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個人神話與文化同化—談詹喻帆近作
巴黎第十大學當代藝術史博士
國立臺灣藝術大學美術系所專任副教授
陳貺怡
我來臺藝大教書的第一年就教到詹喻帆，他給人的印象是非常的內斂，而且 沉默寡言，經常獨來獨往。學校鼓勵學生追求當代藝術的各種複合媒材與跨域表現，但是他偏偏獨鍾繪畫。大學時期的作品偏好人物，由其是女性，風格則是臺灣學院式的超現實主義，形色灰暗、乾淨與冷調。
畢業後，他考進師大美術研究所，2010 年舉辦畢業個展《制服物語》，邀我前往觀看。我驚訝的發現他不但技藝精進，並且找到了截然不同、特色獨具的題材與手法。金車藝文中心不算小的展場，充滿了色彩絢麗的、來自日本御宅文化 (Otaku)動漫遊戲中的美少女，作典型的制服或女僕打扮，作出各種俏皮、可愛、 稚氣的表情，擺著各種挑逗曖昧的姿態。發育尚未完成的稚齡少女卻暗示著性、 暴力、變態，滿足日本動漫術語中所謂的「蘿莉塔控」(Lolita Complex)，即成人對未成熟少女的戀慕或慾望。
然而，令人感興趣的是，這種原屬小眾向主流文化的風俗、價值、信仰和規範挑戰的次文化(subculture)圖像，如何能化身為學院的精緻藝術作品？為此，詹喻帆可謂煞費苦心，他在畫面的鋪排上極盡古典之能事：卡拉瓦喬派(caravagisme) 的光線處理，營造出明暗對比的強烈戲劇性效果；傳統肖像式或群像式的構圖安排、空間與背景的規畫設計、人物體感、量感、質感的表達及配件(accessoire)的選擇無不極度考究。他還不忘記在「蘿莉塔控」的主題之下，引用瑞士畫家巴爾 杜斯(Balthus, 1908-2001)若干代表作中少女的經典姿勢。簡而言之，他試圖透過對古典繪畫技巧與形式的掌握，以及透過對西方藝術史的引用，將外來的(東北亞)次文化圖像，提升至照樣是外來的(西方)主流文化之位階。當然在這過程中提出了一個缺席，即本土文化的缺席，不論是主流或非主流，但此一缺席卻矛盾的呈現了臺灣文化的現況。
不過在這個展覽之後，儘管作品受到某種程度的歡迎，詹喻帆很快的放棄了聚焦在狹隘且單一的主題上；並且似乎意識到在同輩的年輕藝術家中，日本動漫的形式或圖像的挪用，已然是非常氾濫的現象，他需要尋找到更具辨識度的個人 路徑，於是2012-13年推出的新作完全擺脫了先前的構作方式。觀看他的這批新作，似乎回歸了大學時期的超現實氛圍，畫面的建構倚重於重複出現的圖像及其意義所可能衍生的符號系統，並且以特定的語法串連這些符碼。其語法相當固定：儘管千變萬化仍然相當容易辨認的特定人物(如少女，由同一個模特兒扮演)；加上一再重複出現的特定物件，如交通運輸工具(汽車、火車、船、飛機、卡車、 挖土機、火箭等等)、傳播機具(攝影機、電視機、電影播放器、屏幕等)、家屋與家具(沙發、浴缸、桌子、床/病床、溫室)、植物、動物等，這一切被以超現實的手法(如比例失衡、反地心引力、非理性的時間與空間等) 安排在一些特定的「風景」中(江河、湖泊、海洋、孤島、沙漠、懸崖、天空)。人物、物件與風景無限變化的自由組合，再加上由前期延續而來的造形系統，如絢麗的色彩、動漫造形等等，共同發展出詹喻帆式的敘事結構。只是，這樣的敘事結構，想說的究竟是什麼呢？似乎還需一番解讀。
自傳性與個人神話
先從人物談起：從詹喻帆的畫作中可以很輕易的看出，也許也是刻意的想讓 人看出，從《制服物語》延續到這個系列，畫中的女性人物幾乎都是由同一個模特兒扮演。談論藝術家與模特兒的關係總是非常的富於啟發性，例如英國拉斐爾 前派畫家羅賽提(Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828 – 1882)和他的女模特兒 Fanny Comforth, Jane Burden, Elizabeth Siddal，又如畢卡索(Pablo Picasso,1881-1973)和他不同時期的謬斯女神，從 Fernande Olivier 到 Jacqueline Roque。這種反覆描繪同一對象的執念式的(obsessive)創作方式，往往能洩漏藝術家的心理狀態，而被反覆呈現的女模特兒，也通常會被塑造成各種女性的原型：象徵主義的藝術家們因此熱衷於呈現梅杜莎(Medusa)、朱蒂斯(Judith)或莎樂美(Salome)，當然也致力於呈現天真的少女、純潔的聖女或偉大的母親。
