DRAWER inside the BAR LINES

— 2024 Emerging Curators Project, Power Station of Art, Shanghai

"Missing" is a status of ambiguity shrouded by the indeterminacy of total presence and completed vanishment. Unable to define its subjects, the presence of missing relies on not being neither here nor there. The juxtaposition of "before" and "after" in the current times weaves out a tapestry of multiple ends. As a rift in the stabilized logic of lived reality, missing subverts ordinary life on all dimensions and manipulates our minds. The past is impossible to be revisited and modified, but the connotations and interpretations associated with the suspended events continue to multiply and encroach on the present. A conceivable narrative space emerges, where clues are scattered in all corners, intrigues abound, and the desire to find and decipher is in a frenzy.

Harnessing "missing" as the focal point and "search" as the leading thread, this exhibition envisions the space as a drawer in which the unforeseeable and ungraspable are stored inside and invites the audience to sneak in, rethinking the idea of "search" in the enclosed, claustrophobic place. Inside this drawer, one might find the signal disturbed by physical proximity in the corridor, the handheld on the handrail in the corner unintended for a shake, the prehistoric creature that raises its claws and drills into the skull, the haunting ghost on the island, the financial scam that uses the future as bait, the disintegrated fish, the ritual of recall that depends on destruction as the charm and the glare of the light that pierces through the fog. When the enigmas vibrate together, and the subjects' whereabouts are yet to be identified, what kind of mechanism and narrative will come alive from within? The exhibition refrains from seeking a singular reality amidst the chaos. Instead, we are interested in visiting the pass where the unknown lingers, welcoming the audience to lean down, investigate and interrogate over and over again.

The title is inspired by rests on music score. They are intervals of silence between the bars, and drawers are boxes of the unknown waiting to be opened. In the face of "missing", the entrant rummages through every drawer and cupboard. Gripping the handle of the rest, one pulls out the drawer from its chest, where traces are sleeping inside. To enter is to claim mastery, but who is hovering above, observing, maneuvering and mustering?

"失蹤"是棲居於存在與消逝夾層間的狀態，形態混沌不明，主體無從定性，以缺席的形式得以在場。前與後在當下緊密相纏，扯向多重線頭。它在現實邏輯上劃出 豁口，顛覆日常。事件從豁口中蔓延，誘惑思緒。過去已被凍結，但與之相關 的闡釋仍自我增殖，籠罩當下。在可供構想的敘事空間內，線索灑落四角，陰謀叢 生，尋覓之慾狂熱湧動。

以"失蹤"爲探源，"尋"爲牽引，展覽設想空間爲安放未卜之物的匣子，邀請觀衆潛 入屜內，跟隨"尋"的步伐，在幽閉之處重新思考"尋"的主體與意義。無論是迴廊內 因肉身接近而被幹擾的信號，轉角扶手上無意間握着的手，舉起利爪鑽入顱內的 史前生物，縈繞在島嶼的幽靈，以‘未來’爲誘餌的金融騙局;分解的魚(母)體，以 摧毀爲術的召回儀式，亦或是刺穿霧氣的強光。當謎團共振，主體去向不知所蹤 會孕育出何種機制與敘事?展覽無意尋求混沌中唯一實相，而是試圖走訪於容納 未知的隘口，邀請觀衆俯身查探，反覆叩問。

展題取於樂譜上的休止符。休止符是小節之間的喘息，抽屜是等待開啓的未知之 匣。面對失蹤，進入者翻箱倒櫃，握住休止符的把手，拉開陳跡之屜。進入即是主 人，但誰又在上空觀望調動?

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