張嘉穎本次在當代館實驗空間的【童話轉生術】個展,以其未曾曝光的近作【傳奇系列】為主軸,內容擷取轉化了人們耳熟能詳的中西童話故事人物和角色,她除了為這些角色重新造像,也有意將某些故事情節進行改寫,整個系列的呈現,宛如在一個實驗劇場中接力演出的不同情節。與此同時,張嘉穎立意突破平面繪畫制式概念的【換頭系列】,畫中角色雖延續【傳奇系列】,但每幅畫作都由上下兩節合成,且每個組合都包含了東方與西方不同故事成分,透過「換頭儀式」,不同畫作之間可以發展出不同故事文本的拼貼串聯,和不同角色人物的嶄新對話。在這之外,本次個展前全新完成的十八組【左瞪右瞪系列】畫作,除了以對稱的事物安排和充滿奇想趣味的氣氛,吸引觀者注視這個現場,畫中雙雙對對角色同時瞪大眼睛左瞧右看的姿態,又彷彿要將觀者的眼神,從當下帶到另一個異想的國度。
本次展出內容,除了平面作品之外,張嘉穎也嘗試將其畫中的各個角色和奇魅場景立體再現於當代館,將展場活化成一種體驗的空間。其畫作中常出現的小物件例如梯子,在此被轉化為空間裝置作品《天梯》,畫中角色則藉由這支梯子通往神秘的未知世界。在另一空間裝置《鏡房》中,觀眾拿著狐狸面具才能進入觀賞《大樹妖》這件雕塑作品,置身一個無限鏡射的空間中,當下成為這個童幻世界的一份子,與畫中各類角色一同進入華麗的冒險旅程。
With Fairy Tale Reincarnation—Chang Chia Ying Solo Exhibition, Chang uses her first announced Legend series as the theme, where she transforms the familiar characters in the Eastern and Western fairytale stories, and rewrites the plots for some of them. The presentation of the entire series is like a continuous performance at an experimental theater. Chang intends to bring some breakthrough to the conventional concept in her Head-switching series. The characters are mostly from her Legend series, but every painting consists of two parts—an upper half and a lower half. Every combination contains different elements from both the Eastern and Western stories. Through this switching-head ritual, she uses these collages to develop new and different storylines and create some new dialogues among the characters. In addition, the newly created series, Rolling Eyes to the Left and Right, is painted in symmetrical arrangement with a fun and whimsical atmosphere. It leads the viewers to go over all the paintings in the exhibition room by following various pairs of eyes. These eyes are like the viewers’ eyes, which are led to enter a fantasy world.
In addition to her graphic works, Chang also makes an attempt to reproduce the characters and the fantasy scenes in a three-dimensional space in this exhibition. In other words, the entire exhibition provides a space for viewers to experience her fantasy world. Some common objects in her painting such as the ladder is transformed into the installation, A Ladder to Heaven, in which the principal character needs to take this ladder to enter the mysterious and unknown world. In addition, the viewers need to wear the mask of a fox in order to watch the installation The Big Dryad. By doing so, they are allowed to enter a space with countless mirror reflections, participating in this fantasy world and embarking on a magnificent adventure along with the characters in Chang’s works.