Xper.Xr：历史上最好的艺术往往是在非常绝望的时候产生的

Xper.Xr

非常感谢查柏亨和弗朗索瓦·穆约的邀请，今天我很荣幸能在这里跟大家见面。在座很多都已经对我很熟悉了，不认识我的朋友们也可以叫我克里斯，我曾经有机会见证香港繁荣发展时的另一番景象。或者说，我是一个见惯了的人。在我向你介绍香港地下音乐的早期发展之前——首先我们应该定义香港本地人对“地下”一词的理解：在过去，任何不属于我们主流的东西都被称为地下，这么说也的确恰如其分。在当时，即使是不太受欢迎的流行音乐也被贴上了这样的标签，但凡收到任何一家顶级唱片公司的垂青，他们肯定会毫不犹豫地告别地下音乐。

本次研讨会提出的问题当然是合理和中肯的，也是我们研究过去和现在，最终探讨香港艺术文化未来状况的催化剂——但前提是就事情现在的发展而言，要是有一个未来的话。我会尽我所能满足这些主题，但也有可能会失败。我讲故事的水平不太好，请大家多多包涵——所有好故事都有改编和夸张的成份。 欢迎大家随时提问，批评指正。这不是独白，而是以对话的形式来进行今天的活动。

首先让我们谈谈这一切的开端：我认为是在辉煌的80年代初，一个与流行文化顶峰平行或逆向的宇宙——但矛盾的是，颠覆性运动也达到了顶峰，甚至超出了顶峰，它甚至更有吸引力，因为许多人无法接受令人作呕的效果，以及那些“浓妆艳抹”的流行音乐的持续轰炸。对其他事物的追求已经达到了一个临界点，但香港在这个行业仍然处于真空状态，企业和主流文化“工程师”垄断了整个“行业”——而它当时实际上是一个受金钱支配的行业，而且从各方面来讲，现在仍然如此。

众所周知，80 年代的粤语流行音乐（Cantopop）是一种社会工具，几乎可以与 MKUltra 计划相媲美（中央情报局在 70 年代初期采用的心理控制技术）这对于在80年代成年的人来说是不可避免的。无论你身处何地，环顾四周你接触的每个人，都带着明显的邪教氛围——粤语流行音乐可以简单地被解释为一种伪装成娱乐的武器化社会工具，旨在用温和的方式攻击当地居民的思想。

临界点首先出现在诸如《摇滚》之类的粉丝杂志上，然后是《助听器》独立音乐杂志，后者专注于更晦涩难懂的听力，我的第一份写作任务就是在那儿，每月撰写一篇专栏文章。 那里没有任何议程，只是一个谈论小众音乐的平台——它天真但有抱负，随着这种情绪越来越强烈，紧接着自然而然，我们会回应那些激发我们的音乐作品，并希望有一天我们也能有自己的答案。

在1989年的一个决定命运的夏天，我的第一张自制的低保真实验性噪音磁带专辑就在房间里诞生了。也没有多值得骄傲的，这可能只是适当抵制主流的第一步，虽然也不算什么，但确实有助于开辟一条前所未有的道路。 它也成功地表明，自筹资金的艺术项目可以在这片土地上实现，即使这里一切都以利益为导向，也是所有香港人在阳光下生活的终极缘由。1989 年对独立音乐制作来说是个好年头，潮流已经逆转，魔咒终于被打破。

在接下来的“复兴”中，许多不同的独立团体自筹资金制作他们的作品，进入下一个20年的表演，尽管他们的风格类型更加平易近人，例如独立流行音乐、金属和电子音乐，或模仿其他时下流行的乐队。现在进入正题，我接下来说的就是揭示真相，所以如果你不想知道，请把目光移开或现在离开会场。 请问今天有艺术发展局的人来吗？

有人说，“模仿是最真诚的奉承”，但香港艺术家——即使在经历了30多年发展后的今天——和创作真正的、艺术独立的作品仍然有一定的距离。更重要的是，创造力并非受经济支持的限制，而是取决于资助机构的仁慈。我知道这听起来会如何，我现在已经没有退路了，但我在这里告诉你真相：艺术不是猴子看的生意，猴子做的事。 首先，它根本不应该是一项买卖。 金融机构、官僚主义的繁文缛节和文化犬儒主义完全控制了这个系统，告诉我们什么应该做，什么不应该做，但更糟糕的是看到艺术家自己心甘情愿地玩那个乞求补助的游戏。

众所周知，整个艺术发展委员会的资助计划长期以来一直被少数所谓的受人尊敬的组织或机构所把持，他们一直忙于支持并将大部分赠款分配给他们的朋友和同事，然后他们将呼吁公开提案作为思想挖掘的前线——浪费他人的知识产权——并避免因为你不是他们的朋友而获得任何开发具有原创性内容的机会。这就是腐败。

