Artworks / Writings
Ascetic Buddhist monks take an austere attitude towards their own bodies and gestures, and this notion of austerity is not only exemplified in their ritual practices, but also in their daily lives, that is when they are walking, standing, sitting or lying. There is an old saying that goes, “(one) walks as a wind blows; (one) stands as a pine stands; (one) sits as a bell sits; and (one) lies in the shape of a bow”. As swift as a wind, as integral as a pine, as sturdy as a bell, and as restful as an unbent bow; these allegories obviously carry cultural connotations that ascetic monks can certainly ponder upon. Yet, while manifesting the gestures, the human bodies generate certain physical and biological reactions in response to the outer environment; and this somehow brings into existence a perceptual experience that is beyond the scope of language and logic and is beyond a general cultural understanding. This perceptual experience at the same time is able to find its way to be associated with individual psychological states. To me, this kind of physical, biological, and psychological integration achieved via human bodies comes very close to the nature of art.
From the intrinsic perceptual experience to the extrinsic bodily gestures; and from bodily gestures to symbolic signs, which are then conveyed and illuminated by different visual mediums, this on the whole corresponds with the development direction of my creating process throughout the past ten years.
佛教的修行者對身體姿態有嚴格的規範,這不單顯示在宗教儀式之中,更及於日常的起居生活,即如步行、站立、坐或卧的姿態等等。有所謂:「行如風;立如松;坐如鐘;卧如弓」。如風之爽颯、如松之挺直、如鐘之穩重、如弓(未拉緊時)之舒曲,這些意象固然有其文化內涵可供修行者細味,但在實踐這些身體姿態時,身體對應外在環境所呈現的物理與生理狀態,亦構成一種超乎語言邏輯與文化情境的知覺經驗,而這知覺經驗又往往連繫到個人的心理狀態。此種透過身體產生的物理、生理與心理狀態的交融,對我來說,更近於藝術的本質。
由有感於內的知覺經驗;到形之於外的身體姿態;再而成為具象徵意義的符號;並籍各種影象媒介轉載與再現,這大概反映了我過去十年的創作取向。