田野笔记 / Fieldnote
像石块一样生硬 / As Brittle as Rock
陈嘉诚 / CHEN Jiacheng
中国江苏南京 / Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
01 /
上学的时候，曾无数次想过自己要做的展览须从场所本身出发，将作品融于空间的内涵与外延——经过一番对“意义关联”的探测和调校，作品成型后一旦离开所在的地方就会失效，如同嫁接的枝芽从已然共生的母株中剥离，便从“活体”嬗变为“标本”。“隧道项目”是第一个可以实现这个理念的机会，只不过场地实际的复杂程度远超自己一开始的预计。
自项目申请之初，我会抗拒直接使用有关“隧道空间”的象征比喻或审美意象，而是觉得需要先尽力研究清楚它的空间来源。以研究为先，一来可以形成相对可靠的共识基础，二来也能有一个仔细观察“复杂场域”的过程。经验告诉我，如果不去真地丈量一个地方（将其陌生化），很多现象便会熟视无睹。
During my school days, I often envisioned building an exhibition that would start with the site itself, integrating artworks into the spatial connotations and extensions of the venue. Through probing and calibrating "meaningful connections," the works, once completed, would become ineffective if removed from the PLACE—much like a grafted bud separated from its symbiotic host plant, transforming from a "living organism" into a "specimen." The "Tunnel Project" allowed me to realize this concept for the first time, though the actual complexity of the site far exceeded my initial expectations.
From the very beginning of the open call application, I resisted relying directly on symbolic metaphors or aesthetic imagery associated with the "Tunnel Spaces." Instead, I felt it was necessary to first thoroughly research the spatial origins of the site. Prioritizing research served two purposes: it would establish a relatively reliable foundation for shared understanding, and it would allow for a careful observation of the "complex site conditions." In experience, I know that, without actually surveying a place—a process of defamiliarizing—many phenomena would go unnoticed in front of the blank eyes.
北丘美术馆大门前的蔷薇花，后山峡谷所见（视频静帧）The rose at the art museum
gateway, and scenes in the “Canyon” (video still)
山汽收集行为（视频静帧） Wetness-collecting performance
(video still)
第一次来隧道空间外的“后山峡谷”，是2024年4月2日，来挂除湿袋。到了5月3号，我和助手准备好了胶鞋和防毒面具，终于下定决心去峡谷底部一探究竟。我们略微胆战心惊地走下那座长长的楼梯，在谷底的每一步都不知前路深浅（虽然事实证明心理作用大于实际危险）。一路上能听到滴水声，蜘蛛网层层缠绕在不会熄灭的检修灯管上。
从谷底往上回望，才忽然意识到，这空中的“隧道”其实是一个盲盒。在隧道空间内的时候，看不到其外部环境的复杂与危险，而会自然地以为隧道内部已经足够混合。其实，它不过是跨度有四层楼高的检修通道中封闭的一段。人在其中，体验到的是一种处理过的粗粝，所逼近的也是一种可控的危险。
On April 2, 2024, I made
my first visit to the "Back Mountain Canyon" outside the Tunnel Space to hang dehumidifying bags. By May 3, my assistant and I had prepared rubber boots and gas masks, finally mustering the resolve to explore the bottom of the “Canyon.” With slight trepidation, we descended the long staircase—each step into the depths uncertain of what lay ahead (though, as it turned out, the psychological burden far outweighed the actual danger). Along the way, the sound of dripping water echoed, and layers of spiderwebs clung to the never-extinguished maintenance light tubes.
Looking back up from the bottom of the Canyon, it suddenly dawned on me: the "Tunnel" suspended in mid-air was, in fact, a blind box. Inside the Tunnel Space, one cannot perceive the complexity and danger of its external surroundings, and it’s easy to assume that the interior alone is mixed enough. The truth is that, it is merely an enclosed segment within a maintenance passage spanning four stories in height. Inside, what one experiences is a curated roughness, and what one confronts is a controlled sense of danger.
暂时存放的水桶，右边是行走所用的胶鞋
Temporarily stored buckets, with rubber shoes for walking on the right
至于展览的名字——“山汽莫测”——也是几经斟酌才商定下来的。选用这个名字一语双关：它既可以是一个定语后置的词组，也可以被理解为一个祈使句，全凭读者直觉。同时，它也反映了自己内心的某种逆反情绪。“寻找不可测之物”和“测绘失灵”这两种动向贯穿于项目实施的各个阶段，展览也借此在更大层面上反思有关“工具理性”的价值倾向。
As for the exhibition’s title—“The Mountain Breathes Beyond Measure”—it was finalized only after much deliberation. The name was chosen for its double meaning: in Mandarin Chinese, it can be interpreted either as a postpositive attributive phrase or as an imperative sentence, leaving the reading entirely to the viewer’s intuition. At the same time, it reflects a certain contrarian sentiment within me. The dual impulses of “seeking the unpredictable” and “the devalidation of mapping” run through every phase of the project’s implementation, allowing the exhibition to engage, on a broader level, in reflecting on value orientations tied to “instrumental rationality.”
