策展人 Curator
克里斯多夫‧庫克 Christopher Cook
(英國普林茅斯大學美術學院專任教授)
Professor of Painting, and Gallery Curator, University of Plymouth

• 12/04 SUN
15:00 策展人與藝術家對談 Artist Talk
Christopher Cook x 宋曉明
16:30 展覽開幕

• 12/11 SUN
16:00 專家對談 Artist Talk
陳貺怡 (國立台灣藝術大學美術學院院長) x 宋曉明

宋曉明近期的畫作，在視覺上與概念中，均存有引人入勝的優雅。畫作賞心悅目，帶有質樸的簡約，和對物質特性的崇敬；然而更進一步接觸之，便浮現出了一種哲學強度，使作品成為獨樹一格的存在。畫家的畫室對創作主題產生了影響，正是因為它們都是宋曉明視覺哲學上的易塑工具；就像尋常話語挑戰詩人妙言，要將熟悉事物大舉轉變，成為滔滔不絕的表達與溝通方式。奠基於如此的「具象」之上，宋曉明圖像中精巧的詩意，幻然而生。

展覽之名「具象詩」，援引自一場文學運動。該運動與抽象表現主義，均於 1950 年代獲得關注；讓文字的視覺效果凌駕於字面意義，企圖擴大語言的概念界線，正如宋曉明關注的是如何擴展其繪畫範圍。展覽名稱更進一步表彰的，是宋曉明作品內美學與智識的真切連結，以虛構形式表現出畫室生活中具體的現實：純亞麻布、土質顏料、純白底漆與紙膠帶。紙膠帶意指過程，並提醒了觀者，所有藝術都是幻象、是正在過渡的圖像，其不可預測性、或說不確定性，乃是一種魔幻的特質。

宋曉明拒絕與極簡主義藝術家紐曼進行比較，然而紙膠帶是一種常見、令人著迷的物件；且紐曼對哲學的興趣，以及他不斷反思自己畫作的傾向，暗示了一些相似之處。如紐曼的陳述所暗指，其作品與宋曉明畫作的連結，與其說是視覺共鳴，不如說是一種哲學立場：「我希望我的畫作給予某人（如同作品給了我自己）的，是一種自身整體感、自有的分離感，並能感受到他自己的特質；同時，還有他與其他人的聯繫－而這些人也是各為個體的。」

在這次展覽中，宋曉明對雙聯畫與多聯畫形式的精巧運用，以及他在之中堅持留下的小間隙，體現了分離的概念。在這分裂的時代之中，分離自身也發展成為強勁的主題，以喚起修復、統一和治癒的概念。《之間》一作中，紙膠帶的幻象似乎將兩片巍巍顫顫、彷彿要滑脫的色塊維繫在一起，暗指著縫針的概念；而在垂直雙聯畫作《距離》中，紙膠帶暗示了它雖試圖將畫布固定在一起，最終仍是徒勞。在獨立空間展出的作品《戀人啊》，展現出了分離親密關係的深沉幻象。與此同時，《隱喻》則是有著挑釁意味的作品名稱，挑戰觀者能否想出該隱喻的意圖。上半部平靜的極簡主義表現，乃是基於底部的「形成過程」，其中真實存在的紙膠帶被反覆使用，好讓藝術家測試各種可能的色調、顏色、角度和節奏。錯綜複雜的下層結構，是上半部分具體陳述－與戲謔的紙膠帶－所仰賴的基礎，暗示創作本身此一行為，即為隱喻對象；創作並不是突然的啟蒙，而是一種測試與解決的過程。

本次展覽捕捉到宋曉明有意識的淡化著，他對顛覆寫實主義所表現出的輕薄之情；轉而傾向底層圖像和表面幻覺之間，更為緊密的關係。這個重大變化，部分是源於宋曉明探究的極簡主義派，其具有降低諷刺意味的效果，利於開展更細緻微妙的對話。或許更令人驚奇的是，若從哲學的嚴謹角度來看，這樣的改變使療癒與堅定的美學主題得以浮現，並賦予了這些作品一份新生的親密。

Sheauming Song: Concrete Poetry


The arresting elegance of these recent paintings by Sheauming Song is both visual and conceptual. In their stark simplicity and veneration of material qualities, the paintings delight the eye, yet on closer acquaintance a philosophical intensity arises to give the works their distinctive presence. That the artist’s studio informs his subject matter is precisely because it provides the malleable tools of his visual philosophy, just as common words challenge the poet to transform the familiar into a means of eloquent expression. From this grounding in the ‘concrete’ emerges the lean poetry of Song’s images.
The exhibition title, Concrete Poetry, is appropriated from a literary movement which gained traction in the 1950s. It prioritised the visual effect of words over literal meaning and so sought to expand the conceptual ambit of language, just as Song is concerned with expanding painterly range. The title more importantly recognises in these works a telling conjunction of the aesthetic and intellectual, with the concrete realities of studio life: raw linen, earth pigments, blank-white ‘primer’ and masking tape - in fictional form. The tape signifies process, and reminds the viewer that all art is an illusion, an image in transition, its unpredictability or uncertainty a magical property.

Song resists comparisons with the minimalist Barnet Newman, but masking tape is a common fascination, and Newman’s interest in philosophy, and his inclination to constantly reflect on his paintings, suggests parallels. The connection is less one of visual resonance than of philosophical standpoint, as suggested by Newman’s declaration, "I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality and the same time of his connection to others, who are also separate”.

This idea of separateness is picked up in Song’s astute use of the diptych and polyptych form, and the small gaps he insists upon within them. Separateness is also developed as a potent theme to evoke notions of repair, healing and unity in these divisive times. In Between, the illusion of masking tape appears to hold the two slabs of colour together as they threaten to slide apart, thus suggesting a kind of stitch, whilst in the vertical diptych Juli, the masking tape suggests an attempt to hold the canvasses together has ultimately proved in vain. The work Lovers, displayed in its own room, provides a profound vison of separate togetherness. Meanwhile, the title of Metaphor challenges the viewer to deduce what metaphor is intended. The calm minimalism of the upper section is predicated upon a ‘process of becoming’ at the base, in which actual masking tape has been repeatedly used to allow the artist to test a variety of possible tones, colours, angles and rhythms. This intricate substructure is the foundation on which the concrete statement, and playful tapes, of the upper section depend, suggesting that the metaphor is for the act of creation itself, creation not as sudden enlightenment, but a process of testing and of resolving.

This exhibition captures Sheauming Song playing down his irreverent delight in subversive realism in favour of a closer relationship between underlying image and surface illusion. The significant change is partly due to the minimalist genre Song examines, which has the effect of reducing the level of irony in favour of a subtler dialogue. Perhaps more surprisingly, from within the philosophical rigour, the change has allowed authentic themes of healing and of resolution to emerge, to give these works a newfound intimacy.

Christopher Cook
November 2022