ARTimes+ 洋玩藝兒

攝影萬象》當相機取代了雙眼──藝術作為一種拍照場合

2011-09-19T01:32:00.010+08:00

一位觀眾正在捕捉Nathaniel Mellors的作品《嬉皮士辯證法》（Hippy Dialectics）

原文：The New York Times
作者：Roberta Smith (2011/9/4)
編譯：Fango Huang (2011/9/19)

雖然科學家尚未能斷定，在現今的藝術觀賞（art-viewing）活動裡到底有多少百分比的人是透過相機或是手機上的螢幕來觀看藝術作品，但很明顯地，這個數字正逐漸攀升當中。這也就是為什麼《紐約時報》（The New York Times）的特派攝影師Ruth Fremson，要從威尼斯雙年展（Venice Biennale）帶回許多這種拍攝觀者們正在拍照的照片，這些觀者他們所做的或多或少跟Ruth Fremson一樣，那就是幫藝術品拍照，或者是拍攝那些正在觀賞藝術品的其他觀眾。

當觀眾都變成了攝影師。

而在這些照片當中，我們只有看到兩位觀眾是使用傳統的全功能相機（traditional full-service camera），這和Ruth Fremson用的相機類似，可以拿著相機並透過觀景窗用眼睛直接觀察作品。但是其他人則不一樣，他們使用的大多是手機或者是小型的數位相機，然後把眼睛對焦在小小的螢幕上頭，這傾向於注重取景的過程（framing process）更勝於攝影的偶然性（casual），這正改變著攝影（photography）的面貌。

一位觀眾正在拍攝Norma Jeane的互動式創作的特寫鏡頭。

在展覽中那無所不在的照相機令人感到沮喪，特別是在這種行為被解讀成──「藝術只是變成另一種適合拍照的場合，做為『到此一遊』（Kilroy-was-here）的證明。」更進一步地，相機被視為是一種用來連結（connecting）、參與（participating）和集結（collecting）這些短暫經驗的工具。

威尼斯雙年展的觀眾們正忙著拍攝Urs Fisher的雕塑作品。

無論好壞與否，這都已經成為許多人審美回應（aesthetic response）的本質了。（從Ruth Fremson所拍攝的數張照片判斷之，我們可以看到這些觀眾正忙著拍攝Urs Fischer的雕塑作品，一尊雕塑藝術家Rudolf Stingel外貌的等比例蠟像，而且已被點燃，這是本屆雙年展最受歡迎的作品之一。）並且在一張影像裡，相機的存在（presence）似乎是影像自身詭異的一部分。同樣地，在Ruth Fremson的另一張相片裡，我們可以看到一位紳士正對著Cindy Sherma的人形壁畫作品拍照，壁畫裡是Cindy Sherma裝扮成馬戲團團員的影像，這樣的拍攝方式，讓Cindy Sherma看起來像是特地為他擺姿勢，而且她在相片裡頭，看起來似乎比在這個作品裡還要來得真實。

一位男士對著Cindy Sherman的展品拍照。

一張拍攝觀眾正拍攝藝術家角色扮演之自拍作品的相片，就像是扮演了洋蔥裡的其中一層（多層次當中的一層），這種現象或許只能在一場展覽的拍照觀眾群當中才看得到了。

Related Links:
．Wikipedia: Photo op http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_op
．Wikipedia: Kilroy was here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here
．La Biennale di Venezia http://www.labiennale.org/

Photography | When the Camera Takes Over for the Eye (At the Venice Biennale, Art is a Photo Op)

2011-09-19T01:25:00.001+08:00

Capturing "Hippy Dialectics" by Nathaniel Mellors.

From: The New York Times
Author: Roberta Smith
Published: September 4, 2011

Scientists have yet to determine what percentage of art-viewing these days is done through the viewfinder of a camera or a cellphone, but clearly the figure is on the rise. That’s why Ruth Fremson, the intrepid photographer for The New York Times who covered the Venice Biennale this summer, returned with so many images of people doing more or less what she was doing: taking pictures of works of art or people looking at works of art. More or less.

The visitor as photographer.

Only two of the people in these pictures is using a traditional full-service camera (similar to the ones Ms. Fremson carried with her) and actually holding it to the eye. Everyone else is wielding either a cellphone or a mini-camera and looking at a small screen, which tends to make the framing process much more casual. It is changing the look of photography.

An interactive piece by Norma Jeane.

The ubiquity of cameras in exhibitions can be dismaying, especially when read as proof that most art has become just another photo op for evidence of Kilroy-was-here passing through. More generously, the camera is a way of connecting, participating and collecting fleeting experiences.

Visitors at the Venice Biennale capture Urs Fisher's statue.

For better and for worse, it has become intrinsic to many people’s aesthetic responses. (Judging by the number of pictures Ms. Fremson took of people photographing Urs Fischer’s life-size statue of the artist Rudolf Stingel as a lighted candle, it is one of the more popular pieces at the Biennale, which runs through Nov. 27.) And the camera’s presence in an image can seem part of its strangeness, as with Ms. Fremson’s shot of the gentleman photographing a photo-mural by Cindy Sherman that makes Ms. Sherman, costumed as a circus juggler, appear to be posing just for him. She looks more real than she did in the actual installation.

A man photographs an exhibit by Cindy Sherman.

Of course a photograph of a person photographing an artist’s photograph of herself playing a role is a few layers of an onion, maybe the kind to be found only among picture-takers at an exhibition.

Related Links:
．Wikipedia: Photo op http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_op
．Wikipedia: Kilroy was here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here
．La Biennale di Venezia http://www.labiennale.org/

文化觀察》瘋漫畫！日本大學漫畫科系吸引國際學生就讀

2011-09-17T08:45:00.004+08:00

史丹佛大學畢業的高材生Zack Wood正於漫畫發源地日本留學，現就讀於京都精華大學（Kyoto Seika University）鑽研漫畫研究。Photographer: Ko Sasaki

原文：The New York Times
作者：Miki Tanikawa (2010/12/26)
編譯：Fango Huang (2011/9/17)

Zack Wood在網路上分享自己的繪畫創作，他的日本同學說看起來很像美國漫畫（comics），一會兒他的美國朋友又說他的作品看起來像日本漫畫（manga），而這美日風格交雜的混和物，正是來自於他的轉向：從小在美國長大的他，現在正於日本留學，就讀京都精華大學（Kyoto Seika University）漫畫科系。

現年25歲的Zack Wood是史丹佛大學的畢業生，像他這樣的學生大多受到日本當代藝術所吸引，因為他們認為，透過日本當代藝術可以幫助他們提升相關的職業領域，諸如動畫（animation）、設計（design）、電腦繪圖（computer graphics）等等，以及幫助他們未來在這些相關工作產業的推動。

日本的出生率正逐年不斷下滑，因此各大學更努力地想盡辦法吸引學生來就讀，於是提供了許多有關漫畫與動畫的學位，好讓國際學生能填滿他們空缺的教室。

Zack Wood說：「我特別喜歡這裡，因為在日本你可以完全融入漫畫與動畫的技術訓練，這帶給我很大的樂趣。」

一旦他們瞄準了這些特殊的技術和產業知識，很多國際學生便希望能在畢業之後和返國之前的這段時間哩獲得到更多的相關工作經驗。

一位來自中國東北的二十八歲留學生李琳琳（Li Lin Lin音譯），目前正就讀位於東京的數位好萊塢大學（Digital Hollywood University），是一間專攻動畫和電玩的學校。她表示拿到學位之後，在中國找動畫領域的工作可能就會容易一些，而真正的戰利品，是在這個漫畫王國的實際工作經驗。李琳琳對於在日本動畫工作室裡工作感到特別有興趣。周六下午的一堂數位動畫著色課程中，她說道：「我想，只要你能在日本拿到學位和動畫的工作經驗，你回國之後幾乎就可以做任何你想要的工作。」

