Dylan Seh-Jin Kim
Curatorial
PING LING PONG LANG 乒铃乓啷
Protocinema
3 July 2024
Works by Christine Jung
Produced by Sidian Liu
Curated by Dylan Seh-Jin Kim
Protocinema presents Ping Ling Pong Lang 乒铃乓啷, a flash event collaboration with artist Christine Jung, curator Dylan Kim, artist and producer Sidian Liu, and the Seward Park ping-pong community on Wednesday, July 3 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Seward Park ping-pong table, Essex Street entrance, Free For All.
During this event, “bricks” will be available for purchase. All proceeds benefit the Seward Park ping-pong community.
Ping Ling Pong Lang 乒铃乓啷 is a flash event co-created from the remnants of a prior sculptural installation by Christine Jung, May justice redouble the crime (2024), configured temporarily around the Seward Park ping-pong table. This collaboration alters the sacred utility of each brick, drawing from its previous incarnation which carried Romano-Celtic conflicted histories. In this new context, Jung, Kim, and Liu reflect on the spiritual plane of feng shui at the Seward Park ping-pong table, which has dealt with a series of misaligned placements.
Beginning in the 2010s, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation began “an experiment in open-air ping-pongery”1 by installing tables in public parks. These efforts joined people across cultures and communities, particularly in Seward Park, where Chinese uncles and aunties play side by side with ten-year-old kids and twenty-somethings working from home. Brother Bao, unanimously referred to as shifu (master) by players, proclaims, “Anyone can come and play here.” In keeping with his honorary title, he has enhanced the space by adding orange netting on metal barricades to catch stray balls and even holds free, impromptu lessons from time to time.
The reverberations of ping-pong diplomacy, marked by the US ping-pong team’s visit to China by invitation in 1971, resonate strongly in this neighborhood today. From 2020 onwards, in the face of growing isolation and relational struggles, sociality emerges triumphantly around the table. Accommodating a maximum of two players on each side, the ping-pong table takes on a conciliatory role for regulars and passersby, during the day and well into night. When this particular table was erected in September 2022, concerns were raised around raucous noise and pedestrians dodging fly-away balls. Situated now just outside the park’s gates, shielded by overarching trees, it avoids most practical dilemmas and enjoys healthy traffic; players attribute its success to the site’s feng shui.
In Religion and Ritual in the Western Provinces, Louise Revell writes, “I want to move beyond seeing the material culture from religious sites as being representative of cultural identity, and instead think about how it was part and parcel of certain ways of acting.” Jung’s original installation, May justice redouble the crime, referenced the spiritual dimension of the Roman bath site in what is now Bath, Somerset, England, as well as the suppressed practices of the Bath curse tablets which evolved from this imperial architecture. By deconstructing a colonial apparatus that sanctions the erasure of ancient rituals, Ping Ling Pong Lang 乒铃乓啷 emancipates the work and repurposes it to retain the ping-pong table’s culture of care, as well as the maintenance of its good feng shui.
For one night, over the two-hour duration of this flash event, the bricks that built Ping Ling Pong Lang 乒铃乓啷 will be available for purchase. All proceeds benefit the work of Brother Bao and the Seward Park ping-pong community.
1. “The Joys of Ping-Pong in the Open,” New York Times, by Ariel Kaminer, March 25, 2011.
PING LING PONG LANG 乒铃乓啷
时间：2024年7月3日晚上7点至9点
地点：纽约市埃塞克斯街Essex Street入口的苏域柏公园Seward Park乒乓球桌
Protocinema将于7月3日星期三晚上7点至9点在Seward Park乒乓球桌举办一次名为“乒铃乓啷”的闪现活动。该活动由艺术家Christine Jung、策展人Dylan Kim、艺术家兼制作人四点（刘思典）和Seward Park乒乓球社区共同合作举办。活动免费向公众开放。
在活动期间，Christine Jung作品中的“砖块”可供购买，所有收益将捐赠给Seward Park乒乓球社群。
“乒铃乓啷”将Christine Jung的雕塑装置《愿正义将罪行加倍》（2024年）在参加近期展览后剩余的部分重新利用，临时配置在Seward Park乒乓球桌附近，构筑成此次的闪现活动。“乒铃乓啷”重新定义了这些“砖块”的神性功能，它们曾经承载着罗马人与凯尔特人的冲突历史，而在新的语境中，Christine、Dylan和四点将用临时装置呼应Seward Park乒乓球桌的风水——该乒乓球桌在近几年经历了曲折的搬迁史，该社群也经历了随之而来的一系列变化。
从2010年开始，纽约市公园与娱乐部门启动了“露天乒乓球实验”1，在公共公园安装乒乓球桌，通过乒乓球打破文化和社区的隔阂。这在Seward Park的效果尤为显著——华裔叔叔阿姨们在此与十多岁的孩子、二十来岁的年轻人们并肩打球，其乐融融。社群成员宝哥说：“任何人都可以来这里打球。”宝哥在社群中被尊称为“师父“，他在球桌附近的金属护栏上加装了一层橙色网兜，用以捕捉被打飞的球，他还时常在球桌旁举办免费的乒乓球课程辅导新手。
1971年，美国乒乓球队应邀访问中国，这段“乒乓外交”的历史至今仍在这个社区中回响。自2020年以来，在社会关系日益孤立和紧张的情况下，围绕乒乓球桌的社交活动蓬勃发展。尽管乒乓球桌最多只能容纳双方各两名选手，Seward Park的乒乓球桌仍日以继夜地调解着社群常客和过路行人。2022年9月，这张乒乓球桌首次在公园内图书馆隔壁设立，在这个地址上，球桌因赛事的噪音和飞球时常收到投诉。自2023年起，这张乒乓球桌迁至公园大门外的现址，即有茂密的树荫遮蔽，又享受着源源不断的客流。社群成员都说，该地址风水甚好。
在《西方宗教与仪式》中，Louise Revell写道：“宗教场所的物质文化常被视为文化身份的象征，我希望超越这种观点，转而把它们看作某种行动方式的一部分。”Christine的雕塑装置《愿正义将罪行加倍》（2024年）参考了现今英国萨默塞特郡巴斯的罗马浴场遗址所承载的文化，以及由这种帝国建筑演变而来的被压抑的巴斯诅咒石板的实践。通过解构这种抹杀古老仪式的殖民装置，“乒铃乓啷”将作品中的砖块从上一语境中释放出来，并重新利用它来保持乒乓球桌的关怀文化和良好的风水。
在这场两小时的闪现活动中，“乒铃乓啷”的构筑砖块将被提供出售，所有收益将直接捐赠给Seward Park乒乓球社区。
1. “露天乒乓球的乐趣”，《纽约时报》，Ariel Kaminer，2011年3月25日。
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