非常感谢设计方沈怡将项目介绍和项目图片授权gooood发行。更多请至：SHEN Yi Elsie on gooood
Appreciation towards SHEN Yi Elsie for providing the following description:

As an experience based artist, I work mainly with subjects in my surroundings, drawing from my own direct or secondary experience to make pieces that provoke thoughts. I am particularly interested in a state of being between hope and despair.

This has brought me to realize several photography works. “The Neon God” from 2008 is one of them. It gives attention to a particular group of people in urban China, the teenage migrant workers. I chose to combine a documentary style with a surrealist approach to give them a demi- god identity based on Nazha, a legendary figure in Chinese tradition. With the help of sound artists, I employed sound art into several of my video works.

My interest in the interaction with the general public has brought me to realize more intervention- based work such as “Breathe”－a series of public intervention started in 2010 and continued in 2011, where I took the position of people with low-level professions in urban China. Although the two series were made almost 3 years apart, “Breathe” is, in some ways, a continuation of “The Neon God”. In the latter work, I put myself in the position of The Neon God, playing the role of the young migrant workers, passing along a secret message – Breathe – to my customers. The rest of the time, I imagine, hope and wonder what might happen to the people who received this message.

While not necessary for understanding the work, these two pieces draw from two influential and popular songs from the West: “The Neon God” is from a beloved Simon & Garfunkel song Sound of Silence; “Breathe” is from a Pink Floyd song, Breathe in the Air. These songs, as well as other Pop and Rock titles, helped form my fundamental approach to the ideas of hope and despair.

艺术家自述：

作为一个经验型的艺术家，我主要关心的是自己身边的事物；我通过对自己个人的一手或二手经验的提炼来创作和同时提出一些让人思考的问题和点。我特别关注的是人的一种处于“希望”和“绝望”之间的状态，以及人们如何在这两种状态之间游离的。

在2008年我完成的摄影作品系列《都市哪吒》就是关注这一状态的作品之一。这是表现都市打工仔主题的一个作品，我选择了结合纪实和超现实的手法来表现他们的身存状态，也同时赋予他们“哪吒”这样一个少年英雄人物的形象。通过和声音艺术家的合作，我开始把声音元素运用到我的影像作品中来。

出于让艺术更接近普通民众的一种渴望，我实施了一些公共干预的项目，比如“吸一口气”－这是我在2010年到2011年实施的一系列的公共干预的作品。我进入社会底层的一些小商贩和服务人员中，用他们的视角和身份来和普通民众取得一种沟通。这两个系列的完成虽然相隔将近3年时间，但我觉得它也可以是《都市哪吒》这一系列的延续：这里我把自己置身于“哪吒”的身份，来传递这个“秘密”的字条。余下的时间，我只是在想像，等待和希望在收到这些消息的人们身上的那些该发生的或能发生的故事。

虽然知道与否不会影响对作品的理解，这两个系列的英文题目其实来自两首在西方非常著名的流行歌曲。其中《都市哪吒》的英文名“The Neon God”来自西蒙与加芬克尔的60年代的歌曲－“沉默之声”。《吸一口气》则来自平克弗洛伊德(Pink Floyd) 的著名歌曲“在空气中吸一口气”。这两首歌和其它流行歌曲摇滚乐是帮助了我自己建筑对希望和绝望的根本理解。

Title/题目: Breathe/吸一口气
Media/媒介: Intervention , Photography /公共干预，摄影
Year/时间: 2010 – 2011
Artist/作者: SHEN Yi Elsie沈怡

This is a series of intervention that I realized in public spaces with the help of some low level workers who have these small professions. It is not a performance art piece; rather it is a media and communication piece.

