策展人│楊智富 Yang Chin-Fu
和過去展覽型態有了不同,不只是以平面繪畫為主。
這次「成為提問」展出的展品型態包含了一組十片垂吊式平面繪畫裝置、七件平面繪畫作品、兩件影像投影(一件影像是侯玉書再次邀請身體聲音藝術家謝韻雅合作演出即興舞蹈、另一件是藝術家日常生活影像捉影和提問字句),以及特別的一座診療床現成物和展覽期間供接受民眾報名體驗診療活動等複合內容。
展出作品類型多了,卻巧妙地將這幾年藝術家所關心的一種核心的藝術觀點和意圖,在這次展出一次揭露出來。
當一種純粹的慣性的表現手法(比如外觀看似平面抽象繪畫),時常容易落入既定的認知範疇,往往輕易遮掩了背後蘊含的諸多嚴肅的、另類的可能性;雖然侯玉書並不太在乎這個情況。而當多樣性出現,在這複合呈現內容當中,反而較能有效的觀察到「貫穿∕連結」的那條主軸線。
整個展出就是一個「大提問」,提問如何「成為提問」;同時也展現藝術家的個人提問成果的某個切片。
「侯玉書以不斷自我提問方式所進行的創作型態,很大的動機似乎在於盡可能的削弱那個過去曾被高度褒揚的「理性/自我/知識系譜」等慣性操作,促使每個當下的瞬間銜接起那不可預知的意識流動——讓專業的掌控轉換成創作的行為或動能的提示。」
侯玉書關心的重心不在於作品完成後的詮釋或品評,這部分採開放態度,而且正是採開放態度,方才允許不同觀者的生命體驗與物件、形式閱讀的這個「介面」得以吸取更多元的觀看能量,成為對話或再創作的起點。如同「支架表面主義」的藝術觀點,關心的是那層構築「繪畫表層」的物質底層或畫框∕骨架與藝術家的「行為、行動」模式建構起的新關係,侯玉書更加關心的是「藝術除了這些,還可以有什麼樣的可能性?」的提問。
「大提問」是關於不同的生產機制,可以如何帶動起另類藝術可能性的提問。
「成為提問」這個展名、這個詞,是跟所有觀眾說的。也可以看成是藝術家體會「提問的喜悅」之餘的分享實踐。
Different from previous exhibitions, this exhibition features a wider range of works.
Being Question comprises of an installation of ten hanging paintings, seven two-dimensional paintings, two videos (one features an impromptu dance collaborated with body and vocal artist Mia Hsieh; the other one shows photographic images of daily life captured by the artist and questions he proposes), and a rather unique treatment bed, with which the artist will organize a “treatment program” available to the public during the exhibition.
Although the exhibition includes different art forms, the core artistic viewpoint and intention that the artist has been exploring are ingeniously incorporated and revealed in this exhibition.
When a pure, habitual way of expression (such as works that look like two-dimensional abstract paintings) becomes stereotypically recognized, the more serious or alternative possibilities behind it are often easily overlooked even though George Ho has never cared too much about this situation. On the other hand, when diversity emerges, the combination of different art forms contrarily allows us to more effectively observe the central idea that “strings/connects” these art forms together.
This entire exhibition serves a big question, which is “how to become a question.” In the meantime, the artist also offers partial answers to the question he proposes.
George Ho has been making art with the approach of self-questioning. A major motive is to weaken our habitual use of the previously prioritized “rationality/self/knowledge system” as much as possible. By doing so, it facilitates the connection of every present moment, forming the unpredictable flow of consciousness, transforming professional control into creative action or beckoning agency.
What George Ho cares about is not the interpretation or review of an artwork after it is completed. He has always been open about this aspect; and such an open attitude allows a more diverse way of viewing to be incorporated into the “interface” constituted of different viewers’ life experience as well as the reading of objects and forms, serving as a starting point of making dialogue or re-creation. Similar to the artistic viewpoint of “Support-Surface,” which pays attention to construct the material foundation of the “painting surface” or formulate a new relation between the “painting frame/structure” and the artist’s “behavior and action,” Ho cares more about the question—what potentiality does art have in addition to these aspects?
The “big question” is about how to generate the alternative possibility of art through different production mechanisms.
The title of the exhibition, Being Question, is an affirmation for all audience, and can perhaps be read as the artist’s sharing of his practice as he gains the insight into “the joy of questioning.”