Taiwan's Glory

Wu Tien-chang

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* Rewriting Culture in Taiwan by Fang-Long Shih

* Logics of Ethos and the translations of Unheimlich: Wu Tianzhang and the Post-Martial Law Era in Taiwan by Joyce Chi-hui Liu

* 藝術─政治─主體：誰的聲音？論後解嚴與後八九兩岸當代美術的政治發言 by 劉紀蕙

* 吳天章 - 華麗哀榮綻放間，再會! by 佟孟真

* 真正的吳天章，就是吳天章？--試窺吳天章的視覺意象 by 王鏡玲      

                                                                       * 記錄變動中的台灣
解放前衛與前衛解放之間的擺盪 by 江冠明

 

Excerpt from Taipei Fine Arts Museum

吳天章 (Wu Tien-chang) 生於台灣彰化。1980年私立中國文化大學美術系畢業，曾與楊茂林、盧天炎組成「101現代藝術群」。吳天章是擅於批判嘲諷社會政治的當代藝術家，八○年代以「社會傷害」為題材，1987年台灣解嚴，政治議題狂飆，促使藝術思維擴張，產生前所未有的創作靈感，針對台灣史觀思考角度、反映時代性的見證、開拓另類人物圖像美學。從「中國面相學→美學」、「傳記文學→傳記繪畫」的觀點，演繹近代統治者帝王坐像系列，解讀海峽兩岸中國政治領袖人物「相由心生」、「相隨心轉」的史學圖像。九○年代轉以影像探討「歷史傷害」、「心靈傷害」等議題，作品常呈現自省人生黑暗面、批判中國歷史或諷喩台灣政治的意涵。他曾參加1997年第「47屆威尼斯雙年展—台灣台灣 / 面目全非」，以及「1998台北雙年展—欲望場域」等重要國際展出。

 

蔣經國的五個時期 byWu Tien-chang

1987年解嚴後的臺灣，政治、社會、文化、學術、藝術都處於急遽變動中，政治議題成為群眾的生活焦點，也給吳天章帶來了藝術創作上極大的自由，他創造巨大臉譜進行對毛澤東、蔣介石、鄧小平，與蔣經國的政治批判。每幅畫像都充滿了對強人強權及英雄主義的反思。本館所藏〈蔣經國的五個時期〉是由五幅蔣經國在不同時期的影像由年輕時期到年老時期依時間順序的方式組成，他將蔣經國的各時期形象以漫畫式的概念性符號注入了「時間」的結構。試圖將強人面相以中國面相學來詮釋，將人像回歸到最原始的五官表情語言，來呈現人物內在性格，吳天章認為這樣的主觀寫實才是真正的寫實。

 

 

「四個時代」展覽會場，1990

 

 

 

 

* Post-Martial Law vs. Post-'89: The contemporary art in Taiwan and China by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Excerpt: Among Wu Tien-chang's famous works, four had taken as their subject the strongman rules of Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiao-ping, and two of them - The Rule of Chiang Ching-kuo and The Rule of Mao Zedong - are displayed in teh Post-Martial Law vs. Post '89 exhibition.

In the year 1990, not long after the martial law was lifted in Taiwan, the artists usually articulated their positions on the times, politics, and the society through the medium of art. Amid the trend that swept through the Taiwanese artists, this group of Wu's works, combining the trans-avantgarde, expressionism and comic elements, created for itself adn for the artist an outstanding style through a powerful language.

In the two paintings, the stories of the people under the rule of the leaders/dictators of Taiwan and Mainland China are almost mirror images of each other: in the white terror period and in the age of red communism alike, the world is pitch dark and purgatorial, and the people are turned upside down, in contrast to the grandeur of military troops under the strongman rule of both sides. Through the two paintings, the political authorities on two sides of the strait reiterate stories that resemble each other.

To criticize the dictatorship of Mainland China had been the standard attitude of educational system in Taiwan since 1949. And yet, to look back on and attempt outspoken criticism of the 38 years of martial law, to freely articulate statements without fear on the strongman dictatorship of the same essence as that of Mainland China, was possible only as the martial law was lifted.

 

 

Transavantgarde is the Italian version of Neo-expressionism, an art movement that swept through Italy, and the rest of Western Europe, in the late 1970s and 1980s. The term transavantgarde was coined by the Italian art critic, Achille Bonito Oliva, and literally means beyond the avant-garde. This art movement rejected conceptual art, reintroducing emotion―especially joy―back into painting and sculpture. The artists revived figurative art and symbolism. The principal transavantgarde artists were Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola de Maria, Mimmo Paladino and Remo Salvadori.

Expressionism was a cultural movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the start of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world under an utterly subjective perspective, violently distorting it to obtain an emotional effect and vividly transmit personal moods and ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of "being alive" and emotional experience rather than physical reality.

Expressionism emerged as an 'avant-garde movement' in poetry and painting before the First World War; in the Weimar years was being appreciated by a mass audience, having its popularity peak in Berlin, during the 1920s.

Expressionism is exhibited in many art forms, including: painting, literature, theatre, dance, film, architecture and music. The term often implies emotional angst. In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grünewald and El Greco can be called expressionist, though in practice, the term is applied mainly to 20th century works.

The White Terror describes the suppression of political dissidents and public discussion of the 228 Incident in Taiwan under the martial law period from May 19, 1949 to July 15, 1987. It takes its root in the anti-Communist White Terror in mainland China and the 228 Incident or the 228 massacre in 1947.

During the White Terror, around 140,000 Taiwanese were imprisoned or executed for their real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang (KMT) government led by Chiang Kai-shek, according to a recent report by the Executive Yuan of Taiwan.

Most of those prosecuted were labeled by the Kuomintang