火墨：在霾中呼吸--當代墨性語彙的重構

袁慧莉

一、楔子
我在2015年12月09日抵達北京機場時，空氣中瀰漫灰濛濛的霧，這不是臺灣北方金山小鎮冬天雲氣裊繞的霧氣，而是正值北京發佈霧霾紅色警戒，全城籠罩在沈重的霧霾中，空氣中充滿了pm2.5的微細粒子。聽說北京一年中有非常多的時間都是籠罩在這樣的空氣品質之中，特別是冬天，因為家庭取暖燒爐，以及許多工廠排放黑煙，和北京車輛日漸增多的廢氣排放等問題，也是導致空氣品質一年不如一年的因素。而在北京一週之後回到臺灣時，又正好碰到北京霧霾在東北季風的吹引下移動到臺灣，這讓筆者感覺空氣無國界，隨著季風移動四處飄散。現今世界進入全球暖化危機造成地球溫度日漸上升的極端氣候現象，是21世紀人類面臨全球炭排放量失控的共同現實問題。
 
身處此時此刻的我，思考的是，山水畫作為一種對應自然世界題材的畫種，過往的內容往往表現人類居於自然山川之美的歌頌，或者是表達畫家心中的理想國或避世桃花源，但是，對於空汙如此不美的現實題材，則鮮少關注過。然而，當代山水畫之所以稱為當代，不能只是因為創作者是當代人這麼簡單的理由，而是指面對當代這個時空下的人事物所發生的議題，不再因循古典論述路線，而是需要思考如何透過議題性的思維，對現實處境進行創作表述，對古典論述進行有機的再論述或轉化，從而創造屬於當代語境的論述。於是，針對空氣與墨性議題，我在2015年獨創「火墨」觀點，包含理論架構與作品形式，都是全球獨創的新詞與墨性思維。以下將略述我的觀點。
 
二、火墨的燥墨對應傳統水墨的潤墨
 
在傳統的山水畫畫論美學中，水墨的氣韻生動是非常核心的美感追求，過往對於墨氣的要求是「墨不論濃淡乾濕，要不帶半點煙火食氣，思為極致。」[1]這種不食人間煙火的墨氣美學，是針對想要表現墨瀋氣韻淋漓的水墨畫時，透過筆墨與紙張之間的物性效果來傳達這種具有超脫於現實之理想的筆墨審美韻味。而對於積墨的審美「盎然溢然，冉冉欲墜，方烟潤不澀，深厚不薄」[2]，可見對於墨氣的審美取向偏向於「潤」而非澀，因此用墨多半認為「燥澀乾枯而不潤」是不美的[3]，這或許也是董其昌重南宗輕北宗的原因，因為南方的山水畫多半具有墨暈篇章、渾厚華滋、墨氣氤醞的特質。
 
在傳統山水畫論中，推崇「渾厚華滋」、「墨瀋淋漓」等等具有「潤墨」韻味的墨性美學，這種滋潤的墨趣成為歷來山水畫論的最高審美品味，例如唐杜甫詩：「元氣淋漓幛猶濕」[4]；宋李成《山水訣》說過：「落墨無令太重，重則濁而不清；亦不可太輕，輕則燥而不潤。」[5]；宋郭熙也曾在《林泉高致》裡細說用墨之法，要以「即墨色滋潤而不枯燥」為目標。元代黃公望更是重視用墨與深知用墨之難，同樣他的用墨美學也是追求「在生紙上，有許多滋潤處。」[6]；明代唐志契談畫積墨於絹素之上要「方烟潤不澀」[7]。
 
上述這些古代畫論都主張以潤氣美學為主，而對於燥氣則多半不喜，只有到了清代龔賢認為「皴宜燥，不燥即墨矣」[8]，但這裡的「燥」是乾筆、渴筆的意思，如同清末戴以恆(1826-1891) 在《醉蘇齋畫訣》裡有提到「燥筆、燥墨」的使用[9]，他所說「燥筆微拖」、「用墨濕燥兩相同」[10]，這個「燥」字多半指的是「乾筆」或「渴筆」的意思[11]，而非筆者所指的火燒焦燥之燥氣。皴筆用燥（乾、渴），染墨用濕，所以傳統山水畫的山石主要是乾筆與濕墨之間皴染搭配的關係，經由這種乾濕對偶的搭配，山石的筆墨皴染得以具有「外潤而內有骨」[12]的效果。整體而言，中國傳統筆墨美學裡，「潤」是終極美學目標，「潤」指向「氣韻生動」的可能。
 
