During this period, Wu challenges people’s commiseration to disadvantaged minorities.
All the freak-like figures in the series of Former and Current Life deserve the disablement.
According to the contents, the cause and effect is doomed: they must have done something immoral in their previous life so they have to pay back in the current life. It is against the modern views about the abnormal people. Wu makes fun of the incantations and the rituals with the grotesque figures and absurd stories to enhance the parody in his works. On the one hand, his parody challenges the stereotype of the abnormal people and the religious belief that
67 In fact, the audience can find this phenomenon in his pictures during the previous period.
“Evil will be recompensed with evil.” (惡有惡報) On the other hand, it questions the social norms which confine people to a dualistic world.
In a medical perspective, they are just suffering from genetic problems so people should not hold prejudice against them. However, Wu addresses the saying in Chinese society that
“what goes around comes around” by placing short texts aside the pictures:
Believers Lin Tsung-cheng, et al., afflicted with what is commonly known as Down syndrome. The cause of which is the incorrect alignment of the eleventh set of DNA chromosomes. […] On the occasion of Hsin-tien city’s Charity Dragon Boat Race for Down syndrome, they were regrettably drowned in concert, as a result of karmic retribution. Mysteries of the heavens unrevealed, the living unenlightened. […]
Have pity! The gods above cherish life. Chen Hua-sheng, et al., having committed such an atrocious act and sentenced in the court of Ni-luo King of the Netherworld, are hereby ordered to be reborn as believers Lin Tsung-cheng, et al. and taste the fruits of karma. Enlightened by our Lord Buddha, I hope that the families of the said believers aspire to good deeds and sincerely beseech the forgiveness of the gods for their kin’s suffering68. (2003; Fig. 31)
Wu uses religious languages to influence his audience. He presupposes the cause and effect for the sufferers of Down syndrome to rationalize the reasons of their suffering. He would name the figures and describe their syndromes in scientific terms to make it look real. Also, he would make up a decree from the King of Netherworld to highlight the contention. For
example, the person who offended Buddha who is against killing is punished to be born with illness in the reincarnation. Wu exhibits the people with Down syndrome to cause the
judgments given by the society. It can be seen that this brings up an issue of social norms. As Mary Russo points out, “the category of the grotesque […] emerges only in relation to the norms which it exceeded” (Russo 3); the audience can be aware of the internalized norms by viewing the pictures of the sufferers that Wu makes up. By looking at the pseudo-judgments by the pictures, the audience may be relieved that they are different from those abnormal people. They can rebuild the sense of security by setting up a boundary between the normal and the abnormal. However, there might be a critical problem: is it an exploitation of the images of the minorities and the abnormal people? Is he providing their images for the viewers to consume?
Wu’s works are controversial since he uses images of people with disabilities as a comic element. Wu chooses these freak-like figures to unfold “the freak ethos” which involves the viewer’s reflection of his own inferior alter ego (76). They are like a mirror for the viewers to introspect and question themselves. The photographs during this period are all filled with painstaking design. However, those who are in his works are in fact not disabled people; they are the so-called normal people. They are Wu’s friends who are asked to perform in front of the camera69. He takes the pictures on the premise that the models are fully conscious of what the pictures are going to become. The post-production employs digital techniques to make up facial expressions and the uncoordinated actions. Although Wu uses many techniques to
transform the models, he still cannot evade the problem of exploitation of the disabled people.
Wu does not intend to exploit the images of the disabled people but attempts to expose the pretense of people. When the viewers see these images, they may feel sorry for the abnormal people in the pictures and feel lucky or gloating because the misfortune does not
69 Shih-hang Chou, personal interview, 1 Nov. 2006.
happen to them. In order to ease the viewers’ guilty feeling about the abnormal figures, the figures are shown with heavy make-up and smiles. It seems that they do not care about their disabilities. In addition, Wu thinks that people tend to be pretentious and self-defensive when a spotlight is on them. They know there might be someone watching them so they present an affected attitude to show a better side of them. Wu thinks that the flattery and fear resulting from one’s wish for protecting himself/herself can cover up his/her sincerity70 (Yang 28). As long as the viewers get Wu’s idea, they will know that the figures’ smile does not come from their happiness but from pretending there is nothing to be unhappy about. For example, it can be seen that the smiley or joyous faces in the series of Former and Current Life are something they conjure just for the pictures.
It is like a process of invoking the spirits from the grotesque images when the viewers see Wu’s creative works during the third period. He leads the audience’s viewing experience from pictures to texts. The grotesque bodies alone are not shocking enough for the viewers unless they read the texts on the sides too. Through reading the texts, the audience may get a better understanding and start to put more thoughts into it. It can be seen that his works after the year 2000 are composed of a mixture of different styles accumulated over years. Wu has tried various approaches to achieve his understanding of life and he later realizes that digital technology is not only a medium or method, but also a symbol for his creations. Hence, the grotesque presentation that incorporates the cultures of Chinese, Taiwanese and Western world, has now evolved into his own way.
All the characters in Wu’s works during this period, including the people with Down syndrome or with disabilities, are smiling and even dancing with joy. However, with set-up photography, their expressions look unnatural and exaggerated. The statements that he adds
70 「人類因自保而自動衍生的奉承心與恐懼心，遮掩住人的真誠」(楊明鍔 28)。
on the sides of the pictures read like authentic folk stories that draw viewers’ attention.
Nonetheless, viewers often take them too seriously until they get a chance to take a closer look and realize the satiric denotation behind them. This is the comic element that Wu’s works always have. Besides the comic element, it can be seen that Chinese folk elements exist in his works too, such as dragon boats, dudo (stomachers), and the costumes in folk performances.
During the third period, it can be seen that both the elements of Bakhtin’s carnival theory – comic and folk – are shown.
Different from the ironic political icons during the first period and the pathetic feminized images during the second period, the digital pictures during the third period reveal the
contradictive world which is presented by the carnival of the grotesque. The grotesque figures do not criticize any national issue or political situation, but instead try to present human’s mentality. Unlike the veiled ladies from his pervious works, the figures during this period directly display their bodies and their sexual desire to disclose the nature of human being. In the series of Former and Current Life, all the bodies are pathological or fragmented. When it comes to his latest two works, there is only “the flesh” left, such as the “pregnant-hag-like”
figures (Fig. 27) and the incomplete bodies (Fig. 26).
Wu has shown the knowledge of aesthetic techniques and his works have completed the embodiment of philosophical thinking. The grotesque images require the most complicated techniques. The feature of pastiche illustrates that Wu’s images have a strong intention to the features of postmodernism. In order to enrich the pictures, Wu has instilled the most difficult philosophy among the three periods into his creations. However, the works he has created after the millennium are overloaded with excessive artistic performance and ideas. When he devotes himself to his works and utilizes them to call the viewers’ attention, he forgets the danger of exploitation of the images. He ignores those who are with the same symptom will experience the second injury when observing his pictures. He accomplishes his purpose
without careful consideration.
Chapter Five Conclusion