李勇志 Lee Yung-Chih

展覽地點Venue│台北當代藝術館廣場電視牆 MoCA Plaza TV Wall

《過期霓虹》於「MoCA Video」電視牆特殊比例「現地製作」70、80年代風靡一時，如今已消逝的霓虹燈招牌，藉由搜尋過往都市景觀的老照片或紀錄影片檔案中霓虹燈樣貌，並將圖案重新繪製其燈管排列，再利用當下的高亮度LED螢幕，嘗試在播放材料的轉移中召喚「另一種」霓虹燈擬真與再現。就像是復古的科幻電影描繪著未來世界都會有的都市霓虹樣貌，而在如今看來像是一種時間錯置的「過期未來」。

《過期霓虹》2024版本，以《過期霓虹》系列2021版本為主，並以電視牆一旁長安西路的「戶外放映」現址，加入更多曾經在台北街頭閃爍的招牌，呈現當地民眾記憶中過往時代的城市風貌。昔日與此時的相互對照，一旁車來車往，或偶爾有人駐留休憩之處，在現代人繁忙之餘仰望霓虹燈的虛構動畫，感受跑馬燈的閃爍與時間如幻覺般消逝。

Neo N’ Old is a site-specific work that creates on the uniquely proportioned MoCA Video TV wall neon signs that were popular in the 1970s and 1980s but have now become outdated. Old photographs or videos of neon signs in bygone urban landscapes are collected, and the patterns of the light tubes on the signs are then redrawn. Contemporary high-brightness LED display screens are used to propose an “alternative” simulation and representation of neon lights through the change of the display medium. Like a retro sci-fi movie that depicts a future metropolis speckled with neon lights, it now appears like a temporally displaced “future in the past.”

The 2024 edition of Neo N’ Old extends from the 2021 edition of the series. Shown on the TV wall’s current outdoor location by Changan West Road, more signs that used to glisten on the streets of Taipei are incorporated, offering a cityscape of the past that the city’s natives may recall. Contrasting the past and the present and with cars coming and going on the adjacent road, as people take a momentary break here amid their busy lives today, spend a moment and look up at this fictional animation of neon lights and feel the flickers of those scrolling lights, where time seems to dissipate like an illusion.

《過期霓虹》系列，以現今不再流行的霓虹燈招牌作為主要的「臨摹」對象。企圖揣摩及再現曾於1980年代亞洲普遍流行的霓虹燈招牌。該系列創作不僅是歷史圖像的蒐集及拼貼（collage），同時亦是可觸及個人記憶及經驗，介於虛實交錯之間的弔詭再現。

2024年《過期霓虹─戶外放映》，延續2021年《過期霓虹》系列，嘗試以「MoCA Video」電視牆作為過期霓虹燈播放的載體。在車來車往繁忙的馬路旁邊，重新「放映」著不斷輪播的「電影」。

藉由影像裝置化的過程，歷史文件同時是作品本身，霓虹燈管的立體感與發光的幾何圖案一體兩面，利用霓虹圖像材料的特殊性，在考古與翻新的「置移」動作中展示「過期未來」的時間想像，甚至它就是時間本身，無關緊要，又必須經過的轉場，是不同時空下的大眾模糊的印象記憶，在虛實之間、過往與當代的交錯詰問和再現。

The series, Neo N’ Old, “imitates” neon signs that are no longer popular today. It is an attempt to interpret and represent the neon signs that were once widely prevalent in Asia in the 1980s. More than just a collection and collage of historical images, the series is also a paradoxical representation that traverses between illusion and reality and seeks to stir up personal memories and experiences.

Neo N’ Old- Outdoor Cinema (2024) is an extension of the series that began in 2021 and uses the MoCA Video TV wall as a medium for showing outdated neon signs. Situated by a bustling road, they are “screened” as “movies” in a loop.

Through a process that transforms the images into an installation, the historical archives become the artwork, as the three-dimensional neon light tubes and the luminous geometric patterns express the oneness of duality. Employing the notable characteristics of the material used to create those neon graphic images, “displacement” that occurs through actions of archaeology and renovation is where time is imagined based on the concept of a “future in the past,” or it is “time” itself. The irrelevant transitions that must be taken are the public’s hazy impressions and memories of different space-times, and between illusion and reality and with the past overlapped with the present, questions are raised and representations produced.