Precarious
The book Precarious encapsulates the moments I have tried to capture over the past seven years—those fleeting and subtle imbalances experienced by people in ever-changing environments. As an observer, I sometimes find myself immersed in these moments, while at other times I remain detached. These fragments of perception are reflected in the images within the book, resembling glimpses caught by chance. Colors and contours intertwine within the images, forming reference points that echo one another, linking each fleeting moment together.
这本《不安之书》收录了我过去七年来试图捕捉的瞬间——那些人在不断变化的环境中短暂而微妙的失衡时刻。随着场域的变迁，我作为观察者，时而融入，时而游离，而这些感知的碎片也反映在书中的影像里，像偶然捕捉到的浮光掠影。颜色和轮廓在图像中交织重叠，成为彼此呼应的参照点，串联起每一个瞬间。
Epilogue: On the Precarious Image
The temperature felt by skin, the spectrum of light received by the iris, the range of frequency tracked by ears—we can sense so much, yet still, not enough. The ratio of reality to the one we have experienced resembles the scale of the ocean to water molecules. Conditioned by physicality, human eye sees only part of the reality. If images develop reality, other than focusing on steadiness and safety, they certainly also capture precarity, glitches, and errors.
Lin Xue’s camera eye has substituted the subjectivity of the human eye. We are navigated toward the reality beyond what we have “seen.” Xue’s visual montage has enabled color to acquire new meanings: moss is shared between spaces of exhibition and rocks by the sea; the same warm toning touches the Arctic cedar and shadow in the corridor; blue speaks to strangers, tangerine welcomes friends. As we get accustomed to lines and shapes routinized by everyday life, Xue wakes up the precarious image and shows us its unexpected and uncertain curves. The precarious image has rerouted the reality that we have “seen.” Perhaps that sharp photographic instinct is owed to Xue’s years of living in the Nordic. When winter night and summertime shift yearly, light seems to be Xue’s trusted index. Street lamps, aurora, moonlight, candlelight, and fireworks become intertwined, inviting us on board Xue’s journey of introspection and observation. He seeks what “solitude” can mean in various contexts, and that makes the precarious image reassuring instead of irritating.
Perhaps that sensibility of precarity—whether from the body or the camera—is precisely the catalyst igniting the happening of photography. But precarity does not mean vulnerability; it is a raw state that has not been over-explained. For the precarious image, descriptions of vulnerability or danger are already redundant. To experience the precarious image calls for that return to intuition. Lin Xue’s work has filtered out the ornaments of adjectives and adverbs, leaving us little choice but to feel the patterns of nouns, across spaces and tenses.
Tianyu Jiang
June 2024, Vienna
后记：不安的图像
肌肤所感知的温度，虹膜能接收的光谱，耳廓追踪到的频率，双足丈量过的领士，这些身体能承载的讯息终是有限的。现实相对于我们如海洋与水分子，人眼尽全力去捕捉的现象，仅是偌大现实的某种侧面。如果图像显影现实，那在稳固的、安全的对焦以外，它也定能捕获不安与误差。
薛林的镜头替换了人眼的主体性，牵引我们去追踪“视觉”以外的现实。色彩在薛林的图像蒙太奇里有了新的意义：海岸礁石与展览空间共享青苔，极地雪杉和楼道背影同属暖色，陌生人的蓝调，友人与橙光。在我们习以为常的棱角里，薛林唤醒了不安的图像，它们蜿蜒出意料之外的曲线，重新规划了“视觉”的路径。快门的敏感性大抵是薛林旅居北欧多年的结果。当漫长的黑夜与眩晕的日照以年为单位规律交替，灯光似乎成为了薛林信任的索引。他借着路灯、极光、月色、烛火、烟花，串联起在不同环境里那些关于“独处”的自省、观察；而我也在不安的图像里，共鸣到了久违的平和。
也许对不安的感知——无论来自人体，或是镜头—是摄影发生的催化剂。但不安并非脆弱，不安是一种还未被过度阐释的状态。类似脆弱或危险的形容，对不安的图像而言，已是多余。在薛林的作品里有某种对直觉性的回归；避开了形容词与副词的繁复装饰，我们得以感知名词在不同时态里的模样。
蒋天羽
2024年6月，维也纳