Patterns of Extinct Life I - Jhouyu HSIEH

Patterns of Extinct Life I - What a Wonderful Lizard Island

滅絕物種的生活模式－第一部曲：多麼美妙蜥蜴島

Line drawing on wall, Print, Mix-media installation, Video 1’52” (Loop), Three channels sound

2019

Dimensions Variable

This art project originated in 2019, I got a funded opportunity to go to Barcelona, ​​Spain for artist residency. The Ratas island (Isla Ratas), an island near Barcelona that existed before the twentieth century is an uniqueness example of islands and species that were extinct by humans. Menorca has a special location, with dense jungles and mild climates that make it the best habitat for Podarcis lilfordi, a kind of lizard; each of the small islands around Menorca had it own type of subspecies of the Podarcis lilfordi lizard. The subspecies of Ratas island, is a lizard called Podarcis lilfordi rodriquezi. 

Between 1934 and 1936, Ratas island was destroyed when Port Mahon was rebuilt (Day, 1981), was dynamited in order to widen the small passage in the bay of Mahón for bigger ships (COMPTE SART, 1968). P. l. rodriquezi, a special subspecies lizard, was extinct with the island.

I visited Menorca for several times and tried to find out the position where Ratas island existed and the imagination of P. l. rodriquezi from the historical archives. During the local roaming, I was fortunate enough to meet an old man near Mahon Bay, he introduced me to a scholar who studied biology. He took me to see the island of Ildar de l'Aire, which is also known as the island of black lizards, where another subspecies Podarcis lilfordi lilfordi live there. There is only one lighthouse and countless black lizards live on the island; he told me about a kind of tours in Menorca now, humans take boat to landing the island of the Black Lizard, but it may affect the immune system of the black lizard.

In the part of painting in project " Patterns of Extinct Life - What a Wonderful Lizard Island", I use the ecological observation technique to record the geographical dynamics of Ratas island, combined with archives of Spanish invention of the first autogiro which can took off and land on the deck of a ship in first 20th century, and the biological archives and historical map related to Podarcis lilfordi, drawn as a series of island landscapes digitally manipulated and transformed by archives. 

In the installation, this virtual man-made island is made up of mechanical lizards, which are constantly shining in the dramatic ocean voyage, with Spanish traditional music in Upsala and joyful voice of Spanish translated version of traditional song from Taiwan, zao-fei-ji (Manufacturing aircraft), with projected video on a concrete island installation, it is like the drifting and extinction of a lighthouse; it symbolizes the emptiness of ecology and the absurd scenery of human subjective viewing between landing and not landing. 

"zao-fei-ji (Manufacturing aircraft)" is a nursery rhyme from Taiwan. The lyricist is Xiao Liangzheng, the composer is Wu Kaiya. Taiwan is a small island located in the north of the Philippines and the east of China. In this art work, I made three versions of the sound. The first one is the Spanish man-sound cover, the second is the beat of the sound from the sea waves, and third one is the soundtrack from digital software. Through the Spanish cover, waves and electronic sound, asking about historical events in the Western Isles and construction and destruction of the east island in contemporary.

這個藝術計畫起源自2019年，我獲得了一個贊助機會，到西班牙巴塞隆納駐村。巴塞隆納附近的一個島嶼－伊斯拉•拉塔斯小島（Isla Ratas），一座曾經存在於二十世紀前的小島便是一個因人類而滅絕的島嶼暨物種之間特殊性的例子；梅諾卡島地處特殊位置，茂密的叢林和溫和氣候地形則成為利氏壁蜥（Podarcis lilfordi）的最佳棲息地；梅諾卡島周圍的每個附屬小島也因此繁衍出每個小島獨特的利氏壁蜥亞種，Isla Ratas所繁衍出來的，便是一種叫做Podarcis lilfordi rodriquezi 的蜥蜴。

在1934年至1936年間，Isla Ratas在重建城市的港口時，為了擴大航道及釋放更長的海軍水上飛機起降空間而被炸毀，P. l. rodriquezi 此一特殊亞種蜥蜴也因此隨著它的島嶼而滅絕。

我數次走訪了梅諾卡島，試圖從歷史檔案裡推敲出曾經Isla Ratas存在的位置和 P. l. rodriquezi 存在的想像。在當地漫遊的過程中，我很幸運的在馬洪灣附近認識了一位老先生，他介紹我認識了當地研究生物的學者，他帶我去看了利氏壁蜥的另一亞種－Podarcis lilfordi lilfordi生存的島嶼艾拉島（Illa de l'Aire）－也被稱作黑蜥蜴之島，島嶼上僅有一座燈塔和無數的黑蜥蜴；他告訴我現在在梅諾卡島的一種觀光行程，人類乘坐輕艇到黑蜥蜴之島觀光，但這可能會影響黑蜥蜴的免疫系統。

在《多麼美妙的蜥蜴島》的畫作部分，我以生態觀察的手法攝影記錄Isla Rata曾經存在的地理位置動態，疊合二十世紀西班牙發明第一架在甲板上起降的旋翼機檔案資料，以及以 Podarcis lilfordi相關的生物檔案及古地圖為本做變形，繪製為一系列由檔案數位調變的島嶼風景畫。

而在錄像裝置裡，這座虛擬人造島嶼由機械式的蜥蜴堆疊而成，在戲劇性的汪洋航行過程中不斷閃爍著飄向遠方，結合烏普薩拉歌集裡西班牙傳統配樂、以及西班牙語譯的台灣童謠〈造飛機〉歡快樂語聲中，投影在一座人造的混凝土島嶼裝置上，像是一座座燈塔的漂流與熄滅；象徵著生態的虛無及人類主觀觀看靠岸與不靠岸間的荒繆景緻。

〈造飛機〉是一首來自台灣的童謠，作詞人是蕭良政，作曲人則是吳開芽；台灣是一個位於菲律賓北方、中國東方的小島；在這件作品裡，我製作了三個版本的聲音裝置，西班牙語翻唱、由海浪聲構成的節拍聲以及軟體和音而成的音軌配樂；藉由西班牙語翻唱與海浪、人造電子和音的交織，提問關於西方小島曾經發生的歷史事件與位於東方的島嶼當代建設與破壞。