Between Pure and Naughty 純 真 x 頑 皮

Between Pure and Naughty
純真 x 頑皮
2009.09.12~10.25

Chang En-TzuCurator: Chen Yung-Hsien
Artists: Chou Chu-Wang, Wu Keng-Chen, and Chang En-Tzu

Text / Chen Yung-Hsien

"Between Pure and Naughty" mainly discusses how Taiwan's new generation of artists use their own points of view, and how their creations have delicate handmade qualities and metaphorical thinking. What the works of Chou Chu-Wang, Wu Keng-Chen, and Chang En-Tzu have in common are they all use innocence and childhood as the main focus of their pieces, and use simple lines and color blocks to reconstruct ordinary images and thoughts. Hidden in these simple images is a naughty yet rebellious dual personality.

The works on display by these three artists all show surprising breakthroughs compared to the past. The work “Naughty” by Chou Chu-Wang who has won the Taipei Fine Arts Award Grand Prize and Kaohsung Arts Award, uses smart lines to depict the images of children on lamps, outlining the cute, funny, yet evil side of children. The main character in this work is an embodiment of the devil. Chou Chu-Wang also transforms “Naughty” into a three dimensional piece. He uses a 3D stainless steel form to create a body that is similar to children’s building blocks and the facial expression of the image still gives off a critical air.

Wu Keng-Chen who has a background in architecture is the winner of the Wanderer Project of Cloud Gate. He once traveled to China's northern Shaanxi province to learn paper cutting techniques. In order to challenge the limits of paper cutting, he took his passion for comics in his childhood and like the childhood memories of a secret agent, he used handmade paper cutting art to create naughty red people. He used them to cover an entire glass surface to create a shocking and moving image. His works are also shown with a scroll in the spatial arrangement, where countless little red people wave and blink at the audience, their expressions are funny and loveable, and have a playful and eccentric style.

Chang En-Tzu who once was awarded the Kaohsung Arts Award elaborates her hand-weaving skills into her newly published works, the “Forest Series.” She uses the leftover cotton fibers from a needle and thread to overthrow the perfect fairytale worlds of Bambi and Snow White. Parts of the fairytale images flow down among floating threads, becoming a part of the incomplete images, innocently wandering and floating around in this space. This type of complete deconstruction, heavily impacts the general public’s memories of these sub-cultural symbolic images, and what is left after they gently depart are confused fairytale characters.

Generally people have an innocent trust toward children or fairytale stories, yet sometimes they fear the clever and rebellious nature of children. In the lines of art, the humor in these creations is not limited to one dimension. Returning to the theme of children, these three artists candidly show the naughty, mischievous, and playfulness of children, and also completely express their hidden “evil.” This evil does not refer to “bad paintings,” it refers to the behavior of children after removing all constraints. Despite being evil, it allows the creators to break away from the inherent and fixed sense we have toward objects. Children are the subjects closest to us in life, and the dual nature of pure and naughty is a natural psychological state, but this type of innate demon-like “evil” still exists.

純真 x 頑皮

策展人／陳永賢（國立台灣藝術大學助理教授）
參展藝術家／
周珠旺（2007台北獎首獎得主、2003高雄獎得主）
吳耿禎（2006雲門流浪者計畫得主）
張恩慈（2008高雄獎得主)

文 / 陳永賢
《純真X頑皮》（Between Pure and Naughty）主要探討台灣新世代藝術家如何使用自己觀點，創造兼具輕巧手工質地與隱喻思考。周珠旺、吳耿禎、張恩慈的作品的共同點，均以純真的童趣為內容，他們都將線條或色塊的純粹化，重組於過去慣常視覺和思維，而簡約影像裡卻隱匿著一股頑皮卻叛逆的雙重性格。

這次三位藝術家展出的作品，較以往都有令人驚喜的突破。曾獲台北獎首獎及高雄獎雙料得主的周珠旺，作品「猴囝仔」的小孩圖像以流暢線條描繪於燈具上，勾勒小孩子裝可愛、逗趣又帶邪惡的一面。而此靈魂人物是惡魔的化身，周珠旺又把「猴囝仔」轉換成立體作品，用3D不銹鋼實體化的身形，創造彷若兒童積木的體積，圖像表情仍然帶著強烈的批判色彩。

出身建築背景的吳耿禎，他是雲門流浪者計畫得主，曾赴中國陜北地區學習剪紙技術。這次為了挑戰剪紙創作的極限，將他小時候對漫畫的熱愛，像是秘密臥底的童年回憶般，用手工紙藝創造頑皮的小紅人，佈滿整面玻璃，氣勢相當震撼。作品也用卷軸裱法呈現於空間裝置，現場頓時出現無數小紅人向觀眾招手、眨眼，表情逗趣討喜，又顯現出搞怪俏皮的風格。

曾獲高雄獎的張恩慈，使用手工編織技巧，在這次新發表作品「森林系列」，將童話中小鹿及白雪公主的完美世界，以針線所殘留的棉絮線條裡予以顛覆。童話形象的局部流瀉著飄浮線調，變成殘像的一部份，純真心靈在此漫漫遊盪。這種徹底的解構方式，宛若在次文化象徵表象中，重重擊垮大眾記憶，卻又輕輕抽離，留下錯亂表情的童話人格。

一般人對孩童或童話內容的純真感深信不疑，有時懼怕小孩的古靈精怪或桀驁不馴。在藝術脈絡裡，創作內容的詼諧不僅於單一向度，回到孩童的主題內容，這三位藝術家將小孩頑皮、淘氣的童趣顯露無遺，並且讓隱匿的「壞」發揮到極致。這裡所指的壞，並不是「壞畫」，而是針對孩童主題解開束縛後的表現，儘管使壞，讓創作者拋離恪守物象的固有分寸。孩童是最接近我們生活的對象，純真與頑皮的雙重性格，是一種天生的心理狀態，但這種潛藏於內在有如惡魔般的「壞」，卻依然存在。

藝術家 Artists

CHOU Chu-Wang 周珠旺
WU Keng-Chen 吳耿禎
CHANG En-Tzu 張恩慈