Double Vision:

Sightings in Daebudo -

Works of Hanison Lau

山外山：

劉學成作品—

大阜島的所見所感

The mountain and the moon are two recurrent motifs used in this chronicle of Hanison's journey (2011-12) to the Daebudo, a mountainous island which is several hours' drive by car from Seoul.

在2011至2012年，劉學成駐場大阜島期間，山和月的影像在這個距離首爾只有數小時車程、群山環繞的島嶼上一再浮現。

The work in three parts is a sequel to an earlier exhibition resultant from a residency there. Part One shows a series of mountains in bonsai proportions with miniature trees, installed on spindly and frail-looking wooden legs.  This evokes in the viewer two sensations: a fear of toppling over from the edge of a high place; feeling small and insignificant in Nature's scale.

這次的作品共分為三部份，延續了大阜島的駐場展覽。第一部份展出的盆景山巒疊翠，微小的樹木裝置在細長纖弱的木枝上，搖搖欲墜之態讓人反思身處大自然的微弱渺小。

Part Two shows the Mountain as non-threatening, malleable, even edible like a kind of traditional Chinese cake that is made from clay-colour dough pressed into a handcrafted wooden mold. Some are put in what looks like a gift-box with a lid. Each piece can be read as an abstract sculptural piece, defined only by its mass, contours and lines. At the same time, Hanison hints: "I can't think of the mountain without also thinking Chinese poetry and how it's shaped the way I work." 

第二部份則展現了山溫順平和、具可塑性的一面，如同製作傳統中式糕點一般，捏塑泥色的粉團，並按壓於木製模具內；也有放在木盒裡的，加上蓋子，恰似一個個禮盒。依其體積、輪廓和紋理解讀，每件作品都是抽象的雕塑。劉學成說，「想到了山，就不期然想起中國詩詞，這亦賦予了我創作靈感。」

Part Three is made up of five 2-D groupings; each contains a Moon-shaped painted surface coupled with a square shape, representing different phases of the waning Moon, and the passage of time. There the Moon, always in flux and in flight, juxtaposes with the Mountain that hardly ever moves and changes.

第三部份由五組平面作品組成，月形的塑膠彩面與方形的木框相映，象徵月盈月缺，以及時間的流逝。月總在變動、在飛翔，山卻堅定不移、始終不變。

The concept for "Double Vision" first came to mind when Hanison talked about his residency in a haunted house on Daebudo. He had been assigned his workspace in a deserted orphanage whose rooms have been converted into artist studios. The people on the island that he talked to told him that the orphanage was haunted. Hanison claims he is always sensitive to subtle energy and its paranormal manifestations. This affects his perception of conventional realities, and thereby blurs the line between scientific and spiritual beliefs. He chooses not to latch his vision on to the physical world, but also accepts the possibility of the existence of spiritual phenomena outside of the rational realm.

山外山的概念源自劉學成駐場大阜島，身處鬼屋的親身經歷。他的工作間就在一所棄置的孤兒院，那裡的房間全被改造成藝術家工作室。島上的人都不約而同地告訴他，孤兒院曾經多次鬧鬼。劉學成從小就能感應微妙能量，及其超自然形態，這份敏感改變了他對常規慣例的認知，亦模糊了科學和靈異世界的界線。他沒有執著於物質世界的種種，反而接受超脫理性的靈異存在。

"It's not just seeing ghosts, but also the energy bodies of people who are still alive," he said, diving into this subject.

「那不只是鬼魂，也是活著的人的能量載體。」劉學成接著說。

"Once I ran into my cousin in the street wearing a red T-shirt with a distinct animal pattern. But he walked right past me like I wasn't there. Later I checked out that he was still In Vancouver and he had a T-shirt exactly like the one I saw him wearing. Parallel universe? Yes, I believe there is."

「有次在街上碰見表弟，他身穿印有特別動物圖案的紅色T恤，他從我身旁走過，卻彷彿沒有看見我。後來才知道，那時候他還在溫哥華，然而，他衣櫥裡真的放著那件T恤，跟我看到的一模一樣。是平行時空吧？是的，我這樣相信。」

This may explain the ethereality, a veiled perception in his some of his paintings.

也許這亦能解釋，為何他的作品總瀰漫著一點靈妙。

But finally it is Daebudo -- "big mountain island" in Korean language -- that has overpowered him. It was a big change for him, from his 10-metre-square studio, that he has set up in his tiny apartment in Sai Yin Pun, Hong Kong, to big empty space and wide open country.

大阜島給他注入滿滿的能量，畢竟從香港西營盤寓所切割、僅僅十平方米的工作室，來到這寬敞遼闊之地，經歷了莫大的轉變。

"I feel liberated and tranquil once the initial shock has gone."  He has started to create works which were previously untenable in his own studio.

「最初的不安感過後，心裡感到無比自由和恬靜。」就這樣，劉學成不再受工作室的空間所限，開始一連的藝術創作。

By Benny Chia

Curator

March 2015, Hong Kong

謝俊興

策展人

2015年3月，香港