LAI Chih-Sheng 賴志盛

LAI Chih-Sheng's work is not based on artistic technique but conceptual practice that imparts his audience a familiar yet new experience that is both immediate and poetic. Born in 1971 in Taipei, LAI's recent solo exhibitions include " Between Dog and Wolf" (ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, 2017), “Scene” (ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, 2015), "Instant" (IT Park Gallery, Taipei, 2013). In 2012, his work Life-Size Drawing was invited to participate in "Invisible: Art of the Unseen 1957-2012" (Hayward Gallery, London, 2013).

  • 1971 Born in Taipei, Taiwan
  • 1996 B.F.A., Department of Fine Arts, Taipei National Institute of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2003 M.F.A., Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National College of the Arts, Tainan, Taiwan

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

    2019

  • “Besides,”, Kirishima Open Air Museum, Kagoshima, Japan
  • “Still Life”, Gaiart, Taipei, Taiwan
    2018

  • “Canton Flower Bridge”, Observation Society, Guangzhou, China
    2017

  • “Between Dog and Wolf”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
    2015

  • “Scene”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Room 1734”, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
    2013

  • “LAI Chih-Sheng: Instant”, PROJECT ONE, Hong Kong, China
  • “Instant”, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
    2005

  • “1996 – 2005 Someday, Something and Someone”, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
    2004

  • “Reality in the Sky”, Domicile, Taipei, Taiwan
    2001

  • “Between Art and Life”, Paint House, Tainan, Taiwan

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

    2019

  • “Folded Veil”, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, China
  • "This is very simple. Who wouldn't be able to do it?", EXPO Dome, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Art of Absence”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "Healthier, simpler, wiser.", Edouard Malingue Gallery, Shanghai, China
  • “close”, Crane Gallery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    2018

  • “Daily" The 2th Greater Taipei Biennial of Contemporary Arts, NTUA, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Sui Generis" Jing-Pai of Taiwan, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Video On the Phone", Hong Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
    2017

  • “Kau-Puê, Mutual Companionship in Near Future: 2017 Soulangh International Contemporary Art Festival”, Soulangh Cultural Park, Tainan, Taiwan
    2016

  • “If it be your will That I speak no more”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Aichi Triennale 2016: “Homo Faber: A Rainbow Caravan", Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya city, Toyohashi city, Okazaki city, Japan
  • "Delayed", NHCUE ART SPACE, Hsinchu, Taiwan
  • "Untitled", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE", NO SHOW MUSEUM, North America Tour – In 80 Days Across America
  • “Utopias and Heterotopias—Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Wuzhen Northern Silk Factory, Zhejiang, China
  • “SILK ROAD INTERNATIONAL”, AMNUA Internatinal Project II, AMNUA, Nanjing, China
    2015

  • "At" Lai Chih-Sheng & Lee Kit, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
  • The 13th Biennale de Lyon: “La vie Moderne", Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France
  • "Alice's Rabbit Hole–Everyday Life, Comprehensible and Incomprehensible", Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "Abstract on-site", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “A Hundred Years of Shame—Songs of Resistance and Scenarios for Chinese Nations”, Para Site, Hong Kong, China
    2014

  • “The Pioneers of Taiwanese Artists, 1971-1980”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • “Bloom” ESLITE GALLERY 25th Anniversary Exhibition, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “YES, TAIWAN—2014 Taiwan Biennial”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • “Art for Oneself”, TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan
  • The 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale: “We Have Never Participated”, Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China
  • “Margin Archive & Film Fest”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Transcoding: The Grography of Digital Images”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • “NO SHOW MUSEUM”, http://www.staging.noshowmuseum.ch
    2013

  • “Mind on Forms”, Mobile Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Asia Cruise—Evidence”, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Drawing·Expression and Limit”, AMNUA, Nanjing, China
    2012

  • “Invisible: Art of the Unseen 1957-2012”, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
    2011

  • “Zuowei yizhong liwaiyuxianshide zhuangtai: LIAO Chien-Chung, LEE Ji-Hong, and LAI Chih-Sheng”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “The 2nd Chongqing Biennale for Young Artists”, Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, China
  • “The 2011 Material Language—Soil”, Juming Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
    2010

  • “Micro-Image”, Ping Pong Art Space, Taipei; Paint House, Tainan, Taiwan
    2009

  • “LOOKING UP! LOOKING DOWN!”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
    2008

  • “Ctrl Z”, inFIDI space, Taipei, Taiwan
    2006

  • “A Realm with No Coordinates”, Hong Kong, China / Taipei, Tainan, Taiwan
    2005

  • “Every Time”, Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
    2003

  • “Taipei Arts Award”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
    2002

  • “1st Tainan Biennial”, Tainan Municipal Cultural Center, Tainan, Taiwan
    2001

  • “Cross-cultural Project in Asia”, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia / Taipei, Chiayi,Taiwan / Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, China
  • “1st Taiwan Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition”, Huashan Culture Park, Taipei, Taiwan
    1999

  • “Nation Oxygen Group Exhibition Part I”, Bali Abandoned House, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Nation Oxygen Group Exhibition Part II”, Shin Leh Yuan Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Island, Penghu, Nation Oxygen”, Penghu Islands, Taiwan
    1996

  • “Interactive Experiment”, Shanchi Abandoned Factory, Taipei, Taiwan

RESIDENCY

    2014

  • Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
點選各年份作品

As an Exception to Reality: An Act of Writing Related to "Zuowei yizhong

By Chin Ya-chun

In the product of writing you are currently reading, I hope to offer an observation of an artist's oeuvre. Under the foreseeable condition that an all-inclusive survey is not possible, I would like to begin with the images that the works evoked, sometimes time and again, in my mind. In fact, their appearance or recurrence has led to their being interpreted as the common attributes of the works, but it is not only because they stand out from the elements of the works, but also because they make every encounter with the works, regarded as either ordinary or artistic, extraordinary. As a result, the images also become my habitual route to approach and examine these (and even the other) works.
First of all, most of the works originate from the artist's consciousness with the everyday life / the world, which is specifically the product of his examination of his daily experiences in a position outside of himself. This persistent gaze comes primarily from one of his identities coexisting with another identity in the physical reality, and it is this identity, premised on another identity in the reality and hence scarcely involving any goal in the reality, that calls his attention to the sparkles in the daily experiences generally considered to be ordinary and mediocre. It is also this identity that triggers a series of attempts to transform personal perceptions into the content perceivable to others.

