清
CLEAN PLAN

蔡海如
Hai-Ru Tsai

2019年的此際，許多曾經關押在綠島的政治受難前輩相繼離世，包括蔡海如的父親。因此，她特地打造這件大型的戶外地景作品《清》。蔡海如自述：「希望政治受難者與家屬來到作品前，將意欲書寫的傷痛、遺憾、思念或悔恨等等各種文字紙條，從開洞傷口處置入。清字底下，隨著風雨、時間、蟲蟻或種子進入的變化，紙張逐漸腐爛或消失，取代的可能是野草小花從不同的洞口冒出來。有水有土有月字結構的「清」字，作為撫慰傷痛和賦予希望的記憶之石而存在。」

在獨居房院子靠圍牆處，有一張被固定在地上的紅椅子，面向鐵製的「清」字和大門。顯眼的「紅色」，讓人不禁浮想聯翩，它既是共產政治意識形態的隱喻也是象徵暴力和生命的顏色；空缺的「位置」則指涉不同的「角色」，不同身分者坐上這張椅子，便牽動整件作品傳達出截然不同的訊息。

蔡海如為這件作品下了這樣的註腳：「無論是獄中或獄外，大牢或小牢，人只要活著都需要面對與清理這些生命的挑戰和傷痕。我的家庭背景與藝術行動，讓我企圖把獨居房的時空與禁錮意義，翻轉成另一種得以解脫的正面想像。」

Hai-Ru Tsai created this large-scale outdoor landscape work "Clean Plan", as many former political detainees on the Green Island passed away, including the artist's father, as of 2019.  The artist said: "I hope that political victims and their families may write down their words of pain, regret, thoughts or remorse, on a piece of paper and insert it into the openings. Beneath the Chinese character "CLEAN", the papers will dissolve or disappear over time by the force of wind, rain, insects, ants or seeds. The character "CLEAN" is composed of the characters water, soil and moon and representing therefore, a stone of memory that soothes pains and gives hopes."

In the courtyard of the solitary confinement, a red chair is fixed to the ground facing the iron-made "CLEAN" and the main gate. The striking "red" color is meant to provoke thoughts. It is both a metaphor for communism and a symbol of violence and life. The chair being vacant suggests that it can be occupied by different persons. In other words, the message conveyed by the work varies depending on who is sitting on the chair.

"Whether imprisoned or not, for long or for short, as long as we are alive, we all need to face and deal with such challenges and scars in our lives," said the artist. "My family background and creative art activities drive me to turn the temporal and spatial association to imprisonment of the solitary confinement into a positive vision of possible freedom from it."