詹喻帆，1983年生於台北，對藝術的熱誠，開啟了他堅定不移的繪畫生命，一路成長經過國立台灣藝術大學的奠基、及國立台灣師範大學美術研究所頂尖藝術學府的淬練，為他的創作生涯有了美好的開端。在求學期間積極參與各大、小型比賽累積實力與經驗，第六屆大墩美展第一名、第九屆新莊美展第一名、奇美藝術獎…等，都受到評審及藝術界的肯定。並於2011年台北國際當代藝術博覽會〈YOUNG ART TAIPEI、簡稱YAT〉中榮獲新潮賞第一名，是新生代中頂尖的新銳藝術家。
Born in Taipei in 1983, Chan’s artist career can be traced back to his persistent passion for art. His solid art foundation is based both on National Taiwan Art University and top notch Fine Art porgramme at National Taiwan Normal University. When being a student, he actively took part in all sorts of art competitions to accumulate experiences. His capability is further assured by winning the first prize of 1st Da Dun Fine Art Exhibition, champion of 9th Xinzhuan Fine Art Exhibition and Chimei Art Prize… and so on. Besides, he came in first in 2011 YOUNG ART TAIPEI, becoming one of the top ranking young artists in Taiwan.
Never satisfied with his current achievement, Chan continues to explore the connection between him and the environment to figure out the tangle between reality and fantasy. His unique artistic language constitutes his solid painting skills and perception of life. Famous for his accurate composition, pure color expression as well as encompassing classical skill into contemporary issues, Chan successfully turns the bottom of Surrealist into his seeking for self-interpretation. His surrealist world attempts to demonstrate a more realistic meaning compared to the real world. Based on self-experience, the artist transfers the daily lives into the clues of virtual worlds. He consciously implies elements such as tree and car or the depiction of figures and eyes in his paintings. The interlock between virtual and real world challenges viewers’ senses, indirectly discussing the most basic question in heart: the illusion of reality and the unknown reality.
The artist needs to dig into the deepest feelings in his own heart to touch viewers and precisely convey his thoughts. Chan is the one who uses the record of his creation to gradually establish his unique art world.
Assistant Professor at National Taiwan Art University
Chen,Kuang-Yi
Chan was the first students I taught in National Taiwan Art University. He was quite introverted, taciturn and liked doing things alone. While the university encouraged students to combine various materials into their works, he loved nothing but painting. During his university period, he preferred human figures, especially women, to be the main characters in his works. Besides, he adopted Taiwanese Academic Surrealist as his painting style, forming a gray, clean and cold tone.
After graduation, he was admitted to the Master Fine Art at National Taiwan Normal University. I was then invited to his graduate solo exhibition, Uniform Story, in 2010. I was surprised that he not only made progress in techniques but also found a totally different and unique material and theme. The space of King Car Art Center was full of colorful young girls from Japanese Otaku culture, dressed either in student or maid uniform with all sorts of cute and naïve expressions and ambiguously teasing postures. The adolescent girls signify sex and violence, fulfilling the so called Lolita Complex, meaning adults’ desire and admiration toward the teenage girls.
Much to our interest, how can this originally subculture icon which challenges the style, value and belief of common culture transforms into delicate academic works? To achieve this, Chan made a lot of efforts. He attempted to include classic styles, such as the light technique of Caravagisme which creates dramatic effects of light and dark contrast. The composition of traditional portrait, space and background arrangement, the expression of senses of weigh and quality of figures and the choices of accessiore were carefully considered. He also used classical girl postures in Balthus’ painting under the theme of Lolita Complex. In short, he tried to promote the subculture pictures from northeast Asian to the same level as western mainstream culture by the accurate control of classic painting technique and form and the inclusion of western art history. However, there is an “absence” in his work which is the local culture, whether mainstream or not. This paradox demonstrates the current situation of Taiwanese culture.
After the exhibition, despite some degrees of popularity, Chan soon gave up on focusing on the only and narrow theme. Conscious of the overflowing of Japanese Animation in his generation, he needed to find out a more recognizable personal style. Thus, his works in 2012-13 got rid of his creating style before. Looking at these new works, viewers seem to be brought back to the surrealist atmosphere in his university period. The construction of picture relies repetitive icons and its extended symbol system. These elements are lined by the artist with his own specific ways. His ways of expression is quite regular: recognizable girl figures (despite varied in costumes), means of transportation (e.g. car, train, ship. Airplane, truck, excavator, racket… and son on), communication devise (e.g. DV, television, movie player, screen…etc), house, furniture (sofa, bathtub, table, bed, greenhouse), plants and animals. All of the elements are arranged in particular “scenery” (rivers, lakes, oceans, islands, deserts, cliffs and sky) using surrealist skills (imbalance of proportion, anti-gravity, irrational space and time). Human figures, objects and scenery are combined in infinite changes and the model system, such as colorful hues and animation figures, deriving from previous period together enable Chan to develop his narrative structure. Only if, what actually the narrative structure is? This needs further interpretation.
