‘Trees, Planting’ – Tsai Hsian-Yiu solo exhibition

Exhibition period: November 20 to December 25 2014

Location: 102 Art, Tainan.

‘Trees, Planting’ – in my visual work, I grow trees from falling leaves.

Goethe said: ‘I must tell you discretely that I am already very close to the secret of the creation of plants, and this is undoubtedly the most simple thing in the world. The archetypal plant as I see, it will be the most wonderful creation in the whole world, and nature herself will envy me for it. With this model and the key to it, one will be able to invent plants [...] which, even if they do not actually exist, nevertheless might exist and which are not merely picturesque or poetic visions and illusions, but have inner truth and logic.

In the science fiction film Avatar, there is a ‘home tree’ which is the source of all life on the planet. The ‘home tree’ contains the essence of the world. The plot of the film is not literally true of course; it is a work of imagination, but a kind of imagination rooted in natural philosophy.

Goethe shared with us his secret of plants, which appears to embrace the internal laws of nature. Goethe’s relationship with plants is not merely that of a relationship between a human being and his external world, but comes direct from his conscious awareness of the essence of plants, which for him is an unchangeable norm; in turn this unchangeable norm can be experienced and grasped through personal intuition. Goethe thought the external form of plants were only a surface matter of appearance, and that we must look deeper into their essence to encounter their nature. He also speculated that all plants might have evolved from a single source.

Goethe’s intuition drew him to conclude that the various parts of plants that we see are essentially constructed through metamorphosis of the plant’s essential organ, the leaf, so he constructed the notion of plant archetypes. These plant archetypes represent an extremely powerful energy, the basis of the plant’s many changes. So ‘one leaf is one tree! One tree is one leaf.’ All plants are seen by Goethe as representations of an essential plant archetype, which itself allows nature to create all sorts of clever shapes that can go on to carry meaning.

Though the inspiration of trees and leaves, I started to ‘plant (meaning paint) through leaves’, and so comes this exhibition, ‘Trees, Planting’. For me, in this series, leaves provide an insight into the lives of plants, and into metamorphosis in nature. They give me all kinds of real feelings. I ‘planted’ the falling leaves on the canvas and made them ‘return’ in form to become trees once again. Through this exercise, falling leaves were no a source of sorrow, but instead were at the heart of a positive narrative. The ‘Trees, Planting’ series is about soul and idea. Falling leaves ‘planted’ trees on each canvas, almost as if a sapling was planted in my mind and body. The image of tree on the canvas is a projection of a tree from the mind.

‘Trees, Planting’ is a reflection of a previous series, ‘Falling Leaves’. The image I tried to create in ‘Falling Leaves’ was of power that came from the deep silent rhythm of nature. Both series can be traced to an even earlier series, which is entitled ‘Leaves Fall on White’. This series allowed me to get close to nature and reflect on my life, the moment at which I restarted the power of my mind. It was a journey from external materials (shape – form – physical form) to mind (leaf – tree – body – sense – situation – presentation – revelation – transcendence).

Lin Ching-Fang, a Taiwanese artist of their own, after observing the work of Lin, it is not hard to discover he has got a unique style of his own. The strong “Taiwanese style” flavor appears in his work is pure and authentic. It even delivers a sense of simplicity and relieves; a graceful portrayal of genuine and friendly “Taiwanese style” culture.

The exhibition: Made in Taifong: Heaven In Those Days, Lin has recreated the era of Made In Taiwan, in retrospect the wonderful childhood back in the days, a collection of The Aquarium series, Fishing Machine of Love, Damp Angel and The Mudguard, Lin is good at expressing local life style abstractly, a mixture of alternative material and a diverse set of colors deliver the good times once in the past, magnify the wild good times we all once want to chase after recklessly, once stepped into the exhibition hall, it allows us to detach ourselves from the expectation of the society and the material narcissism of the present, reflecting the wonderful era into the present decayed chaos, shall all be returned to the glorious heaven in one’s heart.

In the exhibition we can find a gradual change in each phase of adoration during the process of growing up, from the fishing machine in childhood to the teenager worshiping superstars, filled with innocence and also a pause of eternity, rooted deep in our genes growing up, Lin transformed the memory we shared growing up with ease, what is most impressive is that he always have a way to capture the color and figure of the past, creating a resonance with us, such as the Damp Angel series, he captured the beautiful star which is most representative during the era, treat them as angels, refining the figure of this land, one by one presenting the local figure being re-identified, at the same time chase after the good old times of Taiwan with sympathizing heart, so we shall be stronger to face the present moment. In Taiwan mudguard series, we find in Lin’s work with less processing of the scattered pieces, replaced by more of the matte skin in larger area, which implicate the deletion of the sludge.

