss of separation and reunion of an interracial couple during the early days of Malaysia and

Singapore as nations. The relationship between a brown-skinned Malay boy and a yellow-skinned Chinese girl is magnified as their nations part ways, attesting to the notions of nationhood, national identity and personal history. The contemporaneous use of the English and Malay languages in the film highlights the difficulty of marking out one’s identity with language. Just like the character of the Malaysian-born Chinese girl who calls herself a “naturalised” Singaporean, the cloudy identity of the characters echoes those of the filmmaker, who is Malaysian by birth but calls himself a “pseudo-Singaporean”.

Ong’s trilogy is exquisite: beautifully framed shots with hand-held camera movements, realistic cinematography and a strong cultural and political background all support the psychological intricacies of the films. They offer a perspective from which it is possible to understand the broader social mechanisms behind the desires of his characters and the restrictions their milieux have placed on them.

王明安的（生於1971年，馬來西亞）三部

曲集合各種作品，風格各異，從影片到雕

塑都有，於新加坡當代藝術學院內的Ren-

dez-vous展覽展出，這個展覽為雙年展內

策展平臺的一部分,由里昂雙年展發 起,以

推廣新進藝術家為目的。Sherman Ong

的三部曲作品,重新剪輯成一個半小時的長

度,除了輯錄了他三部早期短片之外，還將

社會現實主義的舞蹈審美與東南亞的日常

生活的影像混合。在這個社會環境下，人

們只注視相稱婚姻，王氏的相異符號代表

在更強大的社會力量和社會現狀下驚人的

社會和政治阻力。他的影片描繪了居住環

境的畫像，反映人類的慾望和伴隨而來之

抑制的社會心理。意思和情感通過演員每

一個有力的肢體伸展、轉彎動作和眼神，

展示了影片最基本的故事。

Exodus - Wanita yang berlari（2003

年，短片）三部曲中的首部曲，背景是悶

熱又混亂的雅加達，主角是一位中國印尼

女孩，她有一雙明眸眼睛，她愛上一位棕

色皮膚的土著印度尼西亞婦女，她們的愛

情異於常人。影片中的舞蹈描繪其隱含的

女同性戀關係，並沒有定義和解釋女性之

間的吸引力和親密關係，讓觀眾用情感定

義這段關係。

第二部影片 When the end of Winter is

almost Spring（2010年，舞蹈電影）的故

事背景完全不像第一部設於骯髒的環境，

而是由溫情的一幕展開整個故事：一對夫

婦在新加坡的高層公寓的陽臺上跳舞。隨

著故事展開，三個人的模糊家庭關係亦漸

趨清晰。王氏巧妙的處理手法，巧妙地用

舞蹈代替語言去表達一個女人與兩個男人

之間的關係，其中晚餐場景非常精彩，筷

子舞的節奏將故事帶到高潮，這一幕簡而

明快地將衝突呈現出來，滿足觀眾視覺與

感官的享受。

最後一部曲 I want to Remember（2011

年，舞蹈電影）講述了一對異族情侶在馬

來西亞和新加坡開國早期，經過痛苦分離

後來又幸福團圓的故事。褐色皮膚的男孩

為馬來西亞裔，黃色皮膚的女孩為華裔，

他們的關係被放大為兩個分道揚鑣的國

家，充分反映民族性、民族身份和個人歷

史的觀念。在影片中同時使用英語和馬

來語突出用語言來表明一個人的身份是一

件困難的事，就像那個在馬來西亞出生的

中國女孩，稱呼自己為「入籍的」新加坡

人。片中女孩模糊的身份正正與製片人的

身份—馬來西亞出生但自稱為偽新加坡人

呼應。

王氏的三部曲故事細膩，在手持攝像機下

拍出一幕幕精緻的場景。他採用現實主義

的拍攝手法，配合濃烈的文化和政治背

景，能呈現片中複雜的心理活動。王氏

的影片讓我們有多一個視角，從他的影片

中，我們可以從人物的慾望及其社會環境

的壓抑背後理解更為主要的社會制度。