Para/Site Dual Solo 2005
Phoebe's Vaudevillian Park and Florian's "Op-scape" Para/Site would organize a dual-solo exhibition every year. More than to introduce Hong Kong artists, it is also an occasion for these artists to have a more intricate and intimate communication. In this year, Para/Site has the pleasure to present two emerging artists Phoebe Hui and Florian Ma graduated respectively from The Art School, The Hong Kong Art Center and The School of Creative Media, The City University of Hong Kong. Their works reveal their attempts to break the conventional implications of visual images, and illustrate the distinct artistic styles nurtured by the two Hong Kong art academies.Comic and photography are by no means have become a usual and popular culture, especially among youth. Theses artists both work on different artistic forms, however engage in the re-interpretation of the plain/2D media via the access of new media or technology. We are inviting the viewer to heighten their imagination and explore the many possibilities of art itself. Phoebe HUI Fong-wah has participated in many group shows and events including Third Text: Image + Media International Experimental Art Festival and Someone's done it before. Her various creations have involved art direction, illustration and film editing, etc. The concrete conceptual framework and audience's participation are both significant in the Hui's works, this resembles my impression of those artists graduated from the School of Creative Media.. The meanings and interpretations of her works would be unfolded through the audience-artwork interaction. To transform the planar comic into a three-dimensional space, the audience can "read" comic by their own physical movements in the space and Hui explores the possibilities of comic's narrative structure. While there is an international celebrity on the comic's artistic status due to the success of Murakami Ryu's exhibition "Superflat", the younger Hong Kong artists like Hui already view comic as an art form that shares an equal status with other conventional. They also investigate and ponder the creation of comic on a more profound level. Florian MA is a designer and the emerging artist who is now studying Fine Arts at The Art School, The Hong Kong Arts Centre. Out of the interest in the semiotic approach on manipulation of images, Ma engages with various mechanisms of image building, in order to examine different possible interpretative metaphor among the methods. His work reflects artists' contemplation on possible applicability of different media. Ma uses the pixels retrieved by domestic digital scanners as the basic element of his work and reorganizes it into lines of color images. By employing a wide range of editing methods to convert the original images into multiple flows of images and installation works, Ma attempts to turn the fleeting moments in his images into eternity. This reflects the contradiction of evanescence and eternity in the issue of the photographic medium. When the popularization of digital cameras has made photography more usual and popular, the topics of reproduction and representation hence become more and more essential and controversial. Ma transforms the conventions of digital scanning to produce new images, this not only bring another imaginative dimension to the original images but also signify his interpretation of the intrinsic characteristics of it. Different from the artist-oriented solo shows in the past, I, as a coordinator, have actively participated into its formation and its artistic objectives. Although I have not reached my initial goal of combining Hui's and Ma's works into a show, we have already enriched by our discussion and the new inspirations and ideas have really permeated into our own future works. This exhibition hopeful would mark the meaningful values and goals of Para/Site's curator-oriented approach in the future exhibitions. On behalf of Para/Site Art Space, I would gratefully acknowledges the volunteers for the exhibition and the support of Shun Hing JVC Limited for the sponsorship of audio visual equipment for the success of this exhibition.
