繁殖系列  

凡樹有神/神說/一粒果子有億萬個佛

信者/給一泡種子

空虛的土地/妳需要嗎/真的/服用一泡種子

就可以/進入花花世界           

 ~~ 節錄自王羅蜜多<一泡種子>

 

曾幾何時,發現畢業於成大藝研所的校友,常會在做藝評或畫展介紹時,在題目之下先下個引言,作為對作者或作品詮釋方向的導引。本來很猶豫是否採用如此的介紹方式,但基於系出同門的親切感、又帶點像是故意嘲謔的做作,我隨俗地選擇擷取蜜多最近創作的新詩的片段,雖然是不同時期、不同形式、不同關注對象的藝文創作,但神韻意味竟可互通,不僅可以當做為這次個展的導引,甚至做為進入他精神柏拉圖的一個入口。

 

學於文、游於藝,加上在宗教與精神領域的涉獵,蜜多的作品涵蓋詩文與畫作,對他而言,正如「詩是無形畫,畫是有形詩」一般,二者得以互為解釋。其以個人獨特的手法,遊走在超現實與抽象之間。初次接觸蜜多的作品,往往會被其濃厚的神祕色彩所吸引,帶著說教傳道的寓言象徵,或動或靜、或徐或疾,但總是霧裡看花,一山還比一山高,要如何才能接近才能觸摸那遙遠不可及的心靈國度呢?長久以來,對於藝術作品如何賦予存在的問題,不外乎討論它的形式(form)與內容(content)。「形式」講求技法、造型、構圖、畫法等,來呈現具體的視覺感受,它是一種實物說明(material illustration),使得一個具體系統(formal system)在感知視覺的刺激之下得以被建立起來;作品透過「形式」而使其成為可見,並藉由「形式」,讓觀者得以面對了解作者本身的精神的意識(The consciousness of the spirit)。而所謂的「內容」則是關係到想要傳達的精神及觀念、本質與意境,是觀念的投射,建立在創意,歸根究底,其實就是回歸到「形式」的本身。

 

在沒有題目情境引導之下,第一眼對看到蜜多的「無性繁殖」系列時,可能是自己的學習背景影響,當下直覺反應是一團團細胞的分裂行為,有時凝固,有時蠢動, 灰藍為主的色調,偶而參雜類似血紅的痕跡,光影描繪出立體幽暗的氛圍,這讓我聯想到生物體那最細微的內在--無聲無息的自我分裂,像是無法預知的良性消長或惡性擴散似地,呈現如此的張力壓迫,令人感到相當的不安。康德曾說:有感知而沒有觀念是盲目,有觀念而沒有感知是虛空。(Percepts without concepts are blind; concepts  without percepts are empty) 。在觀看這一系列作品中,感知刺激所釋放的隱晦不安氣息,可以清楚明白這並非來自純美術的挑逗,在感知與觀念相輔而得以形塑作品的定位下,激起我想要藉著瞭解其形式表現,來摸索那隱藏在圖像背後,畫家想要呈現的精神與觀念。 

 

蜜多的作品,就色彩而言,藍色、尤其是深藍一直是他慣用的基調。一般而言,和暖色調的感性與戲劇性的表現相反,藍色具有離開觀者的收縮感,是理性冷靜而傾向詩性的。深藍近黑更是憂傷乃至於趨近死亡的記號,但是,矛盾的是,在任何色彩都可以在黑色中被凸顯出來的情況下,這顯示了黑色所展現的包容性與不為所動的和諧。另外,就慣用線條圖形來看,圓型弧線型,相較於直線與角形折線,幾乎是蜜多畫作的主要構成。對這樣的組成模式,康定斯基有如此的說法:線與銳角都代表溫熱與年輕,而圓弧則是冷靜成熟與自覺。從以上色彩與圖形分析所得的印象,顯然可以近一步大膽的假設:不是偶然,也沒有暴衝,基本上,作者本身應該是理性地冷靜地安排呈現每一個在他心中已有定見的結論。他把思緒揉捏成一團再一團,塞到一個又一個的圓當中,賦予它一個世界,讓它在裡面蓬勃、轉化、消長然後死亡。一個個緊密排列的圓, 縱然偶有一些衝突與分裂,本質上,都很安穩地被圈套在一個大圓或一個框架中,這或可解釋蜜多是藉著畫布在處理安置他紛雜的心思意念,不管思緒如何泉湧奔騰,最終理性總能將它圈住不致氾濫。

 

