WATERFALL MAGAZINE / 瀑布雜誌

「哭是一個非常強大的行為，但是把它拍下來並且放在網路上流通完全是另外一回事了。它是一個共通的文化現象，或者說，是一種表演。」註一

今年三月初收到Jessica的email，說她開始了一個新的計畫，叫做“ 我難過到不知道該怎麼跟你說（繼 Bas Jan Ader 之後）“，邀請創作者拍下自己當時哭泣的照片發表，寄到信箱或者上傳到網路相簿，屆時一個月，並且將結集成冊印刷。

這個計畫名稱源自一個荷蘭藝術家Bas Jan Ader在1970年發表的同名作品“我難過到不知道怎麼該跟你說“，作品是一段十六釐米的黑白短片，影片中藝術家毫無保留地嚎啕大哭，沒有任何的解釋說明。自此觸發了Jessica後來三月開始著手的計畫：徵求任何人在哭泣當下的影像。在原本期限過後，計畫網站開啟時，竟已經收到超過一百個人的自拍照，並且有部份的創作者是因為Flickr擁有的標籤功能，因而得知這個計畫並將自己的照片加入。由於Flickr強大的群組功能，照片成為一種溝通的方式，在這個情況的互相撞擊下， 參與的人與作品不斷地擴張 ，“我難過“計畫有了另一個方向的發展，原本的期限也從三月底延至九月一日。

「哭」，對Jessica是一個特別的情緒，她認為它是自發性的，但也依表達方式或者作用的目的的不同而產生相對的衝突性，而它更是全球共通的語言。執行這個計畫的期間，曾有人寫信告訴她，這個照片計畫的網站毀了他的一天；也有人覺得這件事很蠢，但也有人覺得喜歡。對於Jesiica，每張照片都是獨一無二的，帶有創作者個人的情感與特色，每每收到一張作品總是能讓她驚艷。

從過往的計畫探看，我發現Jessica的作品都與「人」本身息息相關，人的基本情緒、日常言語、情感的索取與交涉等。她的上一個計畫“我可以借用你五分鐘嗎“，就是讓自己與人面對面交談。她說她對於人與人之間的溝通與連結有很大的興趣，尤其是互相交流──「我們給了彼此什麼？我們怎麼給？是不是有可能，我們真的可以完全將屬於自己的一部份給予他者。」註二

或許是她試探的目標如此單純，人與人之間，就像我和你，明明人心最是不可測的，我卻總是被她作品裡不經意中留滯的真誠所感動。除了繼續經營這個計畫，她依舊持續攝影與插畫的練習，並且準備新作品，預計將在今年十一月於西班牙的巴塞隆納發表個展“讓我們打造一個家“(Let’s Build A Home)。

註一：引自「我」計畫網站上的公開聲明
註二：頡自Jessica於flickr message給我的回覆

I’m too sad to tell you

“Crying is a powerful act; taking a photograph of oneself crying and
putting it on the Internet is another matter entirely. It is a very
specific cultural phenomenon and is in many ways much like a
performance. “

I got Jessica’s email at the beginning of this March. She said that
she started a project that’s called “I’m Too Sad To Tell You (after
Bas Jan Ader)”, a project that archives people’s self-portraits taken
while crying. An open call was posted on the Flickr community asking
people to submit their crying self-portraits over the period of one
month. These images were to be displayed online on Jessica’s website
and then later made into a book.


This project borrowed the idea from a piece of the same name made by
the Dutch performance artist Bas Jan Ader in 1970. The piece
consisted of a silent 16mm short black and white film of himself
crying uncontrollably with no explanation. It inspired Jessica for
her project : ask anyone to submit their self-portraits taken while
they were crying. After the deadline, she received over 100 self-
portraits, a third of which found out about the project through
flickr’s tag searching function. A majority of the people who
independently submitted images had Flickr accounts as well. With
flickr’s powerful community phenomenon, such photo sharing becomes
another format of communication. The “I’m Too Sad” website then
becomes an attempt to give the images back some of their integrity as
images by placing them in a clean non-communication based gallery
format. People response strongly about such idea. The collection kept
expanding and the original deadline has been extended to September
1st instead of March 31st.

Crying has always been interesting emotion to Jessica. It is
spontaneous but very confrontational depending on how it is shown or
used. It is also universally recognizable. During the period of
calling for submission, the website itself got mixed reactions– some
people loved it, some people thought it was silly, and one person
even wrote her that the website ruined his day (but in the best
possible way). For Jessica, each photo is different and that in and
of itself is amazing, each one is special in its own way.

Looking through Jessica’s past projects, I discovered that Jessica’s
work always has to do with “people” — people’s basic emotions,
conversations, connections and relationships. Her last project “Five
Minutes” was about interaction with others for 5 minutes. She said
that she has always been interested in communication and connections
between people. The idea of the exchange is especially fascinated to
her — “What do people give each other, and how? What does it mean
and is it possible to truly give part of yourself away to another? “

Maybe her intention were always this simple. Among people like you
and me, human beings are always hard to predict, but I’ve always felt
this great affection from her work through her unwitting sincerity.
Other than this project, she is going to continue working on
photographs and drawings while working on new stuff at the same time.
She is going to have her solo show “Let’s Build A Home” in Barcelona
in November.