東映動畫（Toei Animation）策略經理大山英典（Hidenori Ohyama）認為，這些國際學生是有可能像他一樣最後可以待在日本的公司工作，他說：「只要他們提出申請，並且能通過測驗，我們就會聘用，就像其他員工一樣。」東映動畫，這間引領動漫界的公司，曾製作過《七龍珠》（Dragonball）、《灌籃高手》（Slam Dunk）等動畫，公司內僱有羅馬尼亞籍、南韓籍，和其他國籍的動畫師。

而位於香港的國際動畫工作室「意馬動畫」（Imagi Studios），其培訓經理Kison Chang也表示，雖然直至目前似乎還沒有一間專攻動畫的日本大學能夠受到國際矚目，但他認為，只要這些留學生能獲得在日本動畫公司的工作經驗，就很有可能成為國際間搶手的人才。他說道：「對我們的專業領域來說，他們將會是很大的助益。因為他們也許會為我們帶來一番新氣象，或者帶來一些對我們好但我們並不瞭解的東西。雖然目前我們團隊裡尚未有這樣的人才，而對手那邊也沒有。」

這些課程尚未受到國際關注的另一個原因，很可能是因為課程是用日語教學的。數位好萊塢大學的校長杉山知之（Tomoyuki Sugiyama）便表示，特別是對那些西方的學生來說，語言可能是最大的障礙。他說：「假若我們能在研究所提供英語授課的課程，我相信西方學生就會如洪水般地朝我們而來。」

不過在京都精華大學，這所日本首先成立漫畫專業科系的學校，該校八百名學生當中，國際學生已經從2000年的19人成長至今日的57人。而成立自2005年成的數位好萊塢大學，目前的國際學生人數約占該校學生總數的兩成，他們從最剛開始只有一名外籍生成長到現在為84人。杉山知之表示：「我希望在未來，國際學生人數能成長至學生總數的五成。」

數位好萊塢大學校舍橫跨御宅族的首都──東京秋葉原區（Akihabara），一大批來自韓國、中國、馬來西亞、台灣及其他亞洲國家的所組成的國際學生，在學校與日本學生混在一起上課。

日本在過去十年內，已經成立了十數個授予漫畫、動畫和電玩學位或者相關課程的大學系所，並且也有十數所職業學校提供此類藝術的訓練課程。而這些學校的課程安排通常包含有：繪圖、著色、動畫製作，以及動畫導演、劇本編寫和著作權法研究等課程。

近幾年，中國和南韓的大學也紛紛開始提供漫畫和動畫課程，吸引許多當地的學生前往就讀。但京都精華大學漫畫科系的教務主任竹宮惠子（Keiko Takemiya）本身也是知名的漫畫家，她則表示這些學校和日本的學校有很大的差異。她說：「韓南的大學教授的大多是美國可見地那種卡通，他們幾乎不教授劇情漫畫（story manga）。」劇情漫畫最出色的，就是在於它的劇情長度（feature lengths）和鮮明的故事情節（story lines），相反地，卡通就只有單一故事線和搞笑。

竹宮惠子說：「漫畫的秘訣就是在於它無論在形式上或是內容上，都是沒有界限的，而且在日本可見的漫畫，無論是數量或種類，都是遠遠超越其他國家。此外，在日本，成人主題的漫畫或動畫可能會包含性愛或情色的內容，而這些正是許多其他國家所敬謝不敏的。」杉山知之也表示：「中國的大學教的都是一些給兒童看的動畫，但日本所教的動畫，則同時包含兒童和成人兩個對象。」

京都精華大學的教授Jacqueline Berndt，是該領域極少數的非日籍教授之一，她認為，語言和文化是這些課程無法受到廣大接受的兩大障礙。此外，她也表示，漫畫和動畫課程也許尚未能完全組織成一個連貫的知識體系或理論，來讓其他國家的學生來了解和重視。

這門藝術至今尚未被完成建構成一個知識體系，是因為處在日本這樣一個公立教育長期被嚴格管制的國家之中，漫畫和動畫早已透過一種意想不到的方式成長茁壯，因為它們是在這個系統的範圍之外自由運作的，不受當局的監督和控制。竹宮惠子指出：「漫畫的繁盛現象是作為對學術界的一種「反主流文化／反文化」（counterculture）。在業界其實一直有人反對組織這門藝術以當作一項學術課程的想法。」

而大部分的日本學者和老師也承認，他們所教授的知識體系其實都還是處在組織的階段。杉山知之就說：「我們提供了一些對於要投入這股趨勢的學生來說相信可以馬上運用的課程，倘若要我們等到漫畫和動畫課程完全被建構與組織學術化，那麼就太慢了。身處在創意內容逐漸數位化和全球化的世界裡，我們現在就必須在這些藝術領域訓練這些年輕的孩子。」

Culture | Japanese Universities Draw Foreign Students With Manga

2011-09-17T08:41:00.001+08:00

"Zack Wood, a Stanford graduate, enrolled at Kyoto Seika University in Japan to study manga, the popular comic form." Photographer: Ko Sasaki

From: The New York Times
Author: Miki Tanikawa
Published: December 26, 2010

When Zack Wood produces his illustrated stories online, his Japanese classmates say they look like American comics while his American friends say they look decidedly like manga, the popular form of comics that originated in Japan.

That is precisely the blend Mr. Wood, who grew up in the United States and is now studying at Kyoto Seika University’s manga program, is angling for.

Mr. Wood, a 25-year-old graduate of Stanford University in California, and students like him have gravitated toward the modern Japanese arts, feeling they may help them advance their careers in animation, design, computer graphics and the business of promoting them.

And as Japanese universities work harder to attract students to fill their classrooms while the country’s birth rate declines, more are offering degrees in manga and animation.

“I like it here because you get totally immersed in the skill training” of manga and animation, Mr. Wood said. “It has turned out to be a lot of fun.”

Once they are armed with unique technical and industry knowledge, many international students are eager to gain work experience here upon graduation before heading back home.

Li Lin Lin, 28, a student from northeastern China who attends Digital Hollywood University, a school in Tokyo that specializes in animation and video games, said that upon finishing her degree, it would probably be “easy” to find a job in the animation field in China. The real trophy, she said, was getting job experience in the country of manga. Ms. Li is especially interested in working for a Japanese animation studio.

“I think you can do almost anything back home once you get a degree and animation working experiences in Japan,” said Ms. Li, emerging from her class on digital animation coloring one Saturday afternoon.

Hidenori Ohyama, senior director of corporate strategy at Toei Animation, said it was possible that international students could end up at Japanese companies like his. “If they apply, take our tests and pass, they will become employees just like anyone else,” he said.

His company, a leading animation company that has produced “Dragonball” and “Slam Dunk” films, has Romanian and Korean producers, among other foreign citizens, Mr. Ohyama said.

None of the animation-themed Japanese university programs seem to be on the international radar yet, said Kison Chang, a training manager at Imagi Studios, an international animation production studio based in Hong Kong.

But he said students studying in Japan who ended up with solid work experiences at Japanese studios could be prime candidates for international recruitment.

“They would certainly be a great benefit to our professional line,” he said. “They might bring in some kind of spirit which we may not know, or something we didn’t realize that would be a benefit to us,” he said.

Such individuals are not yet on his teams, nor at any of his rivals, he said.

Another possible reason that the programs have not received international attention is that the language of instruction is Japanese.

Tomoyuki Sugiyama, president of Digital Hollywood University, conceded that language might be a serious barrier, especially for Western students.

“If we had an English-based program at the graduate level, for example, we would be inundated with Western students almost instantly,” he said.

Nevertheless, at Kyoto Seika University, which established the country’s first manga program, the number of foreign students in it has risen to 57 currently out of a total of 800 students in the program from just 19 in 2000.

