Moving Metaphors: The Genesis of a Space|移動的隱喻:一個空間的生成

Moving Metaphors: The Genesis of a Space|移動的隱喻:一個空間的生成

2023.06.10-09.10

Curators: Sara Wu(吳依宣)|Sean Tseng(曾彥翔

Artist:  謝淑妮(Shirley Tse)|鄭丞媛(Seungwon Jung)|王慶蘋(Emily Wang)|彭禹慈(Yu-Tzu Peng)

Gallery: ss space space

 

I work with pictorial space, in which the sense of depth is felt through the inter-workings of color and form on a metaphysical plane. Tangible yet capable of opening up a new dimension within us, such is a picture, a dual being. To offer a glimpse of this dual experience and its potential, five artworks that span fifteen years of my artistic development have been selected for this exhibition, including painting, mixed media, and photography.

They represent my appreciation and acceptance of the world as an appearance and its beyond. Each references and amplifies the other’s form and energy, which culminates with a flamboyant large-scale double-sided painting—No. 51, Magnitude 11 (Take 1)—Birth of Venus, and an ongoing monochromatic photo-based series that is relatively humble in scale,  serene and yet complex—No. 4, The Forest Within.

From hindsight, it looks as if they are the seed of each other, each seeks the other’s manifestation. Together, these works celebrate the many facets of creative energy—the vitality it exudes, its sensual spirit, and the mysterious force it awakens in us.

ss space space is pleased to present its inaugural exhibition, ’Moving Metaphors: The Genesis of a Space’, a show of works by Seungwon Jung, Shirley Tse, Emily Wang, and Yu-Tzu Peng. These four artists collectively explore the potential of materials, body, spirituality, and temporal transference amidst diverse entities through their distinctive artistic practices. The exhibition examines the unique ways the artists have addressed the notion of ‘movement’, depicting how different aspects connect and create tensions and interactions. It further explores how new narratives are engendered within this dynamic process.

These four artists’ creations vividly portray the essence of ‘movement’ in various ways. Whether the metamorphosis of materials, the invocation of temporal dimensions, the exploration and appropriation of concepts, or the fluidity arising from the interaction between the body and space, shifts in locations and rhythmic patterns composed by varying speeds enrich our understanding of beings, and they present a dynamic and ever-changing manifestation. ‘Moving Metaphors: The Genesis of a Space’ takes the broad theme of our relationship to movement and features over ten diverse works, encompassing sculptures, paintings, and photography. Through the interplay and narratives created by these works, the exhibition invites viewers to embark on a gradual journey towards understanding the metaphorical spaces concealed within the works, gradually advancing towards the realm of meaning construction to reshape their comprehension of the world.

In Shirley Tse’s sculptures, she frequently deconstructs the world of synthetic objects imbued with paradoxical meanings and constructs models in which differences might come together. Spanning 21 years, the two showcased works, Polytocous Series: Flower SML (2002) and Quantum Shirley Series: Crates from Paradise (2023), are transformed from two-dimensional materials to three-dimensional space and collectively allude to the implicit messages inherent in the processes of manufacturing, labour, and dissemination. They further reflect the artist’s personal experiences and surrounding environment.

Seungwon Jung’s sculptures and installations use the interplay of material transformations to make imperceptible and intangible surfaces tangible within expansive natural space. Jung seeks to foster a dialogue between digital language and craftsmanship by intertwining weaving, photography, and sculpture. Embracing dualities and contradictions in her choice of materials, she depicts the potential coexistence of heterogeneous entities.

In artistic creations, imagination is considered the point of departure for movement. Viewers often embark on a journey drawing on their lived experiences when engaging with artworks, allowing the work to spark their imagination. The works guide viewers’ perceptual experiences and gradually lead them towards the space where meaning and narrative are generated. Consequently, observing a work involves venturing into new territories, creating potential spaces for imaginative shifts and facilitating narrative innovation.