这很可能就是为什么——当然，这是我自己的看法——香港作为连接东西方陈词滥调的主要文化中心，却未能真正发展我们自己的风格和艺术表达。当他们开始庆祝他们编造的一种叫做“声音艺术”的东西时，会给伤口撒更多盐，这为任何用苹果Mac Pro电脑制作声音的人提供了便利的掩护，以躲在学术的旗帜下，又用花哨的语言伪装成批判理论。当我在街上听到关于 2018 年流行创作时，棺材上的最后一颗钉子就来了：是几个本地白人后朋克模仿乐队，他们表演 60 年代后期英格兰后朋克的低配版本，他们虚无主义的歌词围绕着诸如在当地餐馆购物和点餐等展开。当其他人仍在忙于重复过去时，无论是在精神层面还是在实践中，都没有尝试挑战他们自己的道德规范。

女士们先生们，这就是2018年香港地下音乐实践和制作的悲惨场景——我想在这里冒充查尔斯王子，用他最喜欢的词：太可怕了（Ghastly）。最悲哀的是，这种低水平的行为得到资助和认可。更重要的是，当我们在历史上至少早其他亚洲国家25年开始发展时，我们仍然失败，落后。 我们已经忘记了——或者它根本就没有被重视过——真正的实验精神、挑战极限的动力、拒绝被归类，以及以艺术的名义保持谦逊。相反，我们看到的只是一种以名利为诱饵的伪独立音乐艺术实践的趋势，其本质不过是社会病态自我沉沦的症状。

2.学术界和机构应该停止保姆式的服务，停止宣扬自满情绪（历史上最好的艺术往往是在非常绝望的时候产生的）。今天的学生在学术的外衣，老天的庇佑，以及他们性取向的包裹之下，就能逃脱正面的批评。这么说话，我又给自己树敌了。

3.目前香港有比以往更多的场地、画廊、私人机构和资助机构，且对任何职业艺术家来说，媒体曝光也都非常有效和迅速，但创意水平却处于历史最低水平。相反，我们有一些江湖骗子（是的，我用了这个词），主要为了自身利益，浪费公共资源，生产平庸、荒谬、低质量的项目，不过只是为了完成他们的拨款申请提案。

4.劝阻这种追随主流趋势的自满文化，不能仅仅因为经济回报而牺牲艺术的视野。

5.我希望用以下座右铭来结束这个报告：为艺术而艺术，也不能缺钱。如果你想成为一名艺术家，那就去做艺术吧。

欢迎关注1月15日的线上对谈

Xper.Xr:黑暗中的噪音

Xper.Xr, 妖娆的音乐，CD，1992，尺寸可变，由艺术家及空画廊惠允

Xper.Xr, Voluptuous Musick, CD, 1992, Dimension variable, Courtesy of the artist and Empty Gallery

Xper.Xr

Want to express my thanks to Damien and Francois’s invitation and opportunity to attend, it’s an honour to be here with you today – Many of you know me already, for those who don’t you can just call me Chris, just someone in a fortunate position to bear witness to HK’s alternative scene when it blossomed, once. In other words, I’m just part of the furniture. Before I walk you through the background in the early development of underground music in HK back in the days – first we should define how the local Hong Kong Chinese understanding of the term underground: it’s used to be that anything not falling under the mainstream we’d call it underground, and certainly it was exactly just that. Even lesser appreciated pop music was labelled as such back then, but certainly they have no empathy or desire to remain underground soon as they received an offer from any one of the top tier record companies.

The questions being asked in this symposium are certainly legitimate and pertinent, also acting as a good catalyst for us to investigate the past and present, ultimately the future state of Hong Kong’s artistic culture – but only if there’s any, at the way things are heading….I shall try my best to meet these topics some way but damn if I fail. I’m terrible at telling story so bear with me – and all good stories have a degree of distortion and exaggeration. But let’s make this into a conversation rather than a monologue, and you’re welcomed to interrupt with questions and comments.

Let’s look at where did it all begin: I guess it was in the glorious early 80s, a parallel or inverse universe to the pinnacle of pop culture – but paradoxically, the emergence of a counter, subversive movement was also at its peak and gaining even more traction as many were unable to come to terms with the nauseous effects and the constant bombardments from all those pre-packaged, lipsticked pop music. The pursuit for something else has reached a tipping point, but HK remains this vacuum where corporations and mainstream cultural engineers monopolised the entire ‘industry’ – indeed it was literally a financially dictated business, and in all respect, still is.

It is no secret that 80s’ Cantopop was an instrument of social- engineering almost on a par with the MKUltra programme – the psy-op mind control technique that the CIA employed in the early 70s – it was inescapable when you’re coming of age in the 80s: everywhere you look and turn and everyone you interact with, carry with them the unmistakable cult-ish vibe signature – Canton pop could simply be interpreted as a weaponised social engineering tool disguised as entertainment, intended to assault the minds of the local populations ever so genteelly.