Since it was founded in 2005, Digital Hollywood University has seen its international students grow to 84 this year, roughly 20 percent of its student body, from just one when the school began.

“I want to see it grow to 50 percent of the entire students in the very near future,” Mr. Sugiyama said.

In the past 10 years, more than a dozen university departments and programs have been created to offer a degree or a cluster of courses meant as a concentration in manga, animation and video games, and a similar number of vocational schools offer training in the art.

At Digital Hollywood, with campus buildings spread across the Akihabara area in Tokyo, the nation’s capital for otaku, or nerds, students from Korea, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and other Asian countries, who constitute the bulk of the international student body, mingle with Japanese students.

The curriculum at the schools usually includes courses on drawing, coloring, and motion picture production, as well as film directing, writing plays and the study of copyright laws.

In recent years, universities in China and Korea have also begun offering manga and animation programs, drawing many students locally. But Keiko Takemiya, dean of the manga program at Kyoto Seika University and a famed manga artist, said there were differences.

“What they teach in Korea is mostly cartoons like you see in the U.S.,” she said. “They don’t quite teach the ‘story manga.”’

Story manga is known for its feature lengths and distinct story lines, as compared with the one-liner cartoons with gags and jokes.

Ms. Takemiya said that manga’s secret was in its limitless boundaries in form and content, and that the sheer number and the kind of manga available in Japan far exceed those in other countries.

And that includes adult-themed manga/animation that may or may not include sexually explicit content that many other countries are staying away from.

“What they teach in China is animation meant for children,” said Mr. Sugiyama of Digital Hollywood. “But what we teach is geared towards both children and adults.”

A professor at Kyoto Seika University, Jacqueline Berndt, one of the few non-Japanese faculty members in the field, said language and culture were an obstacle to wider acceptance of the programs.

In addition, she said, the manga and animation programs might not have yet been fully organized into a coherent body of knowledge and theories that scholars from other countries can understand and appreciate.

One reason the art has never been compiled into a structured body of knowledge: In a country where public education has been strictly administered, manga and animation have thrived in a creative way precisely because they operated outside the purview of the system, free from any supervision from the authorities.

“Manga flourished as a counterculture to the establishment academia,” Ms. Takemiya said. “There was actually a resistance to the idea of organizing the art into an academic program” in the industry.

Most Japanese scholars and teachers acknowledge that the body of knowledge they teach is still in the process of being organized into a system.

“We put together and offer classes that we believe will be of use to people who are going into the trade, but if we wait till manga and animation studies are fully structured and organized academically, that’s too late,” Mr. Sugiyama said. “In a world where creative content is digitalizing and globalizing, we need to train young people in these arts now.”

藝術評論》The Body Politic－Marlene Dumas的華麗與詭譎

2011-09-15T06:48:00.004+08:00

Marlene Dumas，《中午的自畫像》（Self Portrait at Noon）

原文：The Body Politic: Gorgeous and Grotesque
作者：Roberta Smith (2008/12/11)
編譯：Fango Huang (2011/9/15)

具象畫家Marlene Dumas曾被說是一位只會帶給人非冷即熱兩種極端感受的藝術家，但其實並非如此。她於紐約現代美術館（Museum of Modern Art）的展覽「測量你自己的墳墓」（Measuring Your Own Grave），即是以一種中生代（midcareer）藝術家的審視，來屏除冷熱極端，帶給我們溫暖的感受。

Marlene Dumas，《測量你自己的墳墓》（Measuring Your Own Grave）

如同此展覽那令人毛骨悚然的標題所指出的，Marlene Dumas的作品傾向於直接瞄準胸口（solar plexus）。融合了政治與藝術，並與影像製造的複雜性纏鬥，人類的靈魂、性慾、藝術之美、傳統繪畫的男子氣概（masculinity），以及社會壓迫的醜惡。但是這場展覽並沒有完全地解答出，到底在這些作品之中傳遞了多少這樣的概念。

這場展覽啟示了一個事實，雖然這位別具天份的藝術家創造了一些頗吸引人的圖像（riveting images），但是大量觀看下來，她的作品反而便變得淺白而單調（monotonous）。實質上，她並沒有使主題多樣化，或者說是因為她25年來對於攝影照片的根基，使她的習慣沒有產生改變。所以當你站在她的畫作前，判斷她的作品是否有資格稱作為原創的時候，會有太多太多其他依賴照片（photo-dependent）的藝術家湧入你的腦海裡。她的作品太過傾向於近25年來模仿作品（pastiches）的想法與策略，主要有「觀念藝術」（Conceptualism）、「挪用藝術」（Appropriation Art）以及「新表現主義」（Neo-Expressionism）。

Marlene Dumas的作品有著慘白或是彩色的題材，並且通常是兩者同時兼具。包括了懷孕的女人，甚至是看起來像畸形的嬰兒；被謀殺的幼童、以及自殺和遭受死刑的罹難者（通常是女人）；蓋上頭罩的囚犯；孤獨悲慘的青少年；停屍間的屍體……等等。每個影像都被放置在一個極為慘白且抽象的空間當中，伴隨著色彩的豐盈以及表面作用的美觀修飾，得以窺見「抽象表現主義」（Abstract Expressionism），或甚至是「色域繪畫」（Color Field）的痕跡。

Marlene Dumas，《死掉的夢露》（Dead Marilyn）

而令人注目的縮寫（striking abbreviations）以及模糊的曖昧性（fuzzy blurs），讓我們在作品中看到雙重的意涵。這個女人是正在熟睡，還是已經死了？赤裸的孩童手上那道鮮紅的痕跡，到底是顏料抑或是鮮血？許多諸如此類令人感到疑惑的例子，讓你在嚴厲、充滿暗示的肖像與畫法和程序之間不斷地游移，但過了一會兒，你也許會開始察覺到自己被操弄了（manipulated）。

Marlene Dumas，《畫家》（The Painter）

而其他的畫作便直接了當地瞄準了「官能主義」（Sensationalism）。《死去的女孩》（Dead Girl）呈現一位死去的青少年頭部與肩膀的部份，鮮血在她的臉龐上流動。但在某些Marlene Dumas肖像畫中的痛苦，卻是敏感而又難以捉摸的，彷彿是一道無期徒刑，因此更具有說服力。在《Moshekwa》一畫中，那張堅毅的黑人面孔，幾乎要布滿整張畫布，伴隨著一種氛圍，透過改變皮膚的色調製造出強烈的感受，從他的前額可以看到濃厚暗紫色的華麗修補，就像是個莊嚴的標記，作品至此達到了最高峰。

Marlene Dumas，《Moshekwa》

這些作品有時傳遞出一種原生（raw）與存在（existential）的力量，像是一位近乎裸體、懷著身孕的女人，她那充滿陰影、刺穿人心的、如野獸般的臉龐（slightly animalistic face），並大膽地擺出膝跪姿勢，似乎唯恐我們會忘記那意義的模稜兩可。這張油畫作品Marlene Dumas將之命名為《懷孕的影像》（Pregnant Image）。

Marlene Dumas，《懷孕的影像》（Pregnant Image）

Marlene Dumas於1953年出生於南非，1976年移居荷蘭至今。縱使她的名字常出現於各地藝術收藏家的必買清單之中，並且曾在2002年曼哈頓新當代美術館（New Museum of Contemporary Art）展出，但比起在美國，她在歐洲更是廣為人知。而這次的展覽是她在美國有史以來最大規模的一場展出，也是她在紐約的第五場個人展覽。這項展覽係由Connie Butler所組織策畫，她在去年暑假剛開幕的洛杉磯當代美術館（Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles）擔任當代繪畫部門的主管。

