《虛置》 杜海銓個展
現實生活虛擬化讓其與精神世界之間的疆界逐漸淡化模糊。杜海銓的展覽《虛置》將展示現代人生活中的「當下」與「抽離」。進入圖像時代,「虛」是指虛化傳統圖式和技術,消減畫中人物和畫家自身在視覺與概念上的主體定位;同時,它也指向虛化圖像以及在虛淡的色調中,帶來新的審美情調與氛圍。更重要的是,「虛」也是回應近幾年間人類生活的各種不確定性,以工筆寫實的方式闡述當代人超現實的生活經驗和感受。
筆墨和線條讓毫無生氣的生活世界承載著靈光。杜氏以工筆寫實的方式,以潛移默化的勞作工序,讓當代人超現實的生活經驗和感受,在其凝神呼吸之間被充分容納和轉化。門窗、電視和帷幔成為他建構複合空間的素材,透過懸置對單一視覺圖像的理解,擴闊空間表現的自由度。行將結業的懷舊冰室、具距離感的賽馬節目、深宵僻靜的停車場,依偎熟睡的都市情侶,他在宣紙上平靜地刻畫生活世界的厚度。在技術、藝術以及日常詩意,那種封閉與安息之間,超度日益貧乏的精神生活。
策展人: 王俊昇
上次杜海銓跟我說︰「我將會有一個展覽,你可不可以請你做我的策展人?」已經是二零一六年。那次他和另一位同學找到一個展期,地點在新亞錢穆圖書館。兩個都是熱愛運動的藝術家,一位愛足球愛到斷了十字韌帶,一位愛拳擊愛到腦震盪。杜畫了一些關於足球的油畫,還有一組錄像作品關於他膝蓋手術後的無意識抖動。那次展覽我們定了個標題叫作《動量》,我喜歡想像那個展覽有種開始了就很難停下來的推動力,後來承著物理慣性,他們各自走上創業的道路。當然那是另外一個故事。
這次杜海銓找我是七天前,作品都好了,就差空間佈置,還有一篇文章。我心想掛個名字也不錯。我說那你得讓我愛寫什麼就寫什麼。他同意。所以這篇我將會聊到有關流行音樂、節奏與藍調。沒關係,有關作品的分析,張廷匡在 《杜海銓的午飯時間:空間敘事與抒情之道》寫得很詳盡,我來聊些別的。
一位流行曲唱作人歌手,參加了一個節目,唱了一首別人的節奏與藍調。觀眾驚訝地發現,原來她是是一位傑出的節奏與藍調的歌手。然後粉絲們再一次翻出她以前的作品來聽。「這不是布魯斯嗎?那裡原來是騷靈音樂!怎麼以前沒有注意到?」原來她一直把音樂裡最靈魂的藏起來了,只偶爾露出鳳毛麟角。一不留神,人們會因為她的人氣而忽略掉她的才華。她說:「流行音樂這種東西,宜藏不宜露。拋太多出來,觀眾接不住。你得一絲絲的引他們進來。進來了還出去嗎?」
我會編上面這個故事主要有兩個原因,其一是杜海銓以前拿過幾屆歌唱比賽亞軍;其二是我認識杜海銓時是他未流行的時候,得有那麼一個故事幫助我去解釋他的流行。在我的眼裡,他就是那位流行歌手。
杜在北京、台灣習藝工筆畫。工藝紮實
的他沒有定居傳統,用作品在藝術中「遊走」。他的藝術可以進入其他藝術,不需待太久,像蝴蝶坐得久了自然會飛一樣。若古人的世界也像他這麼大的話,也許古人也會這樣做。
他有一幅畫畫一個十字路口,人物重複出現,像殘像一樣。人物每次出現都符合畫面內在邏輯。那幅畫看得越久,越有《康熙南巡圖》的既視感。相信我,我在某個藝博會天天看著它(儘管不是自願的)。那是我第一次發現他杜海銓畫深深的埋藏了前人的記憶。原來隨著他人的藝術走,杜海銓有時會遊走到四五百年前,提煉出精妙的東西後,畫面是那麼不經意。杜將會成立畫室,他想用「遊藝」命名」,還挺巧妙的。
我第一次幫杜海銓賣畫是在台北。他有一幅飄來飄去的畫,畫中人是睡著的少女。那畫他畫了在絹上,沒有裝裱,卷在一根木棒上。開幕嘉賓致辭時,木棒稍稍地下滑。我在它掉下來發出巨響前接住了。絹是那麼輕,我重新掛了回去都沒有人發現。畫中少女不想安定在牆上。幾天後畫作就跑到收藏家那裡去了。
那場藝術博覽會還有另一張作品,關於「戰死沙場」的香港馬王佳龍駒和《虢國夫人遊春圖》。那時杜海銓的畫很直白:他希望佳龍駒沒有死,所以把牠畫成穿越了回去和唐代侍女遊玩。有段時間他思考生死的議題。在生死前面前,理性和知識都會顯得無力。杜選擇了用畫來回應這種失落感。我覺得他作為藝術家最特殊的地方,是他對生活的「真誠」。那時收藏家家中有親人離世,沒有立即收藏,念念又不忘。第二年,我們再去台灣時藏家就買下了作品。
那時候杜海銓這麼直白的作品,現在很難看見了。人長大了,對生活的感受著也不一樣。那時他就像一個只會節奏與藍調的歌手,還在鑽研藍調音階、轉音和三連音拿走中間一拍的shuffle。
〈Fade〉Solo Exhibition of Jacky Tao Hoi Chuen
The virtualization of real-life has gradually blurred the boundary between it and the spiritual world. Jacky TAO Hoi Chuen showcases the artist’s concern with the "present" and " detachment " in modern life in his graduation show “Fade” (Xu Zhi). In the pictorial era, "Xu" refers to the defocusing of the traditional schema and techniques of Chinese painting, and the reduction of the visual and conceptual positioning of the characters and the artist himself in the painting. Moreover, "Xu" also refers to the defocusing of images and the bringing of new aesthetic moods and atmospheres in muted tones. More importantly, "Xu" is also a response to the various uncertainties of human life in recent years, and a surreal experience and feelings of contemporary people's lives are expressed realistically.
