你们都不懂爱情
Tan Chui Mui / 陈翠梅 · K / Emotion Machines · 2024–2026
A machine that can write 10,000 love haiku. Paper accumulates; someone stops to read. Between the artist, the machine and the reader, an emotion begins.
一台能写出一万首爱情俳句的机器。纸张不断堆积，有人停下来阅读。在艺术家、机器与读者之间，一种情绪开始发生。
Artist statement / 艺术家自述 — Tan Chui Mui / 陈翠梅
A few years back I was mentoring together with K in a film-poetry workshop. He told the students how he first learned about poetry writing in his university years. His mentor told him that the poetry writing should pour out of you as if you have Cholera, it should vomit out, or come out as unstoppable diarrhoea. It has to get out of your system, and it will find a way to get out. K said he writes about 30 poems a day.
At that moment I thought, falling in love is just like suffering cholera. “I love you. It’s none of your business.”
Here I present to you a machine that can write 10,000 love haiku. Which is a simple program written with a few lines. A machine that can vomit out endless emotional haiku, as if a man suffering love, angry, in despair… I give it a name K.
K is part of my Emotion Machines series. Even if K will not make you understand love. But let us ponder about love for a moment.
一次我和K在一个诗歌短片的工作坊一起当导师，他说起他在大学的时候，第一次接触诗歌，他的老师跟他说，你真的要写诗，那就得像患了霍乱一样，上吐下泻，不可自制。他说他那时候一天能三十多首诗。
我心想，谈恋爱，也像一场霍乱。“我爱你，又干你何事。”
一个能写出一万首情诗的机器，也不过是几行简单的编程。我不能说我的这个不停呕出情诗的印刷机是来自于K，我只能说，一个好像得了霍乱，上吐下泻地写情诗的一个机器，可能也能让我们感受情绪，也能让我们思考爱情是什么。
我们姑且称呼这个机器K。
这是我的Emotion Machine系列。
Lang Ji · Three-city installation curator / 三城装置项目策展人
Tan Chui Mui's emotion machines remind me of the uncontrollability and irrationality of emotions when a person truly falls in love. These emotions erupt sporadically, much like this machine that constantly spits out love poems. Moreover, the output of the machine is not one-sided; it is reciprocal. It forms part of an emotional transmission loop between the artist, the audience, and the machine itself. The three elements continuously switch roles between subject and object, completing this performance together. Perhaps the essence of love is revealed in these exchanges — a fluid state that cannot be fully captured.
In this exhibition, although the artist employs completely different media for her creation, she continues her deeply personal reflection on emotions, present in her previous works. This is a machine with emotions, constantly and angrily expressing itself. However, I think the tone of this exhibition is gentle and playful. Just like the exhibition title suggests, no one can truly know what love is, but the moment emotions arise can prompt us to introspect and be inspired.
中文译文
陈翠梅的情感机器，让我想起一个人真正陷入爱情时，情绪的不可控制与不合情理。这些情绪不时爆发，就像这台不断吐出情诗的机器。而机器的输出并非单向，而是相互的。它构成了艺术家、观众与机器之间情感传递循环的一部分。三者不断在主体与客体之间交换位置，共同完成这场表演。也许，爱情的本质就在这些交换之中显现——一种无法被完全捕捉的流动状态。
在这次展览中，虽然艺术家采用了截然不同的创作媒介，却延续了她以往作品中对情感极为个人的思考。这是一台有情绪的机器，不停地、愤怒地表达自己。然而，我觉得这场展览的基调是温柔而俏皮的。正如展览标题所提示的，没有人真正知道爱情是什么，但情绪发生的瞬间，可以促使我们自省，也让我们获得启发。
Tree Art Gallery · 26 June–7 July 2024
62 Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, Paris
Curated by Lang Ji / 策展：Lang Ji
K’s printer releases love haiku into the gallery. Paper gathers below the machine and poems cover the wall; a visitor pauses to read a single fragment.
K在画廊里不断打印爱情俳句。纸条在机器下堆积，诗句铺上墙面；观众停下来，读一片情绪的碎屑。
Installation views, Tree Art Gallery, Paris, 2024. / 装置现场，巴黎Tree Art Gallery，2024年。
CULT Gallery · CIMB Hotel Art Fair · 29–30 June 2024
In the Mood for Love
Four Points by Sheraton Kuala Lumpur, City Centre · Level 24, Room 2415
In a hotel room, the poems spread across a bed. K enters a space already charged with intimacy, bringing the excess of its language into the exhibition In the Mood for Love, presented by CULT Gallery.
在酒店房间里，情诗铺满床面。K走进一个本已充满亲密意味的空间，把过量的语言带进CULT Gallery呈现的展览In the Mood for Love。
Three-city installation curator / 三城装置项目策展人：Lang Ji
Installation view: haiku on a hotel bed. Photograph by Sidney Chan. / 装置现场：铺在酒店床上的俳句。摄影：Sidney Chan。
Champochic Gallery · 28 June–21 July 2024
707 Hai Xiang Building, 37-1 Min Zu Road, Xiamen
Three-city installation curator / 三城装置项目策展人：Lang Ji
A reader approaches the printer and follows the poems as they emerge. Each fragment offers a brief encounter with love: bitter, restless, tender or absurd.
读者走近打印机，跟随不断出现的诗句。每一片段都可能让人短暂地进入爱情：苦涩、不安、温柔，或荒谬。
Visitors encounter K at Champochic Gallery, Xiamen, 2024. / 观众与K相遇，厦门Champochic Gallery，2024年。
High Street Studios · 16 November–13 December 2024
Kuala Lumpur / 吉隆坡 · Curated by Lang Ji / 策展：Lang Ji
Outside a bookstore in downtown Kuala Lumpur, K became an invitation to write to the city. Visitors contributed haiku in Malay, Chinese and English. The month-long presentation ended with a recital: poems passed from the machine to the page, and from the page to a voice.
在吉隆坡市中心一家书店外，K成为一份邀请：为这座城市写诗。观众以马来文、中文与英文投稿。为期一个月的展出，以一场朗诵会结束：诗从机器来到纸上，再从纸上成为声音。
Love Letters to KL, High Street Studios, 2024. Visitors, printed poems and the closing recital. / 《给吉隆坡的情书》，High Street Studios，2024年。观众、打印的诗句与闭幕朗诵。
Artwork and artist statement / 作品及艺术家自述：Tan Chui Mui / 陈翠梅
Curatorial text / 策展文字：Lang Ji
Showcase hosted by / 展示平台：Next New Wave
Haiku for Kuantan · Belatuk Social / KuArts · June–July 2026
A later presentation brought K to Belatuk Social during KuArts, continuing the encounter between a place, its readers and the machine’s poems.
2026年6月至7月，K以《Haiku for Kuantan》之名来到KuArts期间的Belatuk Social，继续让地方、读者与机器的诗句相遇。