the text and images below are posted from beijing, berlin, buenos aires, hong kong, los angeles, new york, sado island, shanghai, tokyo and zürich. there are a few of us, and this is the space in between.

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慢遞件 dispatch HQL-299

// 內容 CONTENTS //
《聖誕島,自然而然》  Memorial to the Last Christmas Island
Pipistrelle, from the series Christmas Island, Naturally by Robert ZHAO
Renhui (趙仁輝作品)

// 訂量信息 QUANTITATIVE //
分兩件的作品 one artwork in two pieces
(蝙蝠聲音探测器和麥克風 bat sonar detector and microphone)
185 x 134 x 82 cm

// 出發點 START POINT //
香港鰂魚涌 Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

// 到達點 END POINT //
新加坡中山公園戴斯飯店 Days Hotel by Wyndham Singapore at
Zhongshan Park, Singapore

// 慢遞人員 COURIER //
易拎何子 PORTABLE

 // 運輸狀態 SHIPPING STATUS //
派送成功 SUCCESSFULLY RECEIVED 2019-06-09,10:57
慢遞招募發布 ROUTE REQUESTED 2019-05-29,16:41

我本來沒想記錄這條線,因為突然間——也是機緣巧合——我接了一條付費的線路。但是在飛機上時,看到了一場異常漂亮的雲,像是被蝕刻的懸崖、翻滾的海浪、手提箱又或是UFO排著隊一個一個湧現,一個騎伏在另一個上面。我想著拍張照吧。我想象著熙熙攘攘的人們像雲朵一樣擁擠在這個光滑無菌的飛機場里,高高的、有弧度的天花板下然後,另一個慢遞員說他不確定這趟旅程是否能激發任何想法,因為乘坐的是飛機而非24小時的火車;飛機場真的太無菌了。然後,我回應他說我喜歡高昂情緒在這種無菌環境中所帶來的強烈對比。然後,我覺得再另一個慢遞員太天蠍了,在表達願意承接另一條線路時對「愛」這個詞的使用充滿算計。好像如果她不愛我了,那條線路也就終止了。我不確定因為愛而讓一個人捲入工作是否是可恥的,又或者如她所言,一再用荒唐的量化思維衡量事物,反映了我們自身的被奴役,而且不過是按照又一個資本主義邏輯在走。另一個慢遞員說,這個天蠍座慢遞員十分擅長太戀愛——就字面意思,談論浪漫的戀愛(演講,公開發表言論,表演)。但我們對愛到底能說什麼呢?我覺得她談論愛的時候是在利用我,但也許我拜託她慢遞時她也同樣覺得被利用。也許這就是愛的勞動⋯⋯這種愛的類型就是我們厭惡父母所有的那種,哪怕鬧翻天最後還是綁在一起。一直在一起。

這個慢遞員如此感慨於另一個慢遞員討論愛的能力,也說明她在情緒上遭遇了某種困頓。這些話不知道怎麼說。這也是勞動?感覺卡住,搜腸刮肚,想要一吐為快?就像是情緒進入了一個無菌的環境,熙熙攘攘在胃和掛在你嘴後面的那個小東西的大門之間奔波,可航班總是一再延誤。這真是項艱巨的任務。

我想起了一張飛機機翼指向雲海的照片,是一位朋友在2011年拍攝的,當時他48歲,第一次坐飛機。其實他是從北京到廣州去工作,但是在雲端,他寫了一首詩。

這會兒,飛機上的空調還是一向冷的讓人絕望,但我們正朝南飛行,太陽在我這一側。我一直緊靠窗戶以取暖,但我沒有拍雲。

I didn’t think about documenting the route this time, mostly because I felt shame to suddenly, by chance, be carrying a route for financial gain. But then while on the airplane, an especially beautiful explosion of clouds, like ravaging cliffs and waves and suitcases and UFOs waiting in line, one after another, bulbous one on top of another. I think about taking a photograph. I think about swathes of people like clouds rushing under the tall, curving glass ceilings of sleek and sterilised airports. About how another courier said he was not sure if he would be able to come up with inspired documentation this time, travelling by plane as opposed to the 24-hour train ride of his previous route; airports are too sterile. About how I then responded that I like the contrast of such high emotions in those sterile environments. About how I felt like she was being so scorpion in her calculated use of the word love when talking about her willingness to take another route. That courier route would stop when she stopped loving me, supposedly. I was not sure if it should be shameful to engage someone to work for love, or, as she said, to run again on something absurdly quantifiable, meaning facing up to our servitude, and just simply following another capitalist logic. Another courier says that scorpion courier is very good at 談戀愛——literally, to talk about romantic attachments (and the act 演講, of talking publicly, is to perform). But what can we really talk about love? I feel like she’s using me when she talks about love, but perhaps just as she feels used that I ask her about routes. That is the labour of love, perhaps…the kind that we resent our parents for, the kind that keeps them together after all those explosions and all this time. All this time.

