審美距離(Aesthetic Distance)

我對審美距離(Aesthetic Distance)的看法

如前所提及，都市的生活實在繁忙得令人透不過氣來，枯燥無味的生活真的佔據了每一天。要不是趕交著功課，何來有時間或抽空去看看書、觀賞博物館、進出電影院？幸好，亦因為此，重遇了一些意想不到的驚喜……一切從重閱朱光潛的《談美》開始。

朱光潛提及：「『從前』這兩個字可以立即把我們帶到詩和傳奇的童話世界，甚至一些罪惡或一件壞事也可以隨著時間的流逝而逐漸不那麼令人反感」。這種時空的美化正正就提供了一種觀賞的距離給我們，就如愛德華･布洛(Edward Bullough) 在1912年發表的《作為藝術中的因素和一種美學原理的心理距離》，所提及的審美距離的概念。布洛列舉了一個例子：設想在海上掀起大霧，這對船上的水手和乘客的心理來說，因著害怕船會觸礁或發生危險，所以是十分糟糕的事；但根據布洛的論點，假如水手和乘客可以暫時忘卻大霧可能造成的麻煩，而把注意力轉向「客觀地」觀賞周遭雲霧的景致，或許可感受到由迷濛雲霧造成的遠離塵世的沉寂；或許可感受到那給人安寧、恬靜、自由的感覺。這樣就體現了在同一場景所產生的迥異的感受。這種分別是「由於距離從中所梗而造成的」。若雲霧與人之間不存在任何「距離」，我們只能感受列雲霧的一般性或災難性，但若雲霧與人之間，可插入一段「距離」，我們就可以用不尋常的眼光去觀看它的美景。如布洛所言： ‘Aesthetic distance, is “the veil [which] surround[s] you with an opaqueness as of transparent milk, blurring the outline of things and distorting their shapes into weird grotesqueness.”’

圖一這樣令的回想到那時當我還在主修藝術，天天埋頭地創作時，偶爾都會以此距離去洞悉事物的詩意。甚至很多藝術家都以此為創作的源頭，它甚至成為藝術家克服內心恐懼並將之轉化為詩意的一種手段。例如印象主義畫家Bonnard的首任未婚妻在浴缸中自殺身亡，Bonnard將內心恐懼轉化為詩意並繪畫了圖一的作品。

當觀眾進入藝術作品時，同樣要保持一段審美的距離。以觀賞傑利訶(Theodore Gericault) 的Raft of the Medusa(下圖)為例，這幅畫描繪了1816年震驚法國的一宗悲慘事件：法國梅杜薩號軍艦在海上失事的情節。藝術家與觀眾若純以「移情」(Empathy) 零距離去觀看這作品，可能只感受那是一場十分可怕的悲劇，當沈船時利用木頭筏子逃生的倖存者有150 人，而傑利訶所表現的畫面，是這場悲劇的最後時刻，亦即筏子在海上漂泊的第十二天，當阿爾古斯號船發現它時，只剩下十五名倖存者劫後餘生的情景。但當我們保持一段審美距離觀看此作品，便了解傑利訶為了繪製這幅畫時亦是保持這種距離，了解他是參考了過去和當代大師的作品，特別是米開蘭基羅Michelangelo的作品﹝如筏子中間躺著的男人形象﹞，和卡拉瓦喬Caravaggio作品中光線的明亮度﹝見照在一堆人體上的悽慘光線﹞，以及魯本斯Rubens的畫面節奏。傑利訶使用了強烈的明暗對比，以及光線的猛烈閃現，與大衛那明亮而生動的色調相反。畫面幾乎是單色的、深深的棕褐色色調。畫面表面上是建立在一個錯綜複雜的結構之上，但實際上則勾勒出一個精確的上升結構—最終結束於右邊倖存者高高舉起、拼命搖動的緞布上。作品凝造高度的緊張感，一種朝著地平線的光線向前移動，期望得救的焦慮感，使這幅作品具有特殊的暗示力量。種種的建構分析，都源自審美主體與審美對象之間的微妙距離。

那麼，如前所述，審美距離又是否觀看藝術作品的唯一真實呢？我卻又不敢苟同。若藝術作品跟觀者往往保持著一種不可觸踫的距離，我們又如何將自己的感情投入，從「移情」中而達到「共鳴」呢？若藝術作品不能給人共鳴，又如何給人掀動情緒、觸動心靈呢？正如布洛提到在審美經驗中的「距離的內在矛盾」(Antinomy of distance)，他列舉了一個例子，一個正觀看《奧賽羅》的人，當他發現他的經歷與情感與奧賽羅的吻合一致時，即使他根本不欣賞這劇，他對奧賽羅的處境行為及性格的領會必會更深刻完美。又此可知，一方面，藝術品是否能感動我們，引起我們的共鳴，是建基於藝術品所描繪的生活情景跟我們自身的獨特生活經驗和體會、文化特質相吻合的程度成正比。所以當藝術品愈貼近我們的生活及經歷，我們對它的領會更為深入。但另一方面，若藝術品所描述的生活情景與我們的生活經歷日益貼近時，我們又會容易將藝術世界與生活混為一談，亦即是將藝術世界退回自身經歷的現實世界。要是這樣的話，審美的鑒賞便容易變成痛苦的自傷身世了。就是這樣，便出現了布洛所指的「距離的內在矛盾」了。

故此，我十分贊成布洛的一席話：「無論是在藝術欣賞的領域，還是藝術生產中，最受歡迎的境界乃是把距離最大限度的縮小，而又不至於使其消失的境界。」我亦相信這種「不即不離」的境界可以說是最理想的藝術境界，原因就是它具備了對「距離的內在矛盾」作出了合適的安排。它一方面不會因距離太遠、不貼近生活而令得人無法理解；另一方面又不會因為距離消失、太反映現實致令人喪失審美的享受及想像了。

The Verve of Light and Shadow

The Verve of Light and Shadow
Master Photographers Tchan Fou-li, kan Hing-fook, Leo Wong


The Hong kong Heritage Museum is launching a thematic exhibition about iconic local photographers. The exhibition is impressive both on the artworks and the way how the exhibitiond curated.


