~~觀畫有感~~(雅俗集~28)

環繞十方世界
Around the World
油畫麻布 173 x 173cm 2005


空間之外又有新空間，世界之外還有新世界；宇宙空間是層層疊疊，重力方向卻各各不同。

飄浮游離的大小立方體穿梭連結於天地窗緣之間，像忽隱忽現的遊龍冉冉升天飛地，盤旋環繞於黃昏時的紅色世界裡。

這是一種運動的力量，一種美妙的神秘力量，它正在轉換連通於宇宙間無窮無盡的不同重力場，永無停歇。

撰文~~盛紫嫣

Seeing, Feeling & Thinking(16)

Marvelous Table and Bottle
Oil on Linen 91 x 73cm 2006
Private Collection


The air inside a closed sphere such as a rubber ball must be separated from the air outside. But in 1922, the famous “Klein Bottle” proposed by Germany topology mathematician Felix Klein (1849-1925) broke with this phenomenon. The air inside and outside the bottle is interlinked with each other now.

It was Klein’s concept that inspired the artist to complete this painting “Marvelous Table and Bottle” . An aquatic stretches its branches and leaves out off the bottle in order to breathe in a freer manner. Under the red curved table, its legs , because of gravity distortion on the ground, are perpendicular to two different 90 degrees to produce rotation effect, bringing some sense of insecurity.

The dotted pink and blue strokes blend into the rotation of the gravity. And this is the point that makes the table and the bottle look “odd and wonderful”.

“That’s all there is to it!” ,said the artist.

T.Y. Sheng

~~觀畫有感~~(雅俗集~27)

太平洋的晨曦照射到被四度空間所震盪的非物體
油畫棉布 192x1028cm 1983

1971我在美國舉行此生首次個展，行前俗事纏身，心情煩悶，百感交集。

華航波音707黃金航線從松山機場經琉球、東京抵達舊金山。記憶中降落前正是天剛亮的時候，在想睡未睡加上大腦被激活的狀況下，我興奮地看向窗外，清朗空氣的晨曦中，舊金山的屋宇、街道、橋梁、以及碧藍海面上的白帆、飛鷗，乍見之下真是如臨仙境。

1983，臺北市立美術館開館，象徵台灣美術進入了一個新的時代。事前我們一些朋友已獲邀去參觀這個具有國際性現代美術館形式的新建築，巨大高聳的牆面以及寬闊的展場，令人對未來產生許多的期待。戰後，沉睡中的『台灣美術』將要如何面對這個龐然大物？於是，基於我自1960年代的『畫外畫會』到1982的『現代畫學會』持續提倡現代藝術的活動力，此刻，不正是我應該再展雄心抱負的時候嗎？

開館展我提出這幅“太平洋的晨曦照射到被四度空間所震盪的非物體”，被擺在顯眼的中位，開幕時許多朋友向我表示訝異的讚美，只是有不少人駐足畫前卻看不懂畫中的隱喻和象徵。

本畫中，宇宙雲堆裡露出了微微曙光，這正是我第一次從飛機上鳥瞰舊金山的影像；畫中壯闊的太平洋海面，綿延的台灣中央山脈橫亙其間，耀眼陽光造成黃色面與藍色面的立體效果；那特殊的十字型光芒是攝影機才能產生的現象。海平面上的幾何形飄浮物以及下方橫置的摺紙物，都是『非物體』的錯覺畫。

最特別的是這些山腰前飄浮著的雲朵，但見朵朵之內又有錯覺性的幾何圖形連接著，顯然是一朵一朵的洞，而不是飄浮的立體物象，這也是矛盾之處；我努力嘗試將所有的這些『非物體』錯覺畫彼此前後交疊，這正是代表我思想中對於四度空間的困惑，也是我1980-1984鑽研的課題和創作上重要的里程碑。最後，全圖兩側再以『紅橙黃綠藍靛紫』大面積的色條向外延伸放射出光芒；中段如大塊巧克力般的褐色，則是用來壓制整幅畫的強烈色彩。

我兒子蘇匯宇(1976 -- )，七歲的他看到這幅大畫時，很天真地喊出『哇賽，好偉大呀！』，因為在家裡無法將四幅200號連接的畫同時展開看到全貌，幸而在展場接起來以後相當符和我的原意，頗為欣慰！

撰文 蘇新田

Seeing, Feeling & Thinking(15)

Triple Whirling Horizon
Oil on Linen 173 x 130cm 2005
Private Collection

Why are we attracted so much to this picture?

