高砂 Takasago

高砂 Takasago

單頻道錄像裝置 single-channel video installation， 9'20"，2017

Takasago is a video installation combining two seemingly unrelated elements – Noh theatre and a perfume factory currently operating in Japan. Takasago International Corporation was founded in the 1920s in Japan. With support from the government and technical assistance from the Industrial Department at Central Industrial Research Institute, it opened its first foreign branch in Taiwan, aiming to expand the business, producing perfume and fragrance with local ingredients. The corporation was named Takasago for two reasons. First, because in old times, raw materials were imported to Japan from Taiwan, Taiwan was given a Japanese name Takasago. Second, Takasago is also the well-known Noh play by Zeami Motokiyo in the Muromachi era about the lasting love between the twin pines transforming into an old married couple to express that the geographical distance will never separate them. In the work where Noh actors perform in the modern factory, the multiple references to the word "Takasago" and the moral of the ancient tale are connected through writing beyond the script of history.


《高砂》是結合了日本的能劇以及日本一間迄今仍在經營的香水公司兩種看似不相干的元素發展其創作。1920年代高砂香料工業株式會社成立後，為拓展業務，並受官方支持與中央研究所工業部技術協助，在台灣設廠，以本地的原物料開發製作香料。高砂香料株式會社名為「高砂」有兩個原因，其一是舊時日本對台灣的代稱，當時由於原料皆來自於台灣，於是命名為高砂。其二則是取自高砂這一詞在日本的意境，在日本室町時代的劇作家世阿彌也有部流傳至今的作品亦稱為「高砂」，其故事背景是一對化為老夫妻人形的松樹精之間的恩愛與默契，來表達地域之遙亦無法阻隔彼此。這兩個原因成為香水公司命名的由來。在這件作品中，藝術家邀請能劇演員在現代化的工廠中演出，而高砂名稱的多義與古老傳說故事的寓意也串結了一種超越歷史記事的書寫。