In Emily Wang’s painting and photography, the pictorial space takes shape through the abstract structure of figurative imagery, creating dynamic energy and emotional tension. In this exhibition, the artist delves further into the spatial relationships formed by pairing a large-scale, double-sided abstract painting, Magnitude 11 (Take 1) – Birth of Venus (2019–2020), with a photo-based work, No. 4, The Forest Within (2023). Through contemplative and prolonged observation, viewers are invited to uncover the potential metaphors within the works and engage with the ever-nurturing sensual spirit and vitality they encapsulate.

Yu-Tzu Peng presents a new series of paintings that reflect the artist’s continuing exploration of pictorial space. By deconstructing images from the real world, she considers painting as a space for visual and spiritual contemplation. Peng often uses fragmented brushstrokes and lines and engages with the interplay between painted and unpainted areas to evoke an implicit tension. This constructs a space of profound and abundant imagination within the picture plane. Her works unveil a unique realm that facilitates self-transformation in the creative process and leads to its continuation, transforming painting into a dynamic form of existence.

Situated between imagination and creation and perception and meaning, the artists open up a dynamic space through their works—an open field awaiting the infusion of imagination. However, this space is never stagnant; it functions as a medium for transcending elsewhere. In the current era of redefined territories, boundaries, rules, and definitions, these artistic creations collectively imply a fundamental question: How can we create a clear vision in the contemporary ever-shifting and evolving context and explore and define our own space in the world?

ss space space非常期待和開⼼心能與⼤大家分享我們於新空間的第⼀一檔展覽「移動的隱喻:⼀一個空間 的⽣生成」。此次聯聯展匯聚了了藝術家鄭丞媛(Seungwon Jung)、謝淑妮(Shirley Tse)、王慶蘋及 彭禹慈的作品,四位藝術家皆透過各⾃自的創作在眾多差異異的事物之中,共同探索物質、⾝身體、精神 和時空維度轉移的可能,並從中描述事物如何透過「移動」與他者交織並產⽣生張⼒力力,進⽽而在此動態 的互動過程中發展出新的敘事。

在這四位藝術家的創作中可以看⾒見見許多「移動」的軌跡,無論是媒材上的轉化、時間維度的召喚、 概念念上的清空與挪⽤用,亦或是⾝身體與空間互動中所產⽣生的流動等。這些移動過程中所歷經的場所變 化、速度的快慢輕重所譜寫的韻律律,皆豐富了了過往對事物的理理解,呈現其嶄新且動態的存在樣貌。 本次展覽以「移動的隱喻:⼀一個空間的⽣生成」為題,展出包含雕塑、繪畫與攝影等⼗十餘件作品,期 待透過這些作品的相互對話與敘事,邀請觀者向著作品所隱喻的空間前⾏行行,⼀一步步前往意義構築的 場域,並在流動的過程中重塑對世界的理理解。

藝術家謝淑妮(Shirley Tse)擅長透過解構⼈人造物的世界,並從中結合⽭矛盾或相異異的物質,在⽂文 字、雕塑與材料的隱喻之間,發展出其獨特的創作敘事。此次展出的兩兩件作品 Polytocous Series: Flower SML (2002) 與 Quantum Shirley Series: Crates from Paradise (2023) 橫跨了了21年年的創作歷 程,作品將創作媒材從平⾯面轉譯成立體雕塑的同時,也共同指涉了了其在製造、勞動與傳播的移轉過 程中所隱含的訊息,以及回應創作者⾃自⾝身與所在環境的狀狀態。

另⼀一位藝術家鄭丞媛(Seungwon Jung)也透過媒材之間的轉換,在深邃浩瀚的⾃自然空間中,將不 可⾒見見且無形的表⾯面轉化為可感知的形態。藝術家結合編織品、攝影與雕塑,試圖在數位語⾔言與傳統 ⼯工藝間開啟對話,並在看似相異異的媒材中探索並擁抱事物中存在的雙重與⽭矛盾,描繪異異質的事物共 存的可能。

在藝術創作中,想像是位移的起點。在閱讀作品時,觀者經常從現實經驗出發,讓作品引發的想像 帶領其感知經驗,逐步前往屬於閱讀者意義與敘事⽣生成的場域。因此,閱讀作品本⾝身便便包含了了移往 他處的痕跡,也創造出可能偏移的其他想像空間,促使敘事創新得以在世界中呈現。

