<sup>◦ 關乎邊界及其可伸縮範圍
regarding the retractability of boundaries 


commissioned by the v&a, regarding the retractability of boundaries is a site-specific installation that examines the tension between borders. chen drew experience from their background growing up in taiwan where the sense of boundaries is strategically ambiguous and uncertain.

the project’s starting point saw me wandering around at the v&a observing the museum and its visitors. i noticed the retractable barrier system that could be spotted in every corner of the museum. especially when the museum is about to close, the invigilators would slowly use the barrier to herd the crowd out of the building, room by room.

retractable barriers soon became the protagonist of the project where i approached the ubiquitous artefact from different perspectives. i was, first and foremost, appealed by it’s clever retractable mechanism that was similar to the safety belt mechanism. tensator group, the company who provides the barrier products to the v&a, kindly accepted my request to pay them a visit in milton keynes. the manager paul gave me an in-depth tour around their showroom where he showed me all sorts of barrier products ranging from traditional stanchion rope to modular panel divider system. paul generously gave me a few webbing barrier cassettes for me to take home and to experiment with.

i took a cassette apart, a power spring popped out that took me off guard, that is what makes it retractable. it’s that simple. that moment, i envision an interactive installation that takes advantage of this clever mechanism.

soon i was put in touch with glenn, the health and safety advisor at the v&a. glenn walked me through the museum with insights into how the barrier system works. the conversation later delved into the psychological and behavioural realm where we talked about the subtle differences on how barriers are perceived by people of different ages, cultures and roles. for a brief moment i was also able to put myself into glenn’s shoes - to see it from an authority’s point of view. a barrier is to restrict as well as to protect at the same time depending on how you view it.

then the proposition became introspective. i was reflecting on the existence of these ‘seemingly elastic’ borders. personally, socially, geo-politically… and more. these webbing boundaries are nothing like metal barricades that physically exclude others, they are more so of a social construction, a symbol, a visual cue that exists only in our heads. similar to the idea of national borders.  

i was thinking about our relationship with these retractable barriers - those who impose them and those who obey them, and more intriguingly, of those who challenge them and those who break them. a challenged border is a scenario that my people are familiar with - the sense of insecurity and uncertainty.  

through the installation that spans across three floors, boundaries become three dimensional and the tension was given elasticity. the gridded structure distorts when a part of webbing is being pulled or pushed, proposing a question ‘what are boundaries?’ that is open to interpretation for each visitor.</sup> 

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