但是當21世紀實際生活中面對的不再僅僅是那種具有理想自然如桃花源般的滋潤世界，而是在霾害污染威脅下的環境，顯然水墨強調超然物外、氣韻生動、墨瀋淋漓的山水樣貌，某種程度上並不能完全符合現實生活當下的真實感知，如何以山水畫形式對於這個全球暖化問題提出批判和反映？更且如何從「墨性」材質路徑審思，重新思考如何以當代真實情境對比古典山水畫美學之變異，以因應當代世界樣貌，這是我2015年從北京經驗之後思索的重點。
 
原本在「水墨為上」中的用「水」元素，在清代被視為「筆墨作何生動，妙在用水」[13]、「作畫不善用水，件件醜惡」[14]，滋潤的筆墨技術被視為重要的筆墨美學範疇，但是，一旦想要表達真實世界的醜陋，墨暈篇章的水墨恐怕並不能貼切的彰顯當代世界氣候暖化焦燥空汙的社會現象。而水墨畫一向以來總是躲在安適的世外桃源，與現實世界產生隔離，無法貼近真實生活的這種問題總是為人所詬病，正是水墨這種材質無法跨越其限制，而使水墨畫總是在追求理想性的「自然美」為主，囿於既定的筆墨思維中而脫離現實。事實上，除了關注於水墨的筆墨如何與時並進之外，當面對21世紀自然世界被破壞的議題時，另一種關於如何突破水墨畫舊有的筆墨美學侷限，亦是需要思考的部分。當地球暖化，空氣中彌漫的是一種焦「燥」氣，而非水墨淋漓滋潤之氣時，我需要以新的方法來傳達在傳統畫論中較少宣揚的火氣「焦燥」，而非「墨瀋淋漓幛猶濕」的水墨潤性美學。
 
三、火墨的墨性美學與材質方法
 
因此，為了更貼近當今21世紀地球暖化空污現象，我提出《火墨系列》作品作為當代另一種墨性語彙的重構。我以「火墨」的「燥氣」取代「水墨」的「潤氣」，來作為對當下環境氣候變異狀態的回應。
 
所謂「火墨」指的是以火作為媒介，而非以水作為媒介的創作方法，「火墨」對應於「水墨」，不僅是墨性美學的反轉，更是材料學上的突破，這是涉及材料文化學的邏輯辯證，我將宣紙經過火燒之後所得的宣紙炭灰取代水墨的墨條，作為換置古典山水畫的使用材料。
從材料面來看， 水墨的本質來自於墨與水兩者的調和，原本作為與水調和的墨條，是來自燃燒樹木後取得的炭灰，經過加入動物膠的揉製捶打後製成人造文化物。而宣紙製程的原物料也是來自樹皮或植物，這點和墨的原料相似，不同的是，宣紙製造過程中，樹皮是經過水浸泡後打漿等過程手抄成人造文化物。因此，同樣來源於樹的原料，但墨條先經過火的過程再與水調和，而宣紙則是先經過水的過程再被我以火還原為炭灰，樹、水與火這三種自然元素，同樣都曾作用於火墨與水墨的材料之中，只是其先後次序不同，因此結果不同。火墨使用宣紙炭灰的作法，其實便是將本質為樹皮的宣紙還原為如同墨的炭灰，只是紙灰顆粒較大，這種紙灰餘燼能夠貼切地用以象徵同為燃燒剩餘物的霧霾。
 
除了使用宣紙炭灰之外，我還會將宣紙卷成筆狀，在畫的時候邊燒邊畫，這種卷筆可以處理較細部的線條，就好像毛筆舔沾硯臺裡磨好的墨汁，紙卷筆則是舔以蠟燭的火燒，這是以火置換水的繪畫過程。我不僅在材料上「換置」[15]，也在圖像上進行「換置」，將古典象徵潤墨氣韻的圖像重新以火墨臨摹，在2015年12月第一件火墨作品《火墨早春圖no.1》，臨摹的對象就是最能代表古典山水畫空氣潤墨的北宋郭熙《早春圖》，後來在2017年於台北內湖耿畫廊的「墨的兩種呼吸方式」個展中所有火墨作品，也都是選擇古典山水畫中以氣候或者季節為題材的經典作品進行對臨換置的創作，並在其原有標題上加上「火墨」二字。
 
