gupoyu

陈嘉璐 Chen Jialu

姑婆芋，2022，图纹，文本，综合媒介，于沃尔夫斯堡美术馆展出，制作由歌德学院（北京）支持，
Gupouk，2022，pattern，text，mixed media, exhibite at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, production supported by Goethe-Institut

姑婆芋，2022，膜溶解过程
Gupouk，2022，process of dissolving

看似无害
Seemingly Harmless

寻找神仙脚，2023，摄影，于番禺南亭村海心岗岛
Seeking Footprint, 2023, photography, taken at Hai Xin Gang Island, Panyu, China

姑婆芋，2023，装置，综合媒介，展于“榴莲·榴莲：作为方法论的区域艺术研究”，中国广州
Gupouk, 2023, Installation, Mixed media, exhibited at Durian·Durian: Southeast Asian Studies as a Methodology, Guangzhou, China

2月23日，渔民英姐划船带我们到达海心岗岛寻找神仙脚。小岛位于水道中央，身旁不时有沙船经过。传说番禺南亭古码头对面的海心岗岛上有一块留有神仙脚印的石头，村民称之为神仙脚。当村里的女性决定自梳时会划船到小岛上，在神仙脚旁进行梳起仪式。岛上发现有两个脚印，一个在岛的坡顶，另一个在靠近水道中央的石壁上。

On 23rd February, Ying, a fisherman, rowed us to Haixingang Island to look for immortal’s footprint. The island is located in the middle of a waterway, with sand boats passing by from time to time. Legend has it that there is a stone with the footprint of the immortal on Haixingang Island, opposite the ancient pier at Nanting in Panyu, which the villagers call the immortal’s footprint. When the women of the village decided to sworn celibacy, they would row to the island and perform a ceremony next to the stone. There are two footprints found on the island, one at the top of the island's slope and another on the stone wall near the centre of the waterway.

刺绣的文本（节选自艺术家创作的短小说《绝情种》） :

“ 我想是太久没有回去了，祖先要带我回去，我是姑婆，在家里没有位，也没有夫家可以给我位。可是我不能回去，回不去，不知道为什么要回去。叔伯兄弟不认我，我只能等去到祖先眼前才认得我。阿志不需再劳心坟位的事，我已经在这里的庙堂买好了牌位，每日还有人诵经上香。”
“ 我孤家寡人在客途，又梳起用工钱回到家族中，太姑不落家，祖姑守清，我自梳。当年在香港发了一个梦，我只和两个姊妹说过，那晚很多姊妹住在我租的屋里，我们都打地铺。到了半夜，我坐了起来，换了一身衣服，独自一人开门上街。我一直走过各个街头，直到那个我上岸的码头，上了一只艇，在艇上躺下又睡过去了。”
“ 那时阿姑还来看我。担着刚上码头的鱼，沿着沙洲一路走过来沙头，那日我在你婆婆家，隔一条村，他就又从沙头穿过沙田走过来。”
“ 长英的一生中拥有过三个身份证——马来西亚的、香港的和中国的，会讲常平话、广州白话、一点英文、一点闽南话和一点马来话。每在一个地方落地都要证明一次自己的身世——一九二九年在东莞出生，十五岁到了香港，十七岁时到了马来西亚，六十四岁又停留在香港，二零零八年回到东莞，二零一五年拿到中国身份证，三年后去世。”
“ 你婆婆呢，家里太穷，被送去地主家做妹仔，去了香港。其实你婆是中山人。你阿公在地主家做记账，中意你婆婆，赎了她，回东莞结婚。你婆和公公结了婚，生七个子女，死在东莞。”
“长英和亲姐长顺去常平火车站，跟姊妹们聚头，一起沿广九铁路偷渡到香港，再从香港坐船落南洋。长顺和在槟城的十三个姊妹合买了一间屋，起名叫联居，在义福街。”
十姊妹屋有一本国有土地使用证，里面写着“备注：常平镇南门街二十八号‘义和堂’十姊妹的房屋土地使用证时由四十二人共用使用，一九九三年十月六日”。

Text of the embroidery （selection from short novel Cold Hearted written by the artist ) :
It has been too long since I last went home. The ancestors want to bring me back. But I could go back, I cannot. I’ve no reason to go back. I am a gupo, without a place on the family ancestry tablet, I don’t have a husband to supply me with one either. Brothers and Uncles will not recognise me. It is only when I go before the ancestors in person that they will recognise me. Ah-Zhi, you don’t have to worry about the issue of my grave, I purchased a tablet for myself at Zaitang Temple. There will be someone to make the recitations and offer incense for me here everyday.

I travelled all alone, combing through to send my earnings back to our family clan. My Great Aunt had delayed transfer marriage, Aunt married to a spirit, and I took a vow of celibacy. At the time when I was in Hong Kong, I had a dream that I’ve only ever told two of the sisters. At that night, many sisters were living in my flat, we all laid mats out on the floor. In the middle of the night, I sat up, changed clothes, opened the door, walked out alone onto the street—passing from street to street, all the way until I reached the pier where I had first landed in this place. I got on a boat, lay down and fell asleep again.

In those days, your aunt always came to take care of me. She would carry baskets with fish freshly fetched from the pier and walk along the alluvion to Shatou. One day when I was at your grandmother’s house in the next village, she crossed all the way through tidal from Shatou to get there.

Changying had three identity cards in her lifetime — from Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Mainland China. She can speak the Changping dialect, Cantonese, a little bit of English, a little bit of Minnan dialect, and a little bit of Malay. Every time she arrived to a place, she had to prove her history. She was born in Dongguan in 1929, arrived to Hong Kong at the age of fifteen, arrived to Malaysia at the age of seventeen, stopped over in Hong Kong again at the age of sixty-four, came back to Dongguan in 2008, obtained her Chinese ID in 2015, and, three years later, passed away.

“Your grandmother, because her family was poor, she was sent to a Hong Kong land owner’s house to became their servant. Actually, Grandma was born in Zhongshan. Your grandpa worked in that land owner’s house as a bookkeeper, he liked Grandma, so he redeemed your Grandma from the land owner, then they came back to Dongguan. She was married to Grandpa, gave birth to seven children, and passed away in Dongguan. ”

They gathered together with the other sisters at Changping train station. They followed along the Canton-Kowloon Railway, secretly stowed away to Hong Kong and then took a boat to Southeast Asia.

Changshun and the other thirteen sisters had bought a house in Penang together on Rope Walk road, Jalan Pintal Tali, named it “Lyungeoi”.

They had a state-owned land use certificate which read: “Note: State-Owned Land Use Certificate designated for shared use by forty-two persons, Yihe Tang Ten Sisters House, 28 Nanmen Street, Changping Town, 6 Oct. 1993.”