Title: Prayer Beads

Year: 2025

Performance Duration: 16 mins

Location:  Eight Trigram Mountains, Changhua, Taiwan

Script:

"This mountain has been here a long time. Long ago, this was a place of hunting and sacrifice. The gods were the mountain, the water, the beasts, the ancestral spirits—the mound was god.

Then the Han people came. They needed to pacify the land, to ask for safety. The mountain took on human form as Tudi Gong, as Mazu arriving from the sea, walking with them into the hill-town. A strange land translated into a strange language, speaking the words of unfamiliar gods. The mountain was given a name and placed into an order of Fude Zhengshen and the Lords of the realm.

Then the Japanese arrived and built a shrine here—the national soul of the colonizer. Amaterasu, the deity of pioneers, descended from the sky. This place became a stage for power.

Japan lost the war, the shrine was torn down. The mountain cannot be left empty. A Great Buddha came with “orthodox Han culture” to take the seat. Whoever holds power decides the name of the god on this mountain.

What other names will god have?

I have been here a long time, too. Long enough that no one remembers what I was like. Every generation gives me a new name. They call me mountain, call me mother, call me sacred land, call me forbidden ground. If convenient, I can also be male.

They need me to be leveled where leveling is required, to be drilled where a hole is needed, clean when I must be clean, filthy when I must be filthy, stuffing all the weight into my body. They measure me, groom me, wash me. I am a monument of silt.

I am a digestive tube, I am a birth canal, I am a string of eggs, I am a vagina, I am sewage water, I am medicinal liquor. You cannot name me. I want to fuck you, and I want to be fucked.

The god’s name doesn’t matter. The flood is coming, the fire is coming, the wind is coming. I will tear down your houses, destroy your crops, rip your bodies apart.

What will you do? What will you do?
It’s already too late."

Videographer: Jia-Ling Chung

Editor: Hui-Ying Tsai

"Vision of the Shrine" installation by Hung-Lin Chang

作品名稱: 念珠

年代: 2025

行為長度: 16分鐘

地點: 台灣彰化八卦山

內文:

"這座山在這裡很久了，這裡以前是狩獵和祭祀的地方。神就是山、是水、是獸、是祖靈，山就是神。漢人來了，要安土地、求平安，山變成人形的「土地公」、「媽祖」從海上來，跟著人走進了山城，陌生的土地翻譯成陌生的語言，說著陌生的神的話語，山有了名字變成了組織裡的福德正神與王爺們。日本人來了，在這裡蓋神社，殖民者的國魂，天照大神、開拓之神從天而降。 這裡是權力的展示場。日本敗了，神社拆了，山，不能空，大佛帶著「正統漢文化」來坐鎮，誰掌握了政權，誰就能決定這座山上神的名字。 神還會有什麼名字？

我，在這裡也很久了。久到沒有人記得我原來的樣子。 我的名字，每一代的人都幫我想好了。 他們叫我山，叫我母親、叫我聖土、叫我禁地，如果方便的話，我，也可以是公的。 n  他們需要我，在該填平的地方填平，該打洞的地方打洞，該乾淨的時候乾淨，該骯髒的時候骯髒，把所有的重量都塞進我的身體裡。 他們幫我測量、幫我整理、幫我沖洗，我是紀念碑狀的淤泥。

我是消化管、我是產道、我是卵串、我是陰道、我是汙水、我是藥酒...你取不了我的名字，我想幹你，也想被幹，神的名字不重要，大水要來了、火要來了、風要來了。我拆光你的房子、摧毁你的作物、撕爛你的身體、 怎麼辦! 怎麼辦! 一切都來不及了!"

攝影: 鍾佳陵

剪輯: 蔡慧盈

"看見神社"裝置作者: 張弘霖