阿甘 A Gump

AGump
8'32"
Single-channel video installation
2010

A Gump is a military fanatic and a diagnosed psychiatric patient suffering from severe paranoia. He confuses delusion with reality and believes he is under the threat of terrorism and political oppression. He is constantly in fear of being assassinated and regards to all that he experiences in life means of keeping him under surveillance and persecution. However, he considers artists as congenial characters because he lives just across the street to an art space. Though the artists do not exactly welcome him there, but at least they do not harm him. In the years to come, he gradually changed from being highly defensive, paranoid and voyeuristic to becoming a customer who comes in regularly to chat. He thinks that artists are not hostile towards him, and the jokes they play only make him feel curious, fond and sometimes even secure. Eventually, he began to look forward to each exhibition opening, because he believes that he can relate to these artists and often expresses how artists are a psychotic’s best friend.



In the video work, “A Gump” serves as the starting point for imagination, creating a strange psychedelic scene. Edited fragments of A Gump’s daily conversation were compiled into a statement. With the appearance of “A Gump,” the background music and the monologue, the waver of light and shade creates bewildering shadows and silhouettes which gradually blur the line between fantasy and reality. “A Gump” is no longer “A Gump” in reality, but alludes to a difference in the mental state, staggering in between the normal and the (mentally) abnormal, the artist and the beholder, the community art space and the vicinity, and also between the mainstream society and marginality.




Thank List
Camera Operator：Chen Ying Chang、A Ken
Voice：Akwe Lu
Music：Goodbye! Nao!









阿甘 AGump ,2010 from fanhsiaolan on Vimeo.








阿甘是一個軍事迷，因為嚴重的妄想症被醫生判定為精神病患。他活在混淆的幻想與現實中，深信自己正遭受恐怖威脅與政治迫害，並且隨時會被暗殺，因此生活中所有的遭遇都被他認為是某種監控與殘害。然而在他的眼中藝術家卻是親近的角色，因為他就住在一個藝術空間對面，那些藝術家雖不怎麼歡迎卻也不至於欺負他，幾年下來他竟從一開始的高度防備以及怪異偏執的偷窺行徑，逐漸演變成每天都會走進去找人聊天。他認為藝術家對他沒有敵意，那些隨意的玩笑話與揶揄，反而讓他產生了好奇與好感，甚至覺得安全。並且期待展覽或參加開幕等活動，因為那讓他產生共鳴覺得藝術家與他同類，他經常說原來藝術家就是精神病患最好的朋友。

影片《阿甘》則是以阿甘做為想像的起點，營造了一個詭侷迷幻的場景，並將他平常說的話編寫成一個連貫的陳述。透過阿甘的出現、背景音樂與男子的獨白，讓晃動的光影與撲朔迷離的人影，逐漸模糊幻境與現實的邊界。然而此時影片中的阿甘卻再也不只是現實中的阿甘，而是指涉一種差異的精神狀態，晃動在所謂正常人與精神病患之間，也晃動在藝術家與觀看者之間、巷弄藝術空間與社區鄰里之間、更在社會化的主流與邊緣之間。





感謝名單
攝影：張鎮瀅、阿肯
旁白：呂駿（阿鬼）
音樂：再見！奈央！