The courier that is impressed with another’s ability to talk about love confesses that she gets stopped by emotion. All these words that don’t know how to come out. Is that a labour, too? To be stuck with our hiccups and having to work around not knowing how to liberate difficult words? Like emotion in a sterile environment, rushing all about somewhere between a stomach and the gate of that little thing that hangs in the back of your mouth, even though the flight paths are on perpetual, repeated delay. It is a lot of work.

I think about the photograph of the wing of the aircraft pointing toward a sea of clouds, the one photographed by a friend in 2011 on his first journey by plane at the age of 48. He was on his way from Beijing to Guangzhou for work, actually. But while up in the air he wrote a poem.

The air conditioning on this plane is as usual on high for sterility, but we’re flying south, and the sun is on my side. I keep leaning close to the window to keep warm, but I don’t take a photograph of clouds.

Posted by 丫 | reply »


spring sprang sprung

sachiko learning to do a backflip in katsuhito ishii’s “the taste of tea”

Posted by f | reply »


但願您也在這裡 (finding greetings series no. 2)
布拉格 prague – 舊金山 san francisco
kostel sv. mikuláše na starém městě (the church of St. Nicholas on the Old Town)

 

i wanted to be everywhere, all the time. but somehow time stumbled, fell down, and we were led to change genres because nobody took us seriously. or was it simply taking the time to get back to roots, ironic after that white dude’s patronising joke thirteen years ago (so you came to China to find your roots, eh?), me and my roots, everywhere, all the time. keeping it real is just something really really difficult, you know.

you know, just letting you know, you’ll be an arrival point because there’s a one-way love letter at stake, like determined roots and you, the water between my fingers.

 

重慶 chongqing – 星加坡 singapore
a hearty welcome: a massive dish showcasing Chongqing’s sprawling high-rises greets visitors at the opening of the Hotpot Cuisine Culture Festival yesterday. The pot——a reflection of Chinese people’s culinary passion——is divided into two, with half containing light-flavoured broth and the other half, a spicy variation. Models of skyscrapers sit in the middle. The municipality is widely regarded as the origin of hotpot.

 

紐約 new york – 紐約 new york

 

i started to realise the meaning of repetition. maybe because i was once a teacher, and that’s what one does in school, spinning drills, tires as hips. an exercise machine for getting old and being afraid of being forgotten.

you weren’t so didactic, but romantic still loops. we won’t call it like that because you wanted agency, 醒了 and 行了 again and again, aware of pretentions, but what recourse is there? you make your bed.

i make it again and again. and realise that actually that arendt bit is about systems, too. about the ecology of ‘it’s hard to be a good person’, being holistically compromised. about the distance between a sender and a receiver, about the logistical operations of the greatest love poets——”close to cynicism the way comedians are close to sadness”.

you realise、 you rise、 醒了 (a doubt about wokeness)、 行了.
 

Posted by 丫 | reply »


finding greetings series no. 1 (但願您也在這裡)

excerpt from Radio Corax broadcast 13 August 2018, with Claire Serres

 

無聊的風(氣)the wind of boredom - 多倫多 Toronto

 

阿姆斯特丹 Amsterdam - 羅特丹 Rotterdam

 

達拉斯 Dallas - 水牛城 BuffaloFront gate of the legendary Southfork Ranch, made famous by the Ewing family in the 80s television series Dallas.

 

巴哈馬群島 Bahamas - 上海 Shanghai

 

香港 Hong Kong - 柏林 BerlinView from the Peak of Central Business District at Night

 

利比里亞 Liberia - 東京 TokyoCarnival: The Most Popular Cruise Line in the World

 

阿姆斯特丹 Amsterdam - 烏特勒支 Utrecht

 

倫敦 London - 烏特勒支 UtrechtWomen’s Barracks (1950)
Cover Artist: Barye Phillips

 

图珀洛 Tupelo - 上海 Shanghai
Elvis Presley was born in this house January 8, 1935. The dwelling built by his father, is located in Tupelo, Mississippi, and is open to the public.

 

樓梯破洞 hole in stairwell - 舊金山 San Francisco

 

基韋斯特 Key West - 根特 GhentKey West now boasts bicycle policemen. Shown here, at the southernmost point in Key West, are two of them ready to do their duty.