詹喻帆新作中的少女擺脫了《制服物語》系列中單純的慾望對象，呈現出多重而複雜的女性形象：「領航員」經常出現在船上，或提著燈或拿著船槳，有時從象徵牢籠的溫室中冒出來拿著望遠鏡前瞻；「維納斯」當然是愛情與美麗的化身，而承受著槍砲襲擊的維納斯卻意謂著女性的堅強；正在畫畫或雕塑的女孩是「創造者」，懷孕的女孩則是「孕育者」。詹喻帆賦予女孩的多重角色，令人質問畫中人物的塑造是否某種程度上呼應了藝術家自傳性的投射？演繹著他生命中不同的女人扮演的角色？
更有趣的是，畫中的男性相較於女孩顯得比例微小，並且一律由詹喻帆自己扮演。而相對於女性主動、正面且活躍的角色，男性卻顯得被動、退縮與沉默， 並且似乎經常盯著銀幕，處於被催眠的狀態，似乎無法敵擋資訊時代因過度飽和而令人窒息的訊息。這種角色的劃分，令人不禁聯想到比利時超現實主義畫家德 爾沃(Paul Delvaux, 1897-1994)刻意的將女性塑造成可欲不可求，而男性則處於無能狀態的類似作法，使詹喻帆的畫作脫離單純的自傳性投射，邁進了潛意識挖掘的領域。
至於人物週圍充塞的物件，自然是敘事的最佳符碼，像字母一樣的串出許多意象。長期罹患重病的父親使詹喻帆的青年時期沉重又陰鬱，也養成他沉默寡言的習慣，而床/病床應該是這種生活中最鮮明的一部分，這也說明了為什麼床/病床/病房會成為他執念式的主題。沙發、浴缸、桌椅、溫室都共同的塑造了家屋的意象；在這個氣氛低迷的家屋裡被囿限而無法展翅飛翔的男孩，種種微型的交通工具既是解悶的玩具，也是他用以衝破圍籬、建築想像的工具。
不過以上所提供的只不過是一種可能的解讀，詹喻帆所提供的材料，足以讓讀者聯結自我的生活經驗，再加以自由發揮，正如布爾喬亞(Louise Bourgeois, 1911-2010)的那些自傳性的「小室」 (cells)，以裝置的手法塞滿了回憶的物件，供觀者似是而非的解讀，分不清究竟是作者的故事還是自己的故事。又像波東斯基(Christian Boltanski, 1944- )挾猶太人的身分，恣意的塑造了一些似乎是群體的，但其實是個人的神話。所以不需要感到意外，承載這些圖像的風景清一色的是十九世紀浪漫主義藝術家的偏好：江河、湖海、孤島、沙漠、懸崖、浩瀚的天空，廢墟般的場所，沉 思、冥想、想像與托喻的好地方。不過必須要承認詹喻帆的作品，形式、氛圍、調性和浪漫主義或超現實主義都有顯著的落差，他的野心顯然就不只侷限在塑造出一種隱喻式的個人神話。
從異文化到「文化適應」 (acculturation)
在詹喻帆針對作品〈目的地〉的自述中有這樣的一段話:：「意圖呈現我一直以來試圖探討的，關於一個封閉環境的『再詮釋』，亦即訴說把他人的文化灌輸在自己的環境當中再利用，轉化成新的次文化，將大眾文化連結在同一場域。」 透過這段話，詹喻帆清楚的宣示了他創作的核軸乃是文化的混融。
不同於《制服物語》系列隱晦的影射，這幅指標性的作品公開的挪用四幅西 方藝術史上的經典之作：法蘭德斯畫家揚．范．艾克（Jan Van Eyck, 1390-1441） 的〈包著紅頭巾的男子〉，義大利文藝復興巨匠米開朗基羅（Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, 1475 – 1564）的〈大衛像〉，西班牙巴洛克藝術家委 拉斯貴茲（Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1599 – 1660）的〈侍女〉，及法國新古典主義大師安格爾（Dominique Ingres, 1780 -1867）的〈大後宮圖〉(Grand odalisque)。但只取其代表性的人物片段，設計成玩具或飾品，並將人物造形動 漫化；操弄玩具的是從方舟中冒出來的臺灣藝人黃子佼，而藝術家自己則乘著風 雨中的小船航向聖經中象徵救贖的方舟。整體而言，詹喻帆在思索當代藝術的本 質時，試圖混合高藝術與低藝術、異文化與本土文化、主流文化與次文化的企圖 是非常明顯的。
