Vista (Solo Exhibition)
2021
Project Fulfill Art Space
Taipei, Taiwan
在落差中存有：徐婷個展《遠景》的造像術
文/ 許鈞宜 Hsu Chun-Yi, 2022
在日常的認識中，風景被視作是由某一空間呈現，充滿豐富、強烈感覺內容之所見。然而，在另一（甚至更為繁常發生的）時刻裡，風景並不被內容與景物所決定，亦非是等待觀者看見而預先存在著，如同在搭乘列車時朝反向看去的瞬間、或是車燈不經意折射至建築玻璃帷幕上的片刻。實際上，風景並無特定特徵亦無巨大尺幅，它只是由觀者與世界的動態關係形成的無定限的（indefinitely）影像。風景並不明確預先存在於某處，其必須由與身體的相互構成方可顯現。藝術家徐婷於「就在藝術」舉行的個展《遠景》（Vista, 2021） ，便將進入展覽空間的觀者拋入那一與世界遭遇的瞬間。當我們遊走於各作品構建出的視覺疊層時，好像不斷感到某種特殊的經驗——影像靜止不動，但雙眼卻持續獲取差異的感知; 或是眼前景象如靜物般存在，然而目光的觸及卻難以使得認識（to know）可能。徐婷的作品迫使我們駐足於知覺生成與消逝難以區分的時刻，展覽中並無任何動態影像以及電子顯像的設備出現，只有著近似於繪畫般的攝影圖像呈現於展板、立牌的裝置上。但是，此些經過定影與印刷而在場的視覺物，反倒抵抗著穩固的凝視，並要求觀者以錯身移晃的姿態才可視見作品的問題性。
光暈、失焦、色偏、不規則軌跡遍佈於每一影像上，彷彿一切所見皆喪失了可辨識的內容，其將使得觀者無法去找尋那理應存在、反射光線而使自身變得可見的物體究竟為何。展覽《遠景》正像是在一道模糊的界限上，探究著感覺生成的瞬間，並深化了「所見」與「被看」的問題。徐婷的作品總是具備著任意與秩序共存的雙重面貌，一方面表現出精準、極簡的數理式（mathmetical）結構，看似將知覺（perception）拆解為各種細微的感覺（sensation）局部。另一方面卻抵抗著知覺的分解與重組，將影像作為世界在感知者前開展（unfold）自身的過程。本次展覽的作品，即往返於結構布置與偶然生成的二個極端間，反覆微調著對於時間與空間的感受。
由數件作品組構起的同名系列作《遠景》首先自我構成了一架內嵌於空間的光學裝置（optical apparatus）。如同 〈遠景-1〉 單獨地懸掛於一側牆面，相框內則散透著幽微藍幕的景象，像是從針孔中映射出的微弱光源。 〈遠景-2〉、 〈遠景-3〉 則是由數張影像與立於地面的畫板，以及介於作品間有著不同面積與色彩的單色展牆、橫越地面與牆壁的線段所構成。我們彷彿走入被拆卸開的機器內部，在此「camera」兼具照相機/房間的雙重詞義將被凸顯，整個空間成為一個偌大的暗箱，劃分出了成像的內部空間與其中的光線構造，移動的觀眾將成為遞送與分配可見性的組件。 然而，如果說原先暗箱的運作機制是將觀者與世界彼此隔離、讓意識沉退至這一「房間」進而把影像與事物分離開來 [註 1]，那麼徐婷的作品則翻轉了此一光學秩序。《遠景》並不以清晰明確的景象去形塑一個客觀的觀者，晃動的光跡、亦或擴散的色暈一再地阻絕了對事物樣貌的明晰存取，而是直接體現著所見自身的赤裸樣態。
近似抽象、幾何的人造視覺實際上正體現著一種直接、無中介的狀態。在作品中，錯視、失焦、歪斜的感知將取代視覺機器經由測量、聚焦所取得的清晰影像。看似將各種所見給外置化（externalization）的操作，反倒是將作為可感主體的觀眾重新置入與世界的關係之中。所有被輸出、安置於平面上的影像正揭示著風景般的存有，其中所有事物皆等同於被感知的瞬間，一切並不完整地呈現、而是僅在與存有交錯時才顯現。於是，與其說徐婷的作品再現了照相機失靈的所見，倒不如說直接確證了感知生成的當刻。如同哲學家梅洛龐蒂（Maurice Merleau-Ponty）寫道： 「我的知覺不是視覺、觸覺、聽覺等事實的總和：我是用我整個的存在以完全的方式去進行感知; 我攫獲了事物唯一的結構，一種同時與我所有感官對話的獨特存有方式」[註 2]。這即可說明另一件作品《滔滔不絕》裡與事物遭遇的狀態，其是從光團般的世界中直接獲取的糊狀影像。失焦的凝視、遲滯的快門並非是感知的故障或缺陷，模糊的成像雖遮掩了對單一事物的認識，卻體現了進入世界並與其相互觸碰的過程，令存有與各事物忽遠忽近的間距成為可見。
這正是藝術家透過攝影所進行的提問，其並非僅是以相機製造著模糊依稀的照片，而是試圖表現拍攝者與事物相對變動的關係。我們可說，此些靜態影像皆內建著某種動態落差，一方面藉由攝影對外部世界的進行機械框取（framing），另一則是創造著對風景的解—框（de-framing），使拍攝者與被攝物重新回返至無可區分的關係內裡，聚合與分化的雙重特質將不斷在作品中共鳴。攝影以及其後的操作如後製、輸出等，更意指著感覺的逆向生成，是藉由各種技術實踐回返至直面迎向事物的時刻。
諸如在《不安的線》裡已不復見暈散開的風景，所見將被抽象化為純粹的軌跡，或是《回音》系列更是直接展示著數位影像中常見的裁剪、複製，圖層的提取或並置甚至是物質化的圖樣輸出，皆成為造像術的必經程序。綜觀展覽整體，延伸於空間各處的攝影裝置，不應單純被理解為將攝影影像安裝於物件上，而是必須將其視為影像的異質構體。在其中，首先具有由UVprint、鋁板、PP相紙等材料組合成的在場圖像（picture），以及被輸出至表面、由拍照行為所留存下的攝影影像（photographic image），最終則是逐步還原至身體與景物，作為感知與被感知交界的影像（image）。穿越地面與展牆的幾何線條，將意味著身體在接近風景時的移動過渡; 屏風般展開的輸出圖像，則在前後景的錯落間調動著對空間的縱深感受，《遠景》如同是一座只能在落差間被觀看的全景畫（panorama）。造像不再意指透過技法實現某視覺物，而是在相互之間擷取出觀者與影像的獨特連結。
展覽的核心概念「遠景」，到底意味著是一個遙遠可被觀察的影像、還是我們與事物之間距？這一問題似乎是徐婷在作品中所不斷提出的問題，遠景並不由機械客觀的測距、度量從此至彼的精準參數所說明，而是在糊狀世界中感知發生與消逝的細微落差，看似無物存在的空將是影像自身最確實的在場。在由作品構築起的空間內，影像並不是被要求凝視與解讀的對象，其僅是作為開啟對所處場域時間與空間進行感受的可能因子，如同一個永未定焦、對事物持續觸探的過程。遠景不斷變化，反覆令我們重新意識到與事物的關聯，一種朝向它而去、但卻始終仍未抵達的狀態。
Being in the Range: Imaging Methodology of Hsu Ting’s Solo Exhibition “Vista”
Author/ Hsu Chun Yi