It must be these three inwardly curved and interwoven worlds that make this painting “Triple Whirling Horizon” look strange, circling and marvelous. Three worlds ingenuously intersect in triangle form and the connected geometric shaped giant walls are necessary for separating them.

There are several simple objects with the shape of square, rectangle, triangular cone, circle and triangle placed on the red ground to present the gravity, but this area of the picture looks like a lifeless world.

How do you feel about the invertebrate crawling on the right side brown earth? Are these worm-like or amoeba-like animals remind you of "the Proterozoic (Era) ”?

Stones and shrubs spread over with the brooks gurgling through the green world on the upper left of this picture and the vital green field also brings more expectation for life.

Dense cloud layers hang over and through among the triple whirling horizons with the result of different mysterious atmospheres. These horizons cross-link with each other, symbolizing the endless rotation and alternation of universal nature and phenomena.

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing, Feeling&Thinking(14)

Earth Overturned, Varying Gravity
Oil on Linen 136 x 173cm 1995
Private Collection

Macrocosmic theory of relativity tells us: the objects gravities are not only vertical to a single horizon, they must extend opposite towards different directions of the outer space. And when and where these vanishing points end or come together is really a very complicated issue.

At first glance, we can only find two curved horizons in this picture “Earth Overturned, Varying Gravity”. If we look further into right part of it, a third horizon would emerge and goes up outside the frame. Of course, after more precise and continuous observation, we can also figure out another horizon implied in the lower part of this picture. It is clear that the trees on both sides of the road converge on the same horizon at the end, thus demonstrates each object on the ground must have its individual gravity direction.

Mountains rising straight up, trees in full flourish, vehicles traveling, a grange surrounded by grove with indistinct dog barking and people fishing on riversides, all of this rare and marvelous sceneries appear on different horizons, and finally are linked in order by well-rotated tea plantation.

The mountain shadows differ from each other; the reflections on the lake make the gravity directions more distinct; the distant snow-covered mountain range and murmuring streams represent a new season arrival and the cliff is absolutely a spectacular sight never to be forgotten.

Life in this enchanting picture looks full of spring vitality and it’s really and always what people like and expect!

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing, Feeling&Thinking(13)

Double Heaven and Earth
Oil on Linen 73 x 91cm 2006
Private Collection


There’s been a ‘linear space’ image about the universe and not until the 20th century did people realize the physically four-dimensional space and the cosmology based on relativity theory. After that, can people naturally form a picture of this new world in the mind?

Adopting Chinese great philosophers Zhuang-zi and Hui Shi’s viewpoint of ‘vastness without limit’ combined with the contemporary perspective and the breakthrough on illusion picture, painter Hsin-Tien Su has been devoting his life to creating series of this subject, that is, the new curved and cyclic universe images. But finally, what and how can they be presented?

Ancestors in Taiwan believed in ‘Nine Heavens, Nine Earths’, and Wang Chong (Han Dynasty) also proposed the idea ‘the Flat Heaven’, both regarded the heavens and the earths as tectonically flat plates. Wang thought that the plates infinitely extended with heavenly bodies revolving around and moving outward and homeward in long distance. Taiwanese ancestors also considered that the heaven plate began with low rising; one day, a herculean man propped it up with a bamboo pole, making it fly higher and higher as it is today.

The space of cyclic universe results in the arc-shaped horizon lines, and there follows the unceasingly changeable directions of object gravity. The points are ‘What kind of the changes could the horizon lines make in such a space?’ and ‘Could the transformed lines finally intersect with each other?’

Thus, take a look at this picture again! The first circle of horizon line the painter drew constructs the first upper formation world, then the overlapped third, fourth ones should be completed if only the second layer could be formed. The red pavilion poles symbolize the sayings ‘Heaven has four columns’ in Chinese ancient myth ‘Shan Hai Jing’. These red large posts draw to a center accompanied by the scarlet heavens and blue skies, emphasizing the reasonable existence for the arch of the skies.

And it is obvious that the specialty of the whole transition process of these two worlds attracts the viewers in an illusory way. We can also see the semi- abstract drawing techniques and not so scientific perspective laws used on the colorful and overlapping roads and houses scenery.

The double Heaven and Earth is cyclic without any obstructions among it. When universe exists ‘unbounded and yet finite’, then all layers of the worlds inside would mutually surround and interflow, no longer having the endless and unimaginable ‘nihility space’ in people's minds.

And, this is precisely the core of this picture.

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(12)

Gravity Reordered
Oil on Linen 173 x 136cm 2004

A soft spheroid, after being lengthened and reversed, turns a bottle gourd shaped object just like this picture appears. Then creatures popping up along with the variety of the constructions and the interwoven highways on its surface make the gravity phenomena more strange and interesting.