Bimo(brush and ink)and line allow the dull world of life to carry the light of inspiration. Windows, doors, televisions, and draperies become the materials for constructing complex spaces, broadening the freedom of spatial expression by suspending the understanding of a single visual image. He carves the thickness of the living world on Chinese paper. Tao's realistic approach to Gongbi Painting and the subtle process of craftsmanship allows the surreal life experiences and feelings of contemporary people to be fully accommodated and transformed in his rigorous creative process.
Curator Wong Chun-sin
The last time Tao Hoi Chuen said to me, "I have an exhibition coming up, can you be my curator? It was in 2016. That time, he and another student found an exhibition at the New Asia Library. One of them loved soccer so much that he broke his cruciate ligaments, and the other loved boxing so much that he had a concussion. Tao painted some oil paintings about soccer and a video work about his unconscious shaking after knee surgery. We titled the exhibition Momentum, and I like to imagine that the exhibition had a driving force that was hard to stop once it started, and later on, following the physical inertia, they each went on to start their own businesses. Of course, that's another story.
This time, Tao Hoi Chuen came to me seven days ago, and all the works were ready, except for the layout of the space and an essay. I thought it would be good to put up a name. I said you have to let me write whatever I like. He agreed. So I'm going to talk about pop music, R&B in this piece. That's okay, I'm going to talk about something else, because Louis Cheung wrote a detailed analysis of his work in "Jacky Tao's Lunchtime: The Way of Narration and Expression with Space".
A pop singer-songwriter participated in a program and sang a R&B of someone else. The audience was surprised to find out that she was a great R&B singer. Then fans once again turned to her previous work to listen. "Isn't this Bruce? That's soul music there! Why didn't I notice it before?" It turns out that she has been hiding the most soulful part of her music, only occasionally revealing a hint of it. If you are not careful, people will overlook her talent because of her popularity. She said, "Pop music is something that should be hidden, not revealed. If you throw too much out there, the audience can't catch it. You have to draw them in a little bit. Once they're in, how can they get out?"
I made up the above story mainly for two reasons, one is that Tao Hoi Chuen has won several singing competitions in the past; the other is that I knew Tao Hoi Chuen when he was not popular, so I need to have such a story to help me explain his popularity. In my eyes, he is the pop singer.