Para/Site 2005年雙個展─
菲比的雜耍花園與馬浩賢的剎那「光」景
Para/Site積極推介本地及海外當代藝術，2005年的展覽頭炮將會是每年一次的雙個展系列。Para/Site 每年都會舉行雙個展，不單是為了讓更多藝術家有展出的機會，更是希望讓兩位不同的藝術家有另 一種直接的交流。是次參展的兩位年青藝術家各自畢業於香港藝術中心的藝術學院和城市大學的創 意媒體學院，作品展現他們突破漫畫和影像的故有意義的嘗試，亦呈現了不同學院背景下的創作風 格。漫畫和攝影不但是青年人的普及文化，而且已經成為當代藝術的流行媒介。許氏與馬氏雖各自 針對漫畫和影像故有意義尋找突破和可能，但兩者都不謀而合地藉新媒體及技術，將漫畫和影像 的(二維)平台擴展至展覽現場的(三維)真實空間，試圖為觀眾對這兩藝術種媒介提供更多的的想像和 詮釋的可能。 許方華畢業於香港城市大學創意媒體學院，曾參與展覽包括 Third Text: Image + Media International Experimental Art Festival 及「有人做過─多媒體裝置藝術展」。許氏的創作類型多元化，曾任美術指導 、插畫師及電影剪接等。她像我所認識的畢業於意媒體學院的藝術家般，她的作品有著具體的概念 框架，重視觀眾和參與者的介入，透過作品和觀眾的互動以拓展作品的意義和闡釋空間。許方華要 打破漫畫的二維界限，透過裝置藝術的三維空間以探討漫畫中的文字和圖像結合下的敘事結構的各 種可能，讓觀眾透過身體的移動完成(漫畫)作品的「閱讀」過程。日本藝術家村上龍策劃的 「Superflat」的成功典定了漫畫的國際藝術地位，香港的年青藝術家如許氏一類亦已把漫畫視為不下 於文學和繪畫的藝術媒介，對漫畫創作經常進行根本的探討和思索。 另一邊的馬浩賢是本地藝術兼設計師，現正修讀香港藝術中心藝術學院的藝術學士課程。馬氏對影 像的關注別於一般對圖象意義的方向，沒有以符號學探討影像再生的意義，馬氏注重建構影像的不 同原理及方法，探討它們本身的象徵意義以及拓展對影像的詮釋空間。馬浩賢的作品呈現藝術家重 視媒介的可塑性。馬氏以用家用電腦掃瞄器拮掫的圖素(pixels)為作品的基本元素，重組成一系列彩 色條紋影像，運用各種影像複製和編輯方法製作不同的流動影像和裝置作品。馬氏意圖將影像中的 「時」、「刻」化成永恆，這正特顯攝影課題中「永恆」和「瞬間」的矛盾關係。數碼相機的普及 不單讓攝影成為大眾的尋常活動，亦令影像的再生(reproduction)和再造(Manipulation)成為重要的課題 ，流行於近年的國際藝壇。馬氏改變一般的掃瞄原理而再生不同的影像，其影像的編輯方法和再生 的影像徵作者對原有影像的一種詮釋，同時為原來影像提供另一個想像空間。 別於過去藝術家本位的雙個展模式，作為展覽統籌的我在是次的展覽構思和藝術理念上與兩位藝術 家都有很大程度的參與和交流。雖未能達到原初把展覽「二合一」的希望，但在籌備的過程中，充 實的分享和交流已讓彼此間的藝術思想沁透到各自的創作中，實是對藝術家的裨益。這樣的合作模 式正好標誌著Para/Site在來年銳意發展以策展人為本的展覽方針的意義和目標。 最後謹代表Para/Site藝術空間向參與籌備工作的義工以及為展覽提供視聽器材的信興JVC有限公司 致意。
Publication on Dual Solo
Florian Text: 「光」為萬物帶來生命， 「光」為我們帶來力量維持生命,「光」所到達的地方創造了空 間，我們用「光」給我們的力量穿梭空間， 「光」照耀着我們的生命活得更燦爛。 是次展覽係一種尋求對「光」的慾望，基於「光」的原理，用一種像係 error output 的視 覺作品去對時間、空間的新發掘。 相機把鏡頭前的時空瞬間地再現於菲林上，素描器所素描的時空又有多小的瞬間，而這 瞬間就成為速度問題。 當速度一直的加快，畫面就變成了抽象，看到的沒有了實物，只有物件反射一線線的光， 一段段有顏色的線也形成了光速。光線就形成一種速度的象徵。
Phoebe Text W h a t
I
t h i n k
c o m i c s
i s ”
甚麼是甚麼絕對是一條令人陷入於精神分裂狀態的難題。思考任何問題都是一種持續地 執行（on enterframeous）的腦部運動，問題的時間表（timeline）永遠暗中畫著虛線。 然而，為什麼我還是永不悔悟的苦苦練就呢？心理學家布魯諾‧貝特漢（Bruno Bettelheim） 提供了一個完滿的答案。 “If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in the true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives. It is well known how many have lost the will to live, and have stopped trying, because such meaning has evaded them. ” The uses of enchantment
有好些日子，當我意識到自己重複的重複並一再一再以一種雙生兒分裂的曖昧意 象及語調，於漫畫這媒介中，去表達自己對周遭事物的種種與記錄生活的氣味 時，實在不想再說話，以隱匿我的漫畫語言漸漸失去聲音的困頓。然而不再說話， 確實在協助我培養新的困境。幸好字義主義（Letterism）在命定的時刻暗示我疏 忽的細節 － 把事物解拆成最基本的點（back to basic）去思考本質上的意 義，以發掘新的可能性及新的語言。語言，一直我無法拒絕卻令我有一種非常的
挫敗感。我並不信任它正在準確地傳釋著我的意思，但我卻無法以另一種與別人 共通的媒介更準確的去表達自己而且是深刻的表達。因此我每天在努力地完成沒 有命題的填字遊戲。如果思考本質上的意義有助於對各種事物意義理解的成長， 重整舊的軀殼以裝載新的靈魂需要，那思考“我想漫畫是如此的（What I think comics is）”的動機便非常透徹瞭然。 what I think comics is comic /kmk; AmE kmk/ verb., noun 1 the activity of sequential images (but not essential as drawing) and text take place in a particular framed space.2 [only a process] inner self-development or self-search as well as a channel for running outwards and communicating with people other than just language. Entertainment that is funny but no conflicts with tragedy.3 an expression of observation, analysis, viewpoints and feelings towards surrounding things. Stimulate to reflect upon things taken for granted. 4 (strategy) a linguistic-imaged game play / documentary / catalogue of love memory / metaphor. 兩日以後，我發現我所定義的漫畫意義並不能準確地表達我所想的細節。我試圖借用伊 馬努埃爾‧康德( Immanuel Kant ) different of degree 討論每一格漫畫可以成為獨立的 一個起點，呈現不同層次的意義，而時間性與連貫性是不必要的。即是說每格漫畫既是 相互關連的同時各自又是一個故事的開端。這是我認為漫畫的縱向發展（vertical）。而 Chaos theory 零與一之間的無限分割，可以說明漫畫格與格之間可以無限伸廷，亦即 是說漫畫的橫向（horizontal）發展。自攝影術的發明，畫家再沒呈現真實的需要，那 於漫畫的角度裏，讓人看到隱匿在漫畫格與格之間（及其漫畫格本身）可見中的不可見 的、呈現不可呈現的是的甚麼呢成了是次展覽的命題，尤其當我意圖以空間作其媒體。 漫畫是什麼？ 故事人物交代劇情，意圖隱匿我背後的自言自語。 他們在互相對話 = 人物與我聊天 = 我和自己在爭辯，發聲的源頭只此一處？人物外貌不斷變異，同樣的外表是否等同一人 不知曉，化作最根本的一團空氣／空間好讓聲音透過粒子與粒子之間的震動最終傳到你 耳邊是我的不軌。要是頻率相同接受清晰不知道好不好做一次共震樂園？