後真相:鏡海撈針 Post-Truth: Fool Others as Well as Oneself

“Performance art is the lifelong work of an artist, which is constantly overthrown, reshaped and polished. The presentation of the work each time could showcase the personal changes of the artist, which is of paramount importance for me.” — Wang Yan Xin

When “I” on the scene use “Body, Subject, and Consciousness” to analyze the event, what is the order of awareness among these three? Among the variables of the awareness of this relationship, how could we perceive the reality from our live experience? How could we personally record the reality? How could the truth be presented through the records? In a dialogue with Yan Xin, he mentioned that the term of “post-truth” was first included in the Oxford Dictionary in 2016, highlighting the so-called ‘post-truth” does not mean any changes of “truth” but the changes in the public attitude towards the “truth”. In an article titled “Art of the lie”, the Economist interprets the post-truth and says, “The truth is not falsified, or contested, but of secondary importance.” Our reality is constructed by our knowledge, which is controlled by the status quo. Thus, it can be concluded that our reality is constructed by the status quo, which makes the reality malleable and subject to resistance at the same time. 

In my opinions, Wang Yan Xin adopts a “shocking” approach to establish the relationship with the audience during the live performance. Prior to “Post-Truth: Fool Others as Well as Oneself”,  Wang has been invited to participate in the Macao  International Art Performance Festival held at the Old Court Building. His work Macau connected with the audience in an intrusive and threatening way, in which the subject of the audience made the choices, and the right to choose is a testament to equal rights. Another highlight at the live performance is that the subject of the audience was separated from the awareness of the body when shocked. In light of the shocking live performance, the audience did not belittle themselves as Greenberg says the sense of alienation and authority could be created through shock, but the audience actually had the right to choose in this relationship of dual powers. This shows Yan Xin practices a game-based approach in performance art so that the shocking behaviours could conform to the event and transform into a paradigm of greater thresholds for awareness while the body of the audience is found in the relationship between the awareness and subjective choices.

The exploration and understanding of foolish strategies and the common factors of the subject. The various works in “Post-Truth：Fool Others as Well as Oneself” illustrate several incidents during the stay of Yan Xin in Macao: In 8 Hours of Searching for Death, the artist wears a GoPro head strap to record his eight-hour wandering in Macao. When he comes across any dead organisms, he will stop and use a pen to mark the time on the spot. How should we interpret these figures? Is it an encounter of the subjects when looking for the bodies? Is our awareness reflected on the body in the video? Are we questioning the status of the subject? Indelible takes place at the shipyard of Lai Chi Vun, in which the artist polishes and removes the rust on the old ship nails he has found, before using the rust powder collected to write the words “Indelible (Indelével)”. The transformation of ashes, words and ideas amid the behaviours of the body echoes the convergence of the subject in space, history and current status. In the “glory” reflected in the tenses of the written records, who writes the history and what is history? Unpassable records the behaviours of the artist next to the walls of the Coloane prison. The changing status of “leasing” of Macao becomes a reference for jump attempts. The artist exhausts all his energy to jump beside the high walls and marks how high he could jump each time on the wall with chalk. These figures show that the declining stamina is directly proportional to the height of jump. Warmth concerns the Consulate General of Portugal in Macao, in which the artist walks around the boundaries between two jurisdictions, rubs his hands over a hundred times and touches the walls of the Consulate General before checking the temperature with an infrared thermometer. The average of these figures elucidates what is warmth. At the Beginning takes place at the Grand Lisboa Macau. The artist Kicking a dice made by milk ice cube at Grand Lisboa Macau, until it disappears.WhatAt the Beginning concerns is nostalgia. What is the status of people when they are recalling the past. What are the clues left on the sticky track in the cemetery? Fool Others as Well as Oneself depicts the artist throwing a needle into the sea at Hac Sa Beach in Coloane, who then looks for it until nighttime. This experience is futile and unnecessary — under the lead of the subject, there is the constant labour of the body and the exaggeration of consciousness when looking for a needle in the cold water. In this battle between the body and awareness, the subject is tranced but strengthened. These all showcase the multidimensional thinking of Yan Xin towards Macao.

The shocking approach as a new language of performance art aptly reflects the contemporary side of the society. With the astuteness of Wang Yan Xin’s behaviours, the game initiated by him has flattered and gathered the audience, who are joyfully playing but are aware of the pains of the body.  The sarcasm of the event is like a banter — when the artist walks to the front of a particular audience member the self-consciousness is evoked through the shocks. Instead of an active choice by the subject of the audience, it is more likely the other way round and even with self awareness. If we have to talk about the goals of the foolish plan that makes fun of oneself and the futile labour, it is, perhaps, a method of exploration and understanding by the artist. With the subject masked, the awareness and body could be better understood without the subject, controlling and even playing with the common factor, as well as exploring and reviewing the possibilities of seizing the consciousness. Weakness, vulnerability and pretense could be the faults of the subject, the reflections, and the reassessment of body, subject and consciousness. Or are these the constant questions asked by the artist concerning identity and functions in the social ecosystem? Perhaps what the artist hopes is the consciousness of the subject, as the forging of techniques like an ascetic monk and the seasoned enabler that could initiate the subject.