As commonly known in everyday life, scenery has been considered a specific space with a variety of intense visual compositions. Nevertheless, at some other moments (which might happen more often), scenery isn’t determined by its contents or landscapes, nor has it made its appearance just for the viewers to see. It may be more like a glance over the opposite direction on a moving train, or a sudden look at the glass façade of a building refracting car lights. Actually, scenery doesn’t necessarily have certain characteristics or large dimensions. It is just an image, indefinitely formed through the dynamic relationship between the viewer and the world. Scenery doesn’t exist in advance, nor is it located at specific locations. Only when the physical interplay with viewers takes place, does scenery appear. In “Vista, 2021”, the solo exhibition held by the artist, Hsu Ting, in Project Fulfill Art Space, viewers were thrown into the instant of encountering the world upon entering the space. When walking through the visual layers constructed by each work, we seemed to constantly experience something unusual- although the images were still, our eyes kept telling us there were nuances happening. The still-life-like images, even when visually approached, made “to know” impossible. Hsu Ting’s works force us to pause at the moment where perceptions appear and disappear almost concurrently. There were no moving images or electronic display devices in the exhibition; instead, there were only painting-like photography images displayed on boards or installations. Even so, these visual objects that had been stabilized and printed before presented, contrarily resisted a stable, single-perspective gaze; alternatively, they appealed to be viewed from multiple points of view, through moving. Only by doing so, the viewers could visually perceive the intricacies arousing more questions.
Halos, unfocused shots, altered colors, irregular trajectories could all be spotted on each image. When the viewers saw nothing recognizable, it would be impossible for them to search for the actual being, which had made itself visible in the image by reflecting light. The exhibition “Vista” seemed to be situated at a blurred boundary, exploring the instant when sensations arise, while giving an insight into the interrelation of “seeing” and “being seen”. Hsu Ting’s works, where randomness and order always coexist, appear to have precise and basic mathematical structures, which may dissect perceptions into all the tiny parts of sensation. Simultaneously, however, they resist the process of disintegrating and restructuring perceptions, while withholding to unfold themselves before the perceiver in the world of images. The works shuttle between two extremes, structural arrangement and random formation, repeatedly making slight adjustments in the perception of space and time.
