This is the first work from the series of “Drawing the urban space”. This series of video works started with the “negative space” beyond the substantial entities in the city. An impression of a city is largely related to its physicality — the shapes and structures of architectures, landmarks, or roads as they are tangible, visible and touchable. In terms of the realms which are not occupied by substantial entities but with air flowing around, these are void spaces filled with untouchable nihility (just as the scenes shown in the video) and easily neglected by people. However, while we are living and engaging in activities in these spaces, bit by bit, day by day, we have left a countless number of breaths and intangible traces. Though it is so transient, they are the living and truest records of life. This work attempts to use the dynamic ‘brushworks’ – the moving trajectory of human beings and vehicles – to expose the intangible “negative space” in the city, thereby exploring the relationship between the city environment and ourselves from another perspective. While city development has created numerous large and tall edifices, should we contemplate the price our original “space” has paid for this?

“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.”

— Italo Calvino 《Invisible Cities》, p165

這是系列作品《描繪城市空間》的第一件作品。這系列的錄像作品是由城市中物質實體之外的「負空間」作為切入點。對城市的印象，大都是那些建築物、地標或道路的外型和結構等實體，因為那些都是可見和可捉摸的。而不被物質實體佔據又有空氣流動的範圍，是空空如也的地方，那是抓不著的虛無（如同錄像所呈現的一切景物），所以容易被人忽視。然而，我們在當中活動和生活，一點一點，一日復一日在這些空間存留下了不能計量的氣息和無形的痕跡，雖然頃刻即逝，但那是生命中活生生和最真實的記錄。作品嘗試運用城市中的動態「筆觸」──人和車輛的移動軌跡──將一個看不見的「負空間」顯影出來，藉以從另一角度探究城市環境和我們的關係。城市發展換來了一座一座又高又大的建築物，與此同時，是否應該思量我們原有的「空間」又付出了什麼的代價呢？

「生者的地獄是不會出現的；如果真有，那就是這裏已經有的，是我們天天生活在其中的，是我們在一起集結而形成的。我們有兩種避免受苦的辦法，對於許多人，第一種比較容易，接受地獄並且成為它的一部分，直到感覺不到它的存在。第二種有些風險，而且必須時刻警惕和學習：在地獄裡找出非地獄的人和物，學會辨別他們，讓它們存在下去，賦於他們空間。」

—伊塔羅·卡爾維諾,《看不見的城市》，165頁