As Much As You Like_韧用

Original Proposal and artists’ statement

Get It Louder 2007 _Installation work (description of work)

As Much As You Like

William Hailiang Chen & Chong Boon Pok

大声展装置展览说明 

This is a collaborative project between William Hailiang Chen and Chong Boon Pok.  Chen from China is an architectural graduate from the Architectural Association School of Architecture and practices in London; Pok is from Malaysia and is currently a fine art practice based research student at the London Metropolitan University. Chen working in architectural industry is interested in environmental sustainability issues in relate to transformation of object and materiality. Pok’s is interested in the idea of attentiveness to the everyday; his work as a whole explores the as-it-is ness of things as well as the interconnectedness between objects and people.

As Much As You Like is developed from Pok’s Assemblage of Used Disposable Chopsticks, 2000. The title translates into Chinese as ‘韧用‘. ‘韧’ has two meanings: Firstly, it’s pronunciation is the same as ‘任‘ meaning no tie, whatever you like. Secondly, ‘韧’ also means durable/long lasting. While in English, ‘As Much As You Like’ refers to eating. It makes a connection to the buffet style serves in some of the restaurants in the UK where diners pay a fixed price to “eat as much as you like”.

It is said that the chopstick was invented in the Shang Dynasty of China; and it is now developed into disposable chopstick in our modern world for convenience and hygiene reasons. In China alone, an estimated 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks are used and thrown away annually. This adds up to 1.7 million cubic metres of timber or 25 million fully grown trees every year.

Disposable chopsticks have very short life span. We threw them away almost immediately after we finished our meal. This project combines both Chen and Pok’s interests, where they observe the relationship of this object with us within this temporal environmental and time frame, searching for ways to make connections and expand the life span of the chopsticks and its paper pockets accompanied. Trapped between controllable and uncontrollable, applicable and non-applicable, they are trying to allow dialogs to expand among the chosen materials and the viewers. Their idea transformed the disposable chopsticks into various physical forms through the hands of the people who consumed them. Arguably, the resultant work may be seen as a cross between architectural form and sculptural form.

韧用 

陈海亮 & 傅宗文

‘韧用‘是建筑师陈海亮和艺术家傅宗文一起合作为07大声展特制的现场装置参展项目。来自中国大陆的陈海亮毕业于英国伦敦建筑联盟学校现在伦敦工作；马来西亚华裔傅宗文目前正在伦敦城市大学攻读艺术博士学位。陈海亮对物质材料在可持续发展及使用中与其带来文化形式上的转变感兴趣。傅宗文的作品主题则对日常生活给于专注，长久以来作品贯用日常的物与事。作品探索物体本身持有的原本性以及物与人之间的相关联性；促使理解物与物，人与物之间共享的天地。 

概念来源和延伸发展于傅宗文2000年的一次性筷子雕塑。有关作品的中文标题‘韧用’:’ 韧’，有两层的含义: 1. 跟’任’同音, 有任意，随便使用；2. ’ 韧’ 其本身有耐用，反复多次使用的含义。以此，合并成‘韧用’ 。英文标题‘As Much As You Like’跟英国的中餐馆饮食有关；许多自助餐提供一定额的价钱但各户可以‘任意吃’。

据说筷子发明于商朝；现代由于方便及洁净的原因发展出 一次性筷子‘。在中国，每年大约使用及废弃四百五十亿双一次性筷子。这相当于每年砍掉一百七十万立方米的树材，或两千五百万成年的大树。 

‘一次性筷子’ 拥有非常短的寿命，我们用餐后便会立即丢弃它。我们的参展项目检验在这短暂的时空中物体与我们生活之间的关系，寻找延长筷子与纸套的使用寿命。我们将它转换成雕塑的形式同时通过观众的参与制作使其成有意之物。限制在可控制与不可控制，可适用与不可适用之间，我们试图扩展使用者与被使用物体之间的对话关系。作者试图通过筷子使用者的参与将它转换成多样的雕塑形式，有争议地最终的作品形式也许将会被视为介于建筑与雕塑两者间。