Crazy Woman 瘋女人, 2022

2022.07.05 – 2022.07.30
Error 22 Mole, Tainan, Taiwan

2021年4月，我在臉書上看到一則租屋帖子廣為轉發。帖子顯示了數張屋子的照片，那甚至不能稱得上是一間「屋」，放租的是一所位於油尖旺區的唐樓劏房，帶廁沒廚房，百多呎沒有明窗，房內靠數支冷白光管和桌上飾燈照明，幾幅牆上漆上不同色調的桃紅和深粉紅色，以及貼有數大塊裝飾海報。原帖下的留言和轉發者不無譏笑意味：「隔著螢幕也嗅到味」、「牀子有多少人睡過」等等，也有人臆測原戶主收入受疫情打擊，而要離開香港。

我一直惦記著房子裡的海報：幾幅差不多設計風格的印刷品，有一男一女溫馨相擁，後面配有藍天白雲和椰林海景，海報邊綴有百合和玫瑰花的貼圖，一副窗几明淨的靜好樣子剛好補上因房子沒窗所以缺乏的風景。

海報四角因長期張貼失去黏力而逐漸掉落，露出了背後的壁癌，海報四邊的牆身有各塊大小和度數不一、後來的補漆，沒調出一樣的粉紅色，只是單純為了蓋著漆下的牆身破損，天花牆角滲漏水的黃啡色的水痕，以及漸次漫延的青苔層，還有廁所鏡子和玻璃膠上的霉點。

這些居住痕跡與海報的完美和期昐形成很大對比，前戶主在能力範圍內給了屋子使用者最大的安慰，海報的內容彷彿真可以讓人忘記此刻正身處的那個，物理地和社會性地擠壓戶主擠得不似人形的空間。藉投射自己在二維的海報中，你可以獲得一刻美好和被愛的時光：暫時的熱情纏綿，伸手可及的美景，以及舉目可視的將來。

如果說藝術是一扇讓人可探望美好的窗，那這幾幅海報實在是我看過，最美好的藝術了。

In April 2021, I saw a Facebook post about an apartment for rent that was widely reposted. The post showed several photos of the apartment, which could not even be called an "apartment", but a tenement subdivided room in Yau Tsim Mong district approximately 100 square feet big with a toilet, without open windows and kitchen, lit by several cold white tubes and table lamps, walls painted in different shades of peach and dark pink decorated with large posters. The comments and re-posters under the original posting were teasing and joking about it: "I can smell it through the screen", "How many people have slept on the bed", etc. Others speculated that the original owner's income had been hit by the pandemic and one was leaving Hong Kong.

I kept thinking about the posters: the prints of similar graphic style. I saw a man and a woman embracing each other warmly under the blue sky and white clouds, accompanied by the coconut forest and sea view at the back; photocopied lilies and roses are put on the edge of the posters. It created a sense of serenity with the bright and fake view, in order to feed for the lack of scenery due to the absence of windows. 

The four corners of the poster gradually fell off as the adhesion lost over time, revealing the wall mold and cracks behind it. Patches of paint in various size and different shades of pink on the walls surrounding the posters are obvious. The subsequent refinishing did not produce the same pink colour, but simply to cover the broken walls underneath, the yellow-brown marks of water leaking from the corners of the ceiling, and the spreading layer of moss, as well as the dots of mold on the toilet mirror and glass glue.

These traces of residence are in stark contrast to the perfection and expectation of the posters. With the greatest efforts the former occupants can pay, this visual element provides the most possible comfort to the users of the space, as if the content of the posters could truly make one forget the physical and social squeeze when one are being squeezed at the moment. By projecting yourself into a two-dimensional poster, you can enjoy a moment of hope and being loved: a passionate lingering with a view within reach, and a future within sight. 

If art is a window to see the world’s beauty, these posters are honestly the most beautiful art I have ever seen.