"犬僧" / 11頻道DVD錄影 / 2004-2008
Canine Monk / 11channel Videos / 2004–200
在《犬僧》錄像系列中，彭弘智讓狗介入藝術家的位置，成為一個具有創作能力的主體。畫面中，藝術家先以可食用的材料在牆面書寫宗教經典，再覆上狗食，讓狗將文字舔食。當影像以倒轉方式播放時，原本出於本能的進食行為便轉化為書寫：狗彷彿親自將神聖經文書寫於牆上。
作品同時借用 DOG／GOD 的文字倒置關係，使狗在伴侶、表演者、作者與神聖媒介之間不斷轉換位置。透過這種轉化，《犬僧》重新鬆動人與動物、本能與創造、作者與媒介、神聖與世俗之間原本看似穩固的界線。
當一個非人類的動物介入讀者與宗教經典之間，原本熟悉、權威而固定的文本也因此被重新陌生化。作品由此提出：誰有權書寫、詮釋與傳遞神聖知識？而創造性與精神性的主體，是否也可能存在於人類之外？
In the Canine Monk series, Peng’s dog assumes the position of the artist and becomes an active creative subject. In each video, Peng first writes passages from religious scriptures on a wall using an edible substance, then covers the text with dog food for the dog to lick away. When the footage is played in reverse, the instinctive act of eating is transformed into an act of writing: the dog appears to inscribe sacred texts.
The work also plays on the reversal of DOG / GOD, shifting the animal between the roles of companion, performer, author, and mediator of the sacred. Through this transformation, Canine Monk destabilizes familiar distinctions between human and animal, instinct and creativity, authorship and mediation, the sacred and the profane.
By placing a nonhuman animal between the viewer and religious scripture, the work defamiliarizes texts that are often treated as authoritative and fixed. It raises questions about who is entitled to speak, write, interpret, or transmit sacred knowledge—and whether creative or spiritual agency can exist beyond the human.
《犬僧》由十部錄像作品構成，並被設計為可依展場條件彈性呈現的裝置。作品曾以十一台42吋LCD螢幕組成大型十字架形式展出；另一種尚未實現的構想，則是以雙面投影形成沉浸式的環形空間，觀眾可以沿著外圈行走，也可以進入內部，被狗彷彿「書寫」出的宗教經文與影像包圍。
兩種形式產生截然不同的空間經驗。環形投影強調身體的沉浸，以及影像與神聖文本在空間中的流動；十字架形式則形成一種正面、具有圖像性與紀念性的觀看關係。它不只是對基督宗教符號的引用，更將承載錄像的技術結構本身轉化為一種神聖形體，進一步強化作品中動物與神性、本能與經文、世俗與神聖之間的倒置與交換。
十字架版本尺寸：610 × 340 × 43 cm
Canine Monk is a series of ten videos conceived as a flexible installation. The work has been exhibited in a monumental cruciform configuration composed of eleven 42-inch LCD monitors. A second, unrealized configuration proposes an immersive circular environment using double-sided projection, allowing viewers to move around the outer perimeter or enter the interior space and become surrounded by religious texts seemingly written by the dog.
The two formats produce distinct spatial experiences. The circular projection emphasizes bodily immersion and the circulation of images and sacred texts, while the cruciform installation creates a frontal, iconic encounter. More than a reference to Christian imagery, the cruciform structure transforms the technological support of the videos into a sacred form, reinforcing the work’s reversals between animal and divinity, instinct and scripture, and the profane and the sacred.
以此系列紀念我的愛犬Yukie / This series is dedicated to my beloved dog "Yukie"
《犬僧》最初從道教《清靜經》開始，之後逐步擴展至不同宗教與思想傳統的經典，最後形成一個近似「繞世界一圈」的宗教文本集錦。隨著系列發展，作品的焦點也從單一經典延伸至不同信仰體系之間的權威、集體認同與代理結構。
對彭弘智而言，宗教並不只是教義本身，更關乎信仰如何透過代表者、制度與被授權的權威運作。作品所關注的，是許多社會與政治衝突——尤其在西方歷史中——如何仍與宗教結構、集體身份，以及以神、傳統或其代理人之名行使的權力彼此糾纏。
Canine Monk began with the Qingjing Jing, a Daoist text, and gradually expanded into a broader constellation of religious scriptures and teachings from different traditions around the world. As the series developed, it came to resemble a journey through competing systems of belief, authority, and collective identity.
For Peng, the work is not simply about religion as doctrine, but about the ways belief can become organized through representatives, institutions, and delegated forms of authority. The series reflects his concern that many social and political conflicts—particularly within Western histories—remain deeply entangled with religious structures, collective identification, and the power exercised in the name of gods, traditions, or their human representatives.
此系列作品 / Videos in this series
聖經節錄 Excerpts from the Holy Bible
阿拉伯文版聖經節錄 Excerpts From The Holy Bible in Arabic Translations
十誡及伊斯蘭註解 10 Commandments and Islamic Exegesis
泰國小乘佛教誦經選 Excerpts from the Thai Theravada Prayers
薄伽梵歌選 Excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita
世界宗教大聯合 Unity of All Religions
論語選 Excerpts from the Analects of Confucius
錫金聖典之犬 Dogs of Guru Granth Sahib