評論．翻譯與抽象機器：以謝德慶作品為例

Abstract

The main point of this essay is, taking the indeterminate ideas that appear in criticisms of Tehching Hsieh's art works as a point of departure, to examine the interrelation between Hsieh's work and criticism itself. In looking at Hsieh's work, journalistic reports have been unable to completely come to grips with his core concepts, while aesthetic theory has been unable to illuminate the variable nature of these concepts as they are put into action. Taking a circuitous path constituted by translation and the abstract machine (la machine abstraite), which is also to examine route created by new intervening concepts from Taiwan and elsewhere and the route transcribed by new critical interpretations – or in other words, a new relationship between criticism and ethics defined by the process of translation, the act of critique and conceptual structure – are we able to gradually apprehend the creative critiques and translations engendered by Hsieh's works. This essay does not assume that criticisms and transcriptions of Hsieh's works have been finalized in any way, but rather reflects on the history of the critique of his works and the institutions to which they are related. Through the author's engagement with, reflection on and study of the active processes of critique and translation, this essay offers a kind of reflexive critique, describing the emergence of a new relation between criticism and ethics and a new approach to criticism itself.