岩棺是不是棺 Is the Stone Coffin A Coffin?

岩棺是不是棺 Is the Stone Coffin A Coffin?

單頻道錄像裝置 single-channel video installation、香蕉絲QR code banana weaving QR code，3'56"，118 (W) x 128 (L) x 14.5 (THK) cm，2021

Centring on the Shinshe Stone Coffin in Hualien, the artwork brings archaeology, geology, and tribal culture together. As the prehistoric relic in Eastern Taiwan, the stone coffin may look like a coffin but not necessarily function as one, at least without any archaeological evidence to support it. The actual purpose of the stone coffin is no longer traceable. Still, it is known in the Kavalan tradition that the stone coffin played a role in the rain-beckoning ceremonies as if the Kavalan tribes were somehow linked with a more ancient civilization which came before it. The artist adopts the banana-weaving technique, a special craft practised in the Shinshe tribe, to create a QR code for a video. The video is filmed in two sites: one is where the stone coffin is displayed, as it documents the whole process of the 3D-scanning of the stone coffin, and the other is the mid-hill terrace in Shinshe where the stone coffin was first discovered and unearthed, in which the artist invites the slingshot team from the Fakong Tribe to join in the filming, asking them to shoot at a copper plate hanging on a big tree and the sound of the shots hitting at the plate becomes the basic rhythm of the video. It is also combined with the animation of the 3D stone coffin placed on the terrace and the rapped narration to materialize a conversation between the ancient and the contemporary.


此作品以花蓮新社岩棺作為主軸，連結起考古學、地質學與部落文化的關聯。岩棺為臺灣東部史前文化所遺留之器物，雖然造型類似棺，但在臺灣的考古學資料中，並未有作為棺的證據。岩棺的確切功能已不可考，但在噶瑪蘭族的傳統文化中，會利用岩棺舉行求雨祭祀，這就像是噶瑪蘭族部落與更古老的上一個文明的聯繫。

藝術家以新社部落獨特的香蕉絲工法，編織成一面QRcode，觀眾可用手機掃描這個 QRcode觀看影片。影片的拍攝地點有兩處，其一為目前岩棺的展示地點，記錄了3D掃描岩棺的工作過程。其二為原始發現岩棺的出土地點，現為新社部落半山的梯田，藝術家邀請了貓公部落的彈弓隊合作，影片中彈弓隊員朝著一棵大樹懸掛著的銅片射擊，彈丸擊中銅片的聲響成為了影片的主要節奏，並結合了3D岩棺合成在梯田的動畫，以及饒舌歌曲對於岩棺的種種描述，成為一個遠古與當代對話的場景。