選擇北宋郭熙《早春圖》，以及其他火墨所臨摹的古典作品，這些古典作品裡的水墨表現都有共同的墨性特徵，都是指向空氣中萬物蒸騰的水氣景象以及滋潤氣候韻致，這些山水畫以墨性表現理想的自然世界、一個極美好而和諧的山水景象，如同世外桃源般令人嚮往居遊其中。郭熙《早春圖》歌頌宋朝治理之下的國家秩序，以及仁君治下的民安樂居世界，這幅畫的圖像已經成為一個經典的符號，代表着自然與人類「天人合一」的理想山水境界意涵。作為火墨換置的對象，使用宣紙炭灰取代了水墨，材質的還原與轉換，帶動了原本經典圖像美學的內部意涵也跟著轉化。從水墨的濕筆潤墨轉化成為火墨焦炭燥筆，意指經過了千年，地球從農業時代演進向工業時代，原本水墨滋潤的自然世界已被當代不斷燃燒的廢氣與灰塵所覆蓋。

挪用進而以材質換置經典圖像不是為了重複古典筆墨的審美目的，而是透過物質的還原彰顯在當代人類的生活面向所面臨的社會問題，凸顯當代世界的氣候與空氣取代了遠古尚未受到工業污染時期的美好自然世界，《火墨系列》作品不是為了再現傳統筆墨藝術視角的摹仿創作，而是為了彰顯當代創作者的身體感知，所進行的繪畫語境反思。我希望我的《火墨系列》不僅僅在材質形式上更新傳統，更希望進一步置入山水畫內部意涵更深沈的當代視角，而不僅僅只是侷限在表現古典自然觀美學的理想世界。

《火墨系列》使用炭灰這種容易飄動的材料，決不使用任何水性的膠加以固定在宣紙上，因此，火墨作品中的炭灰有移動的可能，這種移動狀態象徵著空氣中的霾炭懸浮物質飄散在空氣中隨時變換位置，正如台灣的霾有部分來自境外，而工廠的廢棄也是飄散的狀態。某些火墨作品以裝置形式進行現場展示，或者使用壓克力箱框裡放置燃燒過的紙卷，灼紙卷象徵排放空汙的煙囪，紙炭灰象徵霧霾中無處不在的炭微粒。這種透明的箱框如同載滿空氣的「天地之器」，內部放置的燃燒紙卷隱喻煙囪，象徵所燒的焦躁灰燼使山水蒙上燥墨，透明箱中的底部還留有飄散的炭灰。

火墨系列主要對應於有關當今空氣污染議題，因此所臨摹的古典山水圖像，主要選用帶有氣候、季節、時令的標題，或者具空氣感、水墨性的古圖為主，來與「火墨」觸及的空氣議題進行對應。這是試圖以火墨取代水墨圖像時，帶出古今時空移轉後，氣候變遷下空氣清濁的對比。火墨系列作為觀念性作品，不僅以行為展演古畫今臨，凸顯氣候變遷下空汙議題，更以裝置手法加強觀念的呈現，而這些都在2017年於耿畫廊個展中具體呈現。

四、小結
 
盛行了一千年的水墨美學，到了現代水墨畫運動也仍然強調著水與潤的重要性，其墨性美學語彙並未更新古典的範疇。而 「火墨」透過材質的還原與轉換，則前衛地進入古典從未觸及的「火墨」墨性領域，原本水墨的潤氣被「火墨」的燥氣所取代，這樣的「換置」創作，象徵著21世紀的工業世界取代了11世紀農業時代的空氣，同時也投射出傳統的水墨材質與美學語境，在反映當下生存環境的真實感受時有其侷限性，因此，墨性型態與美學語彙在21世紀有其拓展的必要。不再以「水」墨為唯一的表現途徑，在這個充滿燥氣的時代，「火」所象徵的乾灼之燥，以及其隱喻著工業時代，普遍存在於生活環境周遭的火氣、廢氣、熱氣、碳排放等等現象，「火墨」山水畫才能貼切的反映此時代有關「空氣」議題的真實墨性。 在儀式性的現場行為創作與祭祀性的裝置型式，彷彿隱喻著當代生存者佇立在古典水墨殘存的勝景灰燼中，像是對傳統山水語境歷史進行唏噓奠祭。而也正是提出此一新的墨性語彙與型態，墨性美學才得以真正地進入當代語境。