We saw the tipping point arrived first with the fanzines, such as Rock, and followed by Monitor, the latter specialised in the more obscure and the hard of hearings, which was where I first emerged as a writer, penning a monthly column. There wasn’t any agenda there but just a platform to speak about another kind of music - it was naïve but aspiring, and as that sentiment grew stronger, the next natural step followed: to react to what’s been inspiring us musically and hope for one day to be able to provide our own answer.

The inevitable happened one fateful summer in the year 1989, inside the bedroom came the low-fi homemade, but nonetheless, first ever experimental noise cassette album. Without sounding arrogant, but that could just be the first act of a proper resistance to the mainstream, it wasn’t much but it did helped opened up a previously non-existent path. It also managed to show that self-finance art project can happen in this land where everything should only be profit-driven, and regard as the ultimate reason for all Hong Kong people do under the sun. 1989 turned out to be a good year for independent music making, the tide has turned and the spell has finally been broken.

The following ‘renaissance’ saw many different indie groups financing and producing their own releases, as well as performances into the next 2 decades, although their styles mostly centre on the more acceptable genres such as indie pop, metal and electronics, or sounds that copy other fashionable alternative bands at the time. Now that the pleasantries out of the way, this is the point where this report will be going downhill from here, so look away or leave the room now if you don’t want to know. May I ask if there’s anyone here today from the HKADC?

Some say, ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’, but Hong Kong’s artists - even today, after more than 3 decades of developments - are still another universe away from developing works that are truly, artistically independent and more importantly, creativity that is not conditioned by financial support, depending on the mercy from funding bodies.I know just how that will sound and I’ve now burned all the remaining bridges, but I’m here to tell you the truth: Art isn’t a business of monkey see, monkey do. It shouldn’t be a business at all in the first place. It’s one thing for the financial institutions, bureaucratic red tapes and cultural cynicism to have taken complete control of the system, telling us what we should or should not produce, but the worse thing is to see artists themselves willingly and gladly play that game begging for that extra grant.

It is no secret that the entire arts development council funding programme has long been hijacked by the few so called respectable organisations or institutions, who have been busy favouring, and dividing large portions of their grants to their friends and associates, who’ll then call for open proposals as a front for ideas mining – squandering other’s intellectual properties – and shunning chances for developing anything potentially original, because you’re not their friends. This, is what qualified as corruption.

And this could well be why – of course it’s my own opinion – that Hong Kong, being a major cultural hub bridging the old cliché east and west, failed so spectacularly to develop our own style and artistic expression. Adding more salt to the wound is when they start celebrating something they made up called sound art, which provides convenient cover for anyone who managed to make sound using a mac airbook to hide under the banner of the academia, dress up with fancy words salad disguising as critical theory. The final nail on the coffin came when I heard the word on the street for what’s hip in the year 2018, was a couple of local Honky post punk imitation bands performing uninspiring low-fi copies of late 60s’ England post punk, with their nihilistic lyrics revolving around subject matters such as shopping and ordering food in local restaurants. While others are still busy repeating the same blasts from the past, without the slightest attempt in challenging their own ethics, neither in spirit nor in practice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the sad scene – I’m thinking of impersonating Prince Charles here and use his favourite word: Ghastly - of Hong Kong’s underground music practice and production in the year 2018. Saddest still is the fact that such below average acts are being funded and recognised.More importantly, we continue to fail, falling behind other Asian countries when we historically, had at least 25 years head start. We have forgotten - or was it never even being registered in the first place - the true spirit of experimentation, the drive to push the envelope, refusing to be categorised and self-effacement in the name of art. Instead, we see only a trend in promoting these pseudo independent music art practices based on the trapping of fame and celebrity, which in essence is nothing but the symptom of socio-pathological ego massages.

1.Call for education that promote an inward looking, soul searching, encourage investigation into WHY you want to make art, the need to create a culture of applying critical dialogues instead of borrowing terminologies just to pass exams, to look good on their dissertations and using them as a cloaking device.

2.Academia and institutions should cease nannying and promoting complacency – the best art in history often came out of very desperate times - students today often got away with positive criticism by wearing the academic cape or god forbid, their sexual orientation, yes I’ve just made myself more enemies there

3.There are currently more venues, galleries, private institutions and funding bodies existing in Hong Kong, and extremely effective and fast media exposures for any practicing artist, yet the level of creativity is at all-time low. Instead we have some charlatans – yes I used that word – squandering public resources for mainly self-interest, producing mediocre, preposterous, poor quality projects just to fulfil their grant application proposals.

4.Discourage this complacent culture of following mainstream trends, of compromising artistic vision because of financial rewards.

5.I hope to end this report with the following motto: Art for Art sake, money for god sake. If you want to be an artist, then make art.

Please join us for the online conversation on 15th Jan - Xper.Xr: Noise in the Dark

翻译：王曦

编辑：黄文珑

排版：潘思颖

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