The Texturizing Strokes (Cunfa) Project includes series such as THEY Shanshui, Manual of Yuan’s Texturizing Strokes, and PS. THEY.
《皴法計畫》 包含了 《類山水》 系列、《袁氏皴譜》 以及 《PS. THEY》 等系列作品。
《皴法計畫》 包含了 《類山水》 系列、《袁氏皴譜》 以及 《PS. THEY》 等系列作品。
THey Shanshui
類山水
Manual of Yuan’s Texturizing Strokes
袁氏皴譜
PS. THEY
The Texturizing Strokes (Cunfa) Project represents a radical deconstruction and reorganization of the Cun (texture mark) tradition in the history of Chinese painting. Yuan Hui-Li transforms the traditional strokes once used to depict natural geological textures with the intricate emotions of the female body. This is no longer a detached, scholarly observation of nature by the male literati class; it is a "Texture Symbol System Revolution" rooted in gender politics and the essence of life experience.
By transmuting internal feminine emotions into texture marks, the artist shatters the male-dominated gaze that has governed landscape painting for millennia. These "Feminine Texture Strokes" reclaim the female subjectivity that has long been absent from the history of landscape art, shifting it from grand natural narratives toward a spiritual landscape forged through feminine consciousness.
THEY Shanshui expresses Yuan Hui-Li's abstract inner emotions. Each texture block (cunfa) is constructed from the shifting moods of feminine joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—every emotion possesses its own distinct form. The composition of THEY Shanshui is not built upon a single texture technique, but rather through the assemblage of diverse and fragmented texture blocks. This hybrid visual structure symbolizes Taiwan’s complex history of multiple colonization, and the resulting multicultural hybridity and polyphonic voices of the world it inhabits.
The Manual of Yuan’s Texturizing Strokes originates from my THEY Shanshui series, in which the artist distilled and codified thirty-two distinct types of cunfa (texturizing strokes). Each stroke is named and interpreted to articulate both its form and spirit as expressions of emotion. These brushstrokes (Cun-fa) are detached from the mimesis of natural landscapes. By weaving abstract emotions into literary poetry and bodily discourse, they re-interpret the context of text-image iconography, transforming inner psychological states into visible, gestural brushwork.
The PS. THEY series consists of digitally edited video works that involve the appropriation of classical paintings and the creation of original imagery. By substituting traditional texture marks (Cunfa) with "Feminine Texture Marks," the series highlights a profound shift in the underlying politics of subjectivity: the "imperial body" of ancient landscapes is supplanted by the "female body." Within this transition, the structural logic of texture marks evolves from a centralized consistency to a pluralistic multiplicity. This represents a radical subversion of the aesthetic and formal traditions that have long governed the structural system of Chinese landscape painting.
《皴法計畫》是對中國繪畫史上「皴法」傳統的解構與重組。袁慧莉將原本用於構建自然山石紋理的「皴法」，轉向對女性身體情緒對位。這不再是男性文人階層對自然的觀察，而是一場關於性別政治與生命經驗的皴法革命。
透過將女性內在情緒轉化為皴法，藝術家打破了千年來山水畫中由男性主導的觀看視角。這種「陰性皴法」將過往山水畫史中缺席的女性主體彰顯出來，使山水畫從宏大的自然敘事，轉向另一種女性意識的精神山水。
《類山水》 表達了藝術家內在的抽象情緒。每一個「皴塊」皆由女性的喜、怒、哀、樂等情緒轉化而成—--每一種情感都有其獨特的形態。《類山水》的構圖並非建立在單一的皴法技巧上，而是透過多樣且碎片化的皴塊組構而成。這種混雜的視覺結構，隱喻了台灣複雜的多重殖民歷史，以及由此產生的文化雜交現狀與世界眾聲喧嘩的樣貌。
《袁氏皴譜》 源自於《類山水》系列，藝術家從中提煉並編碼出三十二種獨特的皴法。每一種皴法皆被賦予命名與詮釋，以表達其形神特質與情感意涵。這些皴法脫離自然地景的模仿，將抽象情緒連結文學詩詞、身體話語，重新詮釋皴法圖文符號語法，將內在狀態轉化為可見的皴法姿態。
《PS. THEY》系列包含換置古畫和自創圖像的電腦編輯錄像作品，藉由陰性皴法換置古畫中的皴法，彰顯在不同政體時代下，山水畫所隱含的主體政治從帝國身體變成女性身體，皴法的結構也從一致性轉向多元性，這是對山水畫皴法結構美學傳統的徹底顛覆。
By transmuting internal feminine emotions into texture marks, the artist shatters the male-dominated gaze that has governed landscape painting for millennia. These "Feminine Texture Strokes" reclaim the female subjectivity that has long been absent from the history of landscape art, shifting it from grand natural narratives toward a spiritual landscape forged through feminine consciousness.
