CHEN HUNG: 大理石鹿(Marble Deer)

大理石、鐵、玻璃纖維
雕塑 2015
2015,sculpture
marble.iron.fibreglass

「九色鹿」
藝術家邱承宏近年創作型態多以錄像與雕塑所共構的裝置作品為主，本展「九色鹿」乃是將作品「大理石廠工人」以及「觀音」做一統整性的部署及延展。內容以其長居的花蓮地區為起點，將探索的意識鏈結到家族的、工業的、自然環境以及宗教性等的多項層次上。透過這種在地性的考察，將其對家鄉的歷史與地理的認識，勾勒出饒富個人特質的生命經驗。

猶如他近年的創作裡，木材與大理石在作品的元素運用上佔據相當重要的比例，同時也是我們觀閱的索引，他善於運用金箔，敷予在那些充滿歷史舊痕的物件上或是其縫隙中，藉著這樣的填補，轉化了物件的歷時感，如此的手法，彷若某種宗教性的聖物化操作。對於這些舊物的感懷，這裏可回溯到日治時期，他的外公學習木造建築工法，到後來擁有屬於自己的木材工廠。自幼成長於斯，藝術家的生活記憶即是圍繞在與工廠相關的事物上。而花蓮地區以出產大理石而聞名，對於藝術家來說，這則像是藉由另一種產業來書寫一些關於家族史的體悟。從日治時期林木業的蓬勃，到民國六十年政府開始限制砍伐，當地才轉而開發礦石業，而大理石廠的興盛，也帶動了其他如佛像石刻等的行業發展。另一方面，他也意識到那些在大理石廠裡的外籍勞工亦是隨著某種時代性的需求而出現，在錄像「大理石廠工人」中，兩位推著金箔推車的外籍工人為整部影片的主軸，他們漠然地推動著嘎嘎作響的推車，穿梭在漆黑的廠區裡，這些無名的勞動者，或將如那已被淘汰的推車，隨著產業的興衰與時代更迭的脈動裡，黯然地出現或離開。

在錄像裝置「觀音」裡，乃是藝術家對於礦業思考的延展，在影片中，鏡頭時而呈現刻磨觀音像的局部特寫，或是一些小昆蟲與植物的畫面，有機的生物對應著無機的石材，但從另一面來看，也彷彿是短促的生命對應著一種永恆的精神層次。而藝術家也在拍攝現場蒐集了那些在佛刻工廠裡，塵落在地上的大理石粉屑為塑造原料，自內而外，漸次地形塑出一隻隻姿態各異的水鹿。石材在工廠中被刻造成一尊尊觀音神像，而藝術家則讓鹿群誕生於那些相同原料的石屑。他選擇了出沒在花東一帶高山地區的保育類動物－水鹿做為造型藍本，一方面試著從人文產業擴展到對其居住地域的自然生態層面的刻畫，另一方面，「鹿」這個視覺形象所指涉的，則有另一層屬於宗教意象上的精神探索。在佛教的寓言故事裡，「鹿」是經常被提及的一種動物，無論是拯救人類或是鹿群，「鹿」被視為是佛陀的前世化身，同時也是藉其奉獻、捨身的故事，傳遞了一種救贖與教化的精神，因此在「觀音」一作裡，我們可推演若佛刻造像生於石材，那麼那些被削去的屑石則是為此目的而犧牲的同體，而藝術家讓它們再獲新生。

生活在一個虔誠的佛教信仰家庭裡，我們似乎可以反推藝術家在學院體系下從西方雕塑的造型發展邏輯，衍伸至個體的生命體驗之中，無論是藉由金箔的運用、觀音石刻的紀錄或是水鹿的雕塑等，藝術家透過他對家族生活史的敏銳感觸以及人文自然的地理探勘，探索著那介乎物質與精神間的神秘薄膜，並從中發展出一套關於宗教與藝術之間的記憶修補術。

大理石鹿九號
Marble Deer No.9
210x55x185cm

Artist Chen-Hung Chiu’s installations consist video and sculpture. The exhibition, The Nine-Colored Deer linking to his previous works The Marble Workers and GuanYin, develops towards a fulfillment. It centers on multiple aspects of his hometown Hualien, such as family, industry, environment and religion. Through onsite study, Chiu transforms historical and geographical knowledge about his hometown into works that illustrate a unique personal living experience.

Wood and marble, two major factors in his recent works, are index to his practice. Gold leaves are subtly employed and applied to the surface of the old objects and to fill the gaps and scars, which seem full of stories. Such tactics, much like a sanctifying rite, transforms our sense of time. The tendency of loving for old object traces to the artist’s family history. His grandfather learned wood-construction skills in the Japanese Colonial Era and later established his own wood factory. The childhood memory was all about things associated with the wood factory. While Haulien is famous for marble industry, marble, to the artist, suggests another way of writing family history. Forestry industry was once striving in the Japanese Colonial Era. In 1971, the government limited deforestation and the marble mining industry began to boom. The stone carving of Buddha statues, thus, grew. On the other hand, he noticed that the need of foreign workers in the marble factories indicates the characteristics of the times in Taiwan. The Marble Workers, two foreign workers pushing a mine trolley round the dark factory with no expression on their faces. A creaking of the trolley became clear through the whole video. The nameless workers and the discarded trolleys appear and disappear along with the rise and fall of the industries.

The video installation GuanYin embodies artist ‘s continuous reflection on mining industry. In the video, we sometimes see a close-up of the partial part of the statue of Kwan Yin and sometimes of the small insects and plants. The image of organic living beings versus the inorganic stone is like a metaphor of a fleeting life versus eternity in a spiritual level. When the artist filmed onsite, he collected the wasted marble chips dropped on the ground in the Buddha statue stone-carving factory. He used the marble chips as raw material for sculpturing vivid sambar deer in various positions. The marble blocks are carved into the statues of The Goddess of Mercy, while the marble chips are gathered to make deer. The artist deliberately chooses the protected animal species living in the Eastern mountain area of Taiwan - sambar deer- as a prototype for his sculptures. On the one hand, he tries to sketch out the local environment from culture industry to nature conversation. On the other hand, deer implies spiritual exploration in the context of Buddhism. In Buddhist fables, deer often plays a role of saving either human beings or a herd and is regarded as incarnation of Buddha. The spirit of deer represents devotion, sacrifice, redemption and enlightenment. Therefore, if we imagine the wasted marble chips “sacrifice” for the birth of Buddha statues, the artist reshapes the wasted and gives it a new life.

Knowing that the artist’s upbringing in a pious Buddhist family, we seem able to see the evidences of academic background of western sculpture training in his works and associate them with his individual life. Whether the use of golden leaves, the video documentation of Kwan-Yin stone carving or the sculptures of sambar deer, the artist explores the mystery between physical and spiritual level by a sensitive sense of family history and a geographical study of the culture and the nature; and gradually he develops a set of techniques of memory restoration about religion and art.