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Farewell    (2020)

告別式​

Tan Kian Ming 2020: Farewell (photography, single-channel video - 5.40 mins)

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered daily life worldwide. 2020, I experienced quarantine three times; The Farewell Ritual was created during my third isolation at the Cosmo Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

 

Confined indoors, the window became my only connection to the outside world—a boundary both transparent and impassable. This experience led me to reflect on physical and psychological limitations: Is space what confines us, or is it our perception? Is freedom simply a matter of having more room, or is the body itself a prison?

 

With a hand-copied Diamond Sutra, I began transcribing the text onto the window. This repetitive act helped ease inner unrest and became a meditative ritual. Through it, I questioned: Am I observing the world, or is it observing me? Who hand-copies the sutra, and who is being copied? Who am I?

 

The work became both a personal coping mechanism and a quiet prayer for the end of the global crisis.

 

全球在新冠疫情的影響下受到巨大的衝擊,居家檢疫隔離成為了疫苗面世前唯一的防疫途徑。本人於2020年一共進行了三次檢疫隔離,而這次的行為紀錄《告別式》是在第三次隔離於吉隆坡Cosmo Hotel完成的。 隔離期間,窗戶作為觀望戶外的唯一管道,同時成為了隔離者與外界的屏障。這看得見卻無法穿透的隔閡讓我經驗了肉身行動限制的過程,也反思是外在空間限制了肉身還是內心對於空間感知的局限。難道換了更大的空間就自由了嗎?肉身本質上是否就是一個監獄?

 

當時手上有一本手抄本金剛經,便決定以窗戶作為媒介把一部金剛經抄寫完成,用以調適內心的不安定。過程中,不斷咀嚼著幾個問題:我看世界還是世界在看我,誰在抄經/經被誰抄,我是誰/誰是我…除了安撫內心的不安,同時祈禱全球疫情早日平息。

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