王慶蘋的創作實踐致⼒力力於將抽象與有機的象徵形態結合,嘗試在圖像空間中引發視覺空間結構的交 互震盪,藉此創造作品動能與情緒張⼒力力。此次展覽藝術家更更嘗試透過⼤大尺幅的雙⾯面繪畫 No. 51, Magnitude 11 (Take 1) – Birth of Venus (2019-2020) 與複合媒材的攝影作品 No. 4, The Forest Within (2023) 在展場中所形成的空間關係,讓觀者在慢觀且不斷流轉的視線中,持續發現作品的潛 在隱喻,與其所不斷孕育出的感性精神與⽣生命⼒力力。   在圖像空間的探索中,藝術家彭禹慈將繪畫作為視覺與精神思維的媒合空間。透過解構現實世界中 的圖像,她⽤用碎形的筆觸與線條,連同畫布中留留⽩白之處與所繪之處相互構成的隱性張⼒力力,在畫⾯面中 建構⼀一種⽞玄曖深邃卻富饒想像的秩序。

彭禹慈的作品開啟了了獨特的場域,讓其創作得以⾃自我變形, 並發展出⾃自⼰己的續篇,進⽽而讓繪畫成為⼀一種存在的動態形式。 藝術家在想像與創造之間、感知與意義之間,透過作品鑿開了了⼀一個動態的空間,⼀一個等待想像傾注 的開放場域,然⽽而,此處從來來就不是停駐的場所,⽽而是通向他處的媒介。在當前許多地域、邊界、 規則與定義被重新劃分之際,這些創作也似乎共同隱喻了了關鍵的問題:我們如何在不斷移動與變化 的當代語境中清晰眼前的視域,進⽽而在世界之中探詢屬於⾃自⾝身的空間呢?

Unseen the Seen|可見 不可見

Unseen the Seen|可見 不可見

Capturing Memories that Cannot be Reproduced

“To read the unwritten.”  — Hugo von Hofmannsthal

2022.11.18-2023.01.29

Curator: Jenny Lee|李晏禎

Artist: Emily Wang|王慶蘋, Chiu Chen-Hung|邱承宏, Yeh Wei-Li|葉偉立

Gallery: LIGHTWELL

 

可見-不可見 展品本

Exhibition Brochure

To me, photography is a private and inward process—taking in the world through the confinement of a camera lens, it is about in-sight.

I am drawn to light, but it is through its counterpart—shade—that myriad of colors accentuated, space created, such that experience gains dimension, and life becomes substantial. Hence my creation often explores the possibilities of in-between space, physical or symbolic, and always in light of shadow.

The photographs in this show are selected from two series, each explores the poetics of constructed space in diptych or triptych format: The co-presence of the interior and the exterior in Juxtaposition series, and the intimate space formed within paper and wire sculptures in Still Life Diptych series. My sensitivity to the shifting spectrum of light in times of day, and the interaction of lightings in different circumstances has prompted me to emphasize specific color cast in my work—a tint of particular color that is usually considered undesirable in photography, which becomes a vehicle to harmonize each diptych/triptych and enables me to transform each work into a world other than its mimetic appearance.

Exhibited alongside my photographs is a small light modulator I create on-site with plain paper to represent the seed of my inspiration. It is both the subject of my visual contemplation and photography. A light modulator sits like a still life in my studio, but my experience and relation with it change after a prolonged period of seeing, and I continue to shape it or mix it with other available materials in the studio. This cycle of contemplating, shaping, reshaping, and photographing continues until it becomes so deteriorated that I have to give it up. Therefore, the light modulator is a living thing, much like the organic process of creation. To give the audience a sense of my process, I would come to the gallery to work on the light modulator and photograph it from time to time, as what I do in the studio.

To photograph, is to distill the ephemerals. To create, is to give birth to a new order. A photograph may always be rooted in this world, but each frame offers potential shift in sight and perspective, thereby forming a new meaning and reality.