The series, “Vista”, was composed of several pieces of artworks sharing the same title. As a start, the exhibition embodied an optical apparatus embedded in the space. In “Vista-1”, an image was installed alone on one side of the wall. Within its frame, a blue backdrop glimmered faintly, just like a vague light source projecting through a pinhole. “Vista-2” and “Vista-3” comprised images, display boards standing on the ground, monochromatic partition walls with various dimensions and hues in between the works, and the geometric lines across both the floor and the wall. We seemed to step into a disassembled machine, where the double meanings of “camera” as an image machine and a chamber, would be accentuated here. The whole space became a huge camera obscura, dividing into the inner space for imaging and light structuring. The moving viewers became components to deliver and distribute visibility. However, assuming that the original mechanism of the dark room was to disconnect the viewers from the world, for consciousness to withdraw into the “chamber”, and to further sunder images and things[1], the works of Hsu Ting have reversed this optical order. In “Vista”, she hasn’t intended to shape an objective observer through clear and specific images. With the swaying light traces or the diffuse tinted halos, the images continually blocked the access to the definite appearance of the thing photographed, but decorporealized what was seen by stripping out its tangibility. Artificial vision that is abstractive and geometric is in fact revealing a state of being unambiguous and disintermediated. In the works of Hsu Ting, the perceptions reflected by optical illusions as well as unfocused and oblique images will replace clear pictures, measured and focused by the visual machine. The method of externalization that ostensibly distances what is seen, to the contrary, has re-established the relationship between the viewers, as perceiving subjects, and the world. Images that have been output and located on the flat surfaces are making their landscape-like presence, within which, everything is like an instantaneous perception, with nothing complete, until intersecting with the presence. Therefore, it wouldn’t be fair to say that Hsu Ting’s works represent images created from camera errors; instead, they have substantiated the moment when a perception is formed. Just like what the philosopher, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, described: “My perception is not a sum of visual, tactile, and audible givens; I perceive in a total way with my whole being; I grasp a unique structure of the thing, a unique way of being, which speaks to all my sense at once.”[2]This also explains the circumstances encountering the thing in the other work, “Talk Incessantly”, which has shown some nebulous shapes acquired from an illuminated mass. The unfocused gaze and delayed shutter aren’t errors or flaws of the perception. Although blurred imaging may have obscured the form of a single thing, it activates the process for the viewers to enter the world and interact with it. The varying distance between the being and each thing can thus be visible.
This is exactly the inquiry the artist intends to put forward through photography. Rather than just create amorphous images with a camera, she attempts to express the dynamic relationship between the photographer and things. It can be stated that all these still images have a certain built-in dynamic range. While photography is used to do mechanical “framing” to the exterior world, it also performs “de-framing” scenery from its frame, which brings the photographer and the photographed back to the indistinguishable relationship. The dual qualities of aggregation and division will continue to resonate to each other in the works. Photographing and the following operations, like post-production and output, even further indicate the reverse process of sensation formation. All the techniques applied are just for us to return to the moment of directly facing the thing.
For example, in “Restless Line”, scenery is no longer blurred. Alternatively, the artist abstracts what has been seen into pure trajectories. Over and above, in the series of “Echo”, techniques commonly used in processing digital images, including cropping, duplicating, extracting or juxtaposing layers, even outputting to the material, have been presented openly. All these have become regular procedures for imaging. To take a broad view of the exhibition, “Vista”, photography installations extending throughout the room shouldn’t be simply recognized as the images installed on the objects, but deemed heterogeneous structures of images. Among all the materials used, there are first, on-site pictures composed of UV print, aluminum plate, and pp paper, photographic images, which have been output to the flat surfaces and preserved by the act of photographing, and finally the images, where the relationship between the body of the observer and the landscape gradually returns to its original state, on the boundary of perceiving and being perceived. The geometric lines across the floor and the wall symbolize the moving transition when the body of the observer approaches scenery. Printout images unfolding like a room divider add visual depth to the space by defining the foreground and the background. “Vista” is like a panorama, which can only be viewed extensively from diverse angles and ranges. Imaging refers no longer to realizing some visual objects through techniques, but to identifying the unique connection between the observer and the image during the process.
Does the core concept of “Vista” indicate a distant, observable image, or the distance between us and things? This seems to be the question Hsu Ting has constantly raised in her works. Vista is not objectively measured by a mechanical system. Neither is it elaborated by a precise parameter defining a certain scope. It is more like the nuances of range within the nebulous world where perceptions appear and disappear almost concurrently. The void, seemingly showing the absence of everything, indeed makes the most substantial presence of the image. In the space which is constructed by works, images are not subjects required to be gazed at or interpreted. They act like the factor to unlock time and space within this place for the viewers to perceive. Like a process that has never fix-focused, whereas an exploration for things continues, vista never stops changing, persistently making us rediscover the connection between us and things, indicating a state that we are always approaching but never reach.
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[註 1] Johnathan Crary (1990). Techniques of the Observer on Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Massachusetts: The MIT Press. p39.
[註 2] Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1964). The Film and New Psychology, in “Sense and Non-Sense”. Trans. Hubert L. Dreyfus & Patricia Allen Dreyfus. Northwestern University Press. p50.