Natalie Chu (朱樂庭) - 藝術創作者 - Artworks created from the remnants of tombstones(墓碑作品介紹)

Natalie Chu
Artist
A presentation about Artworks created from the Remnants of Tombstones
Currently, 3 of them are placed in front of me. There are 16 in total. They were made from real pieces of the remnants of tombstones. Most of the white you see is white cement. What you see besides the white cement are the actual remnants of tombstones.
It all started when I toured the Diamond Hill Cemetery - I discovered that the tombs of humans weren't eternal. In Hong Kong, there are some official graveyards that have been legally declared as eternal, but there are actually graveyards that have existed before major city planning programs were enacted - for instance, Diamond Hill Cemetery. There, the whole mountain is full of tombstones of civilians. The remnants that I bring here today were mostly from 1947-1950, around 70 years from now. During these years, these tombstones have had to be evacuated for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include the lack of care and maintenance by descendants, or illegally placed tombstones i.e. the tombstone was not buried under correct legal procedure.
I found that in actuality, the current procedure that Hong Kong employs in evacuating tombstones is by first striking the tombstone into bits and processing it as garbage. When I glanced at the garbage bin as tall as a human being - the garbage bin full of shattered remnants of tombstones and other garbage, waiting to be collected by garbage trucks, and to be later processed as trash or construction materials, I was very taken aback.
To me, tombstones have always been the last physical evidence to prove a human being's existence. If even tombstones need to be processed in such a manner, this signifies the complete disappearance of all evidence, and they will no longer live in anybody's memories. This makes me feel the weakness and insignificance of humans - how little we matter and the nothingness that comes in the end. I wonder how much weight and sorrow I bore when I contemplated these sentiments. I think this is worth thinking about.
Therefore, I picked away some of the shattered remnants, and used white cement to fill in the broken portions of these pieces, as a way of filling the emptiness with white. The white symbolises that they were originally a more whole existence. My biggest intention in creating this piece is to compel people to really deliberate and think about this issue. The insignificance of the human existence, and the way that Hong Kong is evacuating these tombstones. Is it appropriate? Is it ethical? I hope the audience can think about this together, is there any better way we can deal with the remnants of our ancestors? Is there any alternative way of treating the history of our community?
The primary direction I'm taking with this creation is the investigation of how our ancestors are remembered. Religious factors are not part of my considerations. There was quite a lot of backlash upon putting the piece on exhibition, regarding the religious taboos that my actions would violate. There was quite a lot of discussion when it came to religious matters. I think this is a good thing, since there are more people who are looking at this from various perspectives. The most interesting thing I found was that there were even some people who claimed supernatural occurrences after seeing this piece. I don't see this as an issue - why not bring it into the spotlight so it can be discussed? I'm really happy that this piece was able to invoke thinking from multiple perspectives, including ethical considerations - for instance, how, ideally, should we be treating the remnant property of our ancestors? What do we draw the line when it comes to artistic creation? Some people might say that what I did was disrespectful, but to me, it's actually a way of showing my respect to the dead. Since I couldn't bear seeing them stuffed into the pile of garbage, so I wanted to end things with this approach.
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朱樂庭
香港藝術創作者
有關墓碑殘件的作品介紹
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我面前現在放著三個，總共有十六個。它們是運用了真墓碑的殘件去做成的。大家見到白色部份是白水泥，白水泥之外剩下的部份是真墓碑的殘件。
創作緣起是我參觀鑽石山墳場，發現人的墳墓並不是永久存在的。在香港，有些正式的墳場於法律上被定為永久，但其實亦存在不少於城市規劃之前已經存在的墓地，例如鑽石山墳場。在那裡，曾經整個山頭都佈滿了平民百姓的墳墓。今次我收集到的殘件多數來自1947至1950年，距今大概70年。期間因著種種原因，相關墳墓需要被清拆。那些原因包括再沒有後人幫先人管理、損毀失修無人打理，又或者被發現屬於非法埋葬的墳墓（沒有經過正確的法律程序去埋葬）。
我發現原來在香港清拆的方式，是先把墓碑打碎，再當作垃圾處理。當時我見到成個人那麼高的垃圾箱，放著很多墓碑殘件和其他垃圾，等待被犁頭車收集，被當作建築廢料和垃圾處理。這是非常震撼我的事情。
對我來說，墓碑往往是人存在於世上最後一個物質證據，如果連墓碑都要如此被處理掉，就象代表所有證據的消失，再無人記念。令我感受到人的渺小和最終的虛無。裏面帶著多少沈重和悲哀？值得大家反思。
於是我就執走了部份殘件，用白水泥填補它其餘的部份，作為一個填空補白的意象。白色部份暗示了它們原本是一個更為完整的存在。整個作品最希望使人反思，人原來是如此這般的渺小和短暫，以及香港這種處理墓碑和墳墓的政策。是否恰當？是否道德？希望大眾一起思考可否有更好的方法處理先人的遺物，以及對待我們群體的歷史。
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我創作的主要方向是探討對先人的紀念，宗教性原本並不在我考慮之內。但展出之後收到不少回饋，提到所涉及的禁忌問題，掀起了很多這方面的討論。我認為也是好事，因為有更多人用不同的角度去看待這個作品。最有趣的是，有些人甚至看完這個作品之後真的覺得有靈異情況出現。我認為是無妨的，為什麼不可以拿出來討論呢？我都開心作品能帶出更多方面的思考，包括道德問題，例如我們應當怎樣處理先人的遺物？又或者藝術的容忍程度是什麼？有些人可能會說這樣做是不敬的，而對我自己，其實是對先人一種尊敬的方式，因為我不忍見它們被放在垃圾堆裏面，最後以這一種方法去結束。