When looking at an artwork, we may often ask, “What do I see?” What does “I see” entail? Does it mean that we understand the artistic concept, or we not only understand it but are also moved by the work? What if we can’t comprehend the concept but still resonate with the work itself? The ways of seeing seem vary by circumstances, time and space, pending on our perceptual acuity or even collective experience in a larger context. 

 

Through the works of Emily Wang, Chiu Chen-hung, and Yeh Wei-li, this exhibition suggests a standpoint for audiences to uncover the moments when memories of objects, spaces, and events become solidified and sustained. Also explored are the countless and invisible ideas generated in the artists’ minds: How they are drawn from the artists’ respective upbringings, value system, and intimate memories, then translated and transformed, and finally materialized into visible and tangible forms.

 
Encountering the world through the monocular vision of camera lens, artist Emily Wang reconfigures images via experimental means to bring a new perspective to experiences and memories. The photographs exhibited are selected from two series. Wang not only rearranges available materials but also constructs unique visual space to create new memories. By accentuating certain quality of light in each photograph, she allows color cast to conjure a new order in various environments, thereby leading the audience to distinctive experiences. In the Juxtaposition series, the artist uses a curious eye to juxtapose perspectives of everyday indoor/outdoor environments, challenging our accustomed way of seeing. The Still Life Diptych series, on the other hand, uses materials readily available in the studio, arranged intentionally or spontaneously, to capture the instant of interaction with mixed lighting, and stretches that split second into eternity.
 

Serenity is a notable quality found in Chiu Chen-hung’s works. Even with industrial materials and techniques, there is a tranquil quality emanated from within Chiu’s work throughout his artistic practices. Daylighting is a series of relief works that combine painting and sculpture into carvings of light and shadow on concrete. This series evokes a familiar scenery—tree shadows swaying outside the window, triggering us to unearth memories buried deep, personal or collective. Another series of sculptural works Embroidered Swallows employs 3D printing to enlarge the fissures and gaps in the animal sculptures of the artist’s Concrete Zoo series, then inlays terrazzo with brass to create rock-like forms. Completing the fissures themselves into hefty rocks and returning artificiality to nature is another self-expression for the artist.

 

In 2016, Wei-Li Yeh relocated from Yangmei, Taoyuan to the scenic northeast coast of Shuinandong, Ruifang to undertake a project on-site: that of transforming a long-abandoned estate into a residence museum of the late Master guqin maker and painter Yeh Shih-Chiang (1926-2012). A geographically dynamic area of unusual beauty, Shuinandong is a small community nestled on the side of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This neighborhood began as a series of multi-layered and terraced wooden rowed dormitory housing built for miners working in the vast local mining complex on the adjacent hill. Random Encounter at Shuinandong #1 depicts a setting inside an anonymous building in the community of Shuinandong where Wei-Li Yeh resides. Like a reclusive neighbor whom Yeh occasionally passes by and purposely visits from time to time. Random Encounter at Shuinandong #1, an artwork comprised of four parts, is placed at four pivotal spaces along the navigation route of the LIGHTWELL exhibition space. The movement through this spatial configuration mirrors the development of this artwork about the dynamic transformation of time and life of objects through artistic intervention. Known for his long-term site-specific projects, Yeh’s practice often revitalizes and transforms the environmental surroundings in which he occupies while compressing and distilling years of time and labor into still images. This trail of found material, text, and photography entices the viewer to question, explore, and ultimately, engage in the possibilities and the many ways of “seeing.”

 

Feelings of resonance, curiosity, or even confusion may arise when viewing these works. By trying to understand, sensing the relationship between ourselves and the works, and using visual clues to perceive the impalpable vibrations and ripples within, we might be able to unveil the seen and unseen, layer by layer, to truly grasp the hidden meanings of each work.