在藝術發展的過程中，對異文化的興趣一直是推動其演變的重要趨力，然而 這種東西融合的過程大約經歷了三個不同的階段。西方從十三世紀開始遠航，隨著航海術的發達，十七、十八世紀邁進了東西貿易的盛世，而對東方文化的好奇 心也隨之而起。不過此時期只能以「好奇」(curiosité)稱之，因為異文化通常被 曲解、附會，視為野蠻、怪誕或新奇。即便十八世紀末新古典主義對古希臘羅馬 的引用來自龐貝考古的發現，但其代表人物大衛(Jacques-Louis David, 1748 – 1825)在繪製畫作時，也僅只是把古希臘羅馬的場景當作「背景」，並未採納龐貝 壁畫的畫法。此後，十九世紀的浪漫主義者如德拉克洛(Eugène Delacroix, 1798 - 1863)開始親赴東方旅行，在當地繪製大量的素描研究稿，帶回大量的當地物件， 以作為繪製東方風情繪畫的參考。十九世紀盛行的「異國情調」 (exotisme)風潮，使得藝術家們的畫室中堆滿了來自東方的物件，繪畫與版畫的傳播使當時的盛況 不下於台灣今日的哈日風或哈韓風。藝術家面對的首要問題是如何將異國文化元 素融入自己的創作中，因而產生了「折衷主義」的作法，將東西方的元素生硬的交織混搭，成了不東不西的雜交狀態。最後，是印象派與後印象派的藝術家終於明白文化的交融不能停留在表面的狀態，而必須將異文化消化吸收，全盤了解之後再加以利用，此為第三階段。
馬奈(Édouard Mnet, 1832 - 1883)的〈草地上的野餐〉並非東方風情的畫作，但他的指導原則是來自浮世繪版畫。莫內(Claude Monet, 1840 - 1926)也曾經提及日本浮世繪版畫對他的影響，並且宣稱他的藝術靈感完全來自東方繪畫的機械原 理。從梵谷(Vincent van Gogh, 1853 - 1890)、高更(Paul Gauguin, 1848 - 1903)一直 到馬諦斯(Henri Matisse, 1869 - 1954)、畢卡索，西方現代藝術原來是造就在對異 文化的吸收、交匯、混融。這些藝術家捐棄成見，放棄既定的畫法，沉浸於異文化的思維與生活模式，研究、了解並應用異國藝術的機械原理；最後，更重要的 是不需要也不能夠放棄主體的文化認同與文化精神，唯有在先擁有並持續一己的思維與生活方式之後，才能透過異文化的滋養，強化造形的力量，豐富造形的語彙，從而創造出全新的風格，此所謂的「文化同化」(acculturation)。
二十一世紀的臺灣藝術家比任何一個世代、任何一個地方的藝術家都更需要 「文化同化」的概念與技巧，我想詹喻帆和他同時代的藝術家們都明白這一點， 只是作起來並不見得容易。《制服物語》系列是他首次的嘗試，將入侵並且盛行於臺灣文化當中的兩股勢力：日本御宅文化(次文化)與西方古典繪畫(主流文化) 融混在一起，策略相當正確，但手法恐怕流於生硬造作的折衷主義，似乎少了那點石成金的一筆，那使文化與文化之間不再形成對峙狀態的一筆。然而觀察他的近作，詹喻帆卻似乎是懂得了如何先發展並掌握個人文化特色，以至於不論混進去的元素有多麼的異質、多元、突兀、對立，卻仍然能水乳交融的在詹喻帆所塑造的個人神話中發生化學變化，進行真正的「文化同化」程序，雖然只不過是一個開始，在同輩的藝術家中卻是相當的難能可貴。 所以，不論他未來的創作仍將有什麼樣的變化，詹喻帆的近作說服了我，相信他是一位能朝向成熟之路持續邁進的年輕藝術家。
Self-Myth and Culture Assimilation：
The Recent Works of CHAN Yu-Fan
Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
PhD in Contemporary Art History
Assistant Professor at National Taiwan Art University
Chen,Kuang-Yi
Chan was the first students I taught in National Taiwan Art University. He was quite introverted, taciturn and liked doing things alone. While the university encouraged students to combine various materials into their works, he loved nothing but painting. During his university period, he preferred human figures, especially women, to be the main characters in his works. Besides, he adopted Taiwanese Academic Surrealist as his painting style, forming a gray, clean and cold tone.