The three photographic masters show us their individual styles and creative pursuits.


Tchan Fou-li, his photos show, on the one hand, the poetic sentiment of Chinese paintings and classic verse; on the other hand, his concern about the lives and fate of the working class.













kan Hing Fook, has explored new photographic and digital techniques to widen his scope and assist his creation. Those waterlilies that he shot reminds me the painting of those of Monet, that's impressive!



Leo Wong, with his training on Chinese painting and Chinese literary classics, shows with his expressiveness through powerful brushwork to present his feeling about the contrast of the nature: movement and stillness, prosperity and decline, fullness and emptiness.


In the level of curatorial sense, I think it is good to have 3 sets of LCD monitor to display artists' video. From the display, we can have a deeper understanding to the behind concepts of the photographers.

The Year of Ox @ Taipei Airport

My last visit to Taipei, I could find an interesting exhibition at the Taipei International Airport, which is an exhibition about the Year of Ox, Year of 2009. Participated students from primary and secondary schools needed to design their images of Ox in order to celebrate 2009. From their design I can see quite a different cultures of Taiwan students from those of Hong kong. Their choices of images were full of Chinese traditional colours and patterns, representing an agricultural-based society.

However, its intention on putting this exhibition at the most internationalized place--the international airport at Taipei, showing its ambitions on introducing Chinese and Taiwan cultural characteristics to people from all over the world. Finally I can see its successful as it really attracts tones of people to appreciate and talk about it.

My Social Network Diagrams

Sotheby Auction 2009 Spring

Few weeks ago, I have visited the Sotheby Auction 2009 Spring. I still remember I had once a student helper worked for the Sotheby many years ago! I just find that the nature of Sotheby has changed a lot. It is more emphasised on Contemporary Asian Art than that in 15 years ago. From this change, I can realize the hot items in the art market, especially the contemporary Chinese art. Moreover the high price of some artworks makes me feel shock that I just think that in the world of Capitalism, the

influence of art market will undoubtedly affect artists' art creation.

Oasis Mirage

I have been visited a Hong Kong International Sculpture Symposium 2009 – Oasis Mirage on 15 March 2009 which was held at the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade. The Art Promotion Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department is teaming up with the Hong Kong Sculpture Society to present the above activity.

The Curator, Maggie Leung, introduced the rationale of the whole program. A total of 14 artists come from different places including Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Bangladesh, USA, Chengdu, Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong. They use marble, wood and other materials side by side on the site to create sculptures on the theme of ‘Oasis Mirage”. This is originally a program that all artists stationed together at the West KowloonWaterfront Promenade and created their artworks. In between, all citizens and school visits were welcome to view the whole process. During the demonstrations, the public were supposed to able viewing all the stages involved in sculptural creation – all the way from the shaping, through the detailing to the finishing – and have opportunity to talk to sculptors who hail from different cultures. In addition to the demonstrations, the Symposium were supposed to feature a series of activities including an exhibition, talks, guided tours and workshops.After the creations of artworks, exhibits were remained at the place for the public.

However, in the exhibition, only sculptures with simple description, such as the name of author, the title of the sculpture and the used of materials can be found in the Symposium. There was no sign of workshop at all. This is just a general sculpture exhibition, which make me feel disappointed. People can hardly feel the workshops if they had not joined it. As a conclusion, the above Symposium did not really meet the target they aimed. For art promotion, they should put more afford on it in order to make it more details.

The Curator, Maggie Leung has provided rich information about this program

Fotanian 2009

On 17th January 2009, I have visited Fotanian Exhibition with Charis. Here are what I've got in this exhibition.

The first studio that I've visited was, of course, Sara Tse's Gallery Mill, as she was my classmate and roommate in the university. Her usual and refine idea on how to turn an object into a tool for memory impresses me. She has accepted ceramic as the medium for her artistic creations and started transforming her memories of numerous garments, fabrics and toys into ceramic sculptures.

As an artist, her works are quite personal. Audience can trace back the things or sediments belonged to her chilhood and experience. However, her childhood was also the childhood of people born in the 70s. Even though experience was different for different people, objects were more or less similar. Thus when looking at her artworks, like the ceramic bear, the chess, can also arouse our memory, just as a collective memory, of the days we grew up, . However, of course, I do appreciate Sara's consistency in her art creation and idea, as a more mature artist, I do really hope to see her works with more refreshing idea and further development.

Then another studio impressed me was Chow Chun's Fai's Exhibition. The contents of his artworks display scenes of famous local movies by his brushes can well demonstrate his intentions of using narratives to tell Hong Kong popular cultures. The scenes painted are the memories of the popular mass and illustrates the the lives (seeing local movies)of most people in Hong Kong.

In Fotanian 2009, I can see that this exhibition becomes more and more well-organized as many sponsorships are willing to support it, in terms of supporting Hong Kong artists, as well as maKing profits. Some studios are shown in the form of Gallery, which make the whole thing become more commercial as most artworks are displayed with a pricelist. However, as a fine art graduated audience, I do appreciate the exhibition which can promote art and support local artists, I am much appreciate those studio can reflect artists' daily life of art creation, instead of those studios emphasis of the sale of art.