– Jenny Lee

捕捉經驗裡無法再現的記憶

「去閱讀那些從未被寫出的。」 ———————- 霍夫曼斯塔爾 (Hugo von Hofmannsthal)

在觀看藝術作品的時候,我們時常會問:「到底看到了什麼?」是看懂了藝術家的創作概念為看見,還是不但懂了概念,還要有感動才能說真正的看見?亦或,作品能夠觸動自己的內在、產生共鳴,卻看不懂,這樣算是看見了嗎?其實,「觀看」在每個時代背景下都各有合乎當時的方式,來自對大環境的認知體系甚或是集體經驗。

本展覽藉由王慶蘋、邱承宏以及葉偉立的作品,提供觀眾一個視角,掀開他們與物件、空間、記憶而留存、凝結的瞬間。探看藝術家腦中那些數不清、不可見的念頭,是如何地揉入各自的生長背景、價值體系以及私密的記憶倉庫,然後轉譯、闡釋到作品中,成為我們眼前的可見畫面、真實的創作。

透過相機與周遭環境的互動,藝術家王慶蘋將經驗與記憶,在影像重組的實驗過程中,賦予全新的觀看視角。這一次展出的兩個攝影系列作品均是將可得的材料重新排列後,捕捉那原來不存在的瞬間,讓光在不同的環境下搓揉出新的秩序,進而引領觀眾有不同的體驗。在《並置的和弦》系列作品,藝術家用好奇的眼光,將日常周遭室內/室外環境的不同視角並置,挑戰我們平日習以為常觀看的方式;而《靜物雙聯》系列則是利用工作室內唾手可得的材料,在不經意或刻意的排列後,捕捉與光交揉產生的當下,將瞬間延長至永恆。

寧靜感,是邱承宏作品的氣質,即便使用的是工業化的媒材與技術,那一份由內在記憶散發出來的靜謐,貫穿了藝術家的日常實踐。《採光》系列浮雕作品,將平面繪畫與雕塑結合,在水泥版上以刨去的方式,將光影呈現於畫面上。這一系列作品帶出了大部份人都曾有過的、共同的觀看經驗 –- 窗外樹影翩翩飄動的影像 – 以這樣的熟悉感將住在內心記憶深處的經驗挖掘出來,不論那是屬於個人的,還是集體的。另一系列雕塑作品《繡燕》則是將藝術家《水泥動物園》作品中動物雕塑上的裂痕、缺口,用3D列印的方式等比放大後,以磨石子鑲嵌黃銅的技法,展現出類似石頭的形態。將裂痕自行完整成為一個豐滿的石頭,轉化人工回歸自然,是藝術家的另一種自我表述。

2016年,葉偉立因參與已故藝術家葉世強故居紀念館的建置,從故鄉桃園楊梅移居到台灣東北角上背山面海的水湳洞,一個因日據時期興盛的採礦產業而大規模修建的礦工宿舍聚落。在1981年水湳洞選煉廠停止營運後,居民頓失工作來源而陸續移出。這次展出的新作《偶遇,水湳洞 #1》,是葉偉立在水湳洞偶然遇見的一間廢棄空屋,它像是個寡言但不排斥來往的鄰居,偶爾路過看望或刻意拜訪,成為藝術家日常中微微掛心的所在。《偶遇,水湳洞 #1》由三個物件與一個燈箱組合而成,安落在展場動線上的四個樞紐處,觀看的路徑呼應物件的動態與轉化。葉偉立藉由身體勞動的介入,更新甚至延長物件的生命,是藝術家獨有的敘事與美學表現形式,將其多年的實踐凝結於一幅靜置的畫面當中。畫面本身是一個「餌」,誘使觀者提問、探索進而得到不同的看見。

透過觀看藝術家的作品,我們可能產生共鳴,或者好奇,甚至疑惑。藉由試圖理解作品、感受自我與藝術作品之間的關係;藉由可見的線索,感知那不可見的震動與漣漪,進而能夠掀開作品層層面紗,真正進入作品內裡暗藏的藴意。

– 李晏禎

Tell Me a Story | Solo Exhibition

Tell Me a Story | Solo Exhibition

Tell Me a Story | 在這瘋狂的年代
Emily Wang Solo Exhibition

2021.10.02-11.13

TKG+ PROJECTS

Curator: Jenny Lee

Through the suggestive power of color, gesture, and figurative imagery in painting and poetry, I explore the space within duality — the struggle and synergy of opposing forces — in life as in creation. Underlying this exploration is my reflection on the Venusian duality and the symbolisms associated with it — the Moon, femininity, water, fertility, the death and regeneration of nature, and creative energy; the same symbol bears different names such as Ishtar (or Inanna) — queen of heaven and queen of the underworld — the goddess of love and war.

