Acrylic on canvas_70x100cm_2020
森林26|Forest#26_Acrylic on canvas_45.5x33cm_2020
Oil and Acrylic on canvas_70x100cm_2020
森林25|Forest#25_Oil and Acrylic on canvas_45.5x33cm_2020
Oil and Acrylic on canvas_70x100cm_2020
Forest Series
Oil and Acrylic on canvas
70x100 cm、45.5x33 cm
2020
“Disappearance” and “temporality” have always been the cores of my practice.
These core concepts have evolved into four art series in recent years and respectively engaged with different aspects and issues, which include Sanchuan State (2015) that explores the viewing of Taiwan’s past and present, The Images Left Behind (2018~) that discusses contemporary social issues involved in my personal experience and memory, as well as Painting (2015~) and Glacier (2019~) that employ the perception of materials and forest landscape as metaphors for memory and time.
The experience of traveling between different cities and searching for information online using simultaneously multiple windows have influenced the way I see and think about things for a long time. My personal thinking is formed through the intertextuality of images; and with artistic creation, I have shaped my observations and values in respective stages. For me, art needs to be open and imaginative in this era instead of providing answers and displaying reality.
Sanchuan State originated from my attempt to process the modern development of Taiwanese landscape from the period of Japanese rule to the contemporary era as well as the viewing and identification of urban and natural landscape. However, I was deeply drawn to the massive amount of landscape on postcards, especially those created around the dawn of the 20th century. In that era when photography was not yet common, the intricate, complex relations among object, image, documentation, the awareness of drawing, image resolution and texture were contained and captured by the small pieces of paper. For an artist, whose practice mainly and consistently engages with painting, it became an issue I felt compelled to examine, which I has termed as “to open up interstices that permit the perceptual viewing of reality.”
Painting, for me, indicates taking action rather than merely just drawing. It involves the creator’s viewing, consciousness, emotion and the interaction between materials as well as the display and statement of all these things combined in a space. In an interesting way, even piling up and storing these things in a warehouse can be considered a statement. In this era of image information explosion, the images recorded in finished paintings are also part of it. We should think about how we could re-consider the materials and temporal relations in painting, along with the historic phenomena they reflect.
The Images Left Behind deals with topics of changes occurred in my family. A death in the family as well as the material exchange between land and money reveal the relationship between memory, material and capital under circumstances informed by various uncertainties and constant disappearances. This series is not created for conveying any social critiques. Under complex, entangling circumstances, everyone tends to uphold a different stance, and the situations they face also vary. What I am more interested in is to recover personal belief and value as well as the imagination of memory instead of trying to solve certain problems and voice any criticism. If we are offered a different way of thinking, we might have more courage and take action in facing separation, disappearance and the present reality.
Painting reflects more ambiguous, less denotative phenomena about viewing and disappearance. Landscape as a metaphor and the thinking about materials and forms of painting are other issues explored in this series.
The process of creating a painting is similar to observing one’s interaction with the surrounding environment, as fragmented life experiences are assembled, combined and extended into something new through the process. The creative subject of my painting in recent years has evolved around my travels, hiking trips into forests and the impact upon seeing the glacier lagoon in Iceland. I have become fascinated with using changing landscape and material forms as a metaphor, such as the capricious weather in the mountains, fog and mist, ancient forests, minuscule plants, glaciers, to reimagine and represent the faded past.
As I have mentioned, painting means taking action for me. The materials of the series mostly come from observations in life and spending time with other people. Most of the images are photographs taken with other people during hiking trips in high mountains. In my preparation of painting, photography seems to have become my way of sketching and viewing. I do not aim to represent the landscape captured in these photographic images but rather to shape the sensory experience and the metaphors throughout the process of painting. The objective of the series is to employ painting to express thing that defy clear descriptions or denotations.
The complicated phenomena formed by the composition of paint, lines and forms, light and characteristic changes of materials as well as the viewing of audiences resemble our daily life and all its variations.