Second, these works are mostly executed by the artist's own skills. Despite that certain historical shifts have rendered almost every skill applicable or adaptable to the practice of art, the skills employed in the works are exactly those the artist uses for his livelihood. To meet the strict demand of reality (and perhaps a certain moral code), they are cultivated into bodily capabilities most appropriate for realizing his ideas.
If one's consciousness of the outside world is an outward measurement, executing works through one's body is close to being an inward measurement, which explores and refines one's talent, and constantly strives to expand its terrain. In all of these practices, the presumably unique body is taken as both a tool of measurement and the target of that measurement, and the eventual goal of the practices of unforeseeable consequence is the yet to be affirmed or established uniqueness.
Finally, the above attributes converge to introduce another attribute. Drawing on the images we personally witness in daily life, the works adopt a foreign yet inviting posture for communication among the art forms we are accustomed to and take for granted, and begin to address abstract content devoid of narrative. Any message that we acquire from them, therefore, seems to be generated by our own consciousness, instead of being built-in results
ready to be disclosed.
This attribute enables the individual practices to embody the ways to confront or escape from the reality (as well as the art world increasingly resembling it) in perceivable forms, while encouraging similar practices from others, especially when they do occur in the everyday reality.

As it is foreseeable that an all-inclusive survey of the artist's oeuvre is impossible, and as it will definitely be more valuable to really encounter, if possible, his past or future practices, I suppose it may be a fine choice to continue my discussion from only one of the artist's works.
"Reality in the Sky II" and others As long as they are not "Untitled" or suggest no more than a chronological order, the titles of (art)works are usually of equal importance to the works themselves. Functioning as the captions of photographs, they supplement or point towards the intended interpretation of the works with ostensibly open content.
Since the work is titled "Reality in the Sky II," there should be a predecessor strongly related to it. Much more than that, as one summons its existence in its only possible form of a legend or a story, it also demonstrates how it is possible for two stridently different expressions to convey virtually identical discourse.
The 2004 "Reality in the Sky," taken place in an apartment rented specifically for this art project, was exhibited in the artist's bedroom, a space perhaps newly arranged for the public display. Its simple colors and furniture seem to be deliberately chosen, but the interior looks quite ordinary; the only extraordinary thing is the moving images floating slightly above our heads. Under scrutiny, the images largely composed of scenes on and around heavily trafficked streets are just as ordinary as the space they occupy. The nonetheless far-from-ordinary situation immediately prompts one to seek the source of images -- usually a perfectly concealed projector. And when the effort is eventually proved futile, the phenomenon advances in unresolved suspense is established as being a spectacle. However startling the seemingly uncommon phenomenon may be, it is in fact as commonplace as the space or the endlessly flowing images are. On the side of the bedroom facing the street, the artist built a new wall, and carefully left a hole at the center of the cement structure blocking out all the light. As a consequence of the principle of the camera obscura (found and made full use of long ago), whenever the interior lights are switched off, the images of the exterior world filtered through the hole suffuse the 'sky' of the place instantly.
This fantastic experience to the spectators is produced in an environment of the physical reality, executed by the skills of the physical reality, and realized in a living space of the physical reality. A comparatively thorough understanding of the work is achieved through the video record apparently incapable of representing the history of the experience. After the installation was completed, the artist had lived (as he did in the physical reality) in the room for three months, during which the two realities coexisted / juxtaposed -- the external reality that most of the time we can only experience the arbitrariness of its sequential progress, and the internal reality substantiated as a result of our consciousness with and response to the external reality, in a probably extremely cramped space. However, it is in light of the latter that we make out our condition in the world from which we can never abstain ourselves yet in which we may not be helplessly impotent.
If what "Reality in the Sky" intends is to mobilize the spectators' consciousness by imparting experiences in the physical time and space, "Reality in the Sky II" wrests control of the consciousness by producing readings of images. Instead of offering a reflexive position in the physical space, the fast-moving swirl of images in their most charming moments entices us to identify with or succumb to the photographer's perspective entirely. As this happens, the physical position we adopt in relation to the images is canceled, and we become, as it were, the subjects of the unknown journey.

The alien yet familiar images are disconcerting since the beginning, but their rapid movement deprives us of all choices except to pick up the sense of strangeness they instantaneously leave behind. They are alien because they derive from a nearly impossible horizon of vision -- as the continuation of the artist's body, the (upside-down) camera bound to the bottom of a car gazes at the artist's daily course of shuttling between his house and studio.

Much as the ground closing in on us is visually threatening, the images present a wonder world unfolding infinitely before our eyes. The city apparatus suspended grotesquely in the sky incessantly lashes out astonishing images on us, and their origin is nothing more than the course of a day that most of us experience too unwittingly to recollect its progress. Either we understand it or are told of the truth, our realization would not lessen the visual impact, for
it stems from our habitual perception which can never be radically adjusted. And it is precisely in the repeated frustration to re-adjust ourselves that we successfully summon back a body attempting to live and feel every moment of his life in full.
Either "Reality in the Sky," "Reality in the Sky II," or the works preceding or following them, implies an acting subject employing his bodily skills as a means to perceive the world containing them and attempting to pinpoint his perceptions through the practice of art. The (art) production arising from the attempts, therefore, form an interface capable of enacting a reversal of the production, on which the experiences seemingly exceptional to yet simultaneously acknowledging of its perpetual attachment to the reality brings to the fore the hitherto unimaginable possibilities of ourselves and the reality of which we are a part.
Before bringing the act of writing to closure, I must confess my frustration of being incapable of describing or discussing "Reality in the Sky, "Reality in the Sky II," or even the works preceding or following them. The principal reason is not that I have never been personally present in where they occurred or were displayed. As a matter of fact, in terms of listening to or apprehending the disclosure of works, presence is neither absolutely required nor
particularly advantageous.

To use an analogy, it is vaguely like having a dream. You have genuine experiences in the dream, genuine in the sense both that they are poignantly felt by your body, and that whatever is perceived does not diverge from the world you live in. However, loaded with a strong dose of strangeness, the familiar scenes greatly panicked you, as if you are suddenly assaulted in a supposedly safe place. The imprint on your body is so sharp that it has not
evaporated until you finally detach yourself, upon awakening, to resume the vantage point of observation, not without a desire to recount the peculiar dream. But how do you represent the virtual experiences unfolding both synchronically with countless details and diachronically in a sequential fashion? To me at least, the urgency immediately poses question to language as satisfactory tool of representation.

Somewhat absurdly, my subjects of the task destined to proceed with a haunting sense of frustration are precisely those having fulfilled the task vigorously. On that account, the only support or encouragement to my act of writing may be that, at all events, the works bound to cling to space, time, or any other vehicles have their unattainable sphere.

