#hsuen

陳以軒 I–Hsuen Chen

遍尋無處 Nowhere in Taiwan 2011

Nowhere in Taiwan is a selection of photographs made while traveling through my native country of Taiwan in the summer of 2011. Influenced by the idea of the “road trip” in American photography, exemplified in the work of such photographers as Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, and Joel Sternfeld, I set out to find scenes and situations that seem to be “in between,” neither landscape nor cityscape but existing in an ambiguous space I call “nowhere.” Some of these sites are suburban, or partly urbanized, or abandoned and left behind. The aspect of location that interests me most has to do with the traces of human presence and gesture that reside or remain. In search of nowhere, I look for unexpected instances of intimacy, so that there is a sense of “nowhere” being unveiled.

2010年，陳以軒出國了，在紐約正式成為異鄉人。一年後回來探親時卻發現已無所適從、四處孤立，經歷了反向的文化衝擊。於是像公路電影中的主角般，為了尋找自我而上路拍照，仿製美國公路攝影的傳統，進行台灣版的、個人式的公路攝影之旅。 在路上不斷看到景物更替，從城市到鄉鎮，逐漸失去時間與空間感，遺世獨立於過去和未來的歷史脈絡；主體意識愈發清晰存在，但認同與歸屬感卻四處漂流。行旅的當下，他漸漸開始紀錄各種在中間的「無處」場景，一些既不是風景也不是城市景觀的曖昧交界，有的未都市化，有的更像是被遺棄。記錄的同時，也不自覺反身鏡像記錄了各種孤立疏離的自身狀態。