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展览的主要作品是按照测绘制图的三个基本操作展开的。它们分别是投射，横截和地图术。在“作品设计”迭代的过程中，也逐渐形成了四个原则，分述如下：
The main works of the exhibition are organized around three fundamental operations of surveying and cartography: projecting, transecting, and mapping. In the iteration of designing the body of work, four principles gradually took shape, outlined as follows:
一，“场所气候”特定
这一原则几乎不言自明，也是避免使用“先验的”象征符号后，自然需要秉持的创作观。由于项目是围绕“湿润现象”展开的，所以创作构思中叠加了“场所”与场所“微气候”两个维度。除此之外，在主作品 《来自山的汽》 中，其上蚀刻的剖面图绘的剖切线划过隧道本身，让图绘所呈现的内容确切地“复刻”着它所在的场所。
1) Specific for the Site and its Microclimate
The first principle is almost self-evident to become
the foundational creative approach, especially after consciously avoiding "a priori" symbolic elements. Since the project revolves around the phenomenon of "humidity," the conceptual framework integrates two dimensions: the "site" itself and its "microclimate." Moreover, in the main artwork
"Exhale, Drip, Submerge"
, the engraved section line in the drawing intersects the Tunnel itself, ensuring that what the drawing represents precisely "replicates" the very place it inhabits.
作品《来自山的汽》的蚀刻线稿和剖线所“切开”的隧道空间位置 The etching drawing for the
artwork "Exhale, Drip, Submerge" and the location of the Tunnel Space where the section line cuts through
二，为山体一侧留白
在前几期的隧道展览中，山体一侧通常都布有作品，而山体的“本来面目”只有在撤展之后才会显露出来。这回除了插入山体废弃出水口的一根橡胶水管，我没有在山体一侧布置任何作品。这样有观众在的时候，会有目光照亮山体；没人的时候，瀑布遗迹也有作品可以对晤。
2) Leaving Blank for the Hillside
In the previous Tunnel Space exhibitions, the hillside was typically arranged with artworks, and the "original appearance" of the mountain would only be revealed after the exhibition was taken down. This time, aside from a rubber hose inserted into a discarded water outlet on the mountain side, I did not place any artworks there. In this way, when visitors are present, their gaze would naturally illuminate the unblocked hillside; when no human is around, the remnants of the waterfall would still engage in a silent dialogue with the artworks.
在展览中无遮挡的山体 The unobstructed hillside in the exhibition
三，“景观”作为方法
简而言之，就是用“开放式”的框架和“物境联系”的视角去建构作品与场所之间的意义联系。在投影作品 《序章：向峡谷求证》 中，投影仪的光束将工业排风机的阴影意象在隧道和峡谷之间“连成关节”（articulate），使这个徘徊于剩余空间的鬼魅有话可说，且变得表述清晰（articulated）。对于其他作品而言，只要其状态随湿气会变化，则在创作取向上都是开放的，且将作品卷入到场地的实时变动之中。
3) “Landscape” as Methodology
In essence, this approach employs an "open-ended" framework and a perspective of "material-context connections" to construct meaningful relationships between the works and the site. In the projection work “Verify with the Canyon,” the projector's beam articulates the shadow imagery of an industrial exhaust fan between the Tunnel and the Canyon, enabling this spectral presence lingering in the residual space to find a voice and become articulated. For other works, as long as their state changes with humidity, they remain open in their creative orientation, immersing the works in the real-time fluctuations of the venue.
后山峡谷，左侧墙体上方是作品《向峡谷求证》的投影光束 Back Mountain Canyon, whose upper left wall is enlightened by the projection of the artwork “Verify with the Canyon”
四，身体行为介入
除了挂除湿袋的行为，作品 《Mapping比例尺1:1，等待对面加湿》 呈现了一种“实地测绘”隧道中建筑构件的低技方式，亦是身体与空间的反复交锋。犹记得这个作品完成于八月初，当时在馆方工作人员的协助下踏着水管、登上一字梯、跑上跑下，仿佛在剧场里独自表演。
4) The Engagement of Body
Beyond the act of hanging dehumidifying bags,
the work “Mapping Scale 1:1, Waiting to Be Humidified by the Opposite Side”
presents a low-tech method of "field surveying" architectural elements within the Tunnel—a repeated physical engagement with the space. I still remember completing this piece in early August, when, with the assistance of museum staff, I stepped onto pipes, climbed a ladder, and moved up and down, as if performing alone on a stage.
