墨的兩種呼吸方式：袁慧莉個展Moist and Burnt : As Ink Breathes-Yuan Hui-Li Solo Exhibition

當自然的恬淡靜氣逐漸被工業社會空汙霾害所取代，山水畫該以何種姿態回應劇烈變遷下的環境現實？
 
當代水墨畫家袁慧莉向來以其對傳統歷史的覺察和脈絡梳理中，思索創新之路。本次耿畫廊將推出「墨的兩種呼吸方式─袁慧莉個展」，即是藝術家從日常呼吸的空氣狀態對應於墨的兩種物性所提出的現代性思辨。中國古代山水畫論常以墨瀋淋漓、滋潤華滋表現天地氤氳與用墨美學觀點，然而面對現代社會日常的焦灼汙霾空氣時，傳統的潤墨美學顯已不合時宜。因此，袁慧莉提出其獨創的「火墨」，作為當今霾霧現象的「燥」氣徵候，與「水墨」的「潤」進行兩種墨性觀點的對比，將傳統墨性語境與當代社會語境的斷裂進行重構的闡述。
 
「火墨」源自袁慧莉於2015年冬赴北京時遭遇霧霾紅色警報時的體感震憾，她感到當前生活景況與古畫中可居可遊的理想山水已大不相同，這意味著傳統水墨語彙對應當代現狀的不足。於是，她透過燒灼宣紙的焦燥碳灰臨摹傳統山水畫的經典之作，重新置換傳統山水畫的墨性語境。這不僅僅是從墨材物性的形式角度，貼近全球暖化氣候現象，更從論述內容上讓傳統水墨美學語彙轉向。除了平面繪畫的觀念作品，袁慧莉也在此展中帶來「火墨」的行為裝置作品，透過儀式性的現場行為創作與祭祀性的裝置型式，仿若隱喻著當代生存者佇立在古典水墨的勝景灰燼中，對傳統山水語境與氣候變化進行唏噓奠祭。
 
而作為與「火墨」對比的水墨作品，此次將展出《孤山水》與《時間之漬》兩個系列，呈現水墨畫淡沱淋漓的特質，作為「潤」墨的寫照。《孤山水》的塊狀風格既象徵畫家長年居於山邊海際、多霧空景的金山生活寫照，也象徵台灣島的地理現狀與政治處境。她以簡筆淡墨表現北台灣溼潤氣候與大量留白的空濛畫面，更從不同的材質與技法中探討墨性與紙性之間的微妙差異。而《時間之漬》系列則是以長時間千點萬筆、層疊皴染的「積墨」，表現蟬翼熟宣積厚而薄的墨性與點漬交疊的層次空間狀態。兩個系列均表現似山似石、非山非石、得山復無山的形態與墨韻，以筆墨的簡與繁出入於精神的瞬間與複思、具形與去形的觀照中，藉此，她將「水墨」的墨性形態從自然山川場域轉化為情狀隱喻與物性美學。
 
袁慧莉貫穿古今與遊走在兩種呼吸之間的差異經驗，依據當代現狀提出墨辯對詰，此次展覽以「霧」與「霾」的消長、「潤」與「燥」的美學、「水墨」與「火墨」之間的對比為主軸，從水墨的物性本質上提煉其內在精神，並藉由水墨材質的物性轉變，提出她對環境變化與生存狀態的觀察與反思。袁慧莉以「水」與「火」的物性元素，從人的生存呼吸狀態正反面地辯證墨性的兩種美學，以「火墨」重新詮釋古典，提出「燥」的墨性美學觀，正如同知名策展人夏可君教授所言，「這是水墨繪畫在自身枯竭之後的重構」、是「真正現代性的審美」。


The diaphanous landscape in traditional shanshui painting has always been inseparable from ancient painters’ use of ink. In the blending of water and ink, a solitary and ideal atmosphere amid the forest ripples across paper or silk, through which ink percolates and breathes. But when nature’s tranquility is replaced by the aridness of industrial society, how does the artist respond via the medium of ink to the environment radically altered by climate change?
 
