Have you ever dreamed of this place?
你是否曾夢見這樣的地方？
2017
drawing on the newspapers of different language
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It is amazing how NYC holds so many different races; I keep thinking the motivation or expectation they had before traveling all the way to name this foreign place their home. In this ever-changing and high-density city, I feel people are literarily “surviving”, not “living”.
After a while, I was remind of a cartoon “An American Tail, 1986” which not only accompanied me throughout my childhood, but also created my first impression for America and New York.
The story, as you already knew, begins with a Russian Jewish family (mice family of course) deciding to immigrate to NYC for a better life. The story largely focuses on their journey in which they get lost and go away from each other. Finally - this littleRussian Jewish family finally arrive and fund their home in this promised land where “There are no cats in America” and “Streets are paved with cheese”.
“An American Tail, 1986” is a good portraiture of how American ideology and belief are delivered world-widely: through theseloving characters and a fairy-tale ending, it demonstrates how non-Americansacknowledge and respond to the calling for “a good life”.
Although it was released in 1986, this cartoon has also been one of the biggest“American dream” images to my generation.
This work is a series of “posters” in which images and subtitles are recreated on my collection of NYC newspapers of different languages in response to the current phenomenon in America -differentraces are putting together their American dream in the same city.
在抵達紐約後，我不斷地在消化在這裡所感知到的一切，卻始終很難說得清楚。
看見了不同族群在紐約生活的樣貌，我不斷想著是什麼驅力，讓世界各地的人們願意飄洋過海前來，在此定居生活。又或者在這座快速而擁擠的城市裡，更貼近描述的動詞是「生存」。
於是我開始回頭尋找自己對於紐約／美國的第一個印象，想起在童年反覆觀看多次的「美國鼠譚 An American Tail」。故事敘述關於俄羅斯一家猶太裔老鼠，前往美國的紐約找尋更好的生活，在途中經歷失散、找尋家人的故事。 透過卡通裡討喜的形象，美國宣揚著自身的意識形態與信仰，並對外描繪著在此地開展美好生活的想像，1986年發行的卡通，貼合並形塑著我們成長世代裡對於「美國夢」的著迷與召喚。
於是我重繪擷取自電影中的影像片段與台詞，試圖對照著當今的美國社會語境，將其繪製在紐約蒐集到的各國語言報紙上。屬於不同民族，共同在這座城市裡拼湊著異鄉飄蕩的美國夢。