[1] 清張庚，《圖畫精意識畫論》，見傅抱石，《中國繪畫理論》，頁115。

[2] 明唐志契，《繪事微言》，見俞崑編，《中國畫論類編》下卷，頁747。

[3] 宋李成，《畫山水訣》，見俞崑編，《中國畫論類編》上卷，頁620。

[4] 杜甫詩：〈奉先劉少府新畫山水幛歌〉裡的詩句，形容筆墨酣暢飽滿。唐代畫山水用絹，因此濕筆多，故杜甫以「淋漓」、「猶濕」來形容其筆墨。

[5] 《山水訣》傳為李成所作，引自俞崑，《中國畫論類編》上卷，頁616。

[6] 元，黃公望，《寫山水訣》，引自俞崑，《中國畫論類編》下卷，頁699。

[7] 明，唐志契，《繪事微言》，引自俞崑，《中國畫論類編》下卷，頁699。

[8] 清龔賢，《半千課徒畫說》，見俞崑編，《中國畫論類編》下卷，頁797。

[9] 清，戴以恆，《醉蘇齋畫訣》「用墨法」：「須用燥筆如睡醒。…燥筆濃墨略有痕」

[10] 清戴以恆，《醉蘇齋畫訣》，見俞崑編，《中國畫論類編》下卷，頁1004、1 007。

[11] 如提到「用墨法」：「用墨濕燥兩相同，燥來顏色分淡濃，何為燥濕兩相同？紙上已燥墨色濃，濕墨上紙顏色同，到燥之後淡一重。層層濕燥遞相加，人墨枯燥我獨華。」引同上註。

[12] 同上註，頁796。

[13] 李鱔，《頤園論畫》，轉引自羅穎，〈筆墨與色彩〉，頁223。收于中國美術學院中國畫系編，《形神與筆墨：中國畫學研究》，杭州：中國美術學院出版社，2008，頁222-225。

[14] 同上註。

[15] 「換置」hypallage一詞源自古希臘，文學修辭法的一種，意指將字詞移花接木，「狀語中形容詞與名詞的位置調換，修飾語後移，被修飾詞前移，這使得句義產生錯誤的偏離」，使原本語句結構發生邏輯上的變化。「換置」不同於「挪用」，「挪用」是指「直接複製、抄襲、採用他人的圖像作品，改變其原創性與真確性」，而「換置」則除了可涉及「挪用」，更進一步移換其中造形語法元素與結構邏輯，不僅改變其原創性，更使其內在意義產生變異與間隙，以達到拓展置入新意涵詮釋的可能。

​圖一  
​袁慧莉2015年於北京央美水墨速寫手稿

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​圖二
2017年《火墨早春圖》裝置行為儀式

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Fiery Ink: Breathing in the Smog – Reconstruction of Contemporary Ink Aesthetics Vocabulary

by YUAN Hui-Li

​I. Prologue
On December 9, 2015, upon my arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport, the air was thick with a hazy, murky fog. This was not the curling mist that envelops the small town of Jinshan in northern Taiwan during winter; rather, Beijing was under a red alert for severe smog, and the entire city was engulfed in a heavy, oppressive haze, with the air permeated by fine PM2.5 particles. I learned that Beijing experiences such air quality for a significant portion of the year, particularly in winter, due to household heating stoves, factory emissions, and increasing vehicle exhaust, all contributing to a deteriorating air quality year after year. A week after returning to Taiwan from Beijing, I coincidentally witnessed Beijing's smog being carried to Taiwan by the northeast monsoon. This experience made me acutely aware that air knows no national boundaries, drifting everywhere with the seasonal winds. The 21st century has seen the world plunge into a global warming crisis, resulting in extreme climate phenomena and rising global temperatures—a shared reality for humanity facing uncontrolled carbon emissions.
Living in this moment, I ponder: while landscape painting, as an art form depicting the natural world, has historically celebrated the beauty of mountains and rivers or expressed the artist's ideal realm or secluded utopia, it has seldom addressed the aesthetically unpleasing reality of air pollution. However, for contemporary landscape painting to truly be contemporary, it cannot merely be because its creators are contemporary individuals. Instead, it must engage with the issues arising from people, events, and things within the contemporary spatiotemporal context. It must no longer follow classical discourses but rather consider how to express current predicaments through issue-oriented thinking, organically re-discourse or transform classical narratives, thereby creating a discourse pertinent to the contemporary context. Thus, in 2015, inspired by my Beijing experience, I pioneered the 'Fiery Ink' (火墨) concept, encompassing both its theoretical framework and artistic forms, representing globally unique terms and an innovative ink aesthetic. My perspective is briefly outlined below.

