Artist’s Note

 

In an age of accelerated changes, the declaration that “Painting is dead” signifies that modernism, which emphasises the narrativity of art, has crumbled after being the subject of persistent criticism under postmodernism over the past decades. Designations such as “post-war”, “post-80s”, and “post-90s” appear to categorise the shifts in individuals’ consciousness and mindsets based on their age through the times. For instance, Jürgen Habermas attempts to analyse the turmoil of the 20th century, while reexamining possible directions for the future and paradigms for reform. Theodor W. Adorno advocated art as a catalyst to the critique of capitalism and modernism. Jean Baudrillard expounded on the impact of media and big data culture on humanity and society. In his book Retrotopia, Zygmunt Bauman contends that “a better future” is an illusion. Writer Albert Camus questioned civilisation in the liminal space between despair and hope. Franz Kafka narrated the bizarreness of existence in absurd expressions. Other reflections including Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities… These writers and philosophers foresaw the coming of an unknown epoch, and their thinking influenced a new era of modernity and its outcasts. 

 

Scholars, writers and artists are critics of their times. Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, and Lucian Freud were leading artists whose subjects and creative expressions signalled the end of a subverted era. 

 

Since religious art in the 17th century, cultural dissemination has been an ongoing phenomenon in society. Postmodernism destroyed all established cultures and civilisations; it halted humanity’s desire for, and pursuit of, cultures and civilisations. 

 

The millennials and the Gen Z may not have a deep understanding of modernism and anti-modernism, and they live in a time of uncertainty, nihilism, and emptiness. Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag have perhaps had a more direct impact on the new generation, or perhaps we have fulfilled some of the prophecies from the past—even though there is no clear cut answer to this.

 

Human civilisation has progressed through conflicts and oppositions. We have seen many reincarnations of art movements throughout history: the Renaissance gave rise to Baroque art because of the critique of Mannerism; Romanticism drifted away from theocracy and moved towards humanistic thinking, and Impressionism cast a new light on the meaning of reality in classical art. Throughout the modernisation of the East, we followed Western trajectories. The cultural fragmentation created by postmodernism has led to the crumbling of faith; individuals exist like “rootless” entities in the ruins and without a spiritual anchor. We have become accustomed to the way our spirits are buried in an ideological wasteland in the Western world, and no one wants to confront this matter head-on. This brings us to a watershed moment of history: living in a state of shattered knowledge, we must let go of attachments, abandon cynicism in favour of creation, and refute subordination in order to achieve autonomy. This is how we reconstruct the foundations of ourselves, and it is the only way for us to break free from the ruins of turbulent times. 

 

Ideology has long been sidelined in the post-postmodern age. From the antiquities to modern times, and between Eastern and Western cultures, the existential consciousness of humans has always been an individual experience that transcends time and borders. My work is akin to reincarnation; it looks back at everything that has happened, without any contention. The spectre of post-postmodernism is alive in its death; it floats like a decentralised entity, weightless and free, as it comes to life in the existential consciousness of post-postmodernism. It evokes the “Painting of Reverberation”, which is the theme of this solo exhibition .

 

Christopher Ku 2022

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藝術家感言

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隨著一個大時代迅速的改變，「繪畫之死」也意味著以藝術敍述性的現代主義經後現代多年的抨擊已奄奄一息，全盤瓦解。「戰後」、「80後」、「90後」......這些名詞似乎明確地意圖劃分人的年齡在時代變遷中的意識及思想的改變，Habermas嘗試分析二十世紀的動亂，尋求未來發展的方向，重新辯證改革方案；而Adorno鼓吹藝術作為激發對資本主義及現代主義之批判；Baudrillard導出傳媒、大數據文化對人類及社會將帶來之影響；Bauman的《逆托邦》默認「一個更美好的未來」已是虛幻的泡沫，作家Albert Camus在絕望與希望間對文明的質疑；Kafka以荒謬形式敍述存在的怪誕；Sartre的《存在與虛無》、Calvino的《看不見的城市》……簡而言之，這些作家和哲學家們預言了一個未知的時代的到來，也影響新一代的現代性及其放逐者。

 

學者、作家、藝術家們對一個時代的指控，帶有代表性的藝術家有Francis Bacon, Giacometti, Lucian Freud等，在主題及表達手法上，他們終結了一個被推翻的時代。

 

文化解構從17世紀初由宗教藝術至今從未間斷，後現代浪潮徹底破壞一切曾被建立的文明及文化，終斷了人類對文明及文化的渴望和追求。

 

80後、90後、00後的一代未必深切地了解現代及反現代的進程，卻身處無法著陸、虛無、荒蕪的時代，Roland Barthes 和Susan Sontag對新一代的影響更為直接，或可說我們已到達多年前曾是警世的預言，並非不無爭論。

 

人類文明周而復始地透過分歧和衝突演進。在歷史的長流中，我們曾見証過藝術思潮的幾道輪迴：文藝復興因矯飾主義的批判催生出巴洛克藝術；浪漫主義背離神權走上人文思考的道路，印象派重新審視古典藝術對真實的定義……曾經，在東方現代化的過程中，我們跟隨了歐美的軌跡，亦步亦趨，不敢相背；如今，後現代造成的文化斷層令精神信仰崩解，廢墟中一個個「無根」的個體，再也沒有任何可以信賴的參照物。西方世界把精神靈魂埋沒在意識型態的廢墟中，我們依循至此，卻沒有人願意直視問題的存在。此刻，人們又一次站在歷史的分水嶺，面對肢離破碎的知識狀態，唯有脫離依附，由犬儒走向創造，由從屬走向自主，重新建構屬於自己的語境，方能在動盪無常的現況中結束頹垣的困境。

 

在一個後後現代的時期，意識形態已不被重視，徘徊在古今中外、東西文化間，存在思覺屬於個人的體驗，不需劃地為牢，游盪於時代的裡外四周，我的作品變得像是死後的輪迴，觀望曾經發生的一切，不再有所爭議。後後現代的幽靈，死去而活著，去中心化的漂浮，無重量的輕盈，活在後後現代的存在思覺中，迴盪--也是此個展的主題。

 

谷敏昭   二O二二年