不管自詡為寫實或抽象,其實,就廣義而言,藝術行為本身就是一種抽象,將個人想法轉換成符號色彩,尤其是二十世紀以來的現代藝術,常常轉化到最終,或許連表述者都無法清楚以有限的言語來解釋作品中,經過反覆轉喻隱喻的那心中複雜的一團。如此一來,畫作的解釋就絕非唯一,延伸演繹變做是想像的天堂。就像蜜多曾解釋「繁殖」系列是他對大地思考的延伸,無限的擴張無限的破壞,恰似當今生態環境的寫照。或許蜜多也無法一語道盡那隱藏內心中的曲曲折折,在刻意想抓住描繪的理性世界,反而在無意中又創造出新的陌生世界,讓自己必須再詮釋自己的詮釋。反覆地觀看蜜多的作品加上土地的聯想,竟然讓我興起了另類「聚成世界,碎為微塵」的感覺。看作品中一顆顆漂浮在藍黑如宇宙中深邃,偶然極光反射出璀燦的豔麗,一顆球體就像一顆星球,獨自安靜的在完成不知是誰或甚至沒有誰所交付的命令。被一種靜態的動能驅使,無限延伸的空間,無數的球體。蜜多作品中流露出個人宗教式的生命宇宙觀,對映他的詩句: 一粒果子有億萬個佛。不管是三千大千世界的大宇宙,或是生命體內感情俱足的小細胞,不就是英國詩人布萊克(William Blake)的詩句:一沙一世界,一花一天堂的寫照。(To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower.)  也正恰和金剛經的“一沙中有恆河沙數佛世界”相謀合。所謂「聚成世界,碎為微塵」,這世界與微塵皆在「緣起聚散」的宇宙法則中,就呈現在蜜多作品中的規律,規律就是力量,而力量來自於理性的自覺。

 

一個人的了悟,也就是自覺,其實是一段憂傷的自我療癒過程。作者嚐試面對並克服夢想慾望所衍生的焦慮與空虛感,看似用宗教來解釋因果,其實是自身理性體悟克制規範的結果。繁殖與死亡是生命現象的兩個面相,就像易經所提的虛盈與消長,是自然宇宙運行不變的法則,以無性繁殖來形容大量複製或蔓延失控的內在慾望或外在生態的失衡,看似不帶感情的自謔或控訴,其實不正是關心憂慮的表現。不管是空虛的土地還是空洞的愛情,只要有神有佛,就有拯救。杜牧〈贈別〉詩言道:多情卻似總無情。蜜多的「無性繁殖」系列,呈現出個人高度的自省與自律,以及對大地環境的憂心與期待。

 

(作者橫直子/小兒科醫師/畫家/藝術評論工作者)

 

The Series of Asexual Reproduction by Wangrow Mito 

 / text by Heng Zhi-zi

 

 Where there is a tree, there is a deity

The deity says,

A fruit has millions of Buddhas

To the believers

An infusion of seeds is given

 

The empty land

Do you need it 

Really

It only needs to take an infusion of seeds

To enter the colorful world

 ~~ Extracted fromAn Infusion of Seeds poem by Wangrow Mito                  

                                                                     

 

 

Not long ago I found that the alumni of the Arts Institute, National Cheng Kung University, would often provide an introduction, just under the title of their articles for art critic or exhibition introduction, as a direction of the interpretation of the artist or artwork. I had been very hesitant whether I should adopt such a way of introduction but I decided finally to follow this conventional way, at a time based on the friendliness of the same department and the affectation of deliberate way of teasing, by using an extracted section of a new poem recently created by Mito. Although this poem is a piece of artwork in a different form about a different topic and in a different period, its charm and implication are the things in common so that it can be provided as an introduction to the exhibition in question and as an entrance of his spirit of Plato as well. 

As being a man of learning who can skillfully apply the learning methods, with his knowledge in religious and spiritual areas as well, Mito creates both poems and paintings. For him, ‘a poem is an invisible painting and a painting is a visible poem’ so that a poem and a painting can be an interpretation of each other. With his unique personal manner, his works are between surrealist and abstract paintings. Usually, a person will be attracted by the strong mysterious style of Mito’s works when he sees them for the first time. These works represent allegorical symbols of preaching. Some are dynamic and some are static. Some are gentle and some are fast. However, it seems that we are watching flowers in the mist and we can always find another higher mountain than the one in front of us. How can we get closer to and touch the distant kingdom of his soul? For a long time, whenever it comes to the questions about the existence given by an artwork, people have always discussed nothing but its form and content. The ‘form’ emphasizes the techniques, shapes, compositions and painting skills to present specific visual experience. It is a material illustration that allows a formal system to be built under the stimulation of visual perception. An artwork becomes visible by being given a ‘form’ through which a viewer is able to be faced with and understand the consciousness of the spirit of the artist. As to the ‘content’, it’s related to the spirit, concepts, nature and implication that the artist intends to convey; it’s the projection of ideas, which is based on the artist’s creativity; after all, it simply returns to the ‘form’ itself.   