现场“测绘”隧洞空间的梁与柱
The on-site “survey" of the beams and pillars in the Tunnel Space
这四条原则是在准备展览开幕式演讲的时候总结出来的。回望那个通往隧道的小小门洞，如同一篇等待翻阅的论文摘要，纲举目张。展品最后沉淀出来的思考与形式会像水底的石块一样生硬吗？我没有把握，毕竟自己也在摸石过河。
These four principles were summarized while preparing the opening speech for the exhibition. Looking back at the small doorway leading to the Tunnel, it feels like a research paper abstract waiting to be read—concise yet revealing the overall structure. Will the reflections and forms that ultimately emerge from the exhibited works be as brittle as rocks at the bottom of water? I cannot say for sure, after all, I too am feeling my way through , like a hiker wading across a river.
03 /
开幕式的时候，有朋友说主作品的漏斗滴水仿佛是在流泪。面对另一边卡在楼板间、似巨石无法撼动的山体，也许这件作品真是在哭泣。
During the opening ceremony, a friend remarked that the dripping water from the
main artwork’s
funnel seemed like weeping. Facing the other side—the mountain body lodged between the floor slabs, immovable as a colossal boulder—perhaps this piece truly is shedding tears.
主作品细节 Details of the main artwork
在呈现形式上，这个作品的最终面貌和一开始的设想有很大不同。一开始是打算直接在隧道空间内挂除湿袋，让其像输液一样把除湿后的水注入一个内含纸本绘画的透明袋子里。后来考虑到作品效果的可控性，在保留了原方案最为核心的“山汽侵蚀图绘”的观念后，形式上改成了“漏斗-铜板”组合：这么做似乎在材料性和装配逻辑上也更能与空间内的管道和构件相呼应。
In terms of its exhibited form, this work differed significantly from its initial conception. Originally, the plan was to hang dehumidifying bags directly inside the Tunnel Space, allowing them to drip the dehumidified water, like an intravenous infusion, into a transparent bag containing a paper-based drawing. Later, I considered more for the controllable artistic effect, without sacrificing the core idea of "mountain breath eroding the drawing." After moderation, the form was revised into a funnel-copper plate combination. This adjustment seemed to resonate more closely, both materially and in its logic of assemblage, with the pipes and structural components existed in the space.
原方案中直接使用除湿袋的效果 The original proposal employs
dehumidifying bags to make the artwork.
然而，铜材是自己所不大熟悉的，所以要学习许多新技能，也先后尝试了电解硫酸铜和酸液腐蚀等方法。这种“生手体验”让我联想到了本科时的一件纸张作品《创‧伤》，完成时不经觉得自己为期数周的制作过程,,都像在完成一种“生手遥望先人”的行为。
细细想来，此次为期3个月的研究创作之旅如出一辙。作为一个跨界而来“当代艺术创作者”，最初手上可用的技能和概念可谓杂多。结合场所的实际情况，审视种种可能、摸清种种惯习、走通种种关隘，最后便呈现出了展览最后的面貌。无论如何，展览都要在11月中旬结束了。
嫁接于隧道之中的诸多枝杈，最终总要凋零。
However, copper was a material that I was relatively unfamiliar with, so I had to learn many new skills, experimenting along the way with methods such as electrolytic copper sulfate and acid etching. This "novice experience" reminded me of a paper-based work from my undergraduate years, Trauma. At the end of completion, I couldn't help but feel that my weeks of work were akin to an act of "a novice looking backwards on the legacy of predecessors."
Reflecting carefully, this three-month journey of research and creative works followed a similar pattern. As a transdisciplinary contemporary artist, the skills and concepts that I initially hold at my disposal were diverse and eclectic. By examining possibilities suitable for site, navigating through established conventions, and overcoming various obstacles, the final form of the exhibition gradually emerged.
In any case, exhibitions must all eventually come to an end.The many branches grafted into the Tunnel will eventually wither away.
版画习作 The intaglio work
致谢 / Acknowledgement:
北丘当代美术馆 / Beiqiu Museum of Contemporary Art