If massive image information has already become our way of communication and viewing in this era, painting contrarily offers a slow-paced, intricate and profound interface for thinking.
“消逝“與“時間性”一直是我創作所關注的核心。
這樣的核心概念在近幾年內發展出四個不同系列的創作,並各自觸碰到各類議題面向:關於台灣過往歷史與當下的觀看,【Sanchuan State】(2015)。
自身經驗與記憶所觸及的當下社會議題,【The Images Left Behind】(2018~)。
繪畫性的材料感受與森林風景對於記憶與時間的隱喻,【Painting】(2015~)。【Glacier】(2019)。
不同城市往返移動以及互聯網多重視窗搜尋資訊的經驗長期影響我的觀看與思考方式。我總會以圖像的互文性構成個人思考的路徑,透過藝術創作,形構出自己在每個階段時期的觀察與價值觀。我認為在這時代,藝術是更需具有開放性與想像力的,而不是給答案與陳列現實。
【Sanchuan State】一開始我是想處理台灣從日治時期起,風景畫的現代性發展以及畫家對於城市、自然風景的觀看與認同。然而大量的風景明信片影像深深吸引著我,尤其是20世紀初前後所生產的明信片影像。在那個攝影尚不普及的年代,物件、影像、記錄、製圖意識、畫面解析度與質地,彼此複雜的關係包含在一張小小的紙片中。作為長期以繪畫為主要創作方式的創作者,我認為勢必要觸碰這議題,我解釋為「開啟對現實有感的觀看縫隙」。
繪畫對我而言是行動,不是製圖。行動在於作者本身的觀看、意識、情緒與材料彼此互動痕跡,以及最後將這些物件在空間中加以陳列陳述。打趣地說,在倉庫將它們堆疊收在一起也算是一種陳述。影像訊息氾濫的時代,畫完的繪畫所被記錄下的影像也是其中的一份子。我們如何重新觀看這些在繪畫脈絡中的物質與時間關係以及反映的時代現象。
【The Images Left Behind】我思考的是面對家中的改變,親人逝去、土地與金錢物質的轉換,諸多不確定性與不斷消逝的狀態下記憶、物質與資本的關係。不是為了社會批判而做,在這些複雜糾葛中,每個人立場不同,面對的現實狀況也不盡相同。我所感興趣的是喚起個人的信念價值與對於記憶的想像,而不是解決問題與批判。如果能夠讓人有不同的思考方式,我們將更有勇氣與個人行動來面對離別、面對消逝與當下的現實。
【Painting】所反映的是較為隱晦,不那麼明確指涉,關於觀看與消逝的現象。風景作為隱喻,對材料、繪畫方式的思考,是這作品所開展的另一道議題。
繪畫的過程如同觀看自身與環境的互動,碎片般的生命經驗在此刻重組拼湊再延伸。旅行、登山穿梭森林,以及冰島看見冰河湖的震撼,構成了近年的繪畫主體。我所感興趣的是透過這些消長的風景與物質型態作為隱喻,例如高山多變的天氣、雲霧、千百年的森林、微觀植物、冰河等,去想像、捕捉消逝中的人事物痕跡。
如同前面提到,繪畫對我而言是行動,這些取材多半是生活觀察、與人的相處。圖像來源絕大多是與不同人高山旅行所拍攝的照片。在繪畫的前置過程,攝影似乎像是我的速寫與觀看方式。而我不是透過繪畫再現這些照片的樣子,而是重新在作畫過程中去形塑感官經驗與隱喻。那些難以明確言喻或不需指涉的事物透過繪畫的方式來反映才是這系列作品的工作目標。
顏料構成、線條造型、光與材料特質的變化以及觀者的觀看,所形成的複雜現象正如同我們生活的日常與變異。
如果大量的影像資訊已經是這時代的溝通與觀看方式,繪畫則是提供一個緩慢但複雜的思考介面,且深刻。