發您的郵編地址到ho[at]iwishicoulddescribeittoyoubetter[dot]net ,收來自哪裡哪裡的祝福⋯⋯
Send your postal address to ho[at]iwishicoulddescribeittoyoubetter[dot]net for greetings from somewhere⋯⋯

達拉斯 Dallas - 柏林 Berlin/柏林 Berlin/海牙 Den Haag/太原 Tai Yuan
United States Postal Service Dallas, Texas, Preston Royal location, 29 October 2018

Posted by 丫 | reply »


wedged in something that has to do with the world

Science went away for some time, but left rusty Technic behind. There was a small key with a black plastic coated head. We unlocked her and rode with her rhythms, though something kept nerves piqued at the same time as familiarity made everything gummy inside. The remembering of being here before, when things were more regular, and this was before you knew Science, when things were simply intuitive. But now your muscles were taut and that thing on the back kept falling off and you didn’t know if it was your doing or not or if we would survive until Science came back.

In the end you left before she did, and your tight outer edges and chewy fillings didn’t know what to do with the small key except, on the way out, wedge it quickly between something that has to do with the world or the universe. Technic was left outside to nature.

It should have been one week, but it was months, months, months. Where on the flattened earth does Science go? You worried for a moment until you forgot. And by the time she came back looking for worlds in universes, you couldn’t quite remember the game either, only that you had been looking downwards, so it must have been about waist height. She played several rounds over a few more weeks, and almost even lost it for a second.

the best review i’ll ever receive
攝影 photos // 阿科 a KE
Posted by 丫 | reply »


and so it goes Posted by f | more »


the sum total of five years of cultural exchange or the life-span of an american apparel store in beijing

