Ryan Chung / let the mind speak 5: Loneliness is a Cry for Nothing「思維自說自話」5 : 孤單是無端而吶喊
Finding an ensemble of words to give form, thickness and density to flickering thoughts and fleeting sentiments is Ryan Chung’s persistent experiment in his “let the mind speak” series — speaking for its own sake, this time, “loneliness” must imprint its presence… What is the vocabulary of our own loneliness? 表述是為了堅守表述自由的維度。孤單是怎樣的？孤單的語彙是怎樣的？說了就是。鍾樹仁的思維自說自話。
Michael Leung / ON LAND 13: There’s No Need to Add Oil Anymore (a fictional story)「在地」十三：不再需要加油（虛構故事）
Is it a dream, nightmare, mind escape, or transcendent float in time-space? It takes a fictional moment to fully embody Michael Leung’s many episodes of intergalactic traversal, to regain the potency to enter a boundless performative space. 虛擬不一定是逃脫，反而是全情貫注的為跨界、跨域、跨族類的慾望賦予實質、形骸，以至可在其中遊蕩潛行，延展無邊際的演述空間。
Linda Lai / 方寸之間。氣流。你在牆上留了個暗號。Love in the Time of COVID-19. You’ve left a mark at the foot of the wall. (a poem)
她（黎肖嫻）寫了一首別人的情詩。已沒有話可述說愛情，只知道「想」之際自覺存在多一點。找文學對愛情的書寫，總覺女作家和男作家的視野不盡相同。沒有性別基要主義。只是好奇。想聽讀者們的回贈，讓她不落入自說自話的荒涼。Linda Lai wrote a poem contemplating the phenomenology of being in love and losing it. Great quotes from the internet were grabbed in search of the male protagonist’s voice, says she. Let’s have a conversation!
The Ventriloquists 21. Coda. Highly appraised works at “The Ventriloquists…Thinking Narratively” 《腹語系》佳作選出，展覽放映研討圓滿結束。
Seven artists are selected winners of the various awards. The 63-work exhibition “The Ventriloquissts…Thinking Narratively” plus two screenings all completed… 《腹語系。微敘思考》63個作品的展覽及兩場放映已圓滿結束。七位創作者的作品獲獎項嘉許。
Natalie Chao / Wilderness poems #5: “the land of logs”
Wilderness Poems #5, image & text by Manifesto 2 artist Natalie Chao 錄像宣言2創作人趙芷妮《荒野詩》系列作品 5.
Michael Leung / ON LAND 12: Pre-existing Conditions 「在地」十二：既有狀況
In these COVID-19 days, “underlying conditions” undermine those with chronic diseases in fighting the virus. Rather than a sheer physiological condition, Michael Leung quotes Rene Gabri: what are considered pre-existing conditions are “those imposed on people by capitalism and the state, making some more vulnerable than others (during the pandemic).” What are the possibilities of being immune not just a personal matter but a collective act?「本有」狀況？「既有」狀態？還是「固有」狀態？梁志剛在英回顧法國行程的經驗，體悟藝術家 Rene Gabri 的申述：既有狀態其實是資本主義和國家政府加諸我們身上的，其結果是有些人總比另一些人「脆弱」，例如在疫情高漲的時候。如是，「既有」的，因政策管治的上綱下達，便成了「固有」的境況。往下想，「免疫」或「免疫系統」的出現，是否可以超越「個人」層面而成為「協作」的、社區群體的？
The Ventriloquists 20. A narrative pictogram for Red Balloon 《紅氣球》解放路線圖
The pictograms for this 101 moving image classic show more than just the exemplary precision of continuity editing and a classical 3-act structure in plotting. These pictograms function as analytical tools to show how the intensifying bond between the boy and the balloon evolves; to superimpose the 1955-56 location of the film Red Balloon onto the contemporary map of Paris, … and to single out the swerving energies and roughening emotions of the story world in mood-board like representation.《紅氣球》是學過活動影像拍攝的入門經典，或許是這樣，我們可能錯過了敘事藝術上的微細質感。氣球於小孩的動人關係不用質疑了，可是甚麼叫我們感動？這裡四個圖形分析，從唯物的層面揭示創作者的藝術心思，著我們不再輕易走漏眼。
The Ventriloquists 19. on nonsense in Svankmajer’s Jabberwocky (1971) by Steven Tsang 有關「物件」的動畫，打開怪趣無釐頭之門，打開文明歷史規範的一些「真相」
An assembly line of human figures grinding human figures for food, dolls feed dolls, doll eats dolls. Ironing, flattering, being dressed, being cut up, being tamed… Beyond Svankmajer’s dramatization of carnivorous acts, Steven Tsang sees the politics of nonsense, which the animator structured against the paradigm of human civilization. The animator wants us to see differently, and asks a different sort of questions in following a narrative unique to his use of stop-motion animation. 看到喂小娃娃的大娃娃就知道是女的，看到舞動的水手裝就自動知道是男的。再看下去，人吃人，有血有肉的黑貓時不時推倒積木，一面是歷史砌圖，另一面是迷宮的路線…最終，它被鎖在籠裏動彈不得。屋子裡一個「人」也沒有，卻充滿了人類的活動。物件長年累月吸收了人類強加它們身上的「用途」、「價值」，也穿背著人類的規範，像鬼魅的模仿著我們的「正常」活動。曾俊良看到歷史、文明、性別的社會結構。能看到，因為看穿了動畫大師史文梅耶以物件為本的獨特敘事結構和跨媒想像。
The Ventriloquists 18. Love Earth in 3 photographs 愛地球？三段循環。
A set of 3 black-and-white photographs on light-boxes speaks of Harmanjeet Singh’s warning on our destruction of the world. It’s a closed circuit, the looping of disasters: personal life-style, environmental pollution, illness and viral infection, extinction of the species, the world’s future… at Ventriloquists…Thinking narratively, 4-19 July 2020. 三張黑白照，串通個人、環境、體內、疾病、地球的未來。因與果是循環。
Ryan Chung / let the mind speak 4: Twenty-two: reflection on experiences, a starting point 「思維自說自話」4 – 反照經驗，就這樣開始可以嗎？
You are twenty-two, or you could be 24, 30 or just 16. Emotions often escape words, but writing the act preserves that moment of struggling to give sentiments an outfit. Keep writing: let realities come through the cracks of grammatical and syntactic fabrics. 確定是22歲，或許24， 30；16歲可以嗎？情緒和感覺往往挑戰文字的限度；裹不住，盛載又不完全。只有「寫」，作為行動，以「演」為述。抓著那個時刻，殘酷的現實或許找到那片刻的機會破裂縫而迅出。