The composition of the blue winding river, the geometry-shaped tricolor countryside and the houses on the banks, the purple mountain ranges, and the inter-island roads and bridges constitutes this magnificent and wonderful bird's-eye view.

The originally downward gravity world gradually changes into an upward one while it comes to the center-section. And you can obviously make out different gravities between the left-side yellow space and the right–side pink world.

What’s the most marvelous point of this picture? I think it lies in the two opposite gravities that are about to confront, to blend and finally be maneuvered into the central transition. Both gravity worlds wonderfully go deep from near into the far and, with the incredible “curved space” concept, present this strongly reversed mysterious picture.

T.Y.Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(11)

Joined Curved Plane
Oil on Linen 173x136cm 2005

The attractive pink nightfall spans horizontally across four semicircle flyover bridges. Going from the distant Taipei 101 Building to the southern Taiwan, there the two big stacks and the upward-curling thick smoke remind the painter of his hometown’s factory, the famous PeiGong Sugar Refinery surrounded by the wide sugarcane plantations.

The boundless blue sky, the Keelung Sea Port and its bustling fish markets give the visitors a warm welcome to do some sightseeing and enjoy the cool sea breeze and rich sea food.

Rising high in the black night sky, two crescents overlook the orange red land, a curved unknown space with some still geometrical objects on it. Encircling around and off the ramp to another world, the travelers can watch the sun setting down the charming mountain GuanyinShan and have birds watching from the purple chessboard-like wetlands.

People roaming about and through such great views on different four worlds must be wide-eyed at the marvelous and incredible universe gravity.

Hail this Cyclic Space painting, the Joined Curved Plane !

T. Y. Sheng

Seeing,Feeling & Thinking(10)

Between Substance and Vacuity, Being and Nothingness
Oil on Linen 192x257cm 1989

One who can swim among the universal space-time must be able to swim in and out with ease and comfort through any medium, such as the vacuum, the clear water and the hard land.

Turning over from the sea water, the energetic boy with goggles is now swimming towards the fresh water to meet the girl. The mysterious dark brown sky with numerous twinkling stars is half covered with a towering ice cap congealed by the sea water. And the one and only sound filled around the land and the grove beneath the sky is silence.

Look! A cluster of dragon-shaped clouds points its tail at the sea waves in a hilarious way. And the big cloud bank beyond the sea horizon presents a striking contrast to the sailing 17th century's Dutch vessel. In the upper right-handed corner, the upside-down shiny land seems shares the same blue sky with the red-brown seashore. What an amazing scenery the painter created !

These imaginative and creative skies, lands and seas appear to be broken but actually linked in a continuous cycle, thus make the universe a deep illusion and a multi-dimensional fantastic world, a world Between Substance and Vacuity, Being and Nothingness.

T. Y. Sheng

~~觀畫有感~~(雅俗集~26)

沐浴後的山風

A Breeze after Bath

油畫麻布 82 x 106cm 1995

窗內窗外景色平凡，但這幅《沐浴後的山風》卻有一股非凡的氣質。

寬闊的窗欄外一片春意。一座逆光的深藍色巨岩和深紅色小丘，其間挾著涓涓瀑流，與前方金黃色的稻田相映成強烈的對比及重力的傾斜。整個畫面在寧靜的距離感中，透露出大地的一片生機。

窗前半裸的好萊塢美女，沐浴後正迎著山風享受愉悅清爽的晨光。窗邊鮮花加上柔和陽光斜照的窗簾，更增添悠閒的況味。

但是，為什麼在稀世美女的身上卻有著交錯如刀削的筆觸呢？這也正是奇妙之處！畫家想藉由這種粗曠的的感覺來帶動欣賞者內心的悸動，油然而生憐惜之情。更何況畫中美女嬌而不俗，欲言又止的思無邪神情，使整幅畫產生無比的吸引力。

另一個特殊之處是，畫家是用樹脂將各類布料黏貼上去，做出特殊肌理的立體窗簾、山岳、浴巾及花朵。窗框的大直線略帶傾斜架構，所產生的動感讓畫面結構統一，並使整個視線焦點落在桌前的美女身上。

《沐浴後的山風》，畫中美女讓微微山風輕拂過全身，甚至於還有看不到卻聞得到的咖啡香氣正輕飄在屋中。那麼，想像力再集中一點，盯著畫面多瞧幾回，說不定她真的會起身回房，並輕輕回眸一笑呢！

撰文：盛紫嫣