AA 01

congratulations for your up-cycled changes. it’s official! enjoy what’s to come. what a beautiful switch. all the best for this beautiful adventure and thanks for all your input. we don’t know each other well, but I think you meant a lot to them. and seeking new challenges is good (I’m not so good at that). working in the heart of culture, i’m sure you will thrive. sad you are leaving but it’s good that you were able to do so many good things. good luck with future projects. congratulations. i’m sure we’ll see each other. congratulation on your new challenge. if you ever pass through vienna, i would be glad to meet you again. how are you! it is really a surprise to hear that you left! but sometimes it is good to change. wish you all the success in your new work! :-) all the best for your new job. you’re staying in the city? thanks for this email! how exciting that you are off on new adventures! wish you all the best. it was always a pleasure to work with you. wishing you all the best with your new job and who knows it might bring you to qingdao one day. congratulations. the bullet is through the church, beautiful. good message. speak soon. (well, since i said that you probably don’t want to, but anyhow i had to). though if you really take that job, i’d find it a big step down, what a pity… hope to see you, i think i will be in asia until june. great news! good luck with your new challenge. thanks for your support the past years. keep in touch and see you around. we may have never really interacted that much, but i know you for a long time. it is very sweet to receive this email of yours, and glad you are moving on to a new adventure. hope you can keep me posted of your projects. in whatever cases, i always feel content and happy that our encounter can still last in beijing, where clearly a lot of comes and goes happen in a way that emotional connection can be so shifty, big hug and congrats to you and j. wish you all the best. congrats with your new uptake! was always a joy to work with you. wow, new position sounds good! it was always great and inspiring to work with you! keep me posted, best of luck and till soon! thanks for your mail but especially also for your work the last few years there far away. it was probably not an easy decision to leave, however the new challenge is a good one, wherein you would again be able to mediate. whatever happens, wishing you success! our grant application went well! thanks to you! good luck! probably see you soon. good luck with the new challenge, whatever it may be. i must say i miss the city a lot myself and hope to come by again soon. i can imagine that even after five years you still want to stay and so take on a new challenge there. i wish you the very best for the future. from my side, many thanks for the pleasant cooperation. wishing you all the best and congratulations with the beautiful job. hopefully see you again in tokyo or beijing. so sorry to see you leaving us, but I’m sure we’ll meet again! lots of success in your new job wherever that may be. and of course many thanks for your contribution and support to our mission. this is the year of big news! life is always more exciting and challenging when you shake the tree. as you may well know, we are still searching for the right partner for our own adventure. if ever you would be open to discussions on this topic, please do let me know. i am sure you well know that they are on a rocky road so maybe if you do in fact decide to stay and go for it it could be very interesting in the short term, but it is not sure at this point how long the venue will continue. there is certainly a lot happening these days in China and especially within the realm of design. looking forward to hearing from you and good luck with the new chapter in lifetime adventure. many congratulations with the job! hopefully we may still see each other in china. well that sounds like a challenging move! good luck and enjoy :-) enjoy your new workplace. wish a lot of success with your new plans. for me it was nice to have met you. the support helped a lot. on the 20th of may my solo exhibition opens in the two cities gallery. you are of course invited. all the best and good luck in your future endeavours!! congratulations on the new job!!! i’ll be back in april and would love to catch up :) i’m sure the new you will also be great at welcoming artists and creative projects. it remains a bizarre thought… good luck today and enjoy it for now. and the new position sounds like it was made for you (but the other thing sounds good tooooo – what’s that??) thanks for your message. no, i didn’t know you were leaving. five years is also a nice term. lots of success with your new job. all the best. i’m really happy for you! wish you all the best and do let me know when you are happen to be in shanghai someday in the near future! much luck, love and success. i admire your steps en we keep in touch, for sure! thanks for all your support and you’re always welcome in jingdezhen, amsterdam or wherever we may meet. it’s truely sad to learn that you’re leaving, however, everyting will come to an end and we have to move on for new adventures. taking this opportunity, i’d like to thank you for all the work you’ve done for us, and for promoting bilateral cultural exchanges and cooperation as well. we wish you every success in your fufure journey. thanks for the news! and good luck with whatever comes next… nice! congratulations and wish you luck with your upcoming engagement! thanks for all the help and see you a next time! with many congratulations and best wishes for your new appointment. p.s. i hope that my health will one day allow me to return to china. i miss everyone dearly! congratulation for your very likely new position. that’s great, good for you! i’m working on a show next door this summer. let’s ketch up. thanks for your kind and touching email! i think it is great news that you will be directing such an insteresting institution. i am sure you will make an amazing work there. you will be most probably getting some news from me in the near future. i wish you the best and good luck in your new position. great news! success with your new challenge. thanks for your support the past years! keep in touch and see you around..:)!    congrats with your new appointment. i had the pleasure of visiting once, and that’s a cool place! it was a pleasure working with you, and we continue to have the opportunity bumping into each other at beijing events! thanks for the cooperation and nice that you’ve found a new place! wishing you all the best! we of course wish you all the best and many thanks for your help and input the past years! it was nice to have such a contact at such a place! hopefully our paths will cross again sometime, keep us posted on nice things! wonderful to read about your new adventure and good that you’ll stay in beijing. i hope to be there again from july 1 for a period of 6 months. i’m sure we’ll run into each other at some point. shortly i’ll write your colleagues discuss how to obtain a visa. i was told that they would write the letter. my host seems not to be officially registered in China. coming wednesday at the chinese school in amsterdam i’ll tell my classmates at the beginners course in chinese something about q, the origin of her name, the collaboration, the differences between us and the book. the day after that new drawings from series will be shown, herewith the card. the series is part one of my new china project on which i want to work further in beijing. thanks for the pleasant collaboration, and lots of success and pleasure with your new