II. 'Fiery Ink's Arid Ink Contrasts with Traditional Ink-Wash's Moist Ink 
In the aesthetic discourse of traditional Chinese landscape painting, the vibrant spirit and living quality of ink (氣韻生動) are central pursuits of beauty. Historically, the demand for ink's vitality was articulated as: "Regardless of ink's lightness or darkness, dryness or wetness, it must not carry the slightest trace of earthly smoke or fire; this is considered the ultimate."[1] This aesthetic of ink, detached from worldly concerns, aimed to convey a sense of transcendental, ideal brushwork aesthetic appeal through the material interplay between ink and paper, particularly when expressing the rich vitality of saturated ink. Regarding the aesthetic of ink accumulation (積墨), it was sought to be "lush and overflowing, poised to descend, yet moist and not astringent, profound and not thin"[2]. This clearly shows a preference for a "moist" over an "astringent" aesthetic in ink quality. Therefore, ink application that was "dry, astringent, withered, and not moist" was generally considered unbeautiful[3]. This might also explain Dong Qichang's preference for the Southern School over the Northern School, as Southern School landscape paintings often featured qualities of ink washes, rich density, and an enveloping ink atmosphere.
Traditional landscape painting theory extols the aesthetic qualities of "rich density and luxuriant vitality" (渾厚華滋) and "brimming ink saturation" (墨瀋淋漓), symbolizing a "moist ink" aesthetic that has remained the highest standard of artistic taste throughout history. For instance, Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu wrote: "The vitality brimming on the scroll remains moist" [4]; Li Cheng of the Song Dynasty stated in his Secrets of Landscape Painting: "Ink application should not be too heavy, for heaviness makes it turbid and unclear; nor should it be too light, for lightness makes it dry and not moist" [5]; Guo Xi, also from the Song Dynasty, elaborated on ink application in his Lofty Message of Forests and Streams, aiming for "ink colors that are moist and not dry." [6] Huang Gongwang of the Yuan Dynasty greatly emphasized and understood the difficulty of ink application, pursuing an aesthetic where "on raw paper, there are many moist areas." [7] Tang Zhiqi of the Ming Dynasty, when discussing ink accumulation on silk, emphasized that it should be "moist and not astringent." [8]
These ancient painting treatises predominantly advocated for a "moist" aesthetic, largely disfavoring "dryness." It was not until Gong Xian of the Qing Dynasty who stated: "Wrinkles should be dry; if not dry, it is still ink" [9]. However, the "dryness" here refers to dry brushwork (乾筆) or "parched brushwork" (渴筆), as mentioned by Dai Yiheng (1826-1891) in his Drunk Su Zhai Painting Manual [10], where he discusses the use of "dry brush and dry ink" [11]. The "dry" he refers to primarily means "dry brush" or "parched brush," [12] not the scorched dryness implied by my use of fire. Brushwork uses dryness (dry, parched), while ink washing uses wetness. Thus, traditional landscape painting primarily relies on the complementary relationship between dry brushwork and wet ink washes. This pairing of dryness and wetness allows the brushwork and ink rendering of mountains and rocks to achieve the effect of being "moist on the outside yet bony within." [13] Overall, in traditional Chinese brush-and-ink aesthetics, "moisture" is the ultimate aesthetic goal, pointing towards the possibility of "vibrant spirit and living quality" (氣韻生動).
However, in the 21st-century reality, we no longer face merely an ideal, paradisiacal, moist world, but an environment threatened by smog pollution. Evidently, traditional ink-wash's emphasis on transcendence, vibrant spirit, and saturated ink in landscape imagery cannot fully align with the actual perceptions of contemporary life. How can landscape painting, as an art form, offer critique and reflection on this global warming issue? Furthermore, how can we re-examine the material path of "ink quality" (墨性) to rethink how contemporary real-world situations can contrast and transform classical landscape aesthetics, thereby adapting to the contemporary global landscape? This has been my focus of thought since my Beijing experience in 2015.
The element of "water" was traditionally paramount in ink painting, with figures in the Qing Dynasty asserting: "How can brushwork be vibrant? The marvel lies in the use of water" [14] and "One who is not skilled in using water in painting, every piece will be ugly" [15]. Moist brushwork techniques were considered a crucial aesthetic category. However, when attempting to portray the ugliness of the real world, the expansive ink washes of traditional ink painting may not adequately capture the contemporary social phenomenon of climate change, characterized by dryness and air pollution. The recurring criticism of ink painting has been its tendency to retreat into idyllic havens, isolating itself from reality and failing to engage with actual lived experience. This limitation of the ink medium itself has confined ink painting primarily to the pursuit of an ideal "natural beauty," remaining tethered to established brush-and-ink conventions and detached from reality. In fact, beyond merely considering how ink brushwork can evolve with the times, when confronting the issue of the natural world's destruction in the 21st century, there is also a need to consider how to break through the limitations of existing ink painting aesthetics. When global warming causes the air to be filled with a "scorched dryness" rather than the moist vitality of saturated ink, I need new methods to convey the "scorched dryness" of fire—an aspect rarely celebrated in traditional painting theory—instead of the "moist ink" aesthetic where "ink saturation makes the scroll still moist."

