美國美國-那些忘記卻留下的
Those Forgotten But Left Behind, America America
黑幕在白日中驟然降臨，擅自偷取人們賴以維生的日光，驚擾大地萬物的作息。日蝕（eclipse）為一種自然現象，在古代被當作災厄的象徵，當月球運行至太陽和地球之間、最接近黃道平面時便會發生。
在2017年8月21日「美國大日食」，我來到了中部的堪薩斯市Kansas City，不全為了日全食，而是想拜訪兒時曾走訪過的景點。十七年前我曾與家人在同一座城市慶祝親人的婚禮，而作爲再一般不過的台灣家庭，能有機會到美國旅遊也是件人生大事了。然而，這件婚事後來為家族帶來意想不到的厄運，結婚的新人已不在我們身旁，年幼的我對親人的記憶，也僅留存在一場飄渺的美國夢。
〈美國美國－那些忘記卻留下的〉我依循著舊照片來到拍攝的原址，並再重新拍攝一張新的照片。印出實體照片，我依輪廓切除舊照片中部分的人物及物件的圖像，形成一塊塊簍空，最後將新拍的照片疊在下方，透過簍空露出現在的模樣。
Darkness suddenly descends in broad daylight, stealthily stealing the sunlight that all life depends on, disturbing the rhythm of the earth and its creatures. An eclipse is a natural phenomenon that, in ancient times, was often regarded as a symbol of misfortune. It occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, reaching closest to the ecliptic plane.
On August 21, 2017, during the “Great American Eclipse,” I traveled to Kansas City in the central United States—not solely to witness the total eclipse, but also to revisit places I had known in my childhood. 17 years earlier, I had celebrated a family member’s wedding in the same city with my family. For a typical Taiwanese household like mine, a trip to the United States was a major life event. However, that wedding later brought unexpected misfortune to our family—the newlyweds are no longer with us, and my childhood memories of relatives have survived only as a fleeting American dream.
America, America — Those Forgotten Yet Left Behind follows the locations captured in old photographs, where I took new photos of the same sites. I printed the original photos and carefully cut out certain figures and objects along their contours, creating hollowed-out sections. The newly taken photographs were then layered beneath the originals, revealing the present scene through these voids.