THEY Shanshui expresses Yuan Hui-Li's abstract inner emotions. Each texture block (cunfa) is constructed from the shifting moods of feminine joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—every emotion possesses its own distinct form. The composition of THEY Shanshui is not built upon a single texture technique, but rather through the assemblage of diverse and fragmented texture blocks. This hybrid visual structure symbolizes Taiwan’s complex history of multiple colonization, and the resulting multicultural hybridity and polyphonic voices of the world it inhabits.
The Manual of Yuan’s Texturizing Strokes originates from my THEY Shanshui series, in which the artist distilled and codified thirty-two distinct types of cunfa (texturizing strokes). Each stroke is named and interpreted to articulate both its form and spirit as expressions of emotion. These brushstrokes (Cun-fa) are detached from the mimesis of natural landscapes. By weaving abstract emotions into literary poetry and bodily discourse, they re-interpret the context of text-image iconography, transforming inner psychological states into visible, gestural brushwork.
The PS. THEY series consists of digitally edited video works that involve the appropriation of classical paintings and the creation of original imagery. By substituting traditional texture marks (Cunfa) with "Feminine Texture Marks," the series highlights a profound shift in the underlying politics of subjectivity: the "imperial body" of ancient landscapes is supplanted by the "female body." Within this transition, the structural logic of texture marks evolves from a centralized consistency to a pluralistic multiplicity. This represents a radical subversion of the aesthetic and formal traditions that have long governed the structural system of Chinese landscape painting.
《皴法計畫》是對中國繪畫史上「皴法」傳統的解構與重組。袁慧莉將原本用於構建自然山石紋理的「皴法」，轉向對女性身體情緒對位。這不再是男性文人階層對自然的觀察，而是一場關於性別政治與生命經驗的皴法革命。
透過將女性內在情緒轉化為皴法，藝術家打破了千年來山水畫中由男性主導的觀看視角。這種「陰性皴法」將過往山水畫史中缺席的女性主體彰顯出來，使山水畫從宏大的自然敘事，轉向另一種女性意識的精神山水。
《類山水》 表達了藝術家內在的抽象情緒。每一個「皴塊」皆由女性的喜、怒、哀、樂等情緒轉化而成—--每一種情感都有其獨特的形態。《類山水》的構圖並非建立在單一的皴法技巧上，而是透過多樣且碎片化的皴塊組構而成。這種混雜的視覺結構，隱喻了台灣複雜的多重殖民歷史，以及由此產生的文化雜交現狀與世界眾聲喧嘩的樣貌。
《袁氏皴譜》 源自於《類山水》系列，藝術家從中提煉並編碼出三十二種獨特的皴法。每一種皴法皆被賦予命名與詮釋，以表達其形神特質與情感意涵。這些皴法脫離自然地景的模仿，將抽象情緒連結文學詩詞、身體話語，重新詮釋皴法圖文符號語法，將內在狀態轉化為可見的皴法姿態。
《PS. THEY》系列包含換置古畫和自創圖像的電腦編輯錄像作品，藉由陰性皴法換置古畫中的皴法，彰顯在不同政體時代下，山水畫所隱含的主體政治從帝國身體變成女性身體，皴法的結構也從一致性轉向多元性，這是對山水畫皴法結構美學傳統的徹底顛覆。
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Critical Essays/專家藝評
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Excerpt from "Mending the Heavens With Sentiment On Yuan Hui-Li’s Reshaping of Shanshui", by Shih Shou-Chien.
節錄自，石守謙，〈以情補天，談袁慧莉的山水重構〉一文。
"...Yuan’s intimate connection to Dream of the Red Chamber immediately calls to mind her gender consciousness. This emphasis on the texturizing of heartfelt sentiments is a conscious subversion of the traditional texturization system, through which the artist intends to create a sentient world, like that in Dream of the Red Chamber, which would resonate with her.
...She does not intend to vie for pedagogical authority with this manual of texturizing strokes, but simply to voice her own artistic assertions. She recognizes the reality of her own oppression, and the true rationale behind this effort is inextricable from the positions of inferiority to which female artists have been relegated in the cultural world. Manual of Yuan’s Texturizing Strokes and all of her lament-filled figurations aim to subvert male subjectivity. Even now, in the 21st century, Yuan’s proposal of a manual of texturizing strokes can still be regarded as an exceptional act of gender consciousness in the world of ink painting.
...Yuan shifts away from the classical “three distances” schemas, and eschews Western spatial perspectives to return to an expression of distance using superimposed layers. In this manner, she shuns millennia of shanshui painting history, and returns to a primal schema that preexisted the establishment of shanshui painting. Mountains are divided by distinct lines in Yuan’s work, the most uncomplicated composition only seen in Han-dynasty murals."