steps! nice successor you have ;) lots of success in your new phase of life! perhaps we’ll see each other soon in beijing :) enjoy it there! congratulations! apparently still the place to be? certainly, otherwise you wouldn’t have headed there, haha. i also once too was able to take b. there for a nice lunch with chinese artists, h. and the like, about freedom of speech. was a reasonably good conversation and i gained more respect for b. lots of success with your new job there. i know that t. and his girlfriend j. also started there way back, but more physically there because it didn’t exist there yet. that was in the time that the first and second festival was co-organised by them, long long time ago. did you speak to m. at any point or do you still speak to her? i hope she is okay personally. hope that that didn’t cast a nasty dark shadow over your work although it must be strange to see your direct colleague on the front page of the paper. it even threw me. again, enjoy it there, try to keep your head cool (amongst all the art snobs and italian art phds) and enjoy everything you see and experience. soooo important. perhaps only in retrospect you realize how special everything you experience is. thanks for your message. i had indeed heard some things. i understand your move. from your message i gather that you prefer to stay in china. wish you success and who knows we may see each other again. first of all of course many thanks for your support before, during and after our visit to beijing! very good that you’ll remain in the city and exciting that you (probably if i gather correctly) are going to work there. is it known yet whom the new owners will be? and will p. be your new colleague? in any case: lots of success! a pity to hear you are leaving. but also good to hear that there is an interesting and challenging job waiting for you. i wish you lots of success with that and hopefully we’ll still bump into each other. congratulations with this beautiful job! nice for you. i wish you lots of success and hope it offers you new inspiration. perhaps we’ll see each other? good luck with your departure and the new roads you will embark on. keep me posted. it was great to work with you in 2015. the project wouldn’t have been there without you! keep us posted on developments! seems like a fantastic challenge in light of the changes ahead! good luck! sorry to hear that you are leaving the five-year position. congrats on moving on to the next level! good luck with your next step, give it that or any other better offer! look forward to seeing you again! nice one for j.! thank you for your kind mail and big congratulations on the new adventure! it’s been a pleasure working with you all these years and hopefully we can still collaborate in the future (hat-making workshop as public programme perhaps?! hat-exhibition?)!! in any case, it sounds exciting! they used to sell my more-crazy hats in the gift shop. my contacts were s, a, store manager r. and others. but they may not be there anymore! enjoy the new challenge!!! 5 years is indeed some time. good luck there (if that’s what it became) otherwise at another company!!! if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. look forward to hearing from you. it was a bit of a shock when we received your e-mail. our point of contact is leaving. but when we read on we saw that you are moving on to a beautiful new position. it will take some getting used to in the beginning after 5 years of being engaged in your current work but people should not avoid new challenges in their lives. we want to wholeheartedly thank you for the pleasant cooperation and the support you gave me last year. the cooperation was pleasant and went smoothly and i appreciated very much that you came to visit as well. but also that you informed and encouraged me to participate in this new show this year. thus i handed in the application form and the description of three works. in the information papers i read that the selection would be announced at the end of march. when i hadn’t heard from them by then i wrote a short mail to the organizers asking whether i had been selected or not with regard to the planning of other shows. i received the following reply: “thank you for your attention. we are busy reporting all the materials to the ministry of culture for approval. after that, we will inform all the selected artists about the final list. maybe in may”. kind of funny, the ministry of culture, which gave me an award, now has to give the approval. it remains exciting. again, wishing you success with your new position, also from my husband e. and we hope to meet you again in that city, which we came to love so much. congratulations with your new position. that sounds great! looking forward to meeting you there soon! good luck! it sounds very exciting! thank you for the support you gave us in the past. i hope to meet you soon again there and maybe work together in something else, who knows. wow great news! it will be great for you and you will have another interesting journey ahead, yes stay with us please, breath more air with us as we so need you here :-) stay in touch and let’s catch up sometimes if you’re free. i am much freer nowadays, enjoying the motherhood one more time. how exciting for you! it makes me happy to read your email. i wish you success with your new adventure and i really hope i see you again in not too long. congratulations a., what a loss for them. good luck with your new life choice, can’t wait to hear more. just saw your email. congratulations to your new adventure! it’s cool to see you moving on. let’s stay in touch! congratulation for your new position. wish you beautiful career transforming, cherish and keep touch! big change! have fun and let’s catch up soon! heard it was your last day today. strength to you for saying goodbye and enjoy your new step. lot’s of success with your new challenge! i am just back in the office from a short holiday and saw your email. congratulations!!! happy for you to get on the new adventure. good that you are still there! be in touch! and meet up whenever there is a chance! hi dear, got your e-mail! wish you a great start there! good to hear from you, and what a nice new position! i wish you lots of success with it, and perhaps our paths will cross again, there or elsewhere. may i keep you informed of interesting news or when we may head there again with our summer sessions? this summer we’re going to tokyo, also nice… hi, i wish you the best of luck with the new steps in your career! i’m sure it will be a great adventure… i’m actually in china at the moment, we’re on our way to tibet, but unfortunately will not be able to make it to beijing this year. after tibet we’ll go to hong kong to research job possibilities :-) keep in touch! hi, so nice to hear from you and many congratulations with this great new job! probably wasn’t easy to take this step.very cool! for a moment i thought you wrote you were going to amsterdam, but this sounds much better :-) i still work at the same place but it’s starting to itch to do something abroad. my boyfriend is in oman now for work, it also offers new opportunities. and hopefully back to beijing in future. anyway: lots of fun and success.

love, all.

AA 02.

AA 03.

AA 04

Posted by a | reply »


fragments of fungi imperfecti

#To Whom It May Concern,

In the Thai language, the phoneme “hed” can mean “เห็ด mushroom“, but in the northeastern Isan dialect it can also mean “เฮ็ด do“. #RADIOHED will broadcast intermittently both on air and online from Bangkok beginning Wednesday, 9 August 2017 at 13:00 UTC +7.

Posted by 丫 | reply »