After graduation, he was admitted to the Master Fine Art at National Taiwan Normal University. I was then invited to his graduate solo exhibition, Uniform Story, in 2010. I was surprised that he not only made progress in techniques but also found a totally different and unique material and theme. The space of King Car Art Center was full of colorful young girls from Japanese Otaku culture, dressed either in student or maid uniform with all sorts of cute and naïve expressions and ambiguously teasing postures. The adolescent girls signify sex and violence, fulfilling the so called Lolita Complex, meaning adults’ desire and admiration toward the teenage girls.
Much to our interest, how can this originally subculture icon which challenges the style, value and belief of common culture transforms into delicate academic works? To achieve this, Chan made a lot of efforts. He attempted to include classic styles, such as the light technique of Caravagisme which creates dramatic effects of light and dark contrast. The composition of traditional portrait, space and background arrangement, the expression of senses of weigh and quality of figures and the choices of accessiore were carefully considered. He also used classical girl postures in Balthus’ painting under the theme of Lolita Complex. In short, he tried to promote the subculture pictures from northeast Asian to the same level as western mainstream culture by the accurate control of classic painting technique and form and the inclusion of western art history. However, there is an “absence” in his work which is the local culture, whether mainstream or not. This paradox demonstrates the current situation of Taiwanese culture.
After the exhibition, despite some degrees of popularity, Chan soon gave up on focusing on the only and narrow theme. Conscious of the overflowing of Japanese Animation in his generation, he needed to find out a more recognizable personal style. Thus, his works in 2012-13 got rid of his creating style before. Looking at these new works, viewers seem to be brought back to the surrealist atmosphere in his university period. The construction of picture relies repetitive icons and its extended symbol system. These elements are lined by the artist with his own specific ways. His ways of expression is quite regular: recognizable girl figures (despite varied in costumes), means of transportation (e.g. car, train, ship. Airplane, truck, excavator, racket… and son on), communication devise (e.g. DV, television, movie player, screen…etc), house, furniture (sofa, bathtub, table, bed, greenhouse), plants and animals. All of the elements are arranged in particular “scenery” (rivers, lakes, oceans, islands, deserts, cliffs and sky) using surrealist skills (imbalance of proportion, anti-gravity, irrational space and time). Human figures, objects and scenery are combined in infinite changes and the model system, such as colorful hues and animation figures, deriving from previous period together enable Chan to develop his narrative structure. Only if, what actually the narrative structure is? This needs further interpretation.
Autobiography and Self-Myth
Starting from human figures, it is easy to identify that the females in Chan ‘s paintings are played by a same model, from Uniform Story to the series. It is also inspirational to talk about the relationship between a painter and his model. For example, English Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and his models Fanny Comforth, Jane Burden, Elisabeth Siddal; Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and his muses in disparate periods, from Fernande Olivier to Jacqueline Roque. The obsessive of portraying an identical object discloses the mental status of an artist. And the models appearing repetitively are shaped into some prototypes pf various women. Symbolists thus are keen to present not only Medusa, Judith and Salome but also innocent girls, pure virgins and great mothers.
The new works of Chan break free from the sole desirable objects, expressing multiple and complex female images: “pilots” often show up on boats, with lamps or peddles in hand, and sometimes come out from the confided greenhouse to look into a far distance with telescope; “Venus” is certainly the incarnation of love and beauty while the Venus enduing bombing represents the strength of women; girls painting or doing sculpture are the “creators”, while pregnant girl signifies the “bearer”. Chan gives girls multiple roles. It is questionable that whether the shaping of characters in the paintings to some degree echos the painter’s self-projection or the roles different women play in his life.
More interestingly, male figures, represented by Chan himself, in the paintings are much smaller compared to women. Besides, rather than the activeness, positivity characters women symbolize, men are comparatively passive, introverted and silent and often staring at the screen, in the state of being hypnotized and seemingly unable to resist the oversaturating and suffocating information. This kind of character division reminds viewers of the Belgic Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) who shapes women into the desired-to-own-but-hard-to-guaranteed image, while men in an useless state. This enables Chan’s paintings to sublimate from purely self-projection to the digging of subconsciousness.
As for the surrounding objects, they seems to be the best narrating symbols, linking all kinds of imageries just like alphabets. Chan’s teenage period is dark and gloomy because of his seriously ill father. He being scanty of words is also the result of such depression. And the sickbed seems to be the most vivid part of this kind of life, which explains why sickbeds turn to be one of his obsessive themes. Sofas, bathtubs, tables, chairs and greenhouse together represent the image of home. For a boy limited to a broken family, various means of transportations are not only the toys for entertainment but also the imagery tools to break through the barrier.