III. The Aesthetic and Material Methodology of 'Fiery Ink'
​Therefore, to more closely reflect the contemporary global warming and air pollution phenomena of the 21st century, I propose the 'Fiery Ink' series as a reconstruction of an alternative ink aesthetic vocabulary. I replace the "moist energy" of "ink-wash" with the "arid energy" of "Fiery Ink" as a response to the current state of climate variability.
'Fiery Ink' refers to a creative method that utilizes fire as a medium, rather than water. 'Fiery Ink' juxtaposed against 'ink-wash' is not merely an inversion of ink aesthetics; it is a breakthrough in material science, involving a logical dialectic of material culture. I use scorched Xuan paper ash, obtained by burning Xuan paper, to replace traditional ink sticks as the material for classical landscape painting.
From a material perspective, the essence of ink-wash comes from the harmony of ink and water. Ink sticks, originally made from charcoal obtained by burning trees, are then kneaded and pounded with animal glue to become man-made cultural objects. Xuan paper's raw materials also come from tree bark or plants, similar to ink's raw materials. The difference is that during Xuan paper's manufacturing process, tree bark is soaked in water, pulped, and then hand-made into paper. Thus, both ink and Xuan paper originate from trees, but ink sticks first undergo a process of fire before being mixed with water, while Xuan paper first undergoes a process of water before being transformed back into charcoal ash by fire by me. These three natural elements—tree, water, and fire—have all played a role in the materials of both Fiery Ink and ink-wash, but their sequence differs, leading to different outcomes. The use of Xuan paper ash in 'Fiery Ink' is essentially the restoration of Xuan paper, whose essence is tree bark, back into charcoal ash akin to ink. However, paper ash particles are larger, and these charred remains can aptly symbolize smog, which is also a residue of combustion.
In addition to using Xuan paper ash, I also roll Xuan paper into a brush-like form and burn it while painting. This paper-roll brush can handle finer lines, much like a traditional brush absorbing ink from an inkstone. The paper-roll brush, however, absorbs the flame of a candle—this is a painting process where fire replaces water. I not only perform 'displacement' in materials but also in imagery. I re-create classical images symbolizing the moist ink aesthetic with Fiery Ink. My first Fiery Ink work, "Fiery Ink Early Spring No. 1," created in December 2015, was an homage to Guo Xi's "Early Spring" from the Northern Song Dynasty, a work most representative of the moist ink atmosphere in classical landscape painting. Later, in my 2017 solo exhibition "Two Ways of Breathing Ink" at Taipei's Tina Keng Gallery, all Fiery Ink works were also homages to classical landscape paintings with themes of climate or season, with "Fiery Ink" added to their original titles.
The classical works chosen for 'Fiery Ink' homages, such as Guo Xi's "Early Spring" and others, share common ink characteristics: they all point to scenes of vapor rising in the air and a moist, climatic charm. These landscape paintings, through their ink aesthetics, depict an ideal natural world—a beautiful and harmonious landscape that invites lingering and wandering, like a utopian realm. Guo Xi's "Early Spring" celebrates the national order under Song Dynasty rule and a world of peace and contentment under a benevolent emperor. The imagery of this painting has become a classic symbol, representing the ideal landscape realm of "unity between Heaven and humanity." As the subject of Fiery Ink's displacement, using scorched Xuan paper ash instead of ink transforms the internal meaning of the original classic aesthetic. The shift from the wet, moist brushwork of ink-wash to the charred, dry brushwork of Fiery Ink signifies that, after a millennium, the Earth has evolved from an agricultural to an industrial age, and the once-moist natural world depicted by ink-wash has been covered by the continuous emissions of industrial waste gases and dust.