The energetic exchange between these ambivalent forces embodied in my exploration is multilayered through the tension between visual and literary devices and the synergy of both— the battle between color (painting) and drawing, the potential of narrative-shifts of biomorphic forms in painting, the interlacing of visual expression (painting) and poetic imagination (poetry), and the re-framing of mythical symbols via poetry as well as through the tension of juxtaposing the visual (painting) with the verbal (work title).

In the end, the totality of this exhibition forms an allegorical space — a space of in-between — allowing the ebb and flow of experiencing these interactions to converge, take shape and assume new meanings within viewers.

Without storytelling per-se, I am creating my own myth — of hope, of timelessness, of love and light, the same pursuit since human’s ancient past, as seen in Dante’s Divine Comedy, and still finds its resonance in the poem from which the title of this exhibition is borrowed.

Let the myth unfold.

存在於生命與創造裡交互共存的二元力量,彼此拉鋸與交融的張力地帶是我一貫的焦點。

此次我運用繪畫與詩歌裡色彩、筆觸姿態、比喻與意象的象徵力量,探索兩極激盪地帶的新生能量。背後的蘊意,是我對金星(或維納斯)的二元屬性激發人類文明產生的雙重象徵符號之重訪與再塑──陰性、豐饒、愛與戰爭、死亡與再生。

結合視覺與文字兩種異質的創作語言與媒介,形成多重的拉鋸表現機制,目的在賦予觀感經驗多層次的碰撞,以體現矛盾生命力的複雜面貌。例如:繪畫中色彩與素描間的衝突與交融;有機的視覺形態因應視角改變而重組的潛能,使視覺敘事恆處於蛻變歷程;藉視覺意象(觀)與詩意想像(想)交織擴充寓意能量;又或藉視覺作品內涵外擴的張力與作品文字標題間的對峙,反思重塑神話象徵。

最終,作品間的積極對話擴充至展場整體,形成寓意發酵的空間──以容納觀者跌宕起伏的繁複經驗,在不斷的匯聚與轉化中形成各自的意義。

不藉線性的鋪陳,我欲創造自己的神話──一個關於希望、無價的永恆、愛與光的神話;一份人類亙古的追求,不僅見於但丁《神曲》,亦如此次展題出處的詩作所共鳴。

神話,才正要開始。

“I wanted to paint light,
but all I’ve drawn out is darkness.”
– Emily Wang, Excavation (2021)

To Emily Wang, the creative process is a constant negotiation between intuition and reason. It is a transformative process engaging a visual energy and qualities of emotional tension through the dynamics of visual syntax, which in turn creates feeling and narrative. It is the unification of both the cognitive and sensate that makes the experience of visual discovery meaningful to her.

The quality of her work is therefore multilayered. On the one hand, this stems from her dual discipline in fine arts and philosophy; on the other, it has to do with her in-depth practice in multiple visual mediums including photography, drawing, and painting. The direction of her practice is also shaped by her upbringing and life experience as an outlander, a role she involuntarily inherited but later has become the perspective she adopts. Her identity as a “neither-nor” enables her compassionate understanding and insight into the underlying ideologies or assumptions of the various cultural and socio-political groups she encounters. This motivates her to go beyond the apparent dichotomy and strives for timeless value. With a keen eye and poetic empathy, Wang infuses her work with vitality by leveraging seemingly oxymoronic elements.

