In 1987, I was a sophomore in college and watched a movie by Andrei Tarkovsky called *The Sacrifice*. At the beginning of the movie, the protagonist took his youngest son to plant a tree by the sea. In the process, he told his son a story about planting trees. “A Greek Orthodox priest transplanted a withered tree halfway up the mountain. He told his little disciple, ‘you need to water it every day, until it becomes alive again.’ Every morning, the little disciple would bring a ladle of water up the mountain to water the tree, and would only return at dawn. After three years, the withered tree came back to life and began to sprout.” The protagonist continued to say, “Sometimes I tell myself, if I do the same thing at the same time every single day, like performing a ritual, the world will change one day.”
For some reason, even though I never watched the movie a second time, I just cannot forget the movie and the beginning of the story. In 1993, when I was working on *Hiking Journal* as an artist in residence at the Headland Center for the Arts in California, once I had the opportunity to hike up the Hill 88. The story from the movie came back to me when I was extremely exhausted. I looked at a pine tree on the hill, and started to feel that I was like the little disciple who hiked up the mountain to water the tree. This greatly motivated me, and I finally hiked to the top of the mountain. I sat under the pine tree, overlooking horizon curvature of the Pacific Ocean, the houses that resembled building blocks, and also the roads below. From then on, I started to live according to that story, adopting certain parts, while at the same time making a few changes.

1987年，我大學二年級的時候，看了安德烈．塔可夫斯基的電影《犧牲》。在片頭男主角帶著自己的小兒子在海邊種樹，他告訴他兒子一個種樹的故事：「一個希臘東正教修道院的修士在山腰上種了一棵荒樹，他跟他的小徒弟說：『你要每天為它澆水，直到它再活過來。』這個小修生每天早上帶著一勺水上山澆樹，直到夕陽西下他才下山。這樣經過了三年，那棵枯樹發芽了。」然後男主角接著說：「有時候我跟我自己說，如果每一天在同一個時刻做著同一件事情，像一個儀式一般，這個世界就會有所改變。」
不知道為什麼，即使沒有再看第二遍，我一直忘不了這部電影與片頭的這段故事。1993年，當我在美國加州海德蘭藝術中心駐村做《健行日記》的時候，有一次攀登一個叫Hill 88的山頭，在極度筋疲力竭之際，這個故事回來了。我望著山頭的一株松樹，覺得我是那上山澆樹的小修生，這讓我升起了一股力量，最後我終於爬上山頂。我坐在松樹下，望著太平洋的曲線、山下小的像積木的房子與道路。從那時候起，我開始認養、修改並照著這個故事去活。

◆〈犧牲樹 正傳〉2017｜鉛筆、紙、玻璃瓶、文件｜103.5 x 145.5 cm，鉛筆屑玻璃瓶：5.3 x 5.3 x 7.6 cm，文件：42 x 29.7 cm