These photos were taken between July and August of 2018 during my residency in Tsung-Yeh. I was driving in Tainan Xibei, searching for a subject for this project. I tried to follow the model of Nowhere in Taiwan and Still Life Analysis, that is, to find odd objects in the environment. I only started my journey when I noticed advertising boards built by bamboos…
It happened to be before the election, so most of the boards were portraits of election participants. Delicate lighting of the portraits allowed these large photos to shine like gods, but the only difference was that their hand gestures were either having their thumbs up or asking people for their votes. They stood at the intersections of the Chianan Plain along with people and the land.
What supported these large photos were mostly temporary bamboo racks linked by wires. Some were even attached to street lamps or utility poles to strengthen the structure and light up the boards at night time. On the bamboo scaffolds were vines that grew savagely because of humidity. The bamboos were connected to the soil and therefore, wild flowers and weeds also grew furiously upward. The shape of the bamboo structure was like a prophecy for local political and economic relationship: before the election, they support each other and grow together; after the election, the boards are once again the space for real estate or its original advertisements, or are torn down right away, or are left for weathering.
What’s worth mentioning is that typhoon and heavy rain struck during the photoshoot, and therefore, many bamboo scaffolds were tilted to one side by strong winds and seemed destroyed and no longer perfect, which were probably a scene the advertisers least willing to be seen.
這些照片是2018年7–8月在總爺駐村期間所拍攝，當時開車在台南溪北醞釀創作主題，試著以前作《遍尋無處》與《靜物研究》的模式尋找環境中的異物進行拍攝，車才開了沒多久，就看到了竹搭的廣告看板...
適逢選前，這些廣告看板上大多是選舉人的肖像，還算精美的人像攝影佈光讓這些大型照片綻放神祇般的光芒，唯一不同的是，他們的手勢大多是比讚或是拜託拜託，佇立在嘉南平原的一個個交叉路口旁，與民同在、與天地同在。
支撐起這些大型照片的，大多是竹搭的臨時性支架，運用鐵絲將竹子層層疊起，有的更依附在各式電燈或電線桿上，除了使結構更穩固外，更可利用為夜間照明。竹架上能看到因潮濕而茂盛生長的蔓生植物，竹架根部連結著土地，同樣有一些荒花蔓草順勢而上。竹搭結構彷彿就像每一個地方政治經濟關係的造型化預言，選前彼此相互支撐，一同茁壯；選後或許還給房地產廣告它原有的廣告地盤空間，或許立刻拆除，或許就地風化。
值得一提的是，拍攝期間適逢颱風暴雨，許多竹架被順勢吹歪，難得一見頹圮，完美形象不再，這應該是廣告主最不願意被見到的模樣。
