Humanistic Manifestation of the Artificial Nature—The Poetic Charm of Chien-Jung Chen’s Rebellious Artworks
第二自然的人文顯影──陳建榮的叛逆詩情
文╱蕭瓊瑞 Xiao Qiong-Rui
Originally published in Artist magazine No. 501 Feb 2017
Chien-Jung Chen was the winner of the 10th Visual Arts Prize of Li Chun-Shen Foundation in 2007. The jury awarded the prize to Chen because “his entry embodied a converging loop of construction, detachment and reduction, and thereby brought a spatial dimension to the composition that suggests many possibilities.”
Chen was born in Taipei in 1972. He had established his creative path and technique ever since early 1990’s when he studied the Department of Fine Arts in the National Institute of the Arts.
Growing up in the age of models and transformable toys, Chen is far more consumed with the instruction manuals than with the models and toys per se. The graphics and symbols in the manuals tend to spark his fertile imagination. They betoken the physical configurations of the models and toys, indicating the being of three-dimensional structures with extremely neat and tidy geometric patterns. The abstract and the concrete, the graphic and the three-dimensional, as well as the symbols and the physical commodities are ergo connected and illustrated through these linear schemata, and the correlations and gaps between the two shores are exactly where the artist’s gaze lingers on.
After entering art school, Chen had shown much more interests in the floor plans attached on the wall of the museums or printed on the brochures than the actual architecture or its interior.
Later when he started to teach in the architecture related departments at schools, the design diagrams done by the students including elevations, sections, and plans which are virtual spaces constructed by lines had become his important inspiration for his creation.
Chen’s award-winning entry to the 10th Visual Arts Prize of Li Chun-Shen Foundation bore this characteristic signature, presenting an impressive result of various techniques such as deconstruction, rendering, transformation and proliferation on the basis of architectural blueprints. It immersed the spectators in the ambiguity between reality and virtuality, truth and fiction, immediacy and history, as well as between future and memory. The intimidating, awe-inspiring size of this work also stimulated the spectators’ profound reflection and deep contemplation.
Such a work was neither an abstract painting, since it contained recognizable perspectives and symbols, nor a landscape painting by traditional definition, for the artist meant not to highlight the picturesque scenery’s depth of field or aura of ethereality. Following the laws of perspective, the artist managed to open up new humanistic horizons for the spectators with color-fields and blots produced by daubing, masking, embossing, pasting, tearing, shedding, and so forth. Admiring Chen’s artworks, particularly those created around 2007, is no less than entering a ruin bristling with traces of life. The multifarious traces left by the previous dwellers on the mottled walls vividly evoked a myriad of plausible memories and imaginations. It is nothing short of a humanistic landscape in the absence of figures.
In fact, Chen have had numerous experiences way before winning the "The 10th Visual Arts Prize of Li Chun-Shen Foundation", solo exhibitions included: Employ Spirituality" in 1999, "Lo-Fi" in 2001, "I heard you looking" and "Peintures Récentes" in 2003 and "Reconstruction" in 2004. After the prize, he had continuously done solo shows included: " Sky Blue × Landscape" in 2010, "A Block" in 2011, "Paradoxically" in 2013, "Frozen Music" in 2014 and "Decontextualization of Production" in 2015. In every exhibition, Chen had made some changes and features in the styles or techniques, however, the fundamental concept and skill of creation have remained coherent and consistent.
On the spiritual level, Chen is filled with a passionate longing for artificial order. Such kind of order is reflected in the logic and sense of space brought by lines and geometric patterns. Treating the logic, order, and sense of space as the departure point for his creative practice, the artist contrarily tries to deconstruct and rearrange them in different ways such as destruction, overwriting and transformation. Beneath the surface of the artist’s rigorous, precise, and careful measurement lurks the shades of his intuition and subconscious. Based on the moves he terms “posturing” and “pseudo-technology,” Chen turns the compositions of his artworks into vehicles for spirit in which all the logic, order, spaces, realities and meanings are eliminated. He also gratifies his desire for “modeling” and “de-modeling” in the process of daubing, scraping, alteration, highlighting and transformation.
