SINING ZHU 

Delay of Termination began from a simple attempt to relight several discarded fluorescent tubes collected from empty storefronts and the apartment building where I lived. I replaced wires, switches, and ballasts, testing them repeatedly, until I slowly realized that the tubes were already beyond repair.

What remained important was no longer whether the light could return, but the act of trying to light them itself — continuing an action despite knowing it may not lead anywhere, extending a gesture inside darkness.

The work continues my ongoing interest in migration, fragile belonging, and replaceable forms of existence, but shifts these questions from geography and space toward value and duration. By continuously maintaining objects already considered useless, non-functional, and without productive value, I attempt to delay the moment they are fully abandoned.

Here, maintenance is no longer about repair. Instead, it becomes a way of resisting the logic that value must always be tied to function.

In the performance, I repeatedly attempt to light four broken fluorescent tubes. I continuously disassemble, reconnect, and test new wires, switches, and ballasts. The process remains quiet and slow. Two shotgun microphones are placed on both sides of the space, amplifying subtle sounds produced throughout the action — the friction of wires, the touch of switches, the slight vibration between glass and metal, and the unstable hum of electricity appearing and disappearing.

I never know whether the fluorescent tubes will light up, but the action continues to repeat. Time stretches as the gesture repeatedly returns to its starting point, remaining suspended there until the final minute of the performance.

《Delay of Termination》源于一次对废弃灯管的持续修复尝试。这些灯管来自即将被清空的商铺与我所居住的公寓楼。在不断更换电线、开关与镇流器，并经过反复测试之后，我逐渐意识到，它们早已失去了被修复的可能。

然而，作品真正关注的，并非“光”的恢复，而是“点亮”这一行为本身——一种明知无果却仍持续发生的动作，一种在黑暗中被不断延长的尝试。

项目延续了我对于迁移、脆弱归属与被替代性存在的长期关注，但将问题从地理与空间层面转向价值与时间的层面。通过持续维护那些已被判定为失效、无功能、无生产价值之物，作品试图延缓“终止”的到来，使“无用”重新获得时间。

在这里，维护不再指向修复，而成为一种对“价值必须以功能衡量”的拒绝——一种缓慢、固执，却近乎无声的停顿。

在行为表演中，我循环地尝试点亮四根被遗弃的坏灯管。我不断拆解、连接、测试新的电线、开关与镇流器。整个过程始终保持安静。表演两侧各设置一支 shotgun 麦克风，用以放大所有微小而迟疑的过程声音——电线之间的摩擦、开关被触碰的瞬间、玻璃与金属之间轻微的震动，以及电流偶尔出现又迅速消失的嗡鸣。

我始终不知道灯管是否会亮起，但动作仍然持续重复。时间被不断拉长，行为一次次返回原点，直到表演的最后一分钟。