Wang defines herself as a colorist. The dynamic relations between color and drawing underpin the ethos of her oeuvre. Through the vibrant dialogue composed of colors and gestural forms, and through her approach of all-over painting, Wang nurtures an intricate spatial tension across her canvas. The energy of each work is brought about by a constantly shifting correlation between the myriad of brushstrokes. As one’s gaze travels across the canvas, and with any changes in perspective and focal point, one experiences a simultaneous collision and coalescence of opposing energies. Through prolonged engagement in seeing, the multiplicity of narrative potentials unfolds gradually.

In her 2019 solo exhibition A Sense of Pleasure, Wang selected a series of abstract works from her decade-long endeavor of working from direct observation, including drawings and paintings, as well as photographic polyptychs of equally abstract quality. Her process began with constructing large-scale tabletop installation resembling an interior landscape that allows her an immersive experience throughout her creative process from constructing it to visually engaging it, and painting from it. Swimming in the ocean of sensory experiences, her body becomes a highly perceptive vehicle that simultaneously takes on multiple roles as a beholder, a mediator, and the creator throughout the creative process. The triangular relationship was transformed on the canvas via brushstrokes with each stroke setting in motion new sets of visual correlations and meaning.

In her latest solo exhibition Tell Me a Story at TKG+ Projects, the energetic exchange between ambivalent forces once again takes center stage. In addition to painting, she also integrates poetry in her exploration of duality. Since the inception of the theme related to this exhibition, Wang began to experience a strong sense of poetic sound along with the ebb and flow of her inner experiences during her creative process. Incubated for years, the songs without words she experienced began to materialize in 2020 when she relocated to a small coastal town in eastern Taiwan. The changeable sea is the grand theatre of nature’s dual force which resonates with the artist’s theme of exploration. Poetry came to her during her daily walk to the Pacific. Imageries and symbols in her poems infuse personal reflections and dream revelations of Venusian dual symbolisms, connecting personal perspective with the general theme of her exploration of duality. Similarly, through the suggestive power of color relations, she combines observation and imagination in her painting process, and infuses visual discoveries made during her process with visions inspired by her dreams.

By colliding and coalescing two different mediums of expression, the exhibition space is transformed into an allegorical space to invoke a sense of mythical experience.

The drawing and the poem combination in the opening section engages the theme directly the artist’s yearning for Arcadia or eternity through its absence. By pairing an unfinished drawing with a poem that only hints at the possibility of the archetypal Venusian being, the artist answers the title of her exhibition that the quest for a promised land has no end and is always unfolding. 

The two large-scale double-sided paintings in the main exhibition area offers a new aspect of the tension between color and drawing. Through serendipity, Wang adopts a new textile material as her canvas. Unexpectedly, some heavy paint strokes penetrated the surface and created a drawing imbued with the organic quality resembling cave-painting that is distinct from the visual quality and meaning of the painting in the front. Each backside drawing is then finished on-site to complete its dialogue with the painting in the front. The permeability and penetration of color provides a new perspective on Wang’s oeuvre.

 

An artist changes the world not by physical force, but through the nurturing quality of her work. When reality becomes stranger than fiction, Wang seeks harmony and union of oppositions on a higher level. Just as the point of departure of the artist’s exploration of duality began with her yearning for Arcadia, it was the dark imageries of Dante’s Inferno and the corruption of humanity that symbolize that Wang struggled to reconcile with including her own shadows throughout her creative process. Out of this dark process, Wang gave birth to artwork filled with vitality; each symbolizes her spiritual rebirth. This is the best gift an artist can give to this world, and what the artist can contribute to the spiritual growth of the collective in the time of mania.