Connie Butler無疑地順從了Marlene Dumas對於作品擺置的看法，她將作品依主題式展出，進而取代了Marlene Dumas不甚喜愛的編年式（chronologically）。然而，這樣的安排卻另外給人一種印象，那就是在如此廣大的展出空間裡，卻只是用來呈現近幾年的作品。這彷彿像是在宣示，美術館並不想讓六樓這偉大的展出空間，讓人隨隨便便就可以拿任何東西都來展出，而必須是成熟（mature）、精巧（finished）且具辨識度的（recognizable）作品才行。

觀眾們可能會被早年作品朵造成的混亂給弄糊塗了。所以取代藝術的，似乎是Gerhard Richter、Luc Tuymans或是Ida Applebroog。不要直到逛到三樓繪畫展場的最後才去做汲取發展的想法。

Marlene Dumas，《等待》（Waiting (For Meaning)）

在這兒，一個簡單的玻璃櫃裡，你可以遇見一個非常年輕的小藝術家，移動迅速衝破她自個兒的精力界線，就從這張描繪選美佳麗畫風直率的蠟筆畫開始。Marlene Dumas從小在開普敦（Cape Town）附近的一座農場長大，10歲時畫了這張作品。早年的作品呈現出她對於繪畫和漫畫的天賦、兇猛的、天生關注於女性的特質，以及對於生活和藝術中肉體面向的早熟興趣。

從1972起，關注於胸部和女陰的特寫，不禁讓人想起Eva Hesse對「性」（sexually charged）的抽象概念，以及Joan Semmel對於交纏、裸體的戀人的不朽觀點。這些都僅僅是一個年輕藝術家對於自身身體改變的紀錄。

作品中的佼佼者，是一幅取名為《Claes Oldenburg的早餐》（Breakfast for Claes Oldenburg）的作品，創作於1975年。那時Marlene Dumas正在開普敦（Cape Town）的藝術學校裡學習，這是一幅具有致敬意圖的作品，作品中的鑿溝（gouges）和飄動痕跡（fluttering marks）可以看作是立體主義（Cubist）的接班，再加上點描派（Pointillist）的點，以及以生俱來的繪畫天賦。

來自Vogue雜誌中的一頁，時尚模特兒的身影被一系列的黑色筆畫所抹去，創作於1977年，當時正是美國年輕女性藝術家們開始結合女性主義（feminism）與攝影（photography）在一起的時候，生疏地表示拒絕拋棄繪畫。接著迸發急速的成長，在一旁，一幅巨大的拼貼結合了Winnie Mandela、Patrice Lumumba的遺孀Pauline Opango、以及Malcolm X的遺孀Betty Shabazz的新聞剪報，這張作品創作於1982年。第一幅我們看到的繪畫創作，則是1984年，這顯現出Marlene Dumas的過去十分努力，如同她今日所做的。

此展覽的一致性暗示著這一位太早就定型的藝術家需要更長遠的發展。Marlene Dumas藉由在各種不同的主題之間轉移來偽裝自己的停滯（stasis），她的繪畫只具有表面性的藝術特質（superficially painterly）。攝影的基礎架構通常會太接近於表象，這讓一切看起來都過於簡單。更糟的是，這讓主題（subject matter）變得至高無上。

Marlene Dumas，《吻》（The Kiss）

有時候她的職業──包括她的工作和她健談的角色──像是一個擴大的概念藝術計畫（Conceptual Art Project），企圖去轉移繪畫這件事以及雄性特徵，縱使其被放置於熟悉的藝術化自我的框架當中。

Marlene Dumas說：「我畫，因為我是一個女人。」以一種回應男性藝術家男性訴求的語調。而在目錄裡的引言和詩，同樣地，她似乎如同許多她與男性相似特質的那般自戀（self-involved）或甚至是自負（pompous）。有時，她可以侃侃而談繪畫的物質性（physicality）和繪畫的心理作用（psychological effects）；又有時，當她論及觀者讓藝術更臻完整，以及解釋的曖昧性，她崇拜所有藝術裡固有的想法，至少是從杜象（Marcel Duchamp）開始。

猶記得Robert Longo扭曲的人形，以及對到底他們是在跳舞還是被射殺的那種無止盡的推測。在展覽前頭的文字面板，邀請觀者們參與意義建構的過程。我認為那就是我們一直在做的。

仍然地，一個觀者的停滯（stasis），可以是另一個人的無情的忍耐（relentless perseverance）。Marlene Dumas對於裸露或者弱勢女性身體的強調，可以解讀為是數百年來男人缺乏理解的表現所得到的一種報應，同時也是一種對於抽象（abstraction）所做的假設中立（supposed neutrality）。

Marlene Dumas，《玻璃淚》（Glass Tears (for Man Ray)）

她的一些作品透過讓女人脫離現實（disembodied）或者用抽象來掩飾，以保護女人自身。作品《Magdalena (Out of Eggs, Out of Business)》中，在一個類似Mark Rothko的深紅色域裡，有著兩條長至及膝的辦子的悲慘女性比起幾個粗略的人形都還來得卑微。她仍然無法說服大家這種手段是完全異於孟克（Munch）的。

Marlene Dumas最好的作品也許就在前頭，並且她正朝向一個更為巨大的變化。一位Louise Bourgeois的模特兒，她那再發性的女性主義題材，已經顯現在一連串引人注目的不同型式中。Marlene Dumas近期的作品有著充滿希望的徵兆，例如：2006年的作品《Moshekwa》(2006)、今年的作品──帶點Nan Goldin味的──《中午的自畫像》（Self Portrait at Noon），以及2003年的作品《純潔》（Immaculate）。

最後，一個緊實小巧、縮小的女性軀幹與生殖器圖像，超越了染料繪畫（stain painting），並且提供了一種更具質感和支配性建設的繪畫。對於我們的好處是，Marlene Dumas已經自己完成了許多重大的課題，但對於她熱愛的職業──繪畫本身──則是尚未做到。

延伸連結：
．Wikipedia: Marlene Dumas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlene_Dumas target="_blank"
．Death Becomes Her (Slide Show) http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/12/12/arts/1212-DUMA_index.html
．Bromirski’s Flickr: Marlene Dumas (set)

Art Review | Marlene Dumas - The Body Politic: Gorgeous and Grotesque

2011-09-15T06:35:00.003+08:00

Self Portrait at Noon, Marlene Dumas

From: The New York Times
Author: Roberta Smith
Published: December 11, 2008

The figurative painter Marlene Dumas has been characterized as an artist who leaves you either hot or cold, but that’s not necessarily so. “Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave,” a midcareer survey at the Museum of Modern Art, cuts right down the middle. It left me warm.

Measuring Your Own Grave, Marlene Dumas

Ms. Dumas’s work tends to aim for the solar plexus, as the show’s morbid title suggests. Fusing the political and the painterly, it grapples with the complexities of image making, the human soul, sexuality, the beauty of art, the masculinity of traditional painting, the ugliness of social oppression. How much it delivers on these scores is a question that this exhibition doesn’t quite answer.

The show suggests that while this amply talented artist has created some riveting images, her work becomes monotonous and obvious when seen in bulk. She has not substantially varied her subjects or her habit of basing her images on photographs in about 25 years. And when you stand in front of her paintings, far too many other photo-dependent artists come to mind for the pictures to qualify as original. Her work tends too much toward well-done pastiches of ideas and tactics from the last 25 years, primarily Conceptualism, appropriation art and Neo-Expressionism

Ms. Dumas’s stained and brush-worked canvases are lurid in subject or color, and usually both. The subjects include pregnant women; rather monstrous-looking newborns; murdered children and victims of suicide and execution (mostly women); hooded prisoners; forlorn adolescents; bodies in morgues. Each image is served up in a blank, abstract space with handsome trimmings of lush colors and surface action that have their history in Abstract Expressionism and even Color Field painting.