Nevertheless, what I provide above is not only but a possible interpretation. The materials given by Chan enable viewers to connect their own life experiences and imagine, like the autobiographical “cells” of Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), stuffing memorial objects using installation, delivering viewers obscure interpretations and blurring the line between painter’s and viewers’ own stories. It also resembles Christian Boltanski (1944- ) who make some seemingly group but actually personal myth with his Jewish identity.
It is no need to be surprised because bearing the iconic scenery is the preference 19th century Romantic artists: rivers, lakes, islands, deserts, cliffs, vast sky, ruins like spaces. They are all great places to meditate and imagine.
Yet I have to admit that there are differences between Chan’s works and those of Romanticism and Surrealism in form, atmosphere and tone. His ambition is apparently not limited to creating an implying self-myth.
From a Other Culture to Acculturation
Chan once talked about his own work, The Destination, saying, “This work expresses what I have been always discussing which is about the “re-interpretation” of an airtight space. This means to reuse others’ culture in my own culture, transforms it into new subculture and links common culture to the same field.” Through the remark, Chan clearly declares that the principle axis of his creation is fusion of culture.
Different from the obscure implication in Uniform Stories, Destination, as an indicative work, appropriates four classical works in western art history: Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban by Flanders painter Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441), David by Renaissance master Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), Las Meninas by Spanish Neo-classicism artist Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez(1599-1660) and Grandodalisque by Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Yet he only takes the representative figures, designing into toys or decorations and animating the human figures. Taiwanese artist Mickey Huang is the one who manipulates the toys, while Chan himself takes a boat in the storm to sail to the direction of salvation. Overall, the artist tries to combine high and low art, other culture and local culture, and mainstream culture and subculture, while pondering contemporary artistic essence.
On the process of art development, people’s interest in “Other Culture” is the motivation that pushes them to change. The fusion of eastern and western culture undergoes about three disparate stages. Western countries start their voyage in 13th century. As the advances of navigation technology, the golden age of trading come in 17th, 18th century as well as westerners’ curiosity of eastern cultures. Yet in this period we can only call it “curiosité” because the “other culture” is often twisted into being barbaric, weird and novel. Even though in the end of 18th century, neo-classicism adopts Pompeii to be their prototype of ancient Roman and Greek, they only use it as “setting” without accepting Pompeii style mural painting. Afterwards, 19th century Romanticists like Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) begins to travel to east, drawing large amounts of sketches for research and being back many local objects as the references to paint eastern paintings. The popularity of “exotisme” in 19th century fill artists’ workshops with objects from Far East. The spreading of paintings and prints is no less than the popularity of Japanese and Korean pop culture nowadays. The first question an artist face is how to incorporate “other culture” into their own paintings; thus, Eclecticism which superficially put together western and eastern culture is born. Eventually, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists realize that the fusion of cultures cannot stay on the superficial state but the digestion and reutilization of an “other culture” is rather important which consist the third stage.
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe by Edouard Manet (1832-1883) is not an eastern style painting but his guiding principles derive form Ukiyo-e rpints. Claude Monet (1840-1926) once also mentions Ukiyo-e’s influence on him, claiming his artistic inspirations all come from the mechanical principles of eastern paintings. From Vincent van Gough (1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Henri Matisse (1869-1954) to Picasso, western contemporary art is born on the absorbing, intersection and mixing of the other cultures. These artists put down their prejudice, give up their usual way of paintings, immerse themselves in the thinking and lifestyle of other cultures, research, understand and apply these exotic artistic mechanical principles. At last, it is also important that they should not forget their own culture identification and spirit. Only when owning and persevering one’s thinking and lifestyle can people strengthen the power, enrich the vocabulary and create new styles from the nutrients of other cultures. This is so call “acculturation”.
21th century Taiwanese artists need the concept of “acculturation” more than artists from any other places and generations. I think Chan and his contemporaries all agree with that but it is not easy to implement. Uniform Stories is his first try. His way of presenting both invading culture: Japanese animation culture (subculture) and western classical paintings (mainstream culture) together is accurate but the technique may result in stiff and pretentious Eclecticism, lacking the stroke that melts the conflict between sub- and mainstream culture. However, looking at his recent works, Chan seems to know more about how to develop and take hold of personal culture traits. Hence, no matter how many diverse or contradicting elements are there in his works, he is able to create proper chemical changes, processing the real “acculturation”. Despite only a beginning, it is already commendable among all his contemporaries.
Therefore, no matter what kind of changes he is going to undergo in his future creation, Chan Yu-Fan’s recent works have convinced me that he is qualified to be on the road to a mature artist. |