「我欲畫光,
而我汲取盡是黑暗。」
—王慶蘋,《出土》2021

創作之於王慶蘋,是一段直覺與邏輯的、感性與理性的,美感與哲學間不斷的拉鋸、對話,最終重生為獨立作品的歷程。這樣多重的交互蛻變關係,部分來自於她藝術及哲學的雙重教育背景,以及攝影和繪畫跨媒材的創作經驗。另一部分來自於她個人成長經驗。作為一個被排除者,一個異人身份;而後有意識地審視特定文化、團體、族群的意識形態的取向。這一非歸屬感造就她期許自己能超越非此即彼的觀點,以敏銳的觀察力及感受力,深入結合多樣甚而對立的元素,創造藝術語彙新的生命力。

王慶蘋定義自己為色彩藝術家。色彩與素描結構在畫作裡彼此間的抗衡與相生對作品內涵與能量的激發,一直是她作品的特質。藉由形與色的動態對話,她的畫孕育一種複雜的空間張力——每個焦點或視角的轉移持續改變畫中筆觸的相互關係,交織出多層次、開展不同敘事的可能性。隨著觀者時間的投入及目光的推移,作品內蘊含的深邃意涵,漸次綻放明朗。

2019年的王慶蘋個展「感受的詩學」,由建構巨大而複雜的靜物裝置開始,結合不同質感的布料與物件,製造多變的空間感以及視覺層次,以身體這個流動的有機體,承載如海洋般豐碩的感受力,同時擔任接收者、協調者、以及創造者的角色。讓觀看與看見本身保有的某種真空自在,與思緒的分析結構,能以一種不互相干擾,卻又互相帶領的方式,將所觀照的世界,透過每一筆顏料落在畫布上的過程,持續地重新認識彼此,成為創作者經驗與思緒對話的場域,最終融合為一新的整體感受語彙-作品本身。

此次在TKG+ Projects的全新個展《 Tell Me a Story —在這瘋狂的年代 》,多元衝突及矛盾的關係,依然扮演藝術家創作的關鍵角色,而作品內涵的複雜層次更加多重。除了視覺語彙的淬煉,藝術家更將其在準備個展、回顧整體創作歷程時所感受到呼之欲出的內在聲響,昇華為詩歌,同時梳理與凝聚整個創作歷程裡各個感官片段。尤其在2020年底搬到台灣東部小鎮後,詩意有如潮水浸潤她身上的每一個細胞,乃至片段的聲響終究浮出意識表面,迸發為文字語句。在其前往海邊的路上,與生命創作歷程相呼應的詩句滿溢而出。結合繪畫裡的彩料語言,她譜出感官的、寓言式的內在經驗。這如同她繪畫裡運用色彩關係,結合直接觀看與觀察、接受經驗與夢的引發等內外經歷後一再地將之轉化,目的在創造一種存在的新樣貌。交織著繪畫的視覺及詩性的語言,透過兩種異質媒材的相遇與碰撞,同時將展覽空間轉換為寓意發酵的空間。未完成的素描與詩篇並呈的入口處,更直指藝術家的展覽命題——對永恆世外桃源的渴望,如同素描未完成的缺憾;烏托邦的失落雖是事實,卻也意味著應許之地永遠可企及的可能性。

此外,展場上的兩幅大型雙面畫作 No. 51, Magnitude 11 (Take 1) – Birth of Venus No. 54, Magnitude 11 (Take 2) – Forbidden Lili,揭示了王慶蘋持續探索繪畫與素描可能性的強烈意圖。使用不同於以往的無酸紡織材料作為畫布,繪畫正面部分深沉的筆觸穿透了畫布,在背面自成為如洞穴壁畫般素樸的質感及肌理,卻結構完整的素描作品。輔以藝術家觀察展場狀態,轉譯到畫面的現地創作,畫作正反之間的對話,及色彩在穿透之間的蛻變,對於作品的動態張力及對話提供了嶄新的視角。

藝術家的革命,來自於作品潛移默化改變人心的力量。當世界無法繼續粉飾太平,人性的醜陋面完全攤開,王慶蘋試著協調與世界之間具體存在的相關位置,堅持直視直覺與理性,藉創作創造重生的精神性。即便作畫時滿腔悲哀,腦中持續迴盪著神曲的地獄詩篇;亦因這一矛盾,理想國的夢得以持續推進。作品,作為這重生的結晶,便是一個藝術家能給這世界最好的禮物。

Artist Interview

Online Viewing

Exhibition Catalogue

Tell Me a Story Exhibition Catalogue

Installation View

Photo Credit: 王世邦 ANPIS FOTO
Source: TKG+