九十年代中，香港面對歷史轉折，文化藝術工作者都為時代的去向思考與創作。一九九四年秋我學成回到香港，感受到這強大的蠢動。當時也有在理工大學設計學院兼職教學，認識了課程主任華立強(Eric Wear) ，他正辦一個展覧《私人空間：公開觀賞對香港藝術的見解和有限剖白的展覽記錄》，邀請我也把對「一九九七」與藝術家的關係以文字或作品給他。以下是我當時提交的文字：
盧偉力
一、
當系統向某一個方向變化（發展），而你作為系統一份子覺得這個方向有問題，你可以怎樣做？
這是我幾年前在筆記本上寫下的問題。那時候我正在研究悲劇理論，嘗試借此來反省一直我魂牽夢縈的中國文化問題。
我想這個問題對於當代藝術家來說，是特別重要的。因為當代社會本質上是大規模生產的商品社會，通過系統的市場推廣和種種流行文化管道，人們不自覺地建立了一套成規化的品味。
表面上，很多商品都有頗有藝術味道的包裝，在這種情況下， 藝術家的生存方式變得很特別：一方面要與時俱進；另一方面又要保持自我。
為了生存，也為了藝術可以在未來的世代生存，藝術家一定要使自己的作品在題材上擺脫社會的制約，並且使人們意識到每個作品牽涉著最個人的生命經驗，這個過程，亦就是藝術家面對大規模生產，集體化生活而重新肯定自我的過程。
二、
黑格爾說：「歷史是感情的景觀。」因為感情並不服從法律與道德強加給它的規限，而人卻是感情動物。因此人類創造歷史的同時也就展現了種種感情。
藝術家進行創作，往往都是感情的抒發。一件作品的價值，很多時候是看作品所能喚起的感情強度。最個人的內容，往往因著情感的普遍性而對社會整體構成重要意義。多少傳頌一時的詩歌，是詩人寫給愛人的情詩，情之真處，超越了特定的時空環境而成為人類瑰寶。
所以，並非所有私人的東西都能夠作為藝術品。我們日常生活中，有影響我們情感的時候，亦有不甚了了的時候，除非我們要表達的，就是這種不甚了了之情，否則這不甚了了的部分是很難作為藝術素材的。自己都感動不了的東西，又怎能感動別人呢？
要保持自我，藝術家可以用自己的生活來作為素材；但要與時俱進，與社會保持聯繫，藝術家必須要在自己的生命中看到整個人類的生存狀態。
1, When a system is moving towards a direction
that you, as member of that system, find questionable, what do you do?
This was a question that I wrote
down in my notebook several years ago. At that time I was finishing my
dissertation on tragic theory. I undertook the study as a way of reflecting on
Chinese culture, an area I have been much concerned with.
The question that
I asked actually is of utmost importance to the contemporary artist.
Contemporary society is a society of mass production and commodity culture.
Through the media, systematic marketing, and popular culture’s various
channels, people have developed consciously or unconsciously a set of packaged
tastes. Nowadays many commercial products are packaged with seemingly artistic
tastes. Under these circumstances, the artist’s life has become very strange:
s/he needs to move along with the times without losing his/her individuality.
To go on living,
and to make art that is able to find its own place in the future, the artist
must shift the subject matter away from societal constraints. The artist should
strive to arouse the reader’s understanding that the artistic text is
connecting individualistic experience to that of the public.
This process is
the artist’s way of actualizing his/her individuality in contemporary society.
2, Hegel says: ‘History is a spectacle of
passions.’ It is so because passions observe none of the limitations that law
and morality want to impose upon them, and man is an animal with passions.
While man creates history, man expresses various passions.
The creative
process of an artist is usually a process where passions unfold. The value of
an artwork, in most cases, depends upon the intensity of the passion that it
generated. The most private passion can be - if it strikes universal emotions-
significant to society. In fact, many well-received poems, which please all men
in all times, are love poems written by love-drawn poets to their lovers.
When passion is
sincere and true, it transcends particular context and becomes a treasure of
humanity.
Therefore,
private matters, artifacts or manifestations are not necessarily the content of
artistic texts. There are times in our daily life that we find uninteresting.
Except when we want to depict this ‘uninterestingness,’ it is very difficult
for us to create artworks out of these times. When one is not moved by
something, how can one move another through that something?
To observe
individuality, an artist may use his/her own life as subject matter; yet in
order to progress with time, and to keep in touch with society, the artist must
find in his/her own self the whole of the human condition.
華立強、張思敏編，《私人空間：公開觀賞對香港藝術的見解和有限剖白的展覽記錄》（香港：香港藝穗節，1997），44 - 47。
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