Dead Marilyn, Marlene Dumas

Striking abbreviations and fuzzy blurs make us look twice. Is that woman asleep or dead? Has that naked child been playing with red paint or is that blood on its hands? In many instances such doubts keep you moving between the harsh, suggestive imagery and the brushwork and process, but after a while you may begin to feel a bit manipulated.

The Painter, Marlene Dumas

Other paintings go for point-blank sensationalism. “Dead Girl” shows just the head and shoulders of a fallen adolescent with blood streaming from her face. Yet in some of Ms. Dumas’s portraits suffering is subtle and implicit, a life sentence and therefore more convincing. In “Moshekwa” the resolute face of a black man fills most of a large canvas with an aura intensified by the shifting tones of his skin, which culminates in a gorgeous patch of dark purple glowing from his forehead like a mark of nobility.

Moshekwa, Marlene Dumas

Sometimes the paintings convey a raw, existential force, like the shadowed and piercing, slightly animalistic face of an enormously pregnant and mostly naked woman, defiant yet posing on her knees. Yet, lest we forget that meaning is ambiguous, and that the work is a painting, Ms. Dumas has titled it “Pregnant Image.”

Pregnant Image, Marlene Dumas

Born in South Africa in 1953, Ms. Dumas has lived in the Netherlands since 1976. Although a regular on the must-buy lists of collectors everywhere and the subject of an exhibition at the New Museum in 2002, she is more widely known in Europe than in the United States. This show is her largest in this country and only her fifth solo show in New York. It was organized by Connie Butler, the Modern’s chief curator of drawings and an Ahmanson Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, where it opened last summer.

One thing is certain: Ms. Butler has done Ms. Dumas no favors by installing her work thematically instead of chronologically. The arrangement creates the impression of an overlarge gallery show of works done over a few years. It is as if the museum didn’t want its stately sixth-floor galleries to feature anything but the mature, finished recognizable product.

The public could be confused by the messiness of early work. So instead the art seems to have sprung from the forehead of Zeus or Gerhard Richter or Luc Tuymans (or Ida Applebroog). Not until reaching the back of the drawing galleries on the third floor do you absorb any idea of development.

Waiting (For Meaning), Marlene Dumas

Here, in a single vitrine, you’ll encounter a very young artist moving very fast out of the gate on her own steam, starting with a brusque crayon drawing of beauty contestants. Ms. Dumas made it at age 10 while growing up on a farm near Cape Town. The earliest pieces broadcast a gift for drawing and caricature; a fierce, inborn focus on women; and a precocious interest in the physical side of life and art.

Close-ups of breasts and the female pudenda from 1972 bring to mind both Eva Hesse’s sexually charged abstractions and Joan Semmel’s monumental views of entwined naked couples. They could also be simply a young artist’s record of her changing body.

The standout is a small, oatmealish oval of canvas, cotton wool and paint on paper titled “Breakfast for Claes Oldenburg.” Made in 1975 when Ms. Dumas was in art school in Cape Town, it is an apt hommage whose gouges and fluttering marks also suggest a Cubist relief, complete with Pointillist dots, and a natural pictorial intelligence.

A page from Vogue magazine with the fashion model erased in a series of black, smeary strokes dates from 1977, just as young female artists in the United States were beginning to combine feminism and photography; it rawly indicates a refusal to leave painting behind. Then a sudden growth spurt: nearby, a large collage combines scaled-up drawings based on newspaper clippings of Winnie Mandela; Patrice Lumumba’s widow, Pauline Opango; and Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X. The piece dates from 1982. The first paintings on view date from 1984, and show Ms. Dumas working very much as she does today.

The consistency of this show suggests an artist who settled too early into a style that needs further development. Stasis is disguised by shifting among various charged subjects that communicate gravity in shorthand. Ms. Dumas’s painting is only superficially painterly. The photographic infrastructure is usually too close to the surface, which makes it all look too easy. Worse, it makes subject matter paramount.

The Kiss, Marlene Dumas

At times her career — including her work and her voluble persona — seems like an extended Conceptual Art project intended to turn painting and its maleness on its head. Yet it is framed in a familiar artistic ego and bluster.

“I paint because I’m a woman,” she has said, in a tone that echoes the macho claims of male painters. And in quotations and poems in the catalog she seems just as self-involved and even pompous as many of her male counterparts. Sometimes she can be articulate about painting’s physicality and its psychological effects, yet saying it doesn’t make it so. Sometimes, when she talks about the viewer completing the art and the ambiguity of interpretation, she fetishizes ideas implicit in all art at least since Duchamp.

Remember Robert Longo’s twisting figures and the endless conjecture of whether they were dancing or being shot? The text panel at the front of the show invites viewers to participate in the process of constructing meaning. I thought that’s what we always do.

Still, one viewer’s stasis could be another’s relentless perseverance. Ms. Dumas’s emphasis on the naked or otherwise vulnerable bodies of women can read as retribution for centuries of less attuned representations by men and also for the supposed neutrality of abstraction.

Glass Tears (for Man Ray), Marlene Dumas

Some of her works protect women by making them disembodied, cloaking them in abstraction. The abject female of “Magdalena (Out of Eggs, Out of Business)” is little more than a few cursory features and two knee-length strands of hair enveloped in a Rothko-like field of dark red. Yet she doesn’t convince that this approach is all that different from that of Munch.

Ms. Dumas’s best work may lie ahead, and in the direction of greater variety. A model is Louise Bourgeois, whose recurring feminist themes have been presented in a succession of markedly different forms. There are hopeful signs in recent works like the “Moshekwa” portrait (2006); the frowsy, Nan Goldin-ish “Self-Portrait at Noon” from this year; and “Immaculate” (2003).

This last, a compact and foreshortened image of a woman’s genitalia and torso, goes beyond stain painting and allows for a more textured, controlled buildup of paint. To our benefit, Ms. Dumas has made several major themes her own, but she has yet to do the same with her beloved métier, painting.

Related Links:
．Wikipedia: Marlene Dumas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlene_Dumas
．Death Becomes Her (Slide Show) http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/12/12/arts/1212-DUMA_index.html
．Bromirski’s Flickr: Marlene Dumas (set)

藝術評論》「拼貼」不只是把東西湊在一起而已

2008-11-08T02:22:00.007+08:00

Jonathan Talbot，《單身漢逛紐約》（The Bachelors Visit New York）

原文：Piecing Things Together
作者：Benjamin Genocchio (2008/10/19)
編譯：Fango Huang (2008/11/07)

在紐約州紐堡（Newburgh）這個地方，藝廊相當地稀少。雖然河的沿岸一帶可以明顯看出部分上流階層的發展，然而，城裡大多數的街區都還是屬於勞工階級的住宅與店面，許多事物至今都仍保留在19世紀時的狀態，例如「哈德遜河的寶石」（the gem of the Hudson）。這棟建築物讓人回溯到16世紀時，訴說著這裡曾經也是一個美麗的地方。

「安街藝廊」（Ann Street Gallery）是城裡唯一一間非營利的藝術空間。成立兩年，據點在一棟19世紀旅館裡的地下室，這棟旅館最近才被一個當地的非營利組織團體所整修，這個團體名為「哈德遜河的安全避風港」（Safe Harbors of the Hudson），其致力於提供窮人、老兵以及藝術家有關居住的協助。「安全避風港」（Safe Harbors）也同時發起藝廊的經營。

「安街藝廊」麻雀雖小但五臟俱全，有著光亮的水泥地板與清爽的白色牆面，裡頭有一間主藝廊以及一間專門提供給影音與音樂藝術的暗室。重點主要是放在哈德遜河谷（Hudson River Valley）當地的新興藝術家與職涯中期（mid-career）藝術家們，但是這裡也會展示一些紐約藝術家或離鄉背井的藝術家的創作。