Contemporary ink painter Yuan Hui-Li, ideologically inclined by her perception of tradition, history, and context, has long been on the path to innovation. Her first solo exhibition at the Tina Keng Gallery in three years, Moist and Burnt: As Ink Breathes continues the artist’s exploration of ink and possibilities of modernity within this medium, as she draws parallels between the condition of air and the two physical properties of ink. Classical painting theories emphasize the vivacious expression of swirling clouds of mist in ink. This principle gave rise to the “moistness” in literati painters’ use of the medium, which has prevailed for centuries. The traditional view of moistness in ink, when confronted with the scorchedness in the air induced by modern-day industrialization, appears to be antiquated. Out of these circumstances was born “Fiery Ink,” Yuan’s original series where she juxtaposes the “burntness” of smog and the “moistness” of ink, bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary contexts for this age-old medium.
 
“Fiery Ink” was inspired by the artist’s trip to Beijing in the winter of 2015, where a red alert for severe smog prompted her physical and psychological shock. It was then that the artist first realized the ancient land that had cradled millennia of history became a far cry from the unworldly utopia portrayed in literati painting, and that the traditional language of ink no longer corresponded with reality. Determined to innovate the timeworn medium, the artist rendered the work of classical shanshui painters in ashes of burnt Chinese handmade paper, and in so doing, shifted the context for traditional landscape painting. Her creative twist on the medium’s physicality serves not only as a reactionary response to the disquieting phenomenon of global warming, but also helps change the trajectory of traditional ink aesthetics. In addition to paintings, Yuan will present a performance/installation piece from the “Fiery Ink” series where she conducts a ritualistic performance that brings forth an installation in the form of worship, as a metaphor for the modern-day survivor surrounded by the remains of what was once transcendental, lamenting the bygone shanshui and the unrelenting passage of time.
 
Contrasted with “Fiery Ink,” the artist’s classical ink series “Discrete Islands” and “More Is Less,” rendered in the “lone ink” and “accumulated ink” methods, embody the moistness of the medium awash in luminance and ethereality. The blocks in the “Discrete Islands” series instantiate the artist’s life in Jinshan, Taiwan, a rural area on the coast known for its mountains and view of the sea, as well as its air of misty evanescence. They also illustrate the geographical and political isolation of Taiwan. Adopting the lone ink method, the artist captures the sense of respiration in the misty humid climate, as well as the vast expanse of void, accentuating the subtle variations in the materiality of ink through different textures and techniques. The “More Is Less” series elicits the physicality of the cicada wing xuan paper in the artist’s layering of ink. Shaded, textured, and colored, thousands of dots and brushstrokes coalesce into an accumulation of ink, revealing a sense of interiority in a crystalline constellation. The form and rhythm of ink is conveyed in the two series in the rendering of the likeness and otherness of mountain and rock, in the manifestation of the mountain in its noneness, in the contemplative observation of figuration and abstraction portrayed in simplified or sophisticated brushstrokes. Through an interplay of water and ink, she reimagines natural terrain in metaphorical terms and aesthetics of materiality.
 
Informed by the artist’s knowledge of ancient art history and contemporary practice, as well as her distinct experience of two forms of respiration and dialectical response to humanity’s status quo, the exhibition draws a contrast between mist and smog, moistness and burntness, traditional ink and fiery ink. The transformable physicality of ink echoes her observation and reflection on the changing environment and its impact on human existence. Juxtaposing the natural elements of water and fire, the artist proposes a dialectic between two kinds of ink aesthetics in an examination of the human respiration. To reinterpret classical Chinese painting in fiery ink, and proposed “ burntness” ink aesthetics from the ashes, just as famed curator Xia Ke-Jun once said, “is a restructuring of traditional ink painting after its withering,” therefore it is  “really in modernity aesthetic”.

耿畫廊
Tina Keng Gallery