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李在孝 Lee Jaehyo  韓國  b.1965

1992畢業於韓國弘益大學造型藝術專業,獲得藝術學士學位。在全球各地舉辦過43次個展,也參加過多次重要聯展。

李在孝// 明暗對比之探究

-蘇富比藝術學院  藝術與商業系主任    伊恩·羅伯森博士(Dr. Iain Robertson)

 

李在孝藝術作品的核心主題是自然景觀。自然景觀是他作品靈感的來源,貫穿在他活靈活現的創作作品當中。另一方面,他將人工的鐵釘鑽入石灰化的木頭中,展現出他對死亡及毀滅等議題的關注。李在孝的這兩種性質,在這場展覽中同樣顯著。透過生氣勃勃、會呼吸的木頭材料,他將之轉塑成符合人體工學的型態以及黯黑似宇宙般的形狀,同時使用銀色的長釘將銀色的圖樣清晰的表述出來。

 

如果僅是以「陰、陽」來描述李在孝的藝術作品所展現出的兩種面向,會顯得有點冗餘,當然這是一種解釋方法,但我認為如此鮮明的劃分,主要受到大自然本身的特性的影響。李在孝使用這些材料以便明確的的傳達他的雕塑語言,以及他與大自然共同創作的意涵。從早期的實驗作品開始,他就會使用冰柱、乾葉片等材料,為他的創作論述中增添靈感。掌控了世界運行規則的自然世界(或者說是整個宇宙),在李的藝術視角中被視為一個大整體下的兩個層面。

 

他的作品表面上看起來好像是分裂的,其中卻蘊含和諧,而這正是佛家思想中的核心,也是了解本展覽藝術表現意圖的重要關鍵。這樣的和諧,毫無疑問地隱含在生與死的二分法裡,也明顯地表現在生與死的型式中。 象徵觸覺的符號包覆著立方體木炭,0121-1110-1140813 (no. 26),結合了完美立方體的形狀與一組看似隨機的資訊。石灰化木的圖騰柱,0121-1110-113112 (no. 21),同樣引人入勝,其上的象徵符號聚攏會合,成為一汩汩帶著隱晦意義的漩渦。起伏不平的景觀作品, 0121-1110=114054 (no. 20),是本目錄的封面作品,也是這個系列最有表現力的作品,這件作品的象徵主義被嵌入景觀當中。其他作品,如0121-1110=114088 (no. 22)也是使用同樣的手法,以表現出宇宙學的內涵。

 

若是提到藝術家李在孝其他系列的作品,包括那些迷人的、刨了光的木造雕塑,應該會認為他肯定生命的價值。這些作品中,有些是透過巨大的形狀召喚出一個自然世界的意向,將觀者的感知淹沒。彷彿藝術家脫開束縛做出的自然狂想曲,很難僅僅被約束在他所創造的和諧型態中。錯綜複雜的線條與圓、盤錯的藝術語言的積木,儘管在好幾件雕塑作品中都清晰可見,但是在0121-1110=111081 (no. 12)這件作品中更為顯著。舉例來說,作品的卵型作為生命起源的象徵,適當且簡練地替二元論述提供了合適的語言。作品0121-1110=114022 (no. 14),上下顛倒的鐘形圓雕;以及作品0121-1110=110028 (no 11)的錯視藝術,他們跨越3D的極限,既是雕塑作品也是具功能性的物件:前者可以是張桌子,後者可作為一張躺椅。事實上,這些作品不是為了實用價值而設計的,就跟設計界新星馬克紐森(Mark Newson)的作品一樣。

 

李在孝作品中,最引人目光的落葉松木雕回歸有機的自然之根。這些作品,他直接與顏色、圖樣、和自然型態交兵,使得這些特點對作品的影響較為次要。0121-1110=114086 (no. 19)作品木頭圓形的部份展現了紓緩的圖樣,界定(而非限制)在方型的畫框中。也許展覽中最讓人卸下心防的作品是0121-1110=114082 (no. 6)的柏木椅,那是一個包裹住地、令人感覺舒適的形狀,第一眼看來會以為鋪滿動物的毛皮,仔細觀察就會發現那是他精巧的排列美味的抽象圖樣,在如波浪起伏的形狀上展開。藉此,我們的思考再次被導引到原本的主題:自然景觀。這些充滿豐富圖樣的作品,尤其是 0121-1110=1140811 (no. 4),結合了石灰化黑木的黯黑與刨光木形態所產生繁花似錦的樂觀。這樣的表現,簡言之,是為了消解藝術家的二重性質而產生的第三種作品全集。 雖然在李在孝早期的作品系列中,深色層切分了線條與圓形,但是在他近期創作更為華美的作品中,黯系的裝飾和淺色系的浮雕共享空間的配置,深與淺的搭配效果顯然並非不可避免,而是刻意為之。