The appropriation and material displacement of classical images are not for the purpose of replicating classical brush-and-ink aesthetics. Rather, it is to highlight the social problems faced by contemporary human life through the restoration of materials, emphasizing how the climate and air of the contemporary world have replaced the pristine natural world of antiquity, untouched by industrial pollution. The 'Fiery Ink' series is not a mimetic creation intended to reproduce traditional brush-and-ink artistic perspectives; instead, it is a reflection on the painting context, born from the contemporary artist's bodily perception. My hope for the 'Fiery Ink' series is not merely to update tradition in terms of material form, but also to implant a deeper contemporary perspective into the internal meaning of landscape painting, rather than being confined to expressing the ideal world of classical natural aesthetics.
The 'Fiery Ink' series uses charcoal ash, a material prone to scattering, and deliberately avoids fixing it to Xuan paper with any water-based glue. Consequently, the charcoal ash in 'Fiery Ink' works has the potential to shift, symbolizing how suspended particulate matter (haze) drifts in the air, constantly changing position—just as some of Taiwan's haze originates from outside its borders, and factory emissions also disperse. Certain 'Fiery Ink' works are presented as installations, or utilize acrylic cases containing burnt paper rolls. The burnt paper rolls symbolize smoke stacks emitting air pollution, and the paper ash symbolizes the ubiquitous carbon particles in smog. These transparent cases are like "vessels of heaven and earth" filled with air, and the burnt paper rolls placed inside metaphorically represent chimneys. The charred ash they symbolize covers the landscape with a dry, arid ink, with scattered charcoal ash remaining at the bottom of the transparent case.
The 'Fiery Ink' series primarily addresses the contemporary issue of air pollution. Therefore, the classical landscape images I emulate are mainly chosen for their titles related to climate, season, or specific times, or for their inherent sense of 'air' or 'ink-wash' quality, to correspond with the air-related issues explored by 'Fiery Ink.' This is an attempt to use 'Fiery Ink' to displace 'ink-wash' imagery, bringing forth a contrast between the purity and turbidity of air under climate change after a temporal shift from ancient to modern times. As a conceptual work, the 'Fiery Ink' series not only uses performance art to re-interpret ancient paintings in a contemporary context, highlighting air pollution under climate change, but also employs installation art to reinforce its conceptual presentation. All these elements were concretely showcased in my solo exhibition at Tina Keng Gallery in 2017.
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IV. Conclusion
The ink aesthetic, prevalent for a millennium, continued to emphasize the importance of water and moisture even in the modern ink painting movement, its aesthetic vocabulary remaining within classical confines. 'Fiery Ink,' through its material restoration and transformation, however, ventures into the 'fiery ink' realm, a territory of ink aesthetics never before touched by classical art. The 'moist energy' of ink-wash is replaced by the 'arid energy' of 'Fiery Ink.' This act of 'displacement' symbolizes the 21st-century industrial world supplanting the air of the 11th-century agricultural era. Simultaneously, it projects the limitations of traditional ink materials and aesthetic discourse in reflecting the true sensations of our current living environment. Therefore, an expansion of ink aesthetics and its vocabulary is essential in the 21st century. No longer is 'water' the sole medium of expression. In this era full of 'arid energy,' 'Fiery Ink' landscape painting can accurately reflect the true ink nature of the 'air' issue relevant to this age, through the dryness symbolized by 'fire' and its implicit representation of the industrial age's pervasive 'fiery energy'—waste gases, heat, carbon emissions, and other phenomena in our living environment. Through ritualistic live performances and sacrificial installation forms, the work subtly alludes to contemporary survivors standing amidst the charred remnants of classical ink-wash's sublime landscapes, as if performing a wistful memorial for the history of traditional landscape discourse. And it is precisely by proposing this new ink aesthetic vocabulary and form that ink aesthetics can truly enter a contemporary discourse.

2017年耿畫廊個展火墨系列作品各種裝置型態