SPECTERS: A Luke Casey solo exhibition

𝕊ℙ𝔼ℂ𝕋𝔼ℝ𝕊: 𝔸 𝕃𝕦𝕜𝕖 ℂ𝕒𝕤𝕖𝕪 𝕤𝕠𝕝𝕠 𝕖𝕩𝕙𝕚𝕓𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟  

𝟸𝟶.𝟶𝟻 - 𝟷7.𝟶𝟽.𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸 

(Exhibition opens on 20.05.2022 6pm, the artist will be present.) 

From invisible presence, glowing lights, fading shadows, translucent shapes, to lifelike forms, the specter manifests itself as various existences. Specters may come from a belief in animism, a hallucination of mind, a speculation of otherworlds, an inhabitation of past lives, or even a superimposition through technology. Whether falsified or not, the specter is one of the oldest collective experiences throughout human history. The specter paves the way for fictionalized yet realistic imaginations of the unknown.  

Luke Casey’s solo exhibition, SPECTERS depicts a hallucinative, uncanny journey traversing the universes of nature, spirituality, and technology through photography and video artworks. The audience is invited to float in and out of worlds built by Casey, immerse themselves in the frontier of the imaginary, the reality and its hybrid, constantly shifting in between.   

Drawing from fragments of childhood, Casey’s lens-based artworks revisit his abject fantasies and memories, like haunted encounters in the basement of his old home and episodes of brutal violence experienced by a friend in his old neighborhood. With the assistance of an artificial neural network, Casey communicates these eerie memories with technology and reembodies them realistically in analog still and moving images. The abstract shapes or bodily forms simulated by artificial intelligence do not just reflect his personal history and subconsciousness, but also illustrate how artificial intelligence interprets the collective vision of specters projected by humans.  

The algorithmically intervened environment and movement in the artworks are imbued with a sense of shared reality, which restores a long-lost communal imagination of the (para)normal and (super)nature disavowed by science. Deep diving into the childlike and dreamlike world co-created by Casey and the computer, the audience is redirected to a bygone era of innocence. SPECTERS interrogates and challenges the credibility and validity of the alleged “truth” in the virtual world.   

無形的力量氛圍、在暗處閃爍的光影、似有還無的形狀 — 幽靈以不同面貌現身於人前。它們的存在可被了解為我們大腦出現的錯覺、對萬物有靈論的信仰、對來世的推測；亦可能是我們的無意識將過去零碎的生活畫面重構再現，或是特意以科技拼湊建構的模型。幽靈的真偽始終無從辯識，卻是人類歷史中最古老的集體經驗，以虛構卻感覺真實的想像填補歷史中各種未解的空白。  

Luke Casey的個人展覽 SPECTERS以攝影及錄像作品堆砌出充滿幻象的奇異旅程，邀請觀眾於自然、靈性及科技三界之間，在虛構與真實世界的邊界遊走。作品取材自藝術家本人的童年回憶，重訪成長以來刻意排斥的幻想及記憶，例如在舊居地牢的可怕遭遇，以及兒時同伴在成長的社區所遭受的暴力事件。  

在人工神經網絡技術的協助下，埋藏以久的回憶被重塑成抽象的形狀及身影，放置於類比式攝影及錄像作品當中，重壘交錯成一幁幁個人歷史及潛意識的展演，同時展示人工智能如何詮釋人類對幽靈的集體投射。作品中經演算法介入的環境及動態畫面構成一種共享現實，一種被科學所排斥，對（超）自然界久違的共同想像。SPECTERS中藝術家與電腦共構異境，讓觀眾與失落的純真年代再度接軌，同時拷問虛擬世界中所謂「真相」的真確性。  

（原文請參照英文版本。）