Foreword
Cicy works with finite objects with discrete physical boundaries, and yet her work transports us beyond borders of our lifeworld. Unpacking is what we do in psychotherapy, trying to heal the maladies of the soul, restoring order amidst chaos. Healing is found through her hands transforming inanimate objects into powerful narratives of life. Cicy’s first piece of serious craft is a birthday present for her mom, and her revolt against the encroaching pressure of the market is a line of work for her son. Private? Almost.
The above was written for Cicy’s show Unpacking – mashups, practices, collections 2021. Cicy first explored the idea of unpacking in 2016, which started as a review of her work and her life. The world she lived in was very different. Hong Kong was her hometown. The future she imagined back then was not what her present is now. Transitions make life what it is. We take what life has given us and make them into what we want life to be. Between the given and the made is where life is realized, and where art is found.
The current unpacking that we have the privilege to witness is, according to Cicy, more thorough. We are invited to engage with the key forces that have driven her work, over many transitions. Cicy is always re-reading herself, and such self-exploration unsettles conventional imaginations regarding art and craft. The tension sustains an almost constant apprehension, associated with an artist’s dance with uncertainty when faced with the desired perfection yet to be attained. Cicy discovers the strengths in her own work amidst such anxiety and self-interrogation. Her work evokes but never fits into simple packaged ideas such as environmentalism and upcycling, or confines of a specialized medium, or even themes with both intellectual and aesthetic appeal. No articulation is ever complete, and she is still taking us on this journey, which is her pilgrimage into the core.
Prof. Ka Tat Tsang (December 2023, Toronto)
前言
開箱 — 第三回
程詩賢在工作中使用有限和具有清晰物理邊界的物件，然而作品卻把我們送往生活世界的界限之外。把箱子打開來收拾是我們心理治療的工作：療癒心靈的傷痛，在混亂中重建秩序。她雙手把死物轉化為強大的生命故事，於是創傷得到療癒。程詩賢的第一個認真的工藝作品是給媽媽的生日禮物，後來她為兒子打造的系列產品，就是她對來勢洶洶的市場力量作出抗爭。是私密的嗎？ 幾乎是了。
上面的一段是為程詩賢2021年個展「開箱 – 雜。習。集。」寫的。她從2016年開始探索「開箱」這個想法，那是她對自己的作品和生活的回顧。當時她生活在一個不同的世界中 — 香港是她的家園。她當時想像到的未來並非今天的現實，我們的生活是由種種過渡造成的，我們把生活賦予的東西打造成我們想要的生活，賦予和打造之間就是我們實現生活之處，也是我們尋獲藝術的空間。
按程詩賢自己所言，這一回我們有幸可以見證的開箱是更徹底的，我們被邀請來接觸她在幾個人生過渡中一直驅動著創作的主要力量：程詩賢一直在從新解讀自己，而這樣的自我探索動搖了人們對於藝術和工藝的常規想像，中間的張力承托著一種幾乎是恆常的顧慮，就是藝術家在面對想像到但未能實現的完美時與不確定性的共舞，程詩賢就是在這種焦慮和自我盤問中找到作品的精彩之處，她的作品時常會勾起一些包裝好的概念比如環保或升級改造，但它們卻不能完整地被裝箱在其中，同樣地它們也不可以被限制在一個特定的藝術媒介內，也不能被囿於哪怕是具有知性和美學吸引力的題材。表述永遠沒有完結，而她正繼續帶著我們走這段旅程，那也是她渡往核心的朝聖之旅。
曾家達教授 (2023年12月，多倫多)