勞動、耗費與極微感性

文/游崴
賴志盛在1990年代中期是觀念主義團體「國家氧」的成員之一,早期作品 多發表在台北都會區外圍的廢墟,以狀似徒勞的工事召喚絕對性、轉換場 所意義。如在空廠房以一百塊磚頭砌成一直頂天花板的長柱,或是以海菜 水填補廢棄民宅一處地板凹窪成就水平。他在灰撲撲的日常情境中創造一 種低限而異樣的現實,作品圍繞著勞動、耗費、特定場域精神,以及「藝 術生產如何可能?」的瞬間。他過去長達13年在工地擔任泥水匠的經驗, 一直是重要的創作養分。

承接觀念藝術的反身思考,賴志盛晚近的創作不斷回應著當代藝術世界賴 以運作的展示系統,透過自我指涉來探索一種極微的感性。如《作品》是 一個摹傚自身臺座的雕塑物,《原寸素描》則是一場緊貼著現實的繪畫行 動,以大量勞力描繪展場空間所有紋理。賴志盛不斷削減他自己在作品裡 的表現性,甚至將表現的任務完全讓渡給觀者,或是佈展工人。在《邊 境》中,我們遭遇一條狹窄步道只能沿牆面而行,中央散落的廢材是佈展 工人留下的剩餘。這條步道也是舞台,我們觀看的同時也將被觀看。

文/何采柔
2014年一月,在巴黎的西帖藝術村的1733號房,住了一位駐村的鋼琴家。同年8月,賴志盛抵達了藝術村的同一棟樓,並入住在隔壁的1734號房。

隔著一道薄薄的牆壁,賴志盛的生活充滿著鋼琴家的痕跡:洗澡、練琴、煮飯、做愛、開門、關門… …藝術家從一開始被干擾的情況下,慢慢習慣於這種被入侵式的生活狀態。在接受的同時,他小心翼翼地回避所有與1733主人接觸的可能性,他摸索她的作息、錯開與她正面交會的時機:她開門走出、門就被他關上。

《Room 1734》最後成為了賴志盛在巴黎駐村期間的唯一一件作品。作品展示的是他的房間:一排懸掛在斜牆上的白紙、堵住洗澡間排水口的玻璃杯、一塊摩擦至光亮的塑膠方塊地板、一段隔著薄牆錄製的練琴聲、一張模糊的兩個房間交界的轉角照片、以及一封寫給鋼琴家的信。在房間裡展出的,是賴志盛在巴黎生活的痕跡;而與這些日常交會卻又不真實存在的,是1734的點滴。在這個展覽開始到結束的時間裡,賴志盛選擇了缺席,貫徹他對1733保留的想像與距離。

如果1734代表的是現實,賴志盛的創作則是圍繞著現實邊緣行走的日常。在賴志盛的作品裡,意圖明顯的,即是日常與現實那如一道薄膜般的邊界,而當兩者被藝術家刻意斷開的那一刻,現實產生的位移,日常亦隨之被拉扯、相互牽制,卻又獨立存在。隔著一道薄薄的牆,藝術家藉由觀察它透露的線索、痕跡、日常勞動與它的碰撞,來形塑對於現實的想像。而這道牆的距離,讓藝術家保持著對自我主體不可被分割的主動權。兩者主體的碰撞,不是具象的被呈現,而是去正視在碰撞過程中留下的痕跡與殘餘。

誠如賴志盛這次在誠品個展的名稱「這」,觀眾被邀請去正視的,不是現實本身,而是在我們認定下的現實以外,被我們忽略的日常。

在影像經歷裡消失的未來─關於賴志盛的《即刻》

文/秦雅君

在經歷著那段持續指向未來的流變過程中,終有一刻你發現預期中的未來不會來了。

事實上,此時此刻談論這件作品似乎是一項並不恰當的行動,因為作為作品的它其實尚未發生。而這並不恰當的行動之所以於此發生主要基於一種難以遏止的想像,由一個被發表在臉書上的作品計畫所引發。

它是一個出現在螢幕上絕大多數人都倍感熟悉的畫面,全白底色正中央有一個小小的環形圖示,在螢幕上看到它的瞬間我開始等待,直到無法再回憶起究竟經過多久的另一個瞬間,才驚覺它原來是一張靜止的圖像。

預期將正式展出的這件作品是那張圖像的動態版,而無法遏止的想像就從那段無法再回憶起究竟經過多久的空白展開。

如果「時間」是一個我們始終處於其中卻無從掌握的對象,那麼「影像」是否可能成為一個有效的取徑?畢竟它是唯一許諾能如實地再現某段時間經歷同時也一再兌現這項許諾的某段時間經歷。然而卻正是同樣的描述恰恰證明了影像迫近時間的無能為力,因為無論多麼「如實」,它依然僅能是在「某個」視野裡的「某段」時間經歷,其意味著,在投入那些明顯屬於他者且局部的時間經歷的同時,你也正經歷著一段依然透明而無法觸及的時間。如果上述已成為在多數影像經歷裡的理所當然,那麼正是那段無法再回憶起究竟經過多久的空白開始動搖了這個理所當然。

一切從你幾近自動地進入等待狀態啟始,那是一種在投入某段時間經歷之前的預備動作,或許全神貫注或許有些分心,然而在自始至終無從進駐任何其它可能的現實裡,那無論全神貫注或有些分心的時間經歷成為你唯一的時間經歷,以及或許更為重要的是,它全然從屬於你的時間經歷。

這是一件在作者的布置之下由你所完成的作品,作為一段影像或時間經歷,由於它預設為無從完整經歷的無盡循環,於是你的經歷便是它現實化的唯一可能,換言之,它足以成為一段可被經歷的影像或時間,就從你注視它的時刻開始並在你離開它之際告終。

這是一場純粹由視覺所啟動的體驗,然而其可見的內容卻簡單到不容任何錯過的可能,於是你與它之間的獨特關係並非建立在相較於其它觀者看到了不同的什麼,而是座落在不同瞬間的同一個發現,一個由始終同一的對象不斷增生的差異經驗,一個關於不同的「我」的可能性。

在如果曾經發生的同一個發現之後,你所能回憶起的這段影像內容是什麼?答案或許取決於你是否仍與其相對,如果是的話那麼它僅是持續湧現同時不斷消逝的此時此刻,如果否的話那麼它僅是曾經持續湧現同時不斷消逝的此時此刻,除此之外它沒有其他可供轉述的內容,這個在過往經驗中總是在實現著未來許諾的影像經歷,藉由永恆地停留在許諾未來的無盡循環裡,徹底地背叛了這個許諾。
如果真正的創造必須等同於與再現之間的決裂,那麼正是在這件作品裡我看到了在影像裡徹底擺脫再現的可能。藉由將從不被視為影像內容的內容作為其全部的內容,其形成了一段從未指涉其他而僅止於述說自身的影像,進而促成了一次你在影像經歷裡終能與自身相遇的時刻。

如果上述的各個段落是一次次重返這段影像的不同回憶,推衍至此,我赫然發現此前述及這件作品時所使用的各項稱謂或已不盡然準確,因為它並非一段總能一再重複且百分之百相同的影像經歷,一如我們正存在於其中的時間經歷。

在經歷著那段持續指向未來的流變過程中,終有一刻你發現預期中的未來不會來了。而那預期中的未來真的不會來了嗎?當影像仍持續播放著,你唯一獲悉的是那些一成不變的過往以及正持續獲悉與過往同樣一成不變的當刻,但你永遠無從得知的是下一個瞬間會發生什麼……