 

李在孝藝術令人愉悅之處在於其不裝腔作勢,以謙遜的態度分享他對生命深層、寬廣的哲學解讀。李在孝的創作過程中或新穎、或平實地,以豐富的材料,用物件表達美之絕色。 

 

信使驛站/翻譯

[LEE JAEHYO] INVESTIGATIONS INTO CHIAROSCURO
-Dr.Iain Robertson(Head of Art Business Studies. Sotheby's Institute of Art) 

 

The subject of landscape is central to the art of Lee Jaehyo. It is the life-blood of his art and it courses through all the animate objects that he creates. The man-made nails that he drives into calcified wood, on the contrary, exhibit his concern for death and destruction. The two sides of his nature represented in a living, breathing wood fashioned into ergonomic forms, and blackened, cosmic shapes onto which silvery patterns and meanings are articulated in silvery spikes, are given equal prominence in this exhibition.

 

 

It would be otiose to say simply that the two parts of the art of Lee Jaehyo describe the Yin and Yang components of his personality. They may so do, but I believe that the primary concern of this apparent division is with nature itself. Lee Jaehyo works through materials in order to articulate his formal sculptural language and he cooperates with nature, and has done so since his early experiments with icicles and dried leaves, in order to gain inspiration for his narrative. The natural world, and by implication the cosmos, which controls the behaviour of nature, can now be seen as two parts of a greater whole.   

 

The harmony that exists within seeming disunity and which is a central Buddhist precept, is also crucial to an understanding of the intention of the art in this exhibition. It is implicit within the overarching dichotomy of life and death and it is apparent in the forms themselves. The charcoal cube, covered in haptic symbols, 0121-1110-1140813 (no.26), combines a perfect cubic form with a body of seemingly random information. The calcified wood totem, 0121-1110-113112 (no. 21) is particularly intriguing in this respect, in the manner in which the symbols congregate into eddies of implied significance. The undulating landscape piece, 0121-1110=114054 (no.20), which appears on the cover of the catalogue, is the most descriptive work in this series, and here symbolism is made to fit landscape, in the same way that it has been employed in the cause of cosmology in other works such as 0121-1110=114088 (no 22).

 

It is possible to speak of life affirmation in the case of the luscious, planed, wooden forms of the artist's other distinct body of work. These sometimes giant shapes conjure up images of a natural world that overwhelm the senses. The rhapsody of nature that the artist unleashes seems barely contained within the strictures of the harmonious shapes that he creates. The intricate arrangement of line and circle, the building blocks of the language of art, is clearly articulated in a number of sculptures, but works particularly well in 0121-1110=111081 (no 12). In this example the egg form, associated with the origin of life, provides an elegant and proportionally apposite form for the binary language.  The upturned bell-shaped free-standing sculpture, 0121-1110=114022 (no 14) and amorphic 0121-1110=110028 (no 11) cross the three dimensional Rubicon and act as both sculpture and functional object. The former might be used as a table and the latter as a lounger. In fact, rather like the work of the super-star designer Mark Newson, these objects are not intended for practical use.

 

In the striking larch wood works, Lee Jaehyo returns to his organic roots. He engages directly with the colours, patterns and forms of nature, manipulating it to a far lesser degree. In 0121-1110=114086 (no 19) the circles of wood create a restful pattern, defined rather than constrained by the square picture format frame. Perhaps the most disarming work in the show is the juniper wood chair, 0121-1110=114082 (no 6), which is a welcoming cocoon, replete with what appears at first glance to be an animal pelt, but on further inspection is an artfully made abstract confection spread over an undulating form. But it also directs our attention once again to the subject of landscape.  These richly patterned works, of which 0121-1110=1140811 (no 4) stands out, marry the darkness of the calcified wood works with the efflorescent optimism of the planed wood forms. They appear, in short, to resolve the two parts of the artist's personality and as such form a third oeuvre. Because while it is true that dark strata separate the lines and circles in the earlier series, in the more recent sumptuous constructions, the dark embellishments share the space with the light reliefs, an effect that appears to be deliberate rather than unavoidable. 

 

The joy of the art of Lee Jaehyo is the unassuming manner in which he shares his profound and wide philosophical understanding of life in novel and at times prosaic forms, employing in the process, a rich array of materials to realise objects of great beauty.

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