最新一期的展覽名稱為「拼貼邏輯」（Collage Logic），網羅13位來自紐約和其他地區藝術家的聯展。根據藝廊主管同時以也是這項展覽管理者的Virginia Walsh所述，此展探究了拼貼技巧的使用，以及當代藝術方法學（methodologies in contemporary art）。這是一個豐饒又多產的藝術領域。

這個展覽最令人感興趣的是，在Virginia Walsh所挑選的藝術家當中，有一部分做了傳統的拼貼（conventional collages）。例如，John Morton做了一個引人注意的聲音裝置（sound installation），挪用了來自哈德遜河（Hudson River）沿岸的聲音。你可以聽到漁夫們在交談、金屬管叮噹作響、水波拍打，甚至是火車急速通過的聲音。

Joel Carreiro則挪用了藝術史與中世紀手抄本中的圖像來製造仿作。來源材料印製在熱轉印紙（heat-transfer paper）上，剪成條狀或小方塊，然後再加以重組，形塑成一個有趣的新圖樣。無論是形式上的別出心裁，還是那外在顯著的美麗，都讓我非常喜歡他這些作品。

Joel Carreiro，《複雜之神》（The God of Complexity）

Thomas Weaver則展現了一個絕佳的概念拼貼（conceptual collage），由油畫、印刷、素描、水彩和手寫所構成，主要表現在紙上，最後一同組合在牆上。他在上面畫了一個房子狀的外框穿過這些拼貼，暗示了屋頂下各種想法與思考通通聚集在一起，作為藝術家內心的隱喻。

其他藝術家則是使用現成物（found materials）來創作。Jackie Shatz把陶器、油畫、布料和其他等材料融合在一起，製作出一個掛在牆面上且具有豐富色彩的抽象雕塑。Imelda Cajipe Endaya則是將地圖、糖果包裝紙和紡織物等材料相互拼貼，創作出一個能反映出童年的作品，並且隱隱約約帶點女性主義的議題。

Jackie Shatz，《古英文史詩》（Beowulf）

「拼貼」（collage）這個字詞源自於法文「coller」，意指「黏貼」（glue）。所以並不意外地，部分展品是以這種拼貼的傳統形式來呈現，藝術家將紙或其他物件黏貼於二元平面上進行創作，Jonathan Talbot和Vivien Collens這兩個人便是很明顯地熟練運用了此項技巧。

Jonathan Talbot主要挪用舊書和舊雜誌裡頭的黑白影像，將之黏貼在一塊兒，製造出看起來像是歷史照片裡頭的場景。《站長》（The Stationmaster）以及《單身漢逛紐約》（The Bachelors Visit New York）描繪了人們對抗混合式的建築構造（hybrid architectural structures）。這是有關記憶與夢想。

畢卡索（Pablo Picasso）1912年的作品《有籐椅的靜物》（Still Life With Chair Caning）很可能藝術史上第一幅現代拼貼（modern collage），由印有籐編圖樣的漆布以及上膠的畫布所組成。透過混合真實的物件進入他的圖像中，這模糊了繪畫與雕塑之間的界線，並且開啟了藝術創作新的一頁。

Pablo Picasso，《有籐椅的靜物》（Still Life With Chair Caning）

從此以後，拼貼便廣泛地運用在許多地方。其中最具野心的應當是Yeon Jin Kim的影像作品《夢》（Dreams），它也許會被描述成是一個潛意識的旅行紀錄片。此外也有展出利用針孔攝影機偷拍的影像，這個針孔攝影機是裝置在一個極為精細的城市紙模型裡頭。

總個來說，這場展覽包含許多值得注意的藝術創作，有著各式各樣形形色色、深思熟慮的作品，這些藝術家並不出名，但其實他們應該更被人所知才對。雖然拼貼已經歷經一世紀之久，但這個展覽告訴了我們，它將會持續下去很長一段時間。

延伸連結：
．Ann Street Gallery
．Joel Carreiro Official Web Site
．Jonathan Talbot Official Web Site

Art Review | Piecing Things Together

2008-11-08T00:02:00.008+08:00

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE
Jonathan Talbot’s collage titled “The Bachelors Visit New York.”

From: The New York Times
Author: Benjamin Genocchio
Published: October 19, 2008

In Newburgh, art galleries are few and far between. Though there is some noticeable upscale development along the river, much of the city, with its blocks of rundown working-class homes and storefronts, remains a far cry from its 19th-century status as “the gem of the Hudson.” The architecture here dates back to the 1600s; this was once a beautiful place.

Ann Street Gallery is the city’s only nonprofit art space. Two years old, it occupies a portion of the basement of a 19th-century hotel recently renovated by a local nonprofit group, Safe Harbors of the Hudson, which is devoted to providing affordable housing for the indigent, veterans and artists. Safe Harbors also sponsors the gallery.

The gallery is small but nicely fitted-out, with polished concrete floors and crisp white walls. There is a main gallery and a back room used for video and sound art. The emphasis is on emerging and midcareer artists from the Hudson River Valley, but works by artists from New York and further afield are also shown here.

The current exhibition at the gallery is “Collage Logic,” a group show of 13 artists from New York and the wider region. It explores “the use of collage techniques and methodologies in contemporary art,” according to Virginia Walsh, the exhibition’s curator and gallery director. This is a rich and fertile area of artistic expression.

What is so interesting about this show is that few of the artists selected by Ms. Walsh make conventional collages. John Morton, for instance, has made an arresting sound installation using appropriated sounds from along the Hudson River. You hear fishermen talking, pipes clanging, water lapping, even a train speeding by.

Joel Carreiro appropriates images from art history and medieval manuscripts to create pastiche paintings. The source material is printed on heat-transfer paper, which he cuts into little strips and squares and then recombines to form interesting patterns. I like these works a lot, as much for their formal ingenuity as for their obvious beauty.

Joel Carreiro, The God of Complexity

Thomas Weaver presents a terrific conceptual collage made of paintings, stencils, drawings, watercolors and writing, mostly on paper, bunched together on a wall. Across them, he has painted the outline of the frame of a house, suggesting a collection of ideas and thoughts gathered together under one roof, a metaphor for the artist’s mind.

Other artists work with found materials. Jackie Shatz fuses together ceramics, paint, cloth and other found materials to make colorful, abstract wall sculptures. Imelda Cajipe Endaya collages together maps, candy wrappers and a variety of textiles to create works that reflect on childhood and, somewhat more obliquely, feminist issues.

Jackie Shatz, Beowulf

The term collage comes from the French word coller, which means to glue. Not surprisingly, the show includes work by some artists who affix paper or other objects to a two-dimensional surface — the traditional form of collage. Among them are Jonathan Talbot and Vivien Collens, both of whom have clearly mastered the technique.

Mr. Talbot appropriates mostly black and white imagery from old books and magazines which he pastes together to create scenes that look like historical photographs. “The Stationmaster” and “The Bachelors Visit New York” depict arrangements of people against hybrid architectural structures. They are about dreams as much as memories.

Pablo Picasso probably produced the first modern collage, “Still Life With Chair Caning” (1912), consisting of a piece of oilcloth printed with a caning pattern and glued onto a canvas. By incorporating real objects into his picture, he blurred the distinction between painting and sculpture and opened up a whole new area for art making.

Pablo Picasso, Still Life With Chair Caning

Collage has been put to many uses since then, as this show testifies. Perhaps the most ambitious use of it is Yeon Jin Kim’s video “Dreams,” which might be described as a travelogue of the subconscious. Much of the imagery was taken with a spy camera inserted inside an elaborate paper model of a city, also on display.

All told, this show contains a remarkably diverse and thoughtful group of works by artists who, though not household names, probably deserve to be better known. Collage may be a century old, but this show suggests that it will be around for a lot longer.