在,不在:《Room 1734》

文/蘇盈龍

每一天都是想像卻不虛幻,每一刻都是真實卻不現實。

房號1734是賴志盛在巴黎駐村六個月中所生活的一方斗室,他將曾經發生持續發生或明顯或隱約的痕跡,以整個房間為作品,把空間作為完整構圖的一部分,空間本身已是發語的主體,而不僅僅是將作品放進空間中,是因兩者對話才發生關聯與意義。在這件作品中,賴志盛一貫脈絡著以低限摺入空間滲進現實的創作痕跡:一列白色的紙張、一片拭淨的地磚、一條欄杆上的布巾、一杯漸溢的杯水、幾處簡單如詩的素描… …等,甚至只是一段聲音與一封信,以及一個不在現場的人。舉目所見的一切,是藝術家在這段時間裡與空間細緻的交往過程及創作刻痕。在這個摺疊著情感與記憶的空間裡,賴志盛的行蹤與舉止透過這些物件重演著那些消逝的或其實未曾顯露過的姿勢。他一直都在,也一直都不在。

不管是循著垂列的紙張漸溢的水杯輕飄的布巾或地板的亮痕浴室的水痕紙上的墨痕,當試圖以這些線索去還原想像藝術家的生活痕跡時,卻發現這些如此妥適存在於房間中的物件,又將我們帶到另一個房間,一個以為是藝術家生活過的房間,但他,卻其實從來不曾在,即使如此栩栩如生。彷彿《Arther》(2002)這件作品但卻更進一步,相對於通過那一道虛線卻實際被阻隔的觀眾,這一回以為可以進入到某個空間某個位置,然後與藝術家相遇,但每一道跡印卻只是片段的他。感受到了呼吸,卻感觸不到他的眼光;追尋著目光,他指間的那一抹煙氣卻已經消逝。或是相對於《原寸素描》(2012),同樣是藝術家介入於空間,但前者的紋理是完全附身於空間中,與空間發生對話;《Room 1734》則是複數型式的相互依存,這些痕跡是歷經時間衍生於此,並非移入,空間即在作品的肌理中,不可剝奪。因此不但未減損作品對於純粹性的表現,這些餘音反而因為取得了一致的調性而更加和諧地隱隱共鳴著。

這房間中最為殊異的痕跡是一段聲音,這段聲音其實並不在1734號房中發生,但卻又出現在其中,因為這一段聲音而衍生出可以是在任何地方的一封信,與絕對不在這個房間中的藝術家。那段聲音是記錄著從未謀面的1733號居住者在日常作息中的片段舉動,這些動作所產生的聲音,透過牆壁,然後在1734這一個房間裡出現,鄰居(藝術家)的耳朵半被強迫性地窺知其私人生活。從一開始的無意識到逐漸成為他生活中的一部分,從完全不在乎到被馴養成下意識地聆聽觀察隔牆的一聞一動,以現實之中的想像之鏡,映照出生活中自己所看不見的自己。

一方面鄰人的生活一點一滴浸染洇進了賴志盛的作息,早晨的盥洗聲、規律的練琴聲、開門關門、瑣碎的移動與感觸不到卻可以知覺的氣息,斷續地從夢寐中被驚擾,在思考中被牽引,無可自己地生活在鄰室的生活裡,像是被重疊錯置的行程表,日復一日。但同時,他卻又極端地控制著不讓雙方有實際交集的任何可能,小心翼翼地把從未謀面的芳鄰隔絕在陌路的彼岸。將鄰人的生活抽絲剝繭,然後重新編入這個房間,是她的生活,卻又已經不是她的。賴志盛捕捉了每一道聲音的影子,然後躲在這些影子的背後在自己的房間裡與她一起生活著。現實世界的她是一段聲音,這段聲音卻是他每天遭遇的真實。但除了藝術家之外,沒有人知道這個她卻每天影響了另一個人,既主動又被動。賴志盛在將鄰人加入的同時,也同時徹底減去她在現實中的存在,但在加一減一中,卻留下了鄰人看不見的藝術家自己與藝術家自己反覆聆聽的鄰人,是彼此生活著卻從來沒有一起生活過。你站在橋上看風景,看風景的人在樓上看你 。在這一段聲音裡,鄰人的腳步聲與練琴聲中隱約流洩出藝術家的挪移聲與呼吸聲;同一個時間,隔著一道牆的空間中,他聽見了她聽見的,但她卻不一定知道他聽見了她聽見的,也不知他一直在聽她聽見的。他與她都存在,卻是在像夢境的真實中或現實的夢境中對話。除了那些 重複的聲音,也僅有聲音。

在《Room 1734》,被加入的是發生在房間1734中的所有痕跡,在這個空間裡流動過的時光,與時光之中的聲響。賴志盛將自己的時間刻度與情緒向度以水痕以墨漬、以白紙以線條、以光亮以音聲,極其自然地召喚而出,但被召喚的同時,他們的存在也已經開始消亡;當展出這件作品時 ,藝術家離開了這個房間,繼續他的日常,他的步行,他的巴黎。而因為時間的絕對不可重現,這些痕跡從當下逐漸弱化消逝,藝術家再回到這房間時,那些「生活的痕跡」因為生活已經隨著時間而有所變化,因藝術家的歸來而變化,與《Room 1734》再也不是相同的痕跡了。當我們進入這個房間時,以為已經進入了賴志盛的世界,進入了《Room 1734》這件作品,但卻在想像這些痕跡的同時,又看到另一個我們以為那才是最初想進入的世界。當眼前所見的一切被摺入1734號房的同時,我們既是觀者也是眼中人,既在這個房間內,也在這個房間外。

左近的風景

文/胡朝聖

《左近的風景》為賴志盛於移動美術館之現地製作,此為其最新發展之系列作品,延續著2013年9月於南京藝術學院美術館執行之觀念發表。藝術家在空間中完成了一幅巨型壁畫,以極其敏銳的感知力展現出對生活周遭不起眼角落的細膩體會、轉化與再現,從看似不專業的邊線收尾與落漆的粗心大意,均暗示出作品欲傳達在藝術完美要求上不允許出現的粗糙與失控,看似不費吹灰之力的錯誤在精準的布局與控制下讓這些「缺點」被突顯放大成為眾矢之的而難以迴避,在疑惑的當下與鄰近的空間形成共生卻又強烈的反差、格格不入和無以名狀,朝著作品的結構與布局延伸,讓觀者在行走抬頭間,經驗到某種深刻且無形的身體勞動、空間感與時間歷程,種種層次分明的對比與經營,使此件作品形成了偌大空間中極為動人卻也無法忽視的視覺風景。