Without the guidance of the context given by the title, the first time when I saw the series of Asexual Reproduction by Mito, I instinctively felt that it’s about the divisions of cells, probably due to my own study background. Sometimes the works look solidified and sometimes they look wriggling. The main colors are blue and gray, which are mixed occasionally with some traces similar to blood red. Light and shadow are used to depict the atmosphere of three-dimensional dark. This reminds me of the most subtle inner part of an organism, that is, the silent self-division. It’s like an unpredictable benign growth and decline or malignant proliferation that presents such a tension or oppression making one feel very uneasy. Immanuel Kant once said, ‘percepts without concepts are blind; concepts without percepts are empty.’ A vague uneasy atmosphere is produced due to the stimulation of perception when one sees this series of works. It’s obvious that this atmosphere is not simply provoked by the pure art. Based on the presupposition that an artwork can be formed through the complement of perception and concept, I want to understand the forms in order to explore the spirit and concepts hidden behind the image that the artist wants to present.      

In respect of colors, blue, especially dark blue, is the basic hue Mito is used to applying in his works. Generally speaking, opposite to the emotional and dramatic expression of warm colors, blue is a color which provides a sense of contraction to separate from a viewer and is rational, calm and poetry-oriented. Moreover, the dark blue that is nearly black is a sign of sadness and even nearly death. The paradox is however that all colors can stand out through black. It shows that black is characterised by its undeniable inclusiveness and harmony. Besides, as for the lines and patterns, Mito is used to adopting mainly circles or arcs rather than straight lines, angles or polylines. Regarding such a composition mode, Wassily Kandinsky once said, 'lines and acute angles are symbols of warmth and youth while arcs are a symbol of calmness, maturity and consciousness'. According to the impression based on the above analysis of colors and patterns, it is obvious that we could make a bold assumption : It’s not an accident and there is no violent conflict, either. Basically, we believe that the artist must have rationally and calmly arranged and presented all conclusions that he has previously made in his mind. He kneads and pinches his thoughts and divides them into smaller units. He stuffs each of the circles with a smaller unit of thoughts and gives it a world in which it can grow, transform, decline and die. All the circles are closely packed. Although there are occasionally some conflicts or divisions, the circles are basically trapped steadily in a larger circle or a frame. It could be interpreted that Mito deals with and arranges his complex minds through canvas and that his reason can finally trap his thoughts without any flooding no matter how his thoughts emerge or rise violently.         

It doesn’t matter whether the artist considers his works as realistic or abstract works, the action of art is, in a broader perspective, actually an abstraction that transforms a person’s thoughts into signs and colors. Especially, the modern art since the 20th century are usually transformed into works that can’t be clearly interpreted through limited words by the artists because the complicated thoughts of artists are generated from several metonymies and metaphors. As a result, there is no absolute interpretation of a painting and the extension of interpretation becomes a paradise for imagination. Similarly, Mito has his own interpretation about the series of Asexual Reproduction : It’s the extension of his thoughts about the land and the unlimited expansion and unlimited destruction are like a reflection of today's ecological environment. Perhaps, Mito can’t explain clearly with some words the complicated ideas hidden in his own mind. If he deliberately tries to catch the rational world through a way of description, he may inadvertently create another new strange world instead. In this way, he must turn back in order to interpret his own interpretation. After having seen Mito’s works for several times and thinking over the concept of land, I have a different feeling about his works, that is, ‘clustered as a world, broken into dusts’. In his works, all circular forms are floating in the blue-black deep universe and the aurora occasionally reflects splendid brightness. Each sphere, like a planet, is completing silently and solely the order made by someone or no-one and is driven by a static momentum, in the unlimited extension of space, with numerous spheres. Mito’s works reveal his personal religious viewpoint of life and cosmology, as we could find in his poem : ‘A fruit has millions of Buddhas’. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the enormous universe composed of thousands of worlds or a small cell with all feelings inside an organism, it’s like what British poet William Blake described in his poem : ‘To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower’. And, it’s exactly similar to the description of ‘every grain of sand has innumerable Buddhas, as the number of grains of sand in the Ganges’ in the Diamond Sutra. The so-called ‘clustered as a world, broken into dusts’ means this world and the dusts are following the laws of the universe: ‘Both clustering and separating are the results of all causes and conditions’. And, all these are represented as the regular pattern in Mito’s works. The regular pattern is the power and the power is genrated from the rational self-consciousness.

A person’s awareness is his self-consciousness. It’s actually a sad self-healing process. The artist tries to confront and overcome the anxiety and sense of emptiness produced from illusion or desire. At first glance, the artist uses religion to explain the cause and effect; however, it’s the result of his own rational understanding and exercising of norms. Reproduction and death are the two aspects of life. Like the sufficiency and lack or growth and decline mentioned in the I Ching (Book of Changes), it’s the unchanging laws according to which the universe works naturally. The artist uses asexual reproduction to describe a large number of replications or getting out of control or spreading of inner desire or external ecological imbalance. This manner looks like a dispassionate self-deprecating or complaint but it is actually an expression of concern and worry. It doesn’t matter whether it’s about an empty land or barren love, where there is a deity or a Buddha, there is salvation. Du Mu said in his poem Parting Words: ‘Passionate is just like heartless’. The series of Asexual Reproduction by Mito present a high degree of his self-reflection and self-discipline as well as his concerns and expectations for the environment on Earth.    

 

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