Lin has been examining the detail of the essential joy between each one of us relentlessly, the joy from the era that is not immersed into the secular world; the culture, environment and profound local character and life made of that era, is the source of element of his work, he is still active to deliver his work in Taiwanese Style, expressing the local figure, a view without gap that swept to every corner.

極柔‧極淨‧極女性

──賴美華的真情創作

李俊賢  高苑科技大學建築系副教授兼藝文中心主任

●女性特質

作為人類的一種性別，「女性」相對於男性，共同完成了人類的完整。在人類的「分工」上，女性承擔了孕育繁衍人類生命的重責大任，為了完成這個關係重大的責任，女性被賦於了不同於男性的生理結構、生理週期，這個完全無法逃避的身體現象，大大的牽引了女性，使女性發展出了和男性不同的身體行為。

在先天的生理影響之外，後天社會文化也附加的影響了女性，先天的條件加上後天的制約，女性被模塑出了「女性特質」，也以如此的特質和社會相容，和男性

共同延續人類社會的生命。

所謂的「女性特質」，在女性主義意識被提起後，確實常被質疑，是否這些「女性特質」完全只是男性觀點下強加制約的？或是女性的各種條件自然就會發展出「女性特質」？這個議題辯證，或許是一種歷史宿命議題，可能會跟隨人類社會生命延續，而做為一個女性，當生為女性也「選擇」做為女性，對於「女性特質」不需懷疑，則自然的發揮「女性特質」或許將是其生命主軸，也將反映在生命的各個面向，如果是藝術家，就會反應在創作。

●藝術家賴美華

根據和藝術家賴美華同輩藝術家的說法，藝術家賴美華很年輕時就以美女著名，美女的條件，確實可能強化其「女性特質」，而重點是，做為一個藝術家.，賴美華把這些特質在創作上完全表達出來。

賴美華創作多年，其創作的最大特點之一是「極端化」，這種「極端化」首先表現在題材的延展方面：賴美華的創作題材多是生活環境中的細微點滴，以及女性身體的各種部位，如此的選材，其實是很多女性藝術家的習慣方式，而賴美華的特殊才華，是從這些平常物件延展出令人驚奇的詭奇意象，如〈高美館〉典藏2005年畫的 Flower Floating on Water，從一朵花的型開始延展，讓個人想像從花的形體開始擴展，各種女性形體、器官依附在花的脈絡上，組成了幾乎超出一般想像的「奇花」。或如1991年的 My Lips with a Flavor of Bile，接合很多女性的「唇」附著在女性的身體，而這些「唇」還連結了屬於「嗅覺」、「味覺」的「膽」，這種從非常個人經驗開始，最後終結為極端意象的手法，是賴美華創作最為特殊之處。

如此的在意識的大海中任意馳騁，自在採集，完全不受拘束，使賴美華作品一再出人意表，展現了作為藝術家的完全自由。

賴美華的另一種「極端化」，是表現在她對於各種視覺對象的敏感度方面，這種天賦，使她對看到的一切都可以深度閱讀，因而在日常物件或一般身體上讀出深層意義，而當轉化為創作，超卓的敏銳度使他可以從容的運用各種視覺材料、技術，讓她把那些深層見解完全的表現出來。

賴美華的「極端化」，也表現在它「繪畫性」[painterly]的處理，在其作品中，很少有所謂「淺嘗即止」，多半要深入到無法自拔而後已，以平面繪畫最基本的「上色」為例，一種顏色塗上畫布，仍要反覆研磨、覆蓋、暈染----，直到顏色完全傳達了藝術家的感覺。如此的「繪畫性」的「極端化」，使賴美華的作品深深的觸及了觀者意識深處，並吸引觀者一再反覆閱讀吟詠，並讚嘆藝術家如此超凡的能力和用心。

創作的「極端化」是優秀藝術家的基本條件，因為「極端化」，才能夠超越表像，進入常人不見的境界，也跨越平凡，進入超凡，鋪陳出令人驚異的天地。而做為女性藝術家的賴美華，「極端化」的創作，使觀者真正看到「極端女性」，完全女性特質的輕柔、執著與偏執、向內思考、身體性、華麗氣質---，如此的「極端女性」，確實為觀者開啟了對於女性理解的另一番天地。

●結語

賴美華的創作歷程長達數十年，多半悠遊於她個人天地，自由的幻想、聯想、演繹、推理，即使小小的方寸之間，也被她灌注了深情、完全誠意的刻畫。得天獨厚的才華和極端的女性資質結合，終於成就了賴美華這種令人無限回味、一再低迴的「完全女性藝術」。