    SOLO EXHIBITIONS
  • 2017 "Between Dog and Wolf", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2015 "Scene", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2013 "LAI Chih-Sheng: Instant", PROJECT ONE, Hong Kong, China
  • 2011 "An Exception to Reality: LAI Chih-Sheng", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
    GROUP EXHIBITIONS
  • 2016 “If it be your will That I speak no more”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2016 "Untitled", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2015 "Abstract on-site", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2014 “Bloom” ESLITE GALLERY 25th Anniversary Exhibition, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2014 “Margin Archive & Film Fest”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2009 “LOOKING UP! LOOKING DOWN!”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
郭旭達
Shida KUO
莊普
TSONG Pu
  • 1971 Born in Taipei, Taiwan
  • 1996 B.F.A., Department of Fine Arts, Taipei National Institute of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2003 M.F.A., Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National College of the Arts, Tainan, Taiwan

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

    2019

  • “Besides,”, Kirishima Open Air Museum, Kagoshima, Japan
  • “Still Life”, Gaiart, Taipei, Taiwan
    2018

  • “Canton Flower Bridge”, Observation Society, Guangzhou, China
    2017

  • “Between Dog and Wolf”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
    2015

  • “Scene”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Room 1734”, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
    2013

  • “LAI Chih-Sheng: Instant”, PROJECT ONE, Hong Kong, China
  • “Instant”, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
    2005

  • “1996 – 2005 Someday, Something and Someone”, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
    2004

  • “Reality in the Sky”, Domicile, Taipei, Taiwan
    2001

  • “Between Art and Life”, Paint House, Tainan, Taiwan

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

    2019

  • “Folded Veil”, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, China
  • "This is very simple. Who wouldn't be able to do it?", EXPO Dome, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Art of Absence”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "Healthier, simpler, wiser.", Edouard Malingue Gallery, Shanghai, China
  • “close”, Crane Gallery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    2018

  • “Daily" The 2th Greater Taipei Biennial of Contemporary Arts, NTUA, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Sui Generis" Jing-Pai of Taiwan, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Video On the Phone", Hong Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
    2017

  • “Kau-Puê, Mutual Companionship in Near Future: 2017 Soulangh International Contemporary Art Festival”, Soulangh Cultural Park, Tainan, Taiwan
    2016

  • “If it be your will That I speak no more”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Aichi Triennale 2016: “Homo Faber: A Rainbow Caravan", Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya city, Toyohashi city, Okazaki city, Japan
  • "Delayed", NHCUE ART SPACE, Hsinchu, Taiwan
  • "Untitled", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE", NO SHOW MUSEUM, North America Tour – In 80 Days Across America
  • “Utopias and Heterotopias—Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Wuzhen Northern Silk Factory, Zhejiang, China
  • “SILK ROAD INTERNATIONAL”, AMNUA Internatinal Project II, AMNUA, Nanjing, China
    2015

  • "At" Lai Chih-Sheng & Lee Kit, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
  • The 13th Biennale de Lyon: “La vie Moderne", Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France
  • "Alice's Rabbit Hole–Everyday Life, Comprehensible and Incomprehensible", Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "Abstract on-site", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “A Hundred Years of Shame—Songs of Resistance and Scenarios for Chinese Nations”, Para Site, Hong Kong, China
    2014

  • “The Pioneers of Taiwanese Artists, 1971-1980”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • “Bloom” ESLITE GALLERY 25th Anniversary Exhibition, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “YES, TAIWAN—2014 Taiwan Biennial”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • “Art for Oneself”, TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan
  • The 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale: “We Have Never Participated”, Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China
  • “Margin Archive & Film Fest”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Transcoding: The Grography of Digital Images”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • “NO SHOW MUSEUM”, http://www.staging.noshowmuseum.ch
    2013

  • “Mind on Forms”, Mobile Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Asia Cruise—Evidence”, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Drawing·Expression and Limit”, AMNUA, Nanjing, China
    2012

  • “Invisible: Art of the Unseen 1957-2012”, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
    2011

  • “Zuowei yizhong liwaiyuxianshide zhuangtai: LIAO Chien-Chung, LEE Ji-Hong, and LAI Chih-Sheng”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “The 2nd Chongqing Biennale for Young Artists”, Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, China
  • “The 2011 Material Language—Soil”, Juming Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
    2010

  • “Micro-Image”, Ping Pong Art Space, Taipei; Paint House, Tainan, Taiwan
    2009

  • “LOOKING UP! LOOKING DOWN!”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
    2008

  • “Ctrl Z”, inFIDI space, Taipei, Taiwan
    2006

  • “A Realm with No Coordinates”, Hong Kong, China / Taipei, Tainan, Taiwan
    2005

  • “Every Time”, Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
    2003

  • “Taipei Arts Award”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
    2002

  • “1st Tainan Biennial”, Tainan Municipal Cultural Center, Tainan, Taiwan
    2001

  • “Cross-cultural Project in Asia”, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia / Taipei, Chiayi,Taiwan / Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, China
  • “1st Taiwan Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition”, Huashan Culture Park, Taipei, Taiwan
    1999

  • “Nation Oxygen Group Exhibition Part I”, Bali Abandoned House, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Nation Oxygen Group Exhibition Part II”, Shin Leh Yuan Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
  • “Island, Penghu, Nation Oxygen”, Penghu Islands, Taiwan
    1996

  • “Interactive Experiment”, Shanchi Abandoned Factory, Taipei, Taiwan

RESIDENCY

    2014

  • Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
點選各年份作品

As an Exception to Reality: An Act of Writing Related to "Zuowei yizhong

By Chin Ya-chun

In the product of writing you are currently reading, I hope to offer an observation of an artist's oeuvre. Under the foreseeable condition that an all-inclusive survey is not possible, I would like to begin with the images that the works evoked, sometimes time and again, in my mind. In fact, their appearance or recurrence has led to their being interpreted as the common attributes of the works, but it is not only because they stand out from the elements of the works, but also because they make every encounter with the works, regarded as either ordinary or artistic, extraordinary. As a result, the images also become my habitual route to approach and examine these (and even the other) works.
First of all, most of the works originate from the artist's consciousness with the everyday life / the world, which is specifically the product of his examination of his daily experiences in a position outside of himself. This persistent gaze comes primarily from one of his identities coexisting with another identity in the physical reality, and it is this identity, premised on another identity in the reality and hence scarcely involving any goal in the reality, that calls his attention to the sparkles in the daily experiences generally considered to be ordinary and mediocre. It is also this identity that triggers a series of attempts to transform personal perceptions into the content perceivable to others.

Second, these works are mostly executed by the artist's own skills. Despite that certain historical shifts have rendered almost every skill applicable or adaptable to the practice of art, the skills employed in the works are exactly those the artist uses for his livelihood. To meet the strict demand of reality (and perhaps a certain moral code), they are cultivated into bodily capabilities most appropriate for realizing his ideas.
If one's consciousness of the outside world is an outward measurement, executing works through one's body is close to being an inward measurement, which explores and refines one's talent, and constantly strives to expand its terrain. In all of these practices, the presumably unique body is taken as both a tool of measurement and the target of that measurement, and the eventual goal of the practices of unforeseeable consequence is the yet to be affirmed or established uniqueness.
Finally, the above attributes converge to introduce another attribute. Drawing on the images we personally witness in daily life, the works adopt a foreign yet inviting posture for communication among the art forms we are accustomed to and take for granted, and begin to address abstract content devoid of narrative. Any message that we acquire from them, therefore, seems to be generated by our own consciousness, instead of being built-in results
ready to be disclosed.
This attribute enables the individual practices to embody the ways to confront or escape from the reality (as well as the art world increasingly resembling it) in perceivable forms, while encouraging similar practices from others, especially when they do occur in the everyday reality.

