像藝術家思考　Think Like An Artist

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文｜張馨之

人人皆是藝術家，前提是你必須先有這樣的自覺。──波伊斯（Joseph Beuys）

思考起始於人所產生的困惑，當人類逐漸意識到事物不像表面所見的如此，「求知」、「求解」之慾遂然而生。也因為思考開啟人類走進世界的窗，成為理解生命個體、自然萬物及集體思想的載體。藝術家的思考或可被視為更具有創造性的歷程，藝術的存在與開展，有賴於世世代代藝術家對於現狀「不滿足」的前提下，以藝術提出回應時代的方法。

展覽醞釀的過程，同時也是一層層思考的堆砌。「藝術家在想什麼？」、「為什麼創作？」乃本次策展的核心問題意識。此雙重問題一方面可作為創作者個別藝術探究的提問，另一方面也可能成為觀者認識藝術的集體路徑。展覽梳理的當下，如同為觀眾拆解當代藝術家創作的思考模式，在藝術家回應問題的同時，我們也可以進一步理解他們對於自我的深刻覺察、身體的行動，以及對當代社會的關照及超乎常理的見地。

創作是藝術家的語言，藝術家們以各自的思考表述回應生活、社會、環境的獨特感知與想像。隨著當代藝術的社會轉向，藝術與生活的邊界逐漸模糊，藝術家則透過覺察、經驗、信念等提煉日常生活中的藝術成份。本展覽「像藝術家思考」邀集11位分屬不同世代的當代藝術家：莊普、游文富、陳浚豪、黃蘭雅、李明學、曾麗娟、范思琪、羅懿君、李政勳、鄭琬蒨和吳芊頤，以他們各異的創作手法、媒材為引，延伸設計邀請觀眾參與創作思考的微型場域。一方面透過參與式互動體驗帶領觀眾走進作品內、成為作品的一部份，而不僅只是站在作品前面觀看；另一方面透過兒童友好型的展覽呈現，引導親子觀眾自主探索藝術家的所思所想，進而跳脫慣性思維覺察生活中的美感與旨趣。

「日常」為跨世代藝術家共同關切的議題。莊普作為一位運用理性規制達到直觀詩性的當代藝術家，他的創作穿梭於生活語境，自日常中微不足道、平淡無奇之處篩瀝出思考場域；李明學則以幽默的姿態閱讀生活，透過物件的再詮釋，在不斷思考與停下思考的循環迴圈中，反轉慣性理解的框架，產生藝術創作的過程；鄭琬蒨關注於聲音感官的覺察，探索更多被忽略的事物，打破物件和思考的常規，嘗試以各式生活物件隨機重組而形成日常中的驚喜。

歷時性的身體勞動與實踐，也成為藝術家思考表達的途徑。游文富自創作中摸索、探討自我的存在性，從過去到當下，甚而至未來的想望，揉合出生命的意志；李政勳透過反覆撕貼紙膠帶的方式疊加顏料，將生活中的人事物像日記般的紀錄下來，他深信生命存在的意義，透過創作與觀者產生心領交會的可能；范思琪視創作為一個探索未知的過程，她為自我立下長時間的挑戰，透過挑戰那些不擅長的事，不斷深掘自我的限性。

藝術家主體的內外在折衷融合，成為創作者終其一生的思考課題。陳浚豪透過尋找、釐清屬於自己的創作邏輯，作為藝術家身份所處於的成就與頓挫之間的平衡，同時也面臨如何將思考實踐出來的種種現實；黃蘭雅認為創作是一種透過不斷由外而內，再由內而外的循環自濾、漸見自我真我的行為方式，以尋求內在與外界平衡共生的最佳狀態。曾麗娟為尋找一種重整內外在平衡的方式，透過縫紉創作的節奏與呼吸，如實面對自己的母職角色與創作者狀態，透過創作述說亙古的童話故事。

跳脫創作主體，也有部份藝術家興趣在於理解客體的世界及建構歷史觀點。對吳芊頤而言，創作是她觀察思考外在世界的方式，以藝術介入社會共構成為有機的互動載體，喚起每個人心中的集體印象與鄉愁，產生重新認識事物的能力；羅懿君則透過研究歷史檔案多重面向的探究和想像力的拉扯過程，以藝術思考補足一些受到歷史忽略的段落、試圖改變歷史的詮釋角度。

本展覽提供觀者多重思考的索引，自生活起始，無論是突破外在事物的框架、對於內在自我的探求，甚至是介入社會的方式，或是通往生命內外平衡的哲理。特別是對幼齡者而言，尊重孩子以直觀的角度來理解當代藝術家的思考，或可能擦出更另類的解讀火花。最終，藝術思考並無準則定律，觀者將得以輕盈自信的步履走入藝術家們所帶來的每一段相遇。

