夜拾 Nocturnals

個展「夜拾」像是一趟在林間漫走的夜遊。我以旅人、遺跡和枯樹為題，在作品中建構出一幕幕似曾相識又難以言明的偶遇。

延續近年來對新聞訊息、記憶與繪畫的思考，我借鏡並轉譯傳統水墨的繪畫語言，藉以捕捉在資訊爆炸、精神與記憶碎片化的當代中所經驗的觀察與感受。對我而言，「夜拾」並無意建立一個宏大且完整的敘事，而是在繪畫與生活的路途中，進行觀察、撿拾、拆解、轉化、重組的一次次動態嘗試。

自2020年起，我的創作媒材由膠彩逐步轉為水墨，並開始探索將「日常新聞」融入「皴法」的可能性。我透過反覆的抄寫將新聞訊息帶入畫面，使傳統繪畫中用以描繪山石肌理的「皴法」，轉化為一種連結文字、訊息與記憶的心理肌理。透過層層抄寫，海量的當代訊息隨著時間碎散、交織與堆疊，最終從具體的文字內容，轉變為一種近似金石拓片般的質地，成為某種屬於當代記憶的沈積物。

近期的創作受到巫鴻對中西繪畫中「廢墟圖像」之研究的啟發，我以水墨繪畫中「旅客、石碑、枯樹」三者並置時所共構的「懷古」與「古今對映」意涵為背景，去建構一個跨越時空與文化的遺跡。在這個虛擬的遺跡中，石碑指涉了秩序、共識與歷史的制定；枯樹則隱喻了記憶隨時間流變、衰敗及復生的經驗；而旅人（亦即展場中的觀眾）則作為一個過路的見證者，去感知時間的經過，與記憶和歷史的生滅。

對我而言，「夜拾」是一處仍在變動中的記憶遺址，畫面中那些姿態各異的遺跡僅是暫時性的拼組，繪畫的目的也無關答案或解釋，而是以我的視角提供一個切入點，去揭示時間、事件、記憶與歷史之間的動態關係。

——顏妤庭 創作自述

My solo exhibition Nocturnals is like "a night walk through the forest." Taking the traveler, ruins, and withered trees as recurring motifs, I construct a series of encounters that feel strangely familiar, yet remain difficult to name.

Continuing my recent reflections on news, memory, and painting, I borrow from and translate the language of traditional ink painting in order to capture the observations and sensations I experience in the present: an age of information overload, and of fragmented states of mind and memory. For me, Nocturnals is not meant to build a grand or complete narrative. Rather, it is a series of active attempts — made along the paths of painting and everyday life — to observe, gather, take apart, transform, and reassemble.

Since 2020, my primary medium has gradually shifted from mineral pigment painting to ink, and I began exploring the possibility of incorporating "daily news" into cunfa, or texture strokes. Through repeated transcription, vast amounts of contemporary information scatter, intertwine, and accumulate over time, until the specific content of the written words is transformed into a texture resembling a rubbing of bronze and stone inscriptions — a kind of sediment of contemporary memory.

My recent work has been inspired by Wu Hung's research on images of ruins. Within this imagined site of ruins, the stele points to the formation of order, consensus, and history; the withered tree suggests the ways memory changes, declines, and returns over time; and the traveler — that is, the viewer in the exhibition space — becomes a passing witness.

For me, Nocturnals is a memory site still in motion. The purpose of painting is not to offer answers or explanations, but to provide an entry point into the shifting relationship between time, events, memory, and history.

— Artist statement by Yen Yu-Ting