As it is foreseeable that an all-inclusive survey of the artist's oeuvre is impossible, and as it will definitely be more valuable to really encounter, if possible, his past or future practices, I suppose it may be a fine choice to continue my discussion from only one of the artist's works.
"Reality in the Sky II" and others As long as they are not "Untitled" or suggest no more than a chronological order, the titles of (art)works are usually of equal importance to the works themselves. Functioning as the captions of photographs, they supplement or point towards the intended interpretation of the works with ostensibly open content.
Since the work is titled "Reality in the Sky II," there should be a predecessor strongly related to it. Much more than that, as one summons its existence in its only possible form of a legend or a story, it also demonstrates how it is possible for two stridently different expressions to convey virtually identical discourse.
The 2004 "Reality in the Sky," taken place in an apartment rented specifically for this art project, was exhibited in the artist's bedroom, a space perhaps newly arranged for the public display. Its simple colors and furniture seem to be deliberately chosen, but the interior looks quite ordinary; the only extraordinary thing is the moving images floating slightly above our heads. Under scrutiny, the images largely composed of scenes on and around heavily trafficked streets are just as ordinary as the space they occupy. The nonetheless far-from-ordinary situation immediately prompts one to seek the source of images -- usually a perfectly concealed projector. And when the effort is eventually proved futile, the phenomenon advances in unresolved suspense is established as being a spectacle. However startling the seemingly uncommon phenomenon may be, it is in fact as commonplace as the space or the endlessly flowing images are. On the side of the bedroom facing the street, the artist built a new wall, and carefully left a hole at the center of the cement structure blocking out all the light. As a consequence of the principle of the camera obscura (found and made full use of long ago), whenever the interior lights are switched off, the images of the exterior world filtered through the hole suffuse the 'sky' of the place instantly.
This fantastic experience to the spectators is produced in an environment of the physical reality, executed by the skills of the physical reality, and realized in a living space of the physical reality. A comparatively thorough understanding of the work is achieved through the video record apparently incapable of representing the history of the experience. After the installation was completed, the artist had lived (as he did in the physical reality) in the room for three months, during which the two realities coexisted / juxtaposed -- the external reality that most of the time we can only experience the arbitrariness of its sequential progress, and the internal reality substantiated as a result of our consciousness with and response to the external reality, in a probably extremely cramped space. However, it is in light of the latter that we make out our condition in the world from which we can never abstain ourselves yet in which we may not be helplessly impotent.
If what "Reality in the Sky" intends is to mobilize the spectators' consciousness by imparting experiences in the physical time and space, "Reality in the Sky II" wrests control of the consciousness by producing readings of images. Instead of offering a reflexive position in the physical space, the fast-moving swirl of images in their most charming moments entices us to identify with or succumb to the photographer's perspective entirely. As this happens, the physical position we adopt in relation to the images is canceled, and we become, as it were, the subjects of the unknown journey.

The alien yet familiar images are disconcerting since the beginning, but their rapid movement deprives us of all choices except to pick up the sense of strangeness they instantaneously leave behind. They are alien because they derive from a nearly impossible horizon of vision -- as the continuation of the artist's body, the (upside-down) camera bound to the bottom of a car gazes at the artist's daily course of shuttling between his house and studio.

Much as the ground closing in on us is visually threatening, the images present a wonder world unfolding infinitely before our eyes. The city apparatus suspended grotesquely in the sky incessantly lashes out astonishing images on us, and their origin is nothing more than the course of a day that most of us experience too unwittingly to recollect its progress. Either we understand it or are told of the truth, our realization would not lessen the visual impact, for
it stems from our habitual perception which can never be radically adjusted. And it is precisely in the repeated frustration to re-adjust ourselves that we successfully summon back a body attempting to live and feel every moment of his life in full.
Either "Reality in the Sky," "Reality in the Sky II," or the works preceding or following them, implies an acting subject employing his bodily skills as a means to perceive the world containing them and attempting to pinpoint his perceptions through the practice of art. The (art) production arising from the attempts, therefore, form an interface capable of enacting a reversal of the production, on which the experiences seemingly exceptional to yet simultaneously acknowledging of its perpetual attachment to the reality brings to the fore the hitherto unimaginable possibilities of ourselves and the reality of which we are a part.
Before bringing the act of writing to closure, I must confess my frustration of being incapable of describing or discussing "Reality in the Sky, "Reality in the Sky II," or even the works preceding or following them. The principal reason is not that I have never been personally present in where they occurred or were displayed. As a matter of fact, in terms of listening to or apprehending the disclosure of works, presence is neither absolutely required nor
particularly advantageous.

To use an analogy, it is vaguely like having a dream. You have genuine experiences in the dream, genuine in the sense both that they are poignantly felt by your body, and that whatever is perceived does not diverge from the world you live in. However, loaded with a strong dose of strangeness, the familiar scenes greatly panicked you, as if you are suddenly assaulted in a supposedly safe place. The imprint on your body is so sharp that it has not
evaporated until you finally detach yourself, upon awakening, to resume the vantage point of observation, not without a desire to recount the peculiar dream. But how do you represent the virtual experiences unfolding both synchronically with countless details and diachronically in a sequential fashion? To me at least, the urgency immediately poses question to language as satisfactory tool of representation.

Somewhat absurdly, my subjects of the task destined to proceed with a haunting sense of frustration are precisely those having fulfilled the task vigorously. On that account, the only support or encouragement to my act of writing may be that, at all events, the works bound to cling to space, time, or any other vehicles have their unattainable sphere.