Tao studied brush painting in Beijing and Taiwan. He is a solid artist who has not settled in the tradition and "wanders" through the art with his works. His art can enter other arts without staying too long, just like a butterfly will naturally fly after sitting for a long time. If the world of the ancients was as big as his, perhaps the ancients would have done the same.
One of his paintings depicts a crossroads where the figures appear repeatedly as if they were vestiges. Each time the figure appears, it fits the logic within the picture. The longer I look at that painting, the more I feel like "Kangxi's Southern Tour". Believe me, I watched it for eight hours a day for two weeks at two separate art fairs (though not voluntarily). That was the first time I discovered that Tao Hoi Chuen's paintings were deeply buried in the memories of his predecessors. It turns out that, following the art of others, Tao sometimes wanders back 400 or 500 years. When Tao will set up his studio, he wants to name it "Art of Travel", which is quite ingenious.
The first time I sold a painting for Tao Hoi Chuen was at an art fair in Taipei. He had a painting of a sleeping girl who was floating around. He painted the painting on silk, unframed, and rolled it on a wooden stick. During the opening speech of the guest of honor, the stick slipped slightly. I caught it before it fell and startled the guests. The painting was so light that I hung it back up without anyone noticing. The girl in the painting did not want to settle on the wall. A few days later, the painting went to a collector.
There was another work in that art fair, the Hong Kong racehorse champion, who "died on the field", and the ancient Chinese painting "Lady Guoguo's Spring Journey". At that time, Tao Hoi Chuen's painting was very straightforward: he wished the beloved racehorse had not died, so he painted him traveling back to the Tang Dynasty to play with his maids. For a while, he thought about the issue of life and death. In the face of life and death, reason and knowledge are powerless. Tao chose to use his paintings to respond to this sense of loss. I think the most special thing about him as an artist is his "sincerity" towards life. At that time, a family member of the collector had passed away, so he did not collect them immediately, but repeatedly thought about them for a year. The next year, when we went to Taiwan again, the collector bought the work.
At that time, Tao Hoi Chuen's works were so straightforward, but now it is hard to see them. As people grow up, they have different feelings about life. He was like a singer who only knew rhythm and blues, still studying blues scales, transposition and triplets taking away the middle beat of the shuffle, until the singer met "life" and people felt empathy for her music.
When we were students, we thought we had no life. All we did was wake up, eat, and create every day. What we had in our heads was foreign stuff, or a bunch of emotional stuff, and we didn't take the time to look at our real lives. Tao Hoi Chuen spent his undergraduate and graduate years at CUHK. Sailing with his professor, the building where his studio is located, and the cafeteria on race day ...... All of them can be included in the painting. As a graduate student, Tao Haisuan internalized the tradition of brush painting and faced "everyday life" with frankness.
I asked him why he never seemed to worry about "what to paint". He said, "I think about what to paint every day! I have all kinds of ideas in my head, and I'm just waiting for things to be painted. A person who can draw is an empty vessel. The street three years ago, the car trunk, the fencing competition last year... These are Tao Hoi Chuen's daily life. In the eyes of others, they only know it is fashionable; in my opinion, it is "rhythm and blues"; in Tao Hoi Chuen's eyes, it is the pattern of space. Since his figure paintings began to have a background, the design of the spatial composition has changed a lot. Tao has officially entered a new period.
The paintings cut up the life and the ideas at that time and stored them in the safe. When I look back at my daily life a few years later, I will find that my youthful years were still quite strange.
Another time I went to the art fair in Taiwan, the gallery arranged one of my staffs to go. Tao said he would come with us to help us install the works, so he came at his own expense. He didn't have a budget to stay in a hotel, so we slept with another artist in a room with only one bed. After the exhibition, we went to the National Taiwan University of Arts for a visit. On the bus, he took out a pen and paper and started sketching. He wanted to memorize everyone's face in just a few stops.
On the campus of National Taiwan University of Arts, he said he wanted to become a university professor and that he would have models to draw every day. A few years later, he may not remember. For those who remember, when they see him painting "Cheng Ming" this time, standing on the top of New Asia, with new buildings being built overhead, they know that there will be more life and more stories here.