Metamorphic Landscapes - Artist Statement

My creations were first inspired by scenes in nature. My works mostly utilize the changes in natural elements to interpret the emotional connections in life between humans and the land that exist in time and space. This solo exhibition, “Metamorphic Landscapes,” discusses the evolution, replacement, overlapping, and mutation of environments in time and space. Continuing the previous solo exhibition, “Mindful Sojourner,” the initial thought for this exhibition perhaps originated from my seeking a sense of belonging after living in a foreign place for many years, from finding an intersection between the two sides of the Pacific Ocean. In different periods of the past years, I have sailed out into the ocean from Taiwan and from the United States, when it was cloudy or sunny, at day or night. I experienced and tried to fathom the beating hearts that people from centuries ago felt when they first saw a new continent on the ocean or when they left their homelands. In the contrast of gradually approaching and gradually fading away, in the various and magnificent scenes, the vague fragments of images in the slow sailing forward and departing from land were assembled. I attempted to employ contemporary perspectives to create and present the ambivalent and the conflict of the old (historic) and the new (manmade) scenes in time that seem to exist but in fact have disappeared.

In my works, I used imagery that symbolizes geographical traces and the change and disappearance of contemporary scenes of time and space to create this theme. I combined the scenes of different moments, overlapping or eliminating scenes that are real or imaginary, to explore the relationship between humans and the world, and the way of thinking in natural philosophy. Meanwhile, I logically reflected and sensually comprehended the existence of the land, seeking improvement in the painting progress and in expressing the essence of abstraction, further creating meanings that are beyond the visual. The techniques I employed have multiple layers. Rendering, glazing, and almost mechanically regular (horizontal and vertical) brushstrokes on the surface keep moving and intersecting, creating differences in layers, thereby increasing the rich tension in the picture. I also attempted to integrate the main subject with the background space, creating an unrealistic realism with a form and yet formless. In the meantime, the picture is overlapped with layered and scraped off translucent and opaque layers of colors; the formation and disappearance of texture is a delicate process of multiple hiding and presentation. The large area of background space was symbolically left blank. This minimalist presentation of color and the concise brushstrokes sought a poetic multi-dimensional space visually.

A characteristic of life is that it is ever changing. However, during the process, we are always experiencing and pondering the meaning of eternity. Since I began creating, I have been doing all I can to make attempts and to explore, hoping my works can interpret the diverse features of life and reflect the meaning and spirit of contemporary arts, expressing infinity through finiteness.


境變 - 創作論述

我的創作最初是受到自然界景象的啓發，作品內容多以大自然元素的變化詮釋人與大地存在於時間與空間的生命情感連結。此次個展「境變」Metamorphic Landscapes是探討境域於時空的演替與重疊變異，延續先前個展Mindful Sojourner，最初的發想或許是出於異鄉居住多年尋求歸屬感使然，在太平洋彼岸兩端間尋覓交集點，這些年我嘗試不同時期分別在台、美兩地乘船出海，或陰晴或日夜，體會並揣摩幾世紀前人們於海上初見新大陸或離鄉時的悸動，在尋跡逐漸接近與逐漸淡化的對比中，在氣象萬千的多變景象之下，拼貼出緩慢航行前進與遠離土地時所見的模糊片段畫面，並試著以現代觀點創作，表現出經年累月於舊（歷史）、新（人為）所呈現景觀貌似存在實則消失的矛盾與衝突。

在作品表現上，我藉由意象象徵地理軌跡與現代時空景象的變遷消失來創作這個主題，結合連續不同時刻真實或虛構的重疊與消弭景像，來探索人與世界的關係與自然哲學的思維方式，同時理性省思亦感性認知大地的存在，尋求在繪畫的過 程中與抽象的本質表現上進化，進而創造超越視覺的意義。技法上結合有多層次渲染罩染與近乎機械規則性(水平垂直筆觸)於表面不斷運動交替所產生的層次差異感，藉此來增加畫面的豐富張力，並嘗試將主體組成與背景空間於以融合，有形亦復無形的產生一種不真實的寫實，同時畫面反覆堆砌與刮除透明和不透明色層形成重疊交替，肌理生成與消失形似多重隱現的微妙過程，大面積的背景空間則以象徵留白的極簡化表現性色彩與精簡筆觸尋求在視覺上塑造一個詩性的多度空間。

生命的特點是不斷的變化，然而在過程中我們總是在體驗與思考永恆的意義。自創作初始延伸至今，盡我所能的嘗試與探索，希望作品能演繹詮釋生命背景的多元樣貌並反映當代藝術的意義與精神，在有限中，表達無限。