勞動、耗費與極微感性

文/游崴

賴志盛在1990年代中期是觀念主義團體「國家氧」的成員之一,早期作品 多發表在台北都會區外圍的廢墟,以狀似徒勞的工事召喚絕對性、轉換場 所意義。如在空廠房以一百塊磚頭砌成一直頂天花板的長柱,或是以海菜 水填補廢棄民宅一處地板凹窪成就水平。他在灰撲撲的日常情境中創造一 種低限而異樣的現實,作品圍繞著勞動、耗費、特定場域精神,以及「藝 術生產如何可能?」的瞬間。他過去長達13年在工地擔任泥水匠的經驗, 一直是重要的創作養分。

承接觀念藝術的反身思考,賴志盛晚近的創作不斷回應著當代藝術世界賴 以運作的展示系統,透過自我指涉來探索一種極微的感性。如《作品》是 一個摹傚自身臺座的雕塑物,《原寸素描》則是一場緊貼著現實的繪畫行 動,以大量勞力描繪展場空間所有紋理。賴志盛不斷削減他自己在作品裡 的表現性,甚至將表現的任務完全讓渡給觀者,或是佈展工人。在《邊 境》中,我們遭遇一條狹窄步道只能沿牆面而行,中央散落的廢材是佈展 工人留下的剩餘。這條步道也是舞台,我們觀看的同時也將被觀看。

文/何采柔

2014年一月,在巴黎的西帖藝術村的1733號房,住了一位駐村的鋼琴家。同年8月,賴志盛抵達了藝術村的同一棟樓,並入住在隔壁的1734號房。

隔著一道薄薄的牆壁,賴志盛的生活充滿著鋼琴家的痕跡:洗澡、練琴、煮飯、做愛、開門、關門… …藝術家從一開始被干擾的情況下,慢慢習慣於這種被入侵式的生活狀態。在接受的同時,他小心翼翼地回避所有與1733主人接觸的可能性,他摸索她的作息、錯開與她正面交會的時機:她開門走出、門就被他關上。

《Room 1734》最後成為了賴志盛在巴黎駐村期間的唯一一件作品。作品展示的是他的房間:一排懸掛在斜牆上的白紙、堵住洗澡間排水口的玻璃杯、一塊摩擦至光亮的塑膠方塊地板、一段隔著薄牆錄製的練琴聲、一張模糊的兩個房間交界的轉角照片、以及一封寫給鋼琴家的信。在房間裡展出的,是賴志盛在巴黎生活的痕跡;而與這些日常交會卻又不真實存在的,是1734的點滴。在這個展覽開始到結束的時間裡,賴志盛選擇了缺席,貫徹他對1733保留的想像與距離。

如果1734代表的是現實,賴志盛的創作則是圍繞著現實邊緣行走的日常。在賴志盛的作品裡,意圖明顯的,即是日常與現實那如一道薄膜般的邊界,而當兩者被藝術家刻意斷開的那一刻,現實產生的位移,日常亦隨之被拉扯、相互牽制,卻又獨立存在。隔著一道薄薄的牆,藝術家藉由觀察它透露的線索、痕跡、日常勞動與它的碰撞,來形塑對於現實的想像。而這道牆的距離,讓藝術家保持著對自我主體不可被分割的主動權。兩者主體的碰撞,不是具象的被呈現,而是去正視在碰撞過程中留下的痕跡與殘餘。

誠如賴志盛這次在誠品個展的名稱「這」,觀眾被邀請去正視的,不是現實本身,而是在我們認定下的現實以外,被我們忽略的日常。

在影像經歷裡消失的未來─關於賴志盛的《即刻》

文/秦雅君

在經歷著那段持續指向未來的流變過程中,終有一刻你發現預期中的未來不會來了。

事實上,此時此刻談論這件作品似乎是一項並不恰當的行動,因為作為作品的它其實尚未發生。而這並不恰當的行動之所以於此發生主要基於一種難以遏止的想像,由一個被發表在臉書上的作品計畫所引發。

它是一個出現在螢幕上絕大多數人都倍感熟悉的畫面,全白底色正中央有一個小小的環形圖示,在螢幕上看到它的瞬間我開始等待,直到無法再回憶起究竟經過多久的另一個瞬間,才驚覺它原來是一張靜止的圖像。

預期將正式展出的這件作品是那張圖像的動態版,而無法遏止的想像就從那段無法再回憶起究竟經過多久的空白展開。

如果「時間」是一個我們始終處於其中卻無從掌握的對象,那麼「影像」是否可能成為一個有效的取徑?畢竟它是唯一許諾能如實地再現某段時間經歷同時也一再兌現這項許諾的某段時間經歷。然而卻正是同樣的描述恰恰證明了影像迫近時間的無能為力,因為無論多麼「如實」,它依然僅能是在「某個」視野裡的「某段」時間經歷,其意味著,在投入那些明顯屬於他者且局部的時間經歷的同時,你也正經歷著一段依然透明而無法觸及的時間。如果上述已成為在多數影像經歷裡的理所當然,那麼正是那段無法再回憶起究竟經過多久的空白開始動搖了這個理所當然。

一切從你幾近自動地進入等待狀態啟始,那是一種在投入某段時間經歷之前的預備動作,或許全神貫注或許有些分心,然而在自始至終無從進駐任何其它可能的現實裡,那無論全神貫注或有些分心的時間經歷成為你唯一的時間經歷,以及或許更為重要的是,它全然從屬於你的時間經歷。

這是一件在作者的布置之下由你所完成的作品,作為一段影像或時間經歷,由於它預設為無從完整經歷的無盡循環,於是你的經歷便是它現實化的唯一可能,換言之,它足以成為一段可被經歷的影像或時間,就從你注視它的時刻開始並在你離開它之際告終。

這是一場純粹由視覺所啟動的體驗,然而其可見的內容卻簡單到不容任何錯過的可能,於是你與它之間的獨特關係並非建立在相較於其它觀者看到了不同的什麼,而是座落在不同瞬間的同一個發現,一個由始終同一的對象不斷增生的差異經驗,一個關於不同的「我」的可能性。

在如果曾經發生的同一個發現之後,你所能回憶起的這段影像內容是什麼?答案或許取決於你是否仍與其相對,如果是的話那麼它僅是持續湧現同時不斷消逝的此時此刻,如果否的話那麼它僅是曾經持續湧現同時不斷消逝的此時此刻,除此之外它沒有其他可供轉述的內容,這個在過往經驗中總是在實現著未來許諾的影像經歷,藉由永恆地停留在許諾未來的無盡循環裡,徹底地背叛了這個許諾。
如果真正的創造必須等同於與再現之間的決裂,那麼正是在這件作品裡我看到了在影像裡徹底擺脫再現的可能。藉由將從不被視為影像內容的內容作為其全部的內容,其形成了一段從未指涉其他而僅止於述說自身的影像,進而促成了一次你在影像經歷裡終能與自身相遇的時刻。

如果上述的各個段落是一次次重返這段影像的不同回憶,推衍至此,我赫然發現此前述及這件作品時所使用的各項稱謂或已不盡然準確,因為它並非一段總能一再重複且百分之百相同的影像經歷,一如我們正存在於其中的時間經歷。

在經歷著那段持續指向未來的流變過程中,終有一刻你發現預期中的未來不會來了。而那預期中的未來真的不會來了嗎?當影像仍持續播放著,你唯一獲悉的是那些一成不變的過往以及正持續獲悉與過往同樣一成不變的當刻,但你永遠無從得知的是下一個瞬間會發生什麼……