Related Links:
．Ann Street Gallery
．Joel Carreiro Official Web Site
．Jonathan Talbot Official Web Site

展覽論述》「疼痛」作為一種藝術形式

2008-11-05T01:11:00.004+08:00

《疼痛展覽》（Pain Exhibit）作品精選，想要看更多作品請點此觀看幻燈片。

原文：Pain as an Art Form
作者：Tara Parker-Pope (2008/4/22)
編譯：Fango Huang (2008/11/4)

「疼痛」（pain）是一種無法透過人體掃描顯現出來的感受，更無法以檢驗的方式測量出來。因此，許多長期遭受病痛纏身的患者便將之轉向為藝術，選擇以作畫或雕塑圖像的方式來描繪出他們所受的痛楚。

國際疼痛學術研究學會（The International Association for the Study of Pain）出版之醫學期刊《Pain》主編Allan I. Basbaum說道：「要把疼痛訴諸於文字，是一件非常困難的事，那是『疼痛』的一大問題。你既無法清楚明白地表達它，而你又看不見它。這也難怪人們常會試著運用圖解的方式來表現他們的疼痛。」

最著名的疼痛藝術家之一，墨西哥畫家Frida Kahlo，她的作品現在正在費城美術館（Philadelphia Museum of Art）展出，其作品深受痛苦所感染，她在青少年時遭遇一樁電車事故以致身體被刺穿，帶給她終生的痛苦。脊椎受傷、骨盆碎裂，歷經多次的手術以及流產，因此她時常在畫布上描繪她的痛苦，例如剖腹、心神不寧，甚至充滿血腥的影像。

Frida Kahlo，《破碎的脊柱》（The Broken Column）

47歲的沙加緬度（Sacramento）居民Mark Collen，他之前是一位保險推銷員，長期遭受背部的疼痛。他原本的醫師因病退休，所以他努力尋找一種可以向新的醫師傳達他疼痛的方法。儘管他沒有受過任何藝術專業訓練，他仍然決定要以藝術創作的方式來向醫生表達他的疼痛。

Mark Collen說道：「當我開始進行有關疼痛的藝術創作，醫生看到這些作品後，他們就知道我所經歷的是什麼情形。文字是會受到限制的，但是藝術卻可以引起情感的回應。」

Collen寫信給全世界治療疼痛的醫師，徵求疼痛病人的藝術創作當作範例。他與洛杉磯（San Francisco college）一位21歲大學生James Gregory合作，James Gregory自從發生車禍事故後，便長期受到病痛纏身，他們兩人一同創辦了一個疼痛患者的線上藝廊（online gallery of art），名為《疼痛展覽》（Pain Exhibit）。裡頭充滿了痛苦的影像，欲喚起觀者疼痛的感受。

Allan I. Basbaum說：「他們有些甚至比『看起來』還要更加痛苦。」2007年11月，他放了一張作品在網路版的《Pain》期刊封面上，點此觀看。

找到傳達疼痛的方法對於疼痛病患來說是絕對必要的，因為在他們之中，有許多病人都得不到醫生適切的治療。2008年1月，美國醫學會《醫學倫理》期刊（American Medical Association Journal of Ethics）虛擬導師（Virtual Mentor）所發表研究報告指出，某些特定團體幾乎沒有得到適當的疼痛照顧。拉丁美洲人與白人在同一場傷害事件送進同一急診室治療，但最後能得到疼痛藥物治療的比率卻只有白人的一半；而有色人種的女性年長者，在癌症治療上，則有最高的可能性會被忽略；並且對於愛滋病患來說，若是沒有受過教育，那將會是讓他受到較少疼痛照顧的危險因素。（期刊發表請見此）

Robert S. Beal，《破碎的人》（Broken People）

《疼痛展覽》（Pain Exhibit）中的一些圖像，例如Robert S. Beal的《破碎的人》（Broken People），描繪了疼痛的肉體。其餘的，像是《對抗生命的障礙》（Against the Barrier to Life）則傳遞了長期病痛所帶來的情感挑戰。這幅畫的創作者Judith Ann Seabrook寫道：「我為了獲取生命的價值，不屈不撓地對抗疼痛波濤的打擊……我感覺我正陷入輸了這場戰役以及自我放棄的危險之中。」

Judith Ann Seabrook，《對抗人生的障礙》（Against The Barrier To Life）

Mark Collen表示這項展覽的主要目標是為了提高人們對於長期病痛問題的警覺性。然而，他希望有一天可以找到一位幫助這項展覽作巡迴展示的主辦人。他說道：「人們無法相信他們所不能看見的東西，但是他們可以看見個體用藝術創作來表現自身的疼痛，則這一切將會發生改變。」

想要看《疼痛展覽》（Pain Exhibit）的作品幻燈片秀，請點此，或是直接前往網站參觀所有完整的作品。另外介紹一個幻燈片秀，是有關《紐約時報》2月份所報導過的偏頭痛患者（migraine sufferers）的藝術創作。

延伸連結：
．Pain Exhibit
．Pain Exhibit Slide Show
．Migraine Art Slide Show
．Health and Wellness – Well Blog (The New York Times)

Exhibition | Pain as an Art Form

2008-11-05T00:58:00.001+08:00

Selections from the Pain Exhibit. To see a slide show, click here.

From: Pain as an Art Form

Author: Tara Parker-Pope

Date: April 22, 2008

Pain doesn’t show up on a body scan and can’t be measured in a test. As a result, many chronic pain sufferers turn to art, opting to paint, draw or sculpt images in an effort to depict their pain.

“It’s often much more difficult to put pain into words, which is one of the big problems with pain,” said Allan I. Basbaum, editor-in-chief of Pain, the medical journal of The International Association for the Study of Pain. “You can’t articulate it, and you can’t see it. There is no question people often try to illustrate their pain.”

Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column

One of the most famous pain artists is Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, whose work, now on exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is imbued with the lifelong suffering she experienced after being impaled during a trolley accident as a teenager. Her injuries left her spine and pelvis shattered, resulting in multiple operations and miscarriages, and she often depicted her suffering on canvas in stark, disturbing and even bloody images.

Sacramento resident Mark Collen, 47, is a former insurance salesman who suffers from chronic back pain. After his regular doctor retired due to illness, Mr. Collen was struggling to find a way to communicate his pain to a new doctor. Although he has no artistic training, he decided to create a piece of artwork to express his pain to the physician.

“It was only when I started doing art about pain, and physicians saw the art, that they understood what I was going through,” Mr. Collen said. “Words are limiting, but art elicits an emotional response.”

Mr. Collen wrote to pain doctors around the world to solicit examples of art from pain patients. Working with San Francisco college student James Gregory, 21, who suffers from chronic pain as the result of a car accident, the two created the Pain Exhibit, an online gallery of art from pain sufferers. The images are evocative and troubling.

“Some of them are painful even to look at,” Dr. Basbaum said. In November, he included an image from the site on the cover of Pain; it can be seen here.

Finding ways to communicate pain is essential to patients who are suffering, many of whom don’t receive adequate treatment from doctors. In January, Virtual Mentor, the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, reported that certain groups are less likely to receive adequate pain care. Hispanics are half as likely as whites to receive pain medications in emergency rooms for the same injuries; older women of color have the highest likelihood of being undertreated for cancer pain; and being uneducated is a risk factor for poor pain care in AIDS patients, the journal reported.

Robert S. Beal, Broken People

Some of the images from the Pain Exhibit, like “Broken People” by Robert S. Beal of Tulsa, Okla., depict the physical side of pain. Others, such as “Against the Barrier to Life,” convey the emotional challenges of chronic pain. “I feel like I am constantly fighting against a tidal wave of pain in order to achieve some quality of life,” wrote the work’s creator, Judith Ann Seabrook of Happy Valley in South Australia. “I am in danger of losing the fight and giving up.”

Judith Ann Seabrook, Against The Barrier To Life

Mr. Collen said the main goal of the exhibit is to raise awareness about the problem of chronic pain. However, he said he hopes one day to find a sponsor to take the exhibit on tour.