Autobiography and Self-Myth
Starting from human figures, it is easy to identify that the females in Chan ‘s paintings are played by a same model, from Uniform Story to the series. It is also inspirational to talk about the relationship between a painter and his model. For example, English Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and his models Fanny Comforth, Jane Burden, Elisabeth Siddal; Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and his muses in disparate periods, from Fernande Olivier to Jacqueline Roque. The obsessive of portraying an identical object discloses the mental status of an artist. And the models appearing repetitively are shaped into some prototypes pf various women. Symbolists thus are keen to present not only Medusa, Judith and Salome but also innocent girls, pure virgins and great mothers.
The new works of Chan break free from the sole desirable objects, expressing multiple and complex female images: “pilots” often show up on boats, with lamps or peddles in hand, and sometimes come out from the confided greenhouse to look into a far distance with telescope; “Venus” is certainly the incarnation of love and beauty while the Venus enduing bombing represents the strength of women; girls painting or doing sculpture are the “creators”, while pregnant girl signifies the “bearer”. Chan gives girls multiple roles. It is questionable that whether the shaping of characters in the paintings to some degree echos the painter’s self-projection or the roles different women play in his life.
More interestingly, male figures, represented by Chan himself, in the paintings are much smaller compared to women. Besides, rather than the activeness, positivity characters women symbolize, men are comparatively passive, introverted and silent and often staring at the screen, in the state of being hypnotized and seemingly unable to resist the oversaturating and suffocating information. This kind of character division reminds viewers of the Belgic Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) who shapes women into the desired-to-own-but-hard-to-guaranteed image, while men in an useless state. This enables Chan’s paintings to sublimate from purely self-projection to the digging of subconsciousness.
As for the surrounding objects, they seems to be the best narrating symbols, linking all kinds of imageries just like alphabets. Chan’s teenage period is dark and gloomy because of his seriously ill father. He being scanty of words is also the result of such depression. And the sickbed seems to be the most vivid part of this kind of life, which explains why sickbeds turn to be one of his obsessive themes. Sofas, bathtubs, tables, chairs and greenhouse together represent the image of home. For a boy limited to a broken family, various means of transportations are not only the toys for entertainment but also the imagery tools to break through the barrier.
Nevertheless, what I provide above is not only but a possible interpretation. The materials given by Chan enable viewers to connect their own life experiences and imagine, like the autobiographical “cells” of Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), stuffing memorial objects using installation, delivering viewers obscure interpretations and blurring the line between painter’s and viewers’ own stories. It also resembles Christian Boltanski (1944- ) who make some seemingly group but actually personal myth with his Jewish identity.
It is no need to be surprised because bearing the iconic scenery is the preference 19th century Romantic artists: rivers, lakes, islands, deserts, cliffs, vast sky, ruins like spaces. They are all great places to meditate and imagine.
Yet I have to admit that there are differences between Chan’s works and those of Romanticism and Surrealism in form, atmosphere and tone. His ambition is apparently not limited to creating an implying self-myth.
From a Other Culture to Acculturation
Chan once talked about his own work, The Destination, saying, “This work expresses what I have been always discussing which is about the “re-interpretation” of an airtight space. This means to reuse others’ culture in my own culture, transforms it into new subculture and links common culture to the same field.” Through the remark, Chan clearly declares that the principle axis of his creation is fusion of culture.
Different from the obscure implication in Uniform Stories, Destination, as an indicative work, appropriates four classical works in western art history: Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban by Flanders painter Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441), David by Renaissance master Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), Las Meninas by Spanish Neo-classicism artist Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez(1599-1660) and Grandodalisque by Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Yet he only takes the representative figures, designing into toys or decorations and animating the human figures. Taiwanese artist Mickey Huang is the one who manipulates the toys, while Chan himself takes a boat in the storm to sail to the direction of salvation. Overall, the artist tries to combine high and low art, other culture and local culture, and mainstream culture and subculture, while pondering contemporary artistic essence.
