葉方,祖籍浙江,生於臺灣。濃厚的藝術氣息來自父母親的薰陶,在她記憶中,幼年求學時期,夜裡父親總陪著她一張張地臨摹畫冊上的山水花鳥,而不忍催促她上床。於此氛圍下,她奠定了日後對繪畫、書法及音樂的喜愛。臺灣藝術大學美術系畢業後,於1992年移居溫哥華,期間成立卷云畫室,創作不斷;現居臺北,專事藝術創作,一步一腳印地拓展她的藝術人生。
本次展覽是葉方於台北當代藝術館首次個展,也是她自2013年北京今日美術館個展後,另一階段性創作梳理。展覽概念來自葉方不斷蛻變、沉澱的生命旅程,將自我情感寄託自然的抒情傳達。「行空」指涉一種冥想、一種天馬行空的想像,生活在這多元藝術的時代氛圍裡,藝術家將個人生命的流變與感知,構築出一層層可以相互融合、堆疊的意象,展覽名稱【行空程式】即是由此而來。
為了呼應MoCA Studio實驗展場的空間特性,葉方此次做了許多創作上的新嘗試和不同媒介的轉換,試圖將天地萬物濃縮於自我內化的情境裡。本次展出作品,除了她一貫創作的油畫外,還包含錄像、影像及微型音像裝置。首先與觀眾遇合是長廊展出的〈長河的禮讚〉,長達10公尺的超寬景投影,橫向流動的抽象書法搭配前仆後繼的海浪,像敘說著天地之間的潮起潮落、人類生命的起承轉折。102展間《黑盒子裡的詠歎調》是一系列共八件的微型音像裝置,將不同的風景時光,經由微小視窗呈現於觀者眼前。〈賦格〉與〈回憶的密碼(自畫像)〉,既是藝術家對人生歷程的觀照,也是自我生命軌跡的體悟。103展間,藉由牡丹、蘭、竹等一系列平面畫作和展場中的影像複合裝置、以及跨界的音像作品,進行了不同語境的串聯與對話,希望營造耐人尋味的視聽經驗。
除了繪畫,音樂也是葉方釋放壓力、回視自己的一種表達方式,雖未受過正統訓練,卻能自由天成地經常彈唱,本次展出作品除伴隨著她即興的鋼琴演奏及聲樂吟唱外,也特邀策展人黃海鳴跨刀為其作品〈輕舟已過萬重山〉編曲;另外,投影裝置〈古往今來的生命容顏〉也融入了許博允經典曲目〈天元〉的音效。如此多樣元素的應用,意欲呈現的正是葉方所說的:「在起伏多變的世間,回歸與再造之間,咀嚼一種永恆不滅的定律!」
The Yeh family came from Zhejiang Province, China, and the Yeh Fang was born in Taiwan. Her artistic cultivation was due to the environment her parents created at home. From what she could remember, ever since she was a small child in school, instead of rushing her to bed, her father would keep her company as she imitated the landscape and flora and fauna in painting catalogues; and in this environment, her passion for painting, calligraphy and music has grown forth. After she graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts, she moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1992, and founded Juan Yun Artist Studio to continue her art making. She moved back to Taiwan in 2009, and has been fully immersed in artistic creation, gradually and steadfastly expanding her artistic life.
Vision of the Void is Yeh's first solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Taipei, and it also displays her work after her solo exhibition at Today Art Museum in Beijing in 2013. The curatorial concept is inspired by the artist's constantly transforming and contemplative journey of life, in which she has learned to express her emotions and feelings through nature. The word, "void," beckons at a kind of meditative, freewheeling imagination. Living in this era of diversified arts, Yeh has fabricated a tapestry of mutually integrating and interweaving images with the changes and perceptions experienced and gained in life; and this is why the exhibition is named Vision of the Void.
To create a dialogue with the space of the MoCA Studio, Yeh has made several new attempts and employed different media in this exhibition, hoping to epitomize the cosmos in the representations of her inner world. In addition to oil paintings, the artworks on view also include video, image, and video - sound installation. Visitors will first see Hymn to the River in the gallery corridor. This tenmeter wide-screen video projection incorporates free-flowing calligraphy and surging waves, delineating the ebb and flow between heaven and earth and implying the vicissitudes of human existence. Arias in a Black Box in R102 is a series of eight small video and sound installations, which reveal various landscape from different times to their viewers through tiny viewing windows. Fugue and Code of Memory (Self-Portrait) represent the artist's examination of her life experiences as well as her comprehension of her life journey. R103 showcases a series of mixed media installations comprised of videos and oil paintings that depict peony, orchid, and bamboo. Yeh has specially combined these works with musical creations to enable multiple associations and dialogues of varying artistic languages, offering a visual-audio experience worth of repeated visits and contemplation.
Apart from painting, music is another outlet for Yeh to release her stress and to look within herself. Without any orthodox training, she is able to play instruments and sing freely. Not only the artworks in the exhibition are accompanied with her piano improvisations and vocal music, she has invited the curator, Mr. Hai-Ming Huang, to arrange her music, Through Thousands of Mountains My Small Boat Has Travelled. The video installation, The Visage of Life in the Course of Time, is also accompanied with Mr. Po-Yun Hsu's masterpiece, Tian Yuan. Such an employment of diverse artistic elements has embodied Yeh's idea of "experiencing the truth of eternal existence between all the changes and variations as well as returns and re-creations in this world."