盲點 – 李明學個展
Blind Spot - James Ming-Hsueh Lee Solo Exhibition

⋄ 藝術家 Artist | 李明學 James Ming-Hsueh Lee
⋄ 展期 Duration | 07.11.2020 – 08.09.2020
⋄ 開幕 Opening | 07.11.2020 Sat. 3:00 p.m.
⋄ 藝術家座談會 Artist Talk | 07.25.2020 Sat. 3:00 p.m. 與談人 - 王聖閎 Talk with Wang Sheng-Hung


李明學，1978 年出生於台灣，現居於台北。2005年曾榮獲台北美術獎首獎。2013年取得英國羅浮堡大學（Loughborough University）藝術博士學位。

李明學的作品聚焦於日常物件，找尋在藝術脈絡上的潛在意義。擅長以幽默的手法重新閱讀生活周遭尋常元素，檢視被媒體、教育與社會框架中對各種事物的慣性理解。透過反轉物件的使用方式、變換外觀造型或是被觀看角度，從不同視角發現它的隱藏本質，與變化中產生的思考翻轉，在探索當代藝術的可能性上，創造出輕盈感受的另類解讀。

本次展覽名稱「盲點」，針對「被忽略」與「被看見」之間，一個發聲者立場對「盲點」的想像，開始於字面意義所展現視覺中的弔詭：指稱一種宣稱看到，卻沒看見的狀態。面對事物，人們重視著眼前，一個當下可以看到的「呈現」（present）的迷戀，及必然伴隨沒被點出的缺席（absent）。換言之，發聲者在意圖提出觀點的時刻，似乎展現了別人的盲點，卻也造就了自己的盲點。

藝術家藉由日常物M&M巧克力、鉛筆、電池等小物件，探討身份和語言文字間的關係，兩者相互消長的過程所建立的各個小點（spot），經由這個看不見的「點」去「點」出來（point out），架構一個介於歷史自身結構、空間呈現、缺席的挖掘、外在脈絡等難以看見的交織網絡。

對觀者而言猶如一場遊戲，在線索猜測與回應自身經驗間，也產生一個新的點對點可能。意義的發想在此不是為了解謎，因為標準答案並不存在，而是從這種認知轉化的過程中，重新理解及創造。

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James Ming-Hsueh Lee, born in 1978 in Taiwan, currently resides in Taipei. He had won the first prize of the Taipei Art Awards 2005 and obtained his Ph.D. in Arts from Loughborough University in 2013.

James Ming-Hsueh Lee's artworks focus on everyday items to look for any potential meanings in their artistic contexts. He is exceptionally good at re-interpreting usual elements from our daily surroundings with humorous methods. The objective is to examine our stereotypical understanding of everything from the perspectives of media, education, and social construct. Lee discovers an object's hidden nature from a different perspective and forms an opposite thought from the transformations by reserving the way it is meant to be used, changing its external appearances, or the angle of the viewpoint. The goal is to explore the possibility of contemporary art and to create a different interpretation of a little sensation.

The exhibition's title is "Blind Spot"; its focus is between "To be neglected" and "To be seen". It is an imagination of a "blind spot" by an individual with a voice. It all begins with the visual paradox shown from the literal meaning: it is a state of claiming seeing it yet in fact not seeing it. People value what is shown in front of their eyes when facing things. They indulge in the "present" that can be seen at the moment, and it is accompanied by the inevitable absence that is not pointed out. In other words, during the moment when individuals with voice raising a point, they seem to show other people's blind spots, but they also create their own ones.

The artist uses daily items such as M&M Chocolate, pencils, and batteries to discuss the relationships between identity, languages, and words. There are spots created from the growth and decay of these items; these invisible spots point out an interweaving network that is too difficult to be seen. This network is constructed between the structure of the history itself, a presentation of the space, the analysis of the absence, and the external context.

It seems to be a game for the viewers. A new possibility of point to point might be formed between the viewers guessing the hints and responding to their own experiences. The objective of extrapolating meanings is not to solve the puzzles because the answer simply does not exist. It should be re-understanding and creating through the process of this kind of cognitive transformation.