November19, 2007
我和Anita经常会有热烈的讨论,她虽不是设计师,但摄影师与设计师之间的对话完全没有任何障碍,相反,她常常带给我意想不到的灵感。在英国,我平均每月都会有新项目在进行,我会告诉她自己目前的想法如何,项目进行到怎样的阶段,她则从她不同的文化视角提出观点,并毫不吝啬由衷的支持与积极的评价,令我内心里非常感激,也感激上苍赐予我英伦学习机会的同时又给了我一位知己,一段永远的友谊。
Anita自己也不间断地做着不同的课题,她的许多作品得到导师的赞赏,但就在我临近结束圣马丁学习时,她学期末的最后一个关于中国的项目研究遇到挫折,我说你选了这个来做是因为认识了我,可这对你太困难了,因为你从未到过中国。她目前无法踏上中国的土地,只好竭尽全力去跑中国城,接近中国学生,中国商人……她项目的标题十分拗口,大致的内容是:中国城不是真实的中国,许多中国的东西正在廉价售出,中国人如此不理智地廉价售卖自己的文化,而这种文化又其实并非真正的中国文化,由此影响到许多国外的设计师在做着滥用中国文化的愚蠢设计,这种设计反过来又会误导更多的外国人定义中国文化……
是不是很有些奇怪?我和我的作品曾作为她的模特被拍,她甚至说,你讲讲有关你作品的想法,我录下你的声音,作为我作品的一部分。于是我用蹩脚的英文大致写下了如下一些内容:
About the China Town:
Since the first time I visited the China Town in London, there was something I felt either familiar or strange. The red color is everywhere, usually we do not use a lot of red except during traditional festivals. Chinese food is delicious, but most food seems being changed a little bit... The Chinese culture is twisted and exaggerated here.
About design:
I saw a lot of stuffs related to the Chinese culture. Foreign designers directly combine the Chinese symbols, such as the Chinese characters, they even sometimes wrote the wrong words, or the Chinese images, they use the images in Qing Dynasty of the Chinese history. Is this because there are too many stupid, easygoing designers who did something without careful research or there are too many people here who believe this is the true China, or the Chinese people are doing wrong things that mislead here people's impression?……
Anita最终没有在我离开前完成这个项目,她心中一定是藏着许多疑问的,我的疑问不会比她更少,她终有一天会来到中国,到时不知她又有什么样的想法和作品呈现?……