吃辣椒
Eat a Chili

Description

在這本混合小說裡，未來的人類嗜辣的手法之放縱，使得辣椒不只是添加在美食里的調味料。書的一開始，小說便進入到一個被辣椒手榴彈劫持的麵包坊，之後陸續登場的人物也是個個尋求刺激。《吃辣椒》把人物的故事切換在語言和圖像之間，營造一場跨越邊界的視覺狂歡的同時，也串起一幕幕怪異和日常情緒的通感畫面。

《吃辣椒》是視覺藝術家翁唯的第一本出版物。本書的靈感源於作者在哥本哈根的家中一次膳食的辛辣體驗。作者被辣得束手無策，瞬間的通感彌生出一個邪惡的想法：把一組視覺碎片散播到相對情緒化的短篇故事中，讓灼熱感在不同層次之間得以回放，就像當一層熱油蔓延在人類的味覺神經受體之上。

為了演繹這一幕幕超現實的邂逅，翁唯與攝影師Jan ROSSEEL達成合作共識，倆人在作者過去十年的攝影作品裡面，精挑細選出不同的時間與地點，朝隱喻和身體的方向追尋灼痛感的蹤跡。這次合作呈現的《吃辣椒》是一本雙語出版物， 讀者可以通過兩種語言和兩個方向來閱讀。《吃辣椒》在視覺和文字上既提供了雙向思考，讓讀者可以從左到右、或從右到左閱讀，又同時挑戰了西方文化想像的線性思維。

《吃辣椒》匯聚了作者在中國、緬甸、泰國、澳大利亞、美國、丹麥拍攝的影像，本書嘗試了多層含義的影像製作，不僅跨越文化界線，也探索意義建構上的多樣性。書中採用了交纏的敘述方式，映照了作者本人受遷移影響而塑造的獨特個人根基。在書中，被歌頌的辣椒素凝聚了科幻的神奇色彩—也不乏作者透過日常的修行，收集那些生活裡的怪異和情緒化的通感碎片。

In this hybrid fiction, the human consumption of chili pepper has surged beyond the culinary indulgence of spice. Beginning with an explosion of pepper grenades hijacking a bakery, Eat A Chili interweaves a disparate cast of thrill seekers, veering between language and image to reveal a cross-border feast, blending the uncanny and emotional synesthesia of the everyday. The result is a science fiction ode to the pleasurable burns kindled by chili spice.

Eat a Chili is the debut publication by visual artist Wei WENG. The idea of the book was induced during a surprisingly spicy meal in her adopted home of Copenhagen. WENG was synaesthetically struck by the fiery onslaught of spice with a wicked vision: to sprinkle visual fragments that can reverberate with a blend of short stories, much like the multi-sensory layers of heat emanating from human taste receptors.

To re-stage a series of surreal encounters, WENG worked in close collaboration with photographer Jan ROSSEEL to sift through a decade of her photographic work, the duo trace the experience of metaphorical and physical burn through time and place. The result is a bilingual publication that can be read in two languages and in two directions. Eat a Chili can therefore be read visually and textually both from left to right, but also right to left, challenging the usual linearity of the western cultural imagination.

With a compilation of images from China, Myanmar, Thailand, Australia, the United States, and Denmark, Eat a Chili feasts upon the ways in which image-making crosses culture and constructs meaning. The book’s intertwined narrative is reflective of WENG’s personal roots shaped by migration, and the result is a science fiction ode to the wonders of capsaicin—a hardly ascetic meditation upon the uncanny and emotional synesthesia of the everyday.

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