这个作品是通过一些列的微型公共干预，置身于一个普通谋生者的位置来和这个社会和周围的人进行一次沟通。它不是什么行为艺术，因为，我不想表演给谁看，更多的它接近于某种媒体艺术，注重的是传播，只是它没有太多的科技成份。传达的是一句话，“吸一口气”（breathe) 这是是普通甚至于有点多余和无意义的话，确是我最想和生活在周围的人说的一句话。

1. Breathe – Walnuts

Place: Wangjing Market (repeated in a few markets in Beijing)

Description:

I sublet a space from a young walnut seller in a small local fresh food market; I stuck tiny paper pieces into walnuts and mix them together with the normal ones in the market and sold them to people. On the little piece of paper, it says 吸一口气，meaning “breathe”.

“Breathe” is a secret message also a phrase seems unnecessary yet important in life. It is also the first thing I wanted to say to most people around me. I wanted to have a different form of communication with the general public, so that art is no longer viewed in a gallery or museum. People collected a piece of artwork even before they noticed it. It is also a piece where the artist put herself in the place of a normal person who is trying very hard to make a living. This is an exchange of roles and exchange of experiences with the most low level workers of this society.

吸一口气——干果摊
地点：望京市场，重复于朝来批发市场，黑桥市场
描述：
我在一个普通的市场摆设一个干果摊(从一个年轻的谋生者那里转租的)，出售核桃干果是经过特的加工的。核桃的壳内塞入了一个小字条，上面写着 “吸一口气”。这些被加工的核桃和正常的核桃混杂着一起出售，普通的居民就无意识的收藏了这件艺术品，也参与了这个活动本身。只有打开核桃要吃时或许会看到这个字条.

2. Breathe – Dry Cleaner’s

Place: Dry Cleaner’s at Beiwei 40 Degrees Complex, Beijing
Description: The owner of a dry cleaner’s in my apartment complex was looking for a worker to help her deliver laundry in the apartment complex. So I took this part time job. However, before sending off clean laundry to customers, I sometimes put in a small folded message, with a hidden message “Breathe”…

吸一口气——干洗店
地点：来广营北纬40度小区赛洁干洗店
描述：小区的干洗店老板手很巧，洗衣缝补，还能编织，她要找一个临时工，帮她送衣取衣，我答应给她做义工，学学她的手艺。在送出干净的衣服之前，我偶尔会在衣服里装上一个纸条，上面写着：“吸一口气”。。。

3. Breathe – Newspaper

Description: I often speak with the paper delivery kid in our area, and sometimes asked to deliver the papers for him. Before these papers go out of my hands, I stamp these small phrases “breathe” in various parts of the paper. Sometime more, sometimes less, in hope that those who notice would somehow wonder…

吸一口气——报童
地点：来广营北纬40度小区
描述：其实报童不是一个太糟糕的工作，就忙个早上，一个月一千多块前，一整天都是自由的。一天，我们小区的报童的电动车坏了，正好看到，就把我的借给他用。忽然想到可以在报纸上写点什么，后来发现很慢，改用章。。。报童觉得不影响别人看报纸，也没什么。。。我等着有一天有人来问我。。。

4. Breathe – Small Advert

Description: Finally an attempt to communicate with someone directly, I put up small adverts on bulletin boards in the city saying “I will teach you how to breathe” Aside from an augmentation of advertising calls and spam messages, I have not yet received any calls asking about that, but I am waiting…

吸一口气——小广告
地点：北京小广告招贴栏
描述：最终我想用更直接的方法来作一次沟通，这些“教您呼吸”的广告出现在招贴栏本身就会引起别人的思考和困惑，不过，至今为止，除了发现垃圾广告和诈骗短信越来越多，没有人正面的打电
话询问教授“呼吸”的课程。。。

我想像着有一天有人真的找我时，这个课要怎么上。是给他／她免费的聊天谈心，心理咨询，还是给他／她听上一个小时的摇滚乐。。。因为“吸一口气”其实来自Pink Floyd的一首歌 “Breathe, Breathe in the air…”
吸一口气，在空气中吸一口气。。。

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