Busy Week 3 :: 忙碌的第三週

在開學的第三個禮拜，變得異常的忙碌，有一個作業、一個報告跟兩個小短文的閱讀，幫朋友慶生，外加訂車票跟鐵路卡（young person railcard）。不過因為課堂上的討論，開始瞭解到外國的教育跟台灣的是如何的不同。他們並不會告訴我應該怎麼做，或是何時要做，甚至是做的好不好，一切都是自己來，自己找方法。我想這樣開放的態度對我現階段來說是很有用的，尤其自己在設計了那麼久的時間之後，應該讓想法更廣闊，努力打破自己的設限。

其中有個必聽課叫CVCS（其實還不是很瞭解它的功用..），老師要我們介紹一件自己很有興趣或是喜愛的作品。我介紹了藝術家Dorothy Cross在2000年的影片創作-'eyemaker'。這是我在2002年的台北當代藝術館看的展覽-「科技禁區」的作品之一，總共是22分鐘的影片，影片全程都是在拍攝玻璃工藝師如何從零，用拉絲技法，製作出一顆栩栩如生的玻璃眼珠。影片的最後，藝術家要求工藝師將作品吹破，一瞬間眼球破裂成千千萬萬個碎片，化為無形。

我想在這件作品中，藝術家傳達了從無到有，從無形到具體，從人工到自然，和從完美到破碎的過程。另外這件作品給觀看者的衝擊，也是相當強烈的，我總期待著眼球完成的時刻，一件作品完美呈現的時刻，然而在最後，眼球卻是破碎的，一瞬間化為虛有，那種從期待到失落的感覺，是相當奇妙的，也不同於以往藝術作品所傳達單一或是完美的概念。我也從那時開始思考，我的作品是否也可以給觀看者或是配戴者一些感受，除了美麗以外的感受。於是2008我做出了「森之夜想」系列，將自己的恐懼轉換到作品上，相信也讓一些觀看者感受了相當的恐懼感，而那正是我想表達的一部份。我也希望未來能繼續把這樣的概念加到作品上。

Eyemaker - Dorothy Cross, 2000

這是我一直忘不掉的作品之一，而我一向喜愛不完美的美麗，就像電影「美國心玫瑰情」的故事，縱然最後留下一抹淡淡的憂傷，但其實那就是人生最美的片刻。


In third week, I finished my first project, one presentation and two short reading in school, celebrated my friend's birthday, applied for railcard and booked the tickets. It is quite a busy week, however, I really learned a lot thought these experiences.

I have realised how different the education in UK and Taiwan is. I have to find out what I can do and need to do for my study, and never limit myself at first. Then I can have more possibilities and gain more knowledge from different sources.

In one of my lecture, the teacher asked us to introduce a work I like or I am interested in. I selected a piece of video art created in 2000 by Dorothy Cross, an Irish artist. I saw this work in an exhibition called 'TECH/NO/ZONE' at Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei in 2002. It's a 22-minute video, projected on a screen. It presents a process of making a glass eye that made by ocularist by using lampworking skill. You can see how the ocularist creates a glass eye from glass rods to an artificial eye, and how real it is. At the end of video, she has directed the ocularist to destroy his work – blowing apart the eye. Suddenly, the eye becomes a thousands pieces.

In this work, I think the artist tried to display the journey from empty to concrete, artificial to natural, and perfect to broken. In addition, the feeling of audience follows the making process. At first, I am very expected what will happen next, and I also can feel the eye almost done and is so beautiful and perfect. But it just broken in a second and nothing left. I was astonished at that moment. I started to think what kind of art work can brings such emotional feelings to audience, and keep all the images in my mind. Can I achieve this result in my work? That is a question I thought about at that moment, and I would like to explore in every piece of my creations. Then I created 'Forest Fantasy' in 2008, the first attempt, and wish I can do more about it in the future.

It is the one of the most unforgettable creation I have seen. I really love the broken/imperfect beauty, like the movie 'American Beauty', the sadness left in the end of life is the most beautiful moment.