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Think Like An Artist
　
▶ Exhibition Period | 10:00-18:00 from 1st April to 28th June, 2020 (Closed on Mondays and holidays)
▶ Location | No.241, Zhongyang Rd., Hsinchu City
▶ Curator | CHANG Hsin Chih
▶ Artists | TSONG Pu, YU Wen Fu, CHEN Chun Hao, HUANG Lan Ya, LEE Ming Hsueh, TSENG Sevenlight, FAN Sih Ci, LO Yi Chun, LI Cheng Hsun, CHENG Wan Chien and WU Chien Yi
🔸 Directed by | Ministry of Culture
🔸 Organized by | Hsinchu City Government
🔸 Implemented by | Cultural Affairs Bureau, Hsinchu City
🔸 Curated by | wòwò Aesthetics

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Curator | CHANG Hsin Chih

“Every man is a plastic artist who must determine things for himself.” —Joseph Beuys

Thinking originates from human’s confusion. When one is aware that there’s more to everything than meets the eye, the desire to seek answers is generated. Thinking opens the window to the world for human, making us the vessel of understanding of oneself, the surroundings and our collective consciousness. An artist’s thinking could be of greater creativity – the existence and development of art are based on the artists’ dissatisfaction of the current status, and their creations in response to it.

The development of an exhibition is also an accumulation of thinking. “What are artists thinking?” and “why do artists create?” are the core meditation of this curation. The quests are on one hand research questions on each artist’s creation, on the other hand a possible route to understanding art for the audiences. The curating process is like a deconstruction of the artists’ thinking patterns. Through their responses, we could look further into their self-reflections, physical activities, care for the society and extraordinary perspectives. 

Creation is the unique language of artists. They respond to their life, the society, the environment and express their unique senses and imagination through thinking. Social turn in contemporary art has blurred the boarder between art and life, and artists have extracted art from daily life through observations, experience and beliefs. In the exhibition Think Like An Artist, 11 contemporary artists from different generations are gathered, including TSONG Pu, YU Wen Fu, CHEN Chun Hao, HUANG Lan Ya, LEE Ming Hsueh, TSENG Sevenlight, FAN Sih Ci, LO Yi Chun, LI Cheng Hsun, CHENG Wan Chien and WU Chien Yi. Based on their creating methods and materials, interactive corners are designed to engage the audiences in the artistic thinking and the creations. At the same time, parents and children are guided to explore the artists’ mind through the children-friendly curation, further think outside the box and notice the beauty and wisdom of life.

“Daily life” has been the shared focus of artists from different generations. As a contemporary artist who creates poetic subjectivity through rational orders, TSONG Pu screens off a sphere of meditation from ordinary things with the creative language shuttling in life. Appreciating life with humor, LEE Ming Hsueh reexamines objects and reverse the customary understanding of life, creating as the circulation of thinking and stop thinking operates. Dedicated to sense of hearing, CHENG Wan Chien think unconventionally to discover more of the easily-overlooked, trying to compose surprises in daily life through random sound compositions.

Time-consuming labour and actions are also the way artists express their thoughts. Rubbing his mind with creation, YU Wen Fu explores the existence of himself from the past to the present, further into the future. Believing in the meaning of all existence and the possible interactions between the audiences and him, LI Cheng Hsun applies layers of paints as he sticks and tears off paper tapes, recording everything in life as if keeping a diary. Viewing creation as a journey into the unknown, FAN Sih Ci challenges herself with a long-term artistic action of doing what she is not good at, digging into the limitation of herself.

The compromising and intertwining between the exterior and interior of oneself is the life-long meditation for some artists. By figuring out his creative logic as an artist, CHEN Chun Hao strikes a balance between senses of accomplishment and frustration, while encountering the trials of putting thoughts into practice. Seeking the best coexistence of herself and the surroundings, HUANG Lan Ya perceives creation as the learning of Ego and Superego through self reflections and circulations inside out and back again. Telling the lasting fairytales through creations, TSENG Sevenlight looks for a balance between her mind and life through the tempo and breathe of sewing, staying honest to the status as both a mother and an artist.

Aside from focusing on oneself, some artists are interested in understanding the world around and constructing historical perspectives. Perceiving the world through creation, WU Chien Yi interacts with the society through socially engaged art, through which she reminds the audiences of the collective impression and nostalgia, generating the ability of viewing things differently. Through researches on historical data and with imagination, LO Yi Chun fills up the overlooked historical parts in her creations, intending to change the interpretations of history.

The exhibition provides the audiences with an index of various ways of thinking. Originating from life, the thinking varies from the spirit of thinking outside the box, the pursuit of one’s inner self, the engagement in the society and the wisdom of balance between the exterior and interior of life. To children, especially preschool kids, respect for their instinct of contemporary artists’ thinking could spark surprising understandings of art. The ultimate core of artistic thinking is that there are never fixed rules behind. Everyone is welcomed to enter each encounter artists bring up with confidence and in relax.