HAN MENGYUN : Projects : Night

Night

2022

Installation: Dong fabric, wood;

single-channel video, 5’20”, color, B&W, stereo sound, loop

Installation view, Night, esea contemporary (formerly CFCCA), Manchester 2022 © Han Mengyun

To the question "where is poetry?", early Irish texts suggested as an answer "i ndorchaidhéta" - literally, in darkness^[1]. The multimedia installation Night, by the artist Han Mengyun, points to a similar inspiration and notion of darkness as paradoxical site of emotional illumination and possible emancipation.

An atmosphere of the night is enabled by a wooden ceiling structure covered with indigo-dyed fabric that has been strenuously pounded with egg-white over a period of nine months by the Dong women of China. Screened under this artificial darkness is a film based on the artist’s recent poems. The multimedia exhibition attempts to concoct a nocturnal theater that reflects and intensifies the artist’s inner poetic vision and humanitarian concerns. Bewitched into a peculiar night mode, the viewers are prompted to reflect on the meaning of darkness: the unfathomable darkness of the womb that harbors life and wisdom; the veiled labor of women; those that are hidden, confined, abandoned, aborted, those who have never managed to weather the night and glimpse a beam of light.

Yet the night is not entirely terrifying as it has also given birth to poetry, as hinted at in her anthology of poems published as part of the exhibition: the nightly presence of the moon suggests a possibility, even if she has never been fully seen.

[1]“An Old-Irish Tract on the Privileges and Responsibilities of Poets.” Ériu 13 (1942): 38.

Credit:

Cinematographer:Alan Cunningham

Voiceover:Lu Yi

诗歌出自哪里？早期爱尔兰文本提出了一个答案：“i ndorchaidhéta” ，即“在黑暗中”^[1]。艺术家韩梦云的多媒体装置《夜》（Night）指出了类似的灵感，她将黑暗作为能够照亮及解放情感的矛盾场所。

悬挂于木质天花板结构的是侗族妇女在九个月期间不断晒染、用蛋清反复捶打而成的亮布，近乎发黑的湛蓝成为了夜的幕布，于幽微的光线下隐隐发亮。在这人造的黑夜之下放映的是艺术家为此次展览创作的一部诗意影像。基于近期书写的四首诗，艺术家试图拟造一个反映和加剧其内心诗意愿景和人文关切的夜间剧场，引导观众反思黑暗的意义：孕育生命和智慧的子宫的深不可测，女性被遮蔽的劳作, 那些被遗弃、扼杀、消失、轻视、从未克服黑夜、未能怒视光明的存在。

即使如此，艺术家认为让诗歌浮现的夜晚并不那么可怕。正如展览中平行呈现的诗集所暗示的，存在于夜间的月亮昭示着一种可能性，即使它从未完全展示自身。

[1]“关于诗人特权和责任的古爱尔兰小册子”，《Ériu》1942年，卷13，第38页。