*Shih Shou-Chien is an art historian. He was a professor and the director of the Graduate Institute of Art History,
National Taiwan University, as well as the deputy director and the director of National Palace Museum. He was elected
academician at Academia Sinica in 2012, and is now a corresponding research fellow at the Institute of History and
Philology, Academia Sinica.
"...袁慧莉與《紅樓夢》間的密切關係不禁讓人想起她的性別意識，如此強調「自心而生，從情而起」的「情皴」，也該算是對傳統自然皴法系統的有意識顛覆，而其目標則是如《紅樓夢》那樣，重建一個自己可以認同的有情世界。
...她的這個皴譜意不在爭取教學的權威，而僅僅是為自己的藝術主張發聲。那是她自認受到壓抑的事實，而背後的真實原因則與女性藝術家在我們文化世界中的劣勢地位脫不了關係。《袁氏皴譜》以及她所有充滿悲情的形象全是為了顛覆那個男性主體的存在。即使是到了二十一世紀的今天，袁慧莉的皴譜提出，仍可算是水墨世界中最具性別意識的行動。
...袁慧莉跳過像「三遠」等的古典圖式，也沒有來自西方的空間透視，卻返回了以疊壓表示前後距離的方式，這就是跳過了千年的山水畫史歷程，返回山水畫成立之前的原始圖式。畫面上十分顯眼的條紋式分割山體，也是最素樸的結構，僅見於漢代的壁畫之上。"
*藝術史學家石守謙，曾任國立臺灣大學藝術史研究所教授及所長，以及國立故宮博物院副院長與院長。2012 年榮膺中央研究院院士，現為中央研究院歷史語言研究所兼任副研究員。
節錄自，石守謙，〈以情補天，談袁慧莉的山水重構〉一文。
"...Yuan’s intimate connection to Dream of the Red Chamber immediately calls to mind her gender consciousness. This emphasis on the texturizing of heartfelt sentiments is a conscious subversion of the traditional texturization system, through which the artist intends to create a sentient world, like that in Dream of the Red Chamber, which would resonate with her.
...She does not intend to vie for pedagogical authority with this manual of texturizing strokes, but simply to voice her own artistic assertions. She recognizes the reality of her own oppression, and the true rationale behind this effort is inextricable from the positions of inferiority to which female artists have been relegated in the cultural world. Manual of Yuan’s Texturizing Strokes and all of her lament-filled figurations aim to subvert male subjectivity. Even now, in the 21st century, Yuan’s proposal of a manual of texturizing strokes can still be regarded as an exceptional act of gender consciousness in the world of ink painting.
...Yuan shifts away from the classical “three distances” schemas, and eschews Western spatial perspectives to return to an expression of distance using superimposed layers. In this manner, she shuns millennia of shanshui painting history, and returns to a primal schema that preexisted the establishment of shanshui painting. Mountains are divided by distinct lines in Yuan’s work, the most uncomplicated composition only seen in Han-dynasty murals."
*Shih Shou-Chien is an art historian. He was a professor and the director of the Graduate Institute of Art History,
National Taiwan University, as well as the deputy director and the director of National Palace Museum. He was elected
academician at Academia Sinica in 2012, and is now a corresponding research fellow at the Institute of History and
Philology, Academia Sinica.
"...袁慧莉與《紅樓夢》間的密切關係不禁讓人想起她的性別意識，如此強調「自心而生，從情而起」的「情皴」，也該算是對傳統自然皴法系統的有意識顛覆，而其目標則是如《紅樓夢》那樣，重建一個自己可以認同的有情世界。
...她的這個皴譜意不在爭取教學的權威，而僅僅是為自己的藝術主張發聲。那是她自認受到壓抑的事實，而背後的真實原因則與女性藝術家在我們文化世界中的劣勢地位脫不了關係。《袁氏皴譜》以及她所有充滿悲情的形象全是為了顛覆那個男性主體的存在。即使是到了二十一世紀的今天，袁慧莉的皴譜提出，仍可算是水墨世界中最具性別意識的行動。
...袁慧莉跳過像「三遠」等的古典圖式，也沒有來自西方的空間透視，卻返回了以疊壓表示前後距離的方式，這就是跳過了千年的山水畫史歷程，返回山水畫成立之前的原始圖式。畫面上十分顯眼的條紋式分割山體，也是最素樸的結構，僅見於漢代的壁畫之上。"
*藝術史學家石守謙，曾任國立臺灣大學藝術史研究所教授及所長，以及國立故宮博物院副院長與院長。2012 年榮膺中央研究院院士，現為中央研究院歷史語言研究所兼任副研究員。