In addition to his rebel-like predisposition, Chen finds himself wistful yearning for some sorts of indescribable material textures. He tends to deconstruct, regenerate and restructure the original textures with different methods such as photographically reproducing, printing out, photocopying, rubbing, daubing and shedding. Quovis modo, his approach always gives the originally clear and regular patterns an elusive quality. On top of that, each method creates a specific physical texture capable of drawing out wider psychological implications. In this situation, to admire Chen’s artworks is to visit a huge ancient ruin or to read fragments of mysterious texts, a personal experience full of serendipitous discoveries. A bite of the apple makes one yearn for more. The spectators may be lost in reverie or curious sensation due to their infatuation with such ambiguity and fracture in history. The artist stated that:
“I am captivated by these traces. They are auxiliary in nature, yet sometimes seems as if the inmates have taken over the asylum. Appearing as seepage or overflow, these traces are physically made with adhesive tapes that conventionally serve as a supportive object. In recent years, I have used adhesive tapes and erroneous brushstrokes to challenge my intuitive intellectual horizons. I attempt not to predict the outcomes of such kind of experiments, while these stubborn stains in turn veil the previous outcomes of experiments and erroneous brushstrokes, and hence faithfully and lovingly preserve the diachronic changes on the canvases.” (2015)
The title of the exhibition "Well-Lighted Room" shown in Project Fulfill Art Space in 2017 was inspired by the gallery’s significant bright space. It is quoted from the well-known art publication" Has Modernism Failed? " in where the last chapter named " The graffiti in the well-lighted room".
More or less, Chen’s paintings involve graffiti-like content. His “graffiti” is something of a rebel against graphic patterns and order, just as those on the streets of New York created by American avant-garde artists in the 1980s whose criticism and rebellion against mainstream values lurked beneath the vigor and vulgarity of their pieces of graffiti.
To create the new batch of artworks for his 2017 solo exhibition at the Project Fulfill Art Space, Chen followed his consistent approach, drawing on various graphic illustrations from different sources such as the floor plans of Taipei Metro’s underground shopping areas, patterns and space graphics in textbooks of graphic studies, design specifications of aerial vehicles retrieved from the Internet, plates in catalogues of Western arts, and even the spacecraft drawings by the artist at the age of five. This solo exhibition is installed in a gallery as bright as a white box, featuring these paintings’ unique quality of lingering amid virtuality and reality as well as between rationality and poetic charm. The spectators may feel bewildered by Chen’s mesmerizing artworks in which the virtual and the real intersect. Some vibrantly colored pieces among the exhibits are also highly reminiscent of the neon lights that radiate auras of mystery and ambiguity on the streets.
