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
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.
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。
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。
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
Installation View
