Superman (Übermensch)

KUAFU

One day, Kuafu decided to chase and catch the Sun. He followed the Sun from the East to the West, draining the Yellow River and the Wei River (all rivers and lakes crossing his path) to quench his burning thirst. However, the big rivers were also unable to quench his thirst, and as he searched for more water, he eventually died of dehydration. The wooden club he was carrying grew into a vast forest of peach trees called the Deng Forest (邓林)(Wikipedia)

The Myth of Sisyphus

Does it sometimes seem absurd to you to realize that certain tasks must be repeated over and over again, like mowing the grass – only to have it grow again and need mowing again? These seemingly futile tasks are sometimes labeled ‘Sisyphean’ after the title character of an ancient myth. This myth tells the story of **Sisyphus**, a citizen of ancient Greece, who was assigned the punishment of eternally pushing a huge, heavy rock up a hill. Each time he reached the top of the hill, the rock would roll back down. Over and over again, the poor man would begin the futile task again, for all eternity.

 (https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-myth-of-sisyphus-by-albert-camus-allusion-quotes.html))

Sisyphus and Kua Fu are from different myths in the East and the West. Sisyphus’s story was considered a tragedy before the deduction of Camus. Kua Fu is more of a story about a person who overreaches in the Eastern culture. They are not be seen as heroes in either Eastern or Western cultures.

Indeed, they are not heroes. Heroes carry responsibility and weight; the stories of heroes often have a timeline with a beginning and an end. What attracts me in the two myths is that it can be abstracted into a movement itself, the lightness under heavy load. No one cares about whether Sisyphus pushed the stone up the hill, or whether Kua Fu can catch up with the sun. But we can’t help being empathized with this movement because it’s so real as if the creator had told us this fact at the beginning of life.

They are supermen.

Deleuze once to described of Dionysus of superman:

Dionysus the Bull is pure and multiple affirmation, the true affirmation, the affirmative will; he bears nothing, unburdens himself completely, makes everything that lives lighter. He is able to do what the higher man cannot; to laugh, play, and dance, in other words, to affirm. He is the Light One who does not recognize himself in man, especially not in the higher man or sublime hero, but only in the overman, in the overhero, in something other than man. 

In this metaphor, superman is also a child. Superman is playing in the world and living in the moment. The soul in the superman is from Jung’s collective unconsciousness, the human spirit. This spirit is power towards hope. Is this blind? We can see the power in the spirit of every child.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, as wrote the philosopher Nietzsche.

“The child is innocence and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game, a self-propelling wheel, a first motion, a sacred Yes.”

My series of sound installations have never been able to avoid a creative impulse from the bottom of my heart. It is a desire to be touched and communicated, but it yearns for lightness. Such desire finally generates the concept of a game, a game embodies sound on the physical installation. Its boundary is so thin that there is even no boundary itself.

Yes, it’s like a game, it’s a game. Maybe I hope to imitate the game, life through this game. It’s an experience, an intervention, and a spirit.

The game rule of installation is an invitation letter, it invites each visitor to begin the sound game without a goal. Every touch of the audiences is the endowment of superhuman spirit. This movement means acceptance and being accepted, and the sound device has life in such a case.

We were all supermen.

we’ve always been supermen.