Chen’s oeuvre has been detached from Mother Nature since he began his career as an artist. Instead, he is enchanted with the geometry of architectural and mechanical blueprints, and construes such order as the second-hand or even a third-hand “artificial nature.” By rearranging the order of these artificial graphics, the artist not only manifests his sui generis humanistic thinking and poetic criticism, but also challenges the spectators’ breadth of vision and logic of speculation.
陳建榮是2007年第十屆李仲生現代繪畫創作獎的得主，當年評審給他的獲獎理由是：「作品具現了一個趨近于建構、抽離與還原的反覆循環，塑造出畫面中具多種可能性的空間體。」
1972年出生於台北的陳建榮，似乎早在1990年代前期，就讀國立藝術學院(今國立台北藝術大學)美術系期間，便確認了他未來創作的路向和手法。
成長於組合模型與變形玩具的年代，陳建榮顯然對附隨在包裝盒中的模型說明書，深感興趣與著迷，遠遠勝過那些實際的模型與玩具。說明書上的圖形示意，提供他無窮的想像空間；那是對組合模型與玩具實體的一種預示，以極為規整、平面的幾何圖形，去說明另一個立體的構成與存有。在抽象與真實之間、在平面與立體之間、在符號與實物之間，就透過那些線性構成的示意，加以聯結、預告；而存在於兩者之間的牽連和落差，往往也就成為陳建榮著迷、徘徊的關鍵所在。
到了進入藝術學院，參觀美術館或博物館，對館內牆面張貼或導覽小冊上刊載的平面圖的興趣，也往往勝過對真實建築體或內部空間的關注。
之後，進入學校教書，教的是和建築有關的科系，學生的建築設計圖，包括：立面圖、剖面圖、平面圖……，那些直線交結所構成的虛擬空間，更成為他創作的重要靈泉。
2007年，獲得李仲生現代繪畫獎的作品，正是這樣一批以建築圖稿為基底，藉由解構、塗抹、轉譯、增生……等手法形塑而成的成果；提供了觀者一種界於真實與虛幻、現實與想像、當下與過去，乃至未來與記憶……之間的曖昧情狀，尺幅的巨大，更迫人逼視面對，生發深沈的反省與沈思。
這樣的作品，既不是真正的抽象畫，因為當中有許多可被辨識的透視空間與符號；但也不是傳統定義下的風景畫，因為藝術家顯然不在刻意描繪自然風景的意境或景深。在基本的透視結構中，畫家以塗抹、掩蓋、壓印、粘貼、撕扯、流洩……等等的色面或漬痕，建構了另一個可供進出的人文空間。面對陳建榮的作品，特別是2007年前後的作品，猶如進入一個充滿生命遺痕的廢墟，斑駁的牆面，有之前使用者留存下來的各種生活的痕跡，提供了諸多可能的回憶或想像，那是一種人物缺席下的人文風景。
事實上，早在陳建榮獲得李仲生獎之前，他已經歷了相當豐富的創作歷程。「精神輸出」(1999)、「低傳真」(2001)、「I heard you looking」(2003)、「Peintures Récentes」(2003)、「Reconstruction」(2004)……，是他此前多次個展的主題；而得獎之後，又有「 Sky Blue X Landscape」(2010)、「A棟」(2011)、「似是而非」(2013)、「是凝固的音樂」(2014)、「去脈絡生產」(2015)、等展出。每一次的展出，在作品的風貌或表現的技法上，都有一些改變與特色，但基本的創作理念和手法，則始終維持一定的連貫與脈絡。
從精神的層面看，陳建榮在本質上，有某種對人為秩序的深沈憧憬與追求。這種秩序，表現在一種以直線、幾何形構成的邏輯性與空間感當中。但當這些邏輯、秩序或空間感，成為創作的起點時，他卻開始以一種摧毀、覆蓋、轉譯等方式，去進行對這些既存邏輯、秩序，或空間的叛逆與更生。在那些看似嚴謹、精準、一板正經的丈量行動中，其實陳建榮依循的，完全是一種來自直覺與潛意識的行動。在被他自稱是「裝腔作勢」的「偽科技」的動作中，他讓畫面成為完全屬於「去邏輯」、「去秩序」、「去空間」，乃至「去真實」、「去意義」的精神載體；同時，也在這種多次塗抹、刮除、變造、凸顯、轉譯的過程中，藝術家獲得了「造形」與「去造形」的高度滿足。
其次，陳建榮在叛逆的本質外，也對某些不可名狀的物質肌理，懷有高度的迷戀和嚮往。
當陳建榮對著那些帶有人為秩序的底稿，進行破壞、再造、重構時，所採取的手段，經常包括：翻拍、輸出、影印、膠貼、印拓、塗抹、流洩……，而不論是那一過程或那一手法，總是帶著一種將原本真實變得更為模糊、曖昧的特質，而且每一過程或手法，都具有一些特殊的物理性肌理，進而生發更多的心理效應。這種現象，就像閱讀一些充滿歷史謎團的斷簡殘篇，或進入一個牆面地上滿是歲月遺痕的巨大廢墟；都因模糊、斷裂而更引人遐想、好奇。一如作者所言：
「其實我很著迷於這些痕跡，這些痕跡都是輔助性的，但又有點反客為主，不管是比較多的滲漏或比較小的溢出，都是膠帶很自然造成的物理性現實，膠帶原先是一種輔佐的客體，但我這幾年常常希望它來打壞本能的知識性，包括畫錯。如此在嘗試當中，我也並不預期它可能會是怎樣，而這些不太能被我消弭掉的痕跡，又去覆蓋別的嘗試，甚至這些錯誤的路徑，反而讓我覺得是珍貴的保留，能看到中間的歷時性。」(2015)
2017年年初在台北「就在藝術」的展出，因應畫廊明亮的空間特質，取名「明亮的房間」；這是援引自藝術名著《現代主義失敗了嗎？》一書中末尾的一個章名〈明亮房間中的塗鴉〉。
陳建榮繪畫的內容，多少也有塗鴉的傾向，一如1980年代美國那些在紐約街頭牆面塗鴉的前衛藝術家，在看似生猛、粗鄙的外形下，其實是對主流社會價值的一種批判和逆反。陳建榮的「塗鴉」，則是對平面造形秩序本身的逆反。
2017年展出的一批新作，仍然取材自諸多不同來源的平面圖示物，如：台北捷運地下街的平面圖、圖學書中的圖樣或空間圖、網路截取的飛行器設計圖、西方藝術圖冊中的獨立版頁，甚至是藝術家本人五歲半幼兒塗鴉的太空船原跡……。不過此次佈展於猶如白盒子的明亮房間中，這些界於虛、實之間的作品，更凸顯了它們穿透虛實、徘徊於理性與詩情之間的特質；而幾件色彩特別鮮麗的作品，也令人聯想起街道多采霓虹燈般的迷離與曖昧。
陳建榮的創作，自始即疏離於一般外在真實的大自然，反而著迷於表達建築與機械構成的幾何秩序，那是一種人工二手乃至三手再造的「第二自然」。陳建榮藉著這些人為圖像的秩序重整，表達了屬於他特有的人文思維與批判詩情，挑戰觀者認知的視覺以及思辨的邏輯。