On the process of art development, people’s interest in “Other Culture” is the motivation that pushes them to change. The fusion of eastern and western culture undergoes about three disparate stages. Western countries start their voyage in 13th century. As the advances of navigation technology, the golden age of trading come in 17th, 18th century as well as westerners’ curiosity of eastern cultures. Yet in this period we can only call it “curiosité” because the “other culture” is often twisted into being barbaric, weird and novel. Even though in the end of 18th century, neo-classicism adopts Pompeii to be their prototype of ancient Roman and Greek, they only use it as “setting” without accepting Pompeii style mural painting. Afterwards, 19th century Romanticists like Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) begins to travel to east, drawing large amounts of sketches for research and being back many local objects as the references to paint eastern paintings. The popularity of “exotisme” in 19th century fill artists’ workshops with objects from Far East. The spreading of paintings and prints is no less than the popularity of Japanese and Korean pop culture nowadays. The first question an artist face is how to incorporate “other culture” into their own paintings; thus, Eclecticism which superficially put together western and eastern culture is born. Eventually, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists realize that the fusion of cultures cannot stay on the superficial state but the digestion and reutilization of an “other culture” is rather important which consist the third stage.
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe by Edouard Manet (1832-1883) is not an eastern style painting but his guiding principles derive form Ukiyo-e rpints. Claude Monet (1840-1926) once also mentions Ukiyo-e’s influence on him, claiming his artistic inspirations all come from the mechanical principles of eastern paintings. From Vincent van Gough (1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Henri Matisse (1869-1954) to Picasso, western contemporary art is born on the absorbing, intersection and mixing of the other cultures. These artists put down their prejudice, give up their usual way of paintings, immerse themselves in the thinking and lifestyle of other cultures, research, understand and apply these exotic artistic mechanical principles. At last, it is also important that they should not forget their own culture identification and spirit. Only when owning and persevering one’s thinking and lifestyle can people strengthen the power, enrich the vocabulary and create new styles from the nutrients of other cultures. This is so call “acculturation”.
21th century Taiwanese artists need the concept of “acculturation” more than artists from any other places and generations. I think Chan and his contemporaries all agree with that but it is not easy to implement. Uniform Stories is his first try. His way of presenting both invading culture: Japanese animation culture (subculture) and western classical paintings (mainstream culture) together is accurate but the technique may result in stiff and pretentious Eclecticism, lacking the stroke that melts the conflict between sub- and mainstream culture. However, looking at his recent works, Chan seems to know more about how to develop and take hold of personal culture traits. Hence, no matter how many diverse or contradicting elements are there in his works, he is able to create proper chemical changes, processing the real “acculturation”. Despite only a beginning, it is already commendable among all his contemporaries.
Therefore, no matter what kind of changes he is going to undergo in his future creation, Chan Yu-Fan’s recent works have convinced me that he is qualified to be on the road to a mature artist.
The formation of galleries in Taiwan resembles an exploration of Taiwan art history. In 1960’s, the gallery industry in Taiwan starts to introduce western systems and thus develop artist agency. In the past decades, Taiwanese artists begin to gain a position in art history because of these formal platforms. At the same time, the agency system has matured and gradually integrated with international markets. These years, due to the influence of the financial turmoil in Asia, SARS, 921 earthquake and global financial crisis, the art market has be going through its fluctuations. Under the rapid change of the international environment, the system of artist agency is challenging the strategies and promotion techniques of galleries.
Both the east and west formulated its unique art history context in the past millenniums. The two cultures not only differ in its materials and concepts but also vary in the artist’s pursuit. Up to now, under the influence of globalization, artists tend to integrate their own cultural and international viewpoints no matter in what form of creation. Chan Yu-Fan is no exception. He continues to discuss and explore his own culture in the works and observe current international situation. Our time changes drastically; people absorb large amount of information every day. Questions such as “What is eternity?” and “What is a moment?” are thus brought out. With the coming age of global village, the responsibility of artists is to reflect the characteristics of time and to leave traces for art history.
To probe the reason why Chan Yu-Fan takes a high-profile position in art world, one can attributes it to his innate talents. If it were not for the artist’s genius, the agent would not have the possibility of success. As a genuine artist, one has to meet three standards: (1) one needs to be a “professional creator” in the “art world” such as the fields of art collection, academia, art platforms or art markets. Besides, one must put his/ her heart and soul into creation to meet the criteria. Those whose works reach some degree of artistry but never get the attention in art world and seldom wholeheartedly focus on creating cannot be counted as real artists. (2) “The practice of spirit” and “sensibility of things” are two key essences that a genuine artist should possess. Different from other social roles, artists’ concerns on creation and their ability to withstand loneliness and pain of making breakthrough in creation are not because of their admiration for the “artist lifestyle” and fame but because of their passion for art. Moreover, their exceptional sensibility enables them to develop their own perspectives and philosophy in daily lives. (3) Artists have to be supported by knowledge structure. They are not solely thinkers, but also the base of the existence of conceptual art. Knowledge structure is composed of “the understanding of art” and “the techniques needed when creating”. No matter what kind of art, artists have to pursue their own ideas as well as the support of theory. Nevertheless, art creation needs to be transformed, and the demonstration of works needs to be accurate. Whether the creation of a work satisfies the artist challenges an artist’s loyalty to him or herself and his/her techniques.
