IN SUBTLE SENSITIVITY

MARIA IGNACIA WALKER 瑪莉亞・伊格納西亞・沃克

藝術家自述

透過可穿戴藝術，我找到了一種對過去和現在自我認知的溝通、表達、記憶和思考渠道。隨著探索自身久遠的記憶、身體的衰敗和不斷的修復；孕育了和我密不可分的作品。 我對人體生理和心理能不斷的儲存和拚棄的能力感到著迷；透過一系列創作嘗試一探身體所保留；那些被我們不斷地忘記卻又難以忘懷的部份，以凝著這些過程去歌頌那些經已隨我們消逝的部份。

《From Memory》簡介

記憶的脆弱性向來是無數學術反覆研究的議題。雖然如同雲湧般萬變；卻又細膩像茶色濾鏡般爲事物染上一抹神秘的色彩，鞏固著我們每人建構起的主觀認知。

藝術家將記憶的概念和生命經驗的收集、分類、儲存、復取和重現連結；繼而創作出《From Memory》一系列的銅及銀製作品。運用電鑄技術不受控的高壓電流反覆地刻劃出一張又一張的臉。

臉孔是人類最能令人留下深刻印象的特徵，然而透過對單一記憶的無限回想，卻無可避免地會使記憶扭曲和侵蝕，直至輪廓模糊。藝術家透過脈動般雀躍的反覆追憶和創作，嘗試凝住那隨年月漸趨模糊的記憶並使其物體化。

作品中的每張臉雖然神髓依舊卻因一臉一回想的相互刪減；漸變成一團混沌的存在，更顯作品和記憶過程相似的困惑和複雜性。

Artist Statement

Through wearable art, I have found a way of communicating, conveying, remembering and rethinking what we are and once were. My pieces are the fruit of an intimate exchange with my body, which involves exploring old memories, bodily losses and constant renewal. I feel deeply captivated by the body’s physical and psychological ability to store and abandon. What do we hold on to and what do we forget? In my work, I contemplate what the body preserves. Freezing the cycles of these processes to produce objects that honor the parts of us that have perished. Seeing what’s regenerated or cast aside instead. I create with skin, cells and hair, elements that are subject to day-to-day renewal and that are linked to our ethereal beings.

《From Memory》Statement

The fragility of memories has been the subject of countless theoretical and scientific studies. Like stormy clouds limiting a comprehensive understanding of phenomena, memories are intricate, mysterious and evoked differently every time. Each processed memory, becoming distorted or manipulated to fit what we interpret from the reality.

 Collecting, cataloging, storing, retrieving and repeating life experiences are concepts that María Ignacia Walker links to memory. As a result of such reflections, she created “From Memory”, a series of figurative copper and silver pieces forged and reconstructed through an uncontrolled hight voltages electroforming process.

Faces, the most memorable feature of a person, depicted through endless repetition until they are distorted, losing details, and gradually deteriorating their structure. In a pulsating and constant exploration, María Ignacia Walker explores and tries to relive her own memories through features that are increasingly blurry but become tangible in her quest to find different methods of capturing them.

Face by face, memory by memory, until they become murky masses. Although they still have some expressive features, they cancel each other out, whilst strengthening the confusing and complexity of the process.

張雅婷 BELINDA CHANG

《The Tactile & Taciturn》簡介

藝術家向來對大自然各種混天而成的元素感到著迷，從型體構造至紋理材質；皆給予她創作靈感並貫穿其多個個人作品系列。是次作品沿襲《Cactile Collection》系列加以發展，摹傚多肉植物的型態、結構和紋理；結合個人獨有的審美創造出一系列的視覺和觸覺饗宴。

運用傳統金工技術，藝術家將金屬和植物兩者迴然不同的存在界線溶和，表面每一道看似靜默的痕跡皆透過觸感無聲地訴說著其可溯脈絡。每一敲每一鑿是藝術家對自身作為金工師的界限挑戰；卻也是一種內在探索的禪行覺察。如同自然界不變的兩極法則，藝術家期望嘗試在不斷突破金工工藝的固有框架同時；鍛練出自身剛柔並全的獨有里程。

《The Tactile & Taciturn》Statement

Belinda elegantly wed her penchant for floral inspiration and creative use of manual fabrication techniques to bring forth a sense of spiritual relief in her latest work. Using the inherent possibilities in the materials, the act of disciplined texturing is essentially a meditational process as much as it is a creative one.

By employing techniques such as forming, repousse and engraving, the technical procedures used on metals take on the decorative value through rich subtleties and textures. The boundary between metal and organic matter is blurred in Belinda’s creations, the segmented form and discernible textures are reminiscent of that belonging to the cactus family; created through cycles of repetitive fabrication

process, the experience is a therapeutic one as organic trait gradually manifest on the metallic surface, until the piece is ripe to exemplify an ineffable individuality that cannot be fully comprehended by sight alone but is to be felt and remembered.

蔡卓岐 ALEX TSAI

《 In situ 》

沒有任何靈感泉源能媲美大自然的森羅萬象，它作為繆思推動著每一個創作者並激發他們的想像力。
從藝術家的作品中可以看出，昆蟲學對其而言有一種無法抗拒的吸引力。

是次展出的作品“ In situ ”，可以說是其系列的先導作品，每一件作品透過選材和視覺元素的搭配共同引出這一系列的中心思想： 利用自然詮釋出思想記憶珍貴。

“ In situ ”在拉丁文中意譯“在原本的位置上”，寓意著設計師希望將最珍貴的回憶凝結，將記憶定格於最美好的一幕，停留在原本的位置。細心觀察可以發現中空的蟲蛹被安放在一個人造的環境當中被細心呵護著。暗喻人永遠在經歷過後才會發覺美好的回憶稍瞬即逝，心甘情願的耗盡自我編織出一個又一個的溫室保護如蟲蛹般脆弱的記憶。

這些作品重來都不以首飾的角度出發，其功能性並不以切合人類的需求而存在。
而是作為當代首飾，遊走於物器與首飾之間，模糊了兩者的界線。他們是一個獨立的個體向觀察者敘述出一個又一個關於記憶的故事。

《 In situ 》

There is a natural gravity towards entomology in any of Alex’s creations, there’s no greater source of inspiration than hexapedal wonders prepacked by the Muses themselves, as the artist puts it.

The quartet of contemporary wearables on display is part of a developing collection that interprets nature as a visceral precious object. As much as each piece differ in form, they share a fundamental recipe for material elements. This connects them to the series’ central theme of conservation, where the vacated chrysalis adheres to a pseudo-authentic habitat; constructing a metaphor for our inability to fully comprehend our blissful instances until in hindsight, as a memory that we wouldwillingly exhaust ourselves to salvage from dissolution in the fog of oblivion.

The miniscule conservatories though exist within the confines of a brooch, their functionality in the context of the human form was never a priority in the artist’s creative practice. These artefacts are formally resolved as a standalone object, its wearability stems not from the preconceived notion of jewellery, but instead a practical appendage that yields an extra stratum of significance, oscillating the threshold of bodily boundaries.