Au Hoi Lam (b. 1978)
Untitled 2003 (Self Writing)
2003
Acrylic on canvas
H. 122 x W. 122 x 8 cm
區凱琳 (1978年生)
無題 2003 (自身書寫)
2003年
塑膠彩布本
高. 122 x 寬. 122 x 8公分
Imagine in a space undefined by linear time, a painter/author keeps drawing/writing/erasing on a canvas/wall over and over again. In the painting ‘Untitled 2003 (Self Writing)’, AU Hoi Lam created a poetic pictorial space and visualised the act of writing. The calligraphic, painterly brick-wall-liked canvas emphasises the materiality and the objectness of painting. The substantial, tangible calligraphic lines were made out of embedded acrylic paint, a craftsmanship that involved inscription, filling and sanding. It is a technique that associates with the aesthetic quest of carving/inscription in the antiquity of lacquerwork. The objectness was reinforced by the extended painted grid structure of the ‘brick-wall’, along the three inches depth canvas-sides.
Since year 2000 AU Hoi Lam has employed the structure of grid into her paintings. Her paintings with grids are involved with layers of signifiers which could be representational, abstract, narrative and cartographical. Her grid systems have been manifested to various schemas and contexts, for instance, like notebooks, temporal frameworks, coordinates, handkerchiefs, wall and architectonic structure. In her recent works, AU Hoi Lam keeps exploring and opening up the painterly possibilities of the structural grid.
試想像，在一個線性時間以外之空間，有一位畫家/作者，持續地在畫布上/牆上，繪畫/書寫/擦掉又重來。於繪畫作品 〈無題 2003 (自身書寫)〉，區凱琳營造了詩化的繪畫空間，呈現了書寫的行動。這幅看似磚牆的畫布，以書法式及繪畫性的痕跡，顯示並強調繪畫的材質性及物性。畫面上實在而可觸的線條，純然以塑膠彩構成嵌造，涉及銘刻、填補及打磨的手藝。這技術相通於一古老的美學追求——漆器的刻鏤。磚牆似的格線結構，從畫面伸延至畫框特厚的兩側，加重了繪畫的物性。
區凱琳自二零零零年在繪畫作品中運用格線結構。她的格線結構繪畫分別包含多層的意指，可能是具像、抽象、敘事和製圖。她的繪畫格線系統曾顯現為不同的圖式及背景脈絡，例如筆記、時間框架、座標、手帕、牆及建築結構等。在區凱琳的近作中，可見她繼續探索及開啓格線結構繪畫的可能性。