“People don’t believe what they can’t see,” Mr. Collen said. “But they see a piece of art an individual created about their pain and everything changes.”

To see a slide show of selections from the Pain Exhibit, click here, or visit the Web site to see the full gallery of photos. Another slide show from The Times in February features art created by migraine sufferers.

藝術評論》Jeff Koons 是調皮胡鬧？還是富有意涵？

2008-11-03T03:14:00.006+08:00

攝影／《紐約時報》Librado Romero

一隻氣球狗、一顆閃亮的紅色心型巧克力糖，以及圖畫書《小熊維尼》（Winnie the Pooh）裡「小豬」（Piglet）的剪影。這三個由不鏽鋼製成且具有光亮表面的作品，都是普普藝術家Jeff Koons先前從未展示過的創作，現在正在美國大都會博物館（Metropolitan Museum of Art）的屋頂花園（Cantor Roof Garden）中展出。

原文／A Panoramic Backdrop for Meaning and Mischief

作者／Ken Johnson (2008/4/22)
編譯／Fango Huang (2008/11/2)

令人驚艷的中央公園（Central Park）全景，以及曼哈頓（Manhattan）美麗的天際，美國大都會博物館（Metropolitan Museum of Art）的屋頂花園（Cantor Roof Garden），也許是一個可以打動你的絕佳景點，在這裡每年都會固定週期性地展出戶外雕塑。但是這個地方對於雕塑品來說其實是一個頗為荒涼（inhospitable）的展覽地點，這可以從這週二開始展出的2008年度展覽來證明之：知名普普藝術家Jeff Koons先前從未展出過的三件精彩創作。這三件作品每一件都是被刻意放大、具有亮漆表面，並且由不鏽鋼打製而成的巨大雕塑，用來表現某些原本很小巧的東西：例如用氣球綑綁而成的玩具狗；像芭蕾舞鞋一樣掂腳矗立著，用紅色鋁箔紙包裝的情人節心型巧克力糖；以及如同小孩隨意著色般，圖畫書《小熊維尼》（Winnie the Pooh）裡「小豬」（Piglet）角色的剪影。

這些都是帶點頑皮戲弄的意味，但卻又不失其深層意涵的藝術作品。《氣球狗》（Balloon Dog）是一隻充滿空氣、有如臘腸組成的淘氣版特洛伊木馬（Trojan Horse）：雖然牠看似天真無邪，但牠卻同時承載了藝術的審美與情色的乖僻。《秘密之心》（Sacred Heart）尖酸地批判著商業貶低了我們的情感與真誠的經驗。《圖畫書》（Coloring Book）則反映了現代社會與文化下青少年癡迷的「幼稚症」（youth-obsessed infantilism）。

這些作品擺置在建築上難以歸類的露臺上，但那個地方同樣也屬於屋頂花園咖啡（Roof Garden Cafe）讓顧客們蔭蔽區域的一部分，所以這些雕塑品很容易就會被視為是溫和的、具裝飾性的附屬品。

Jeff Koons，《氣球狗》（Balloon Dog）

而最大的問題是比例的大小。若在室內藝廊觀看《氣球狗》（Balloon Dog）這件巨大、閃耀著金屬光芒的作品，它立起來的最高處高達10英呎，將會產生一種怪異的巨大感，眼前也有些微的脅迫感；但是放在屋頂上，廣闊的天空以及博物館由南至西的敞開空間，相較之下，便讓這件作品顯得矮小許多。

也因此，Jeff Koons雕塑的親暱性被削弱了。著重於細節表現的完美主義，正是他作品最令人懾服的一面：注意那形狀十分嚴謹的蝴蝶結、氣球狗的鼻子，或者有交疊與摺痕之處，以及心型包裝上那繃張的商標。縱使再小心翼翼地、深思熟慮地觀看，戶外的環境仍然是會使人分心。

Jeff Koons，《秘密之心》（Sacred Heart）

18½英呎高的《圖畫書》（Coloring Book），這個最為巨大又最為單純的作品，雖然它是所有作品中最不受環境所干擾的，但它卻是在形式上最為無趣的一個，其不規則的輪廓、平板顏色又淡又薄，只能說是比「平面」（flat）還好了一些。

Jeff Koons，《圖畫書》（Coloring Book）

撇開它們所安置的環境不談，這次Jeff Koons展出的雕塑品仍然保有其一貫的風格，讓人在知識與感官層面都能夠感到興奮──最傑出的作品《氣球狗》（Balloon Dog）──不管在放任何環境下都是值得觀賞的。

延伸連結：

．The Metropolitan Museum of Art
．Jeff Koons Official Web Site
．Interview With Jeff Koons (Journal of Contemporary Art)
．Jeff Koons's Biography (Gagosian Gallery

Art Review | A Panoramic Backdrop for Meaning and Mischief

2008-11-03T02:23:00.004+08:00

Photo: Librado Romero / The New York Times

A balloon dog. A chocolate heart wrapped in shiny red. A silhouette of Piglet from a “Winnie the Pooh” coloring book. These are the subjects of three glossily lacquered, stainless steel works — all previously unexhibited — by the Pop artist Jeff Koons now on view in the Cantor Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

From: The New York Times
Author: Ken Johnson
Published: April 22, 2008

With its breathtaking, panoramic views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, the Cantor Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art may strike you as an excellent place to mount a seasonal outdoor sculpture show, which it does every year. In truth, it is an inhospitable site for sculpture, as demonstrated by the 2008 display that opens on Tuesday: three wonderful, previously unexhibited works by the celebrated Pop artist Jeff Koons. Each of these sculptures is a greatly enlarged, glossily lacquered, stainless-steel representation of something small: a toy dog made of twisted-together balloons; a chocolate valentine heart wrapped in red foil, standing en pointe; and a silhouette of Piglet from a “Winnie the Pooh” coloring book, randomly colored as if by a small child.

They are mischievously meaningful works. With its pneumatic, sausagelike parts, “Balloon Dog (Yellow)” is a sly Trojan Horse: it seems innocent but is loaded with aesthetic and erotic perversity. “Sacred Heart (Red/Gold)” acidly comments on the commercial debasement of emotional and religious experience. “Coloring Book” reflects the youth-obsessed infantilism of modern culture and society.

Jeff Koons, Balloon Dog.

But placed on the architecturally nondescript patio, where there are also shaded areas for patrons of the Roof Garden Cafe, the sculptures too easily turn into benign, decorative accessories.

The biggest problem is scale. Seen in an indoor gallery, the elephantine, shiny metallic “Balloon Dog (Yellow),” which rises to 10 feet at its highest point, would have a weirdly imposing, slightly menacing presence. On the roof it appears dwarfed by the vast sky and by the open expanses of space to the south and west of the museum.

The intimacy of Mr. Koons’s sculpture is also diminished. Perfectionist attention to detail is one of his work’s most compelling aspects: note the exactingly formed knot that serves as the balloon dog’s nose, or the folds, pleats and stretch marks in the heart’s wrapper. The distracting outdoor environment, though, discourages careful, contemplative looking.

Jeff Koons, Sacred Heart.

Because it is both the biggest and the simplest, the 18 ½-foot-tall “Coloring Book” is the least undermined by its environment. But it is also the least interesting formally, being little more than a flat, irregularly contoured slab whose colors are thin and watery.

Jeff Koons, Coloring Book.

Their setting aside, Mr. Koons’s sculptures remain intellectually and sensuously exciting — “Balloon Dog” is a masterpiece — and they are worth visiting under any circumstances.

Related Links:
．The Metropolitan Museum of Art
．Jeff Koons Official Web Site
．Interview With Jeff Koons (Journal of Contemporary Art)
．Jeff Koons's Biography (Gagosian Gallery)