The King’s Boat Manzoni

Artist
Rhett Tsai

Creation media and date
Color digital animated video, 2023

Description
The King’s Boat Manzoni discusses the current pandemic. The name of the boat “Manzoni” comes from the Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni, who wrote History of the Column of Infamy about the image of the “oiler” in the bubonic plague.
The work places a pandemic situation in the current technological society in the context of the Fujian / Taiwan custom of sending the plague gods to the king’s boat for fantasy and reflection: a delivery man infected with the plague is worshipped as a plague god for his connection to the world isolated by the plague, and is sent to the king’s boat by the crowd for the king’s boat ceremony.
The ancient custom of the king’s boat reflects the collective subconscious of human beings in the face of plague and disaster (wanting heroes and gods to bless the world), while the form of releasing the king’s boat to the sea is similar to the pre-modern European custom of isolating and banishing the sick / insane to the far sea, which is the other side of the collective subconscious (isolating and banishing the harmful), and both sides will be reflected through the king’s boat in the work.
Based on the logic of the take-away clerk and the technological big data behind it, the author reshapes the look and representation of the ancient king’s boat ritual, trying to ask questions about the impact, restructuring, and shaping of the pandemic on the post-human condition in the present from the prophecy/allegory latent in pre-modern culture.

王船曼佐尼

艺术家
蔡宇潇

创作媒介及年份
彩色单频三维影像,2023年

作品简介
《王船曼佐尼》是件讨论当下大流行的三维影像作品,船名「曼佐尼」得名于在著作《耻辱柱的历史》论述鼠疫中「涂油者」形象的意大利作家亚历山德罗·曼佐尼。
作品将发生于当下技术社会的大流行情境置于闽台送瘟疫神习俗「送王船」之中进行幻想与反思:一位染疫外卖员因连结大流行下的孤立世界而被奉作瘟神,被众人送上王船,举行王船仪式。
古老的王船习俗反应人类面对瘟疫灾害的集体潜意识(想要英雄、神明保佑世界),而将王船放归海上的形式又近似欧洲前现代把病人/疯人发配到远海的隔离、放逐习俗,这是集体潜意识的另一面(隔离、放逐有害者),而这两面都将通过作品中的王船体现。
作者以外卖员及其背后的技术大数据逻辑为基础,重新改造古王船仪式的样貌和表征,尝试从潜藏在前现代文化中的预言/寓言出发,对大流行对当下后人类状况的冲击、重组、塑造发问。