在,不在:《Room 1734》

文/蘇盈龍

每一天都是想像卻不虛幻,每一刻都是真實卻不現實。

房號1734是賴志盛在巴黎駐村六個月中所生活的一方斗室,他將曾經發生持續發生或明顯或隱約的痕跡,以整個房間為作品,把空間作為完整構圖的一部分,空間本身已是發語的主體,而不僅僅是將作品放進空間中,是因兩者對話才發生關聯與意義。在這件作品中,賴志盛一貫脈絡著以低限摺入空間滲進現實的創作痕跡:一列白色的紙張、一片拭淨的地磚、一條欄杆上的布巾、一杯漸溢的杯水、幾處簡單如詩的素描… …等,甚至只是一段聲音與一封信,以及一個不在現場的人。舉目所見的一切,是藝術家在這段時間裡與空間細緻的交往過程及創作刻痕。在這個摺疊著情感與記憶的空間裡,賴志盛的行蹤與舉止透過這些物件重演著那些消逝的或其實未曾顯露過的姿勢。他一直都在,也一直都不在。

不管是循著垂列的紙張漸溢的水杯輕飄的布巾或地板的亮痕浴室的水痕紙上的墨痕,當試圖以這些線索去還原想像藝術家的生活痕跡時,卻發現這些如此妥適存在於房間中的物件,又將我們帶到另一個房間,一個以為是藝術家生活過的房間,但他,卻其實從來不曾在,即使如此栩栩如生。彷彿《Arther》(2002)這件作品但卻更進一步,相對於通過那一道虛線卻實際被阻隔的觀眾,這一回以為可以進入到某個空間某個位置,然後與藝術家相遇,但每一道跡印卻只是片段的他。感受到了呼吸,卻感觸不到他的眼光;追尋著目光,他指間的那一抹煙氣卻已經消逝。或是相對於《原寸素描》(2012),同樣是藝術家介入於空間,但前者的紋理是完全附身於空間中,與空間發生對話;《Room 1734》則是複數型式的相互依存,這些痕跡是歷經時間衍生於此,並非移入,空間即在作品的肌理中,不可剝奪。因此不但未減損作品對於純粹性的表現,這些餘音反而因為取得了一致的調性而更加和諧地隱隱共鳴著。

這房間中最為殊異的痕跡是一段聲音,這段聲音其實並不在1734號房中發生,但卻又出現在其中,因為這一段聲音而衍生出可以是在任何地方的一封信,與絕對不在這個房間中的藝術家。那段聲音是記錄著從未謀面的1733號居住者在日常作息中的片段舉動,這些動作所產生的聲音,透過牆壁,然後在1734這一個房間裡出現,鄰居(藝術家)的耳朵半被強迫性地窺知其私人生活。從一開始的無意識到逐漸成為他生活中的一部分,從完全不在乎到被馴養成下意識地聆聽觀察隔牆的一聞一動,以現實之中的想像之鏡,映照出生活中自己所看不見的自己。

一方面鄰人的生活一點一滴浸染洇進了賴志盛的作息,早晨的盥洗聲、規律的練琴聲、開門關門、瑣碎的移動與感觸不到卻可以知覺的氣息,斷續地從夢寐中被驚擾,在思考中被牽引,無可自己地生活在鄰室的生活裡,像是被重疊錯置的行程表,日復一日。但同時,他卻又極端地控制著不讓雙方有實際交集的任何可能,小心翼翼地把從未謀面的芳鄰隔絕在陌路的彼岸。將鄰人的生活抽絲剝繭,然後重新編入這個房間,是她的生活,卻又已經不是她的。賴志盛捕捉了每一道聲音的影子,然後躲在這些影子的背後在自己的房間裡與她一起生活著。現實世界的她是一段聲音,這段聲音卻是他每天遭遇的真實。但除了藝術家之外,沒有人知道這個她卻每天影響了另一個人,既主動又被動。賴志盛在將鄰人加入的同時,也同時徹底減去她在現實中的存在,但在加一減一中,卻留下了鄰人看不見的藝術家自己與藝術家自己反覆聆聽的鄰人,是彼此生活著卻從來沒有一起生活過。你站在橋上看風景,看風景的人在樓上看你 。在這一段聲音裡,鄰人的腳步聲與練琴聲中隱約流洩出藝術家的挪移聲與呼吸聲;同一個時間,隔著一道牆的空間中,他聽見了她聽見的,但她卻不一定知道他聽見了她聽見的,也不知他一直在聽她聽見的。他與她都存在,卻是在像夢境的真實中或現實的夢境中對話。除了那些 重複的聲音,也僅有聲音。

在《Room 1734》,被加入的是發生在房間1734中的所有痕跡,在這個空間裡流動過的時光,與時光之中的聲響。賴志盛將自己的時間刻度與情緒向度以水痕以墨漬、以白紙以線條、以光亮以音聲,極其自然地召喚而出,但被召喚的同時,他們的存在也已經開始消亡;當展出這件作品時 ,藝術家離開了這個房間,繼續他的日常,他的步行,他的巴黎。而因為時間的絕對不可重現,這些痕跡從當下逐漸弱化消逝,藝術家再回到這房間時,那些「生活的痕跡」因為生活已經隨著時間而有所變化,因藝術家的歸來而變化,與《Room 1734》再也不是相同的痕跡了。當我們進入這個房間時,以為已經進入了賴志盛的世界,進入了《Room 1734》這件作品,但卻在想像這些痕跡的同時,又看到另一個我們以為那才是最初想進入的世界。當眼前所見的一切被摺入1734號房的同時,我們既是觀者也是眼中人,既在這個房間內,也在這個房間外。

左近的風景

文/胡朝聖

《左近的風景》為賴志盛於移動美術館之現地製作,此為其最新發展之系列作品,延續著2013年9月於南京藝術學院美術館執行之觀念發表。藝術家在空間中完成了一幅巨型壁畫,以極其敏銳的感知力展現出對生活周遭不起眼角落的細膩體會、轉化與再現,從看似不專業的邊線收尾與落漆的粗心大意,均暗示出作品欲傳達在藝術完美要求上不允許出現的粗糙與失控,看似不費吹灰之力的錯誤在精準的布局與控制下讓這些「缺點」被突顯放大成為眾矢之的而難以迴避,在疑惑的當下與鄰近的空間形成共生卻又強烈的反差、格格不入和無以名狀,朝著作品的結構與布局延伸,讓觀者在行走抬頭間,經驗到某種深刻且無形的身體勞動、空間感與時間歷程,種種層次分明的對比與經營,使此件作品形成了偌大空間中極為動人卻也無法忽視的視覺風景。

    SOLO EXHIBITIONS
  • 2017 "Between Dog and Wolf", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2015 "Scene", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2013 "LAI Chih-Sheng: Instant", PROJECT ONE, Hong Kong, China
  • 2011 "An Exception to Reality: LAI Chih-Sheng", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
    GROUP EXHIBITIONS
  • 2016 “If it be your will That I speak no more”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2016 "Untitled", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2015 "Abstract on-site", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2014 “Bloom” ESLITE GALLERY 25th Anniversary Exhibition, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2014 “Margin Archive & Film Fest”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2009 “LOOKING UP! LOOKING DOWN!”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan

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