Contemporary art is in a continuous state. The artist environment in Taiwan has given birth to diverse creations of contemporary art. Through the eyes of Chan Yu-Fan, we witness the thinking of contemporary artist after 1980’s and the context of temporal vicissitude. Discharged from the army in 2010, Chan’s ways of creation, different from his original style in graduate school, emphasizes more on self-culture reflection and thinking. His perspectives on art and emotional expression are demonstrated by his works. No matter from which perspectives (iconography, historiography, sociology, cultural anthropology, phycology and psychoanalysis) people read his creation, the acuity and communicability are extraordinary. The human shaped coal train in Advancing to the Future represents Chan’s gratitude and memory of family by making a detour on the track every day. The gensture of the floating girl holding two objects symbolizes respectively the desire for the support from family and the value of memory. The little girl in Greenhouse 1 innocently pursues the pureness of creation while her own reflection is actually standing alone on the outdoor circus stage. This expresses the artists’ narration of society, culture and creation. The main character of Untitled is a surgeon preparing for the operation. She fixes her eyes on viewers while putting up the surgical gloves. The picture is composed mainly of cool colors, with the fluorescent lamp as the only source of light. The eyes and action of the surgeon convey the spiritual expression of the artist. Venus 2 transfers classical composition into typical “Chan Style” which emphasizes the contradiction of the picture, suggesting the international situations and media influence. Chan connects figures and elements in a composition to from a narrative scene. Different events in the picture are linked to previous experiences, enabling viewers to think while admiring the works.
Those who can withstand the tests nowadays must become the classic in the future. Being emotionally touched and expressing the universal values are two key factors on the road to a masterpiece; thus, the context of creation is very important. As an art agent, I’m confident that Chan is far more than qualified to be an internationally renowned artist.
創作解析 Analysis 論詹喻帆創作之「構圖思維」與「視覺語彙」 / 李宜洲, 青雲畫廊總監 The Composition Thinking and Visual Vocabulary of Chan Yu-Fan / Lee Yi-Chou, Director of Cloud Gallery
作品系列 Series 島嶼系列 Island Series
社會定格 Freeze-Frame of Society
實驗室 Laboratory
平行世界 Parallel World
融古入今的形象造景 Images Blending the Past with the Present
樂園系列 Amusement Park Series 文化戲謔 Cultural Banter
創作符號表 List of Ar tistic Symbols
藝術評論 Art Critics
個人神話與文化同化—談詹喻帆近作 / 陳貺怡, 台灣藝術大學美術學系副教授 Self-Myth and Culture Assimilation：The Recent Works of Chan Yu-Fan / Chen Kuang-Yi, Associate Professor of Graduate Program in Fine Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts
映射與追求－從拉岡精神分析看詹喻帆的創作 / 朱庭逸, 亞洲現代美術館副館長 Reflection and Pursuit － Psychoanalysis of Chan Yu-Fan's artworks / Chu Ting-Yi, Associate Curator of Asia University Museum of Modern Art
「缺席」的「空白對話」帶給觀者的自由想像 / 青雲畫廊 The Blank Dialogue in Absence Brought Free Imagination For the Observers /Cloud Gallery
訪談 / 陸潔民, 詹喻帆, 李宜洲 Interview / Lu Chieh-Min, Chan Yu-Fan ,Gary Lee
報導 Media
詹喻帆展歷年表 Biography
序言 / 李宜洲 Preface / Gary Lee
詹喻帆簡介 Introduction of Chan Yu-Fan
創作解析 Analysis 論詹喻帆創作之「構圖思維」與「視覺語彙」 / 李宜洲, 青雲畫廊總監 The Composition Thinking and Visual Vocabulary of Chan Yu-Fan / Lee Yi-Chou, Director of Cloud Gallery
作品系列 Series 島嶼系列 Island Series
社會定格 Freeze-Frame of Society
實驗室 Laboratory
平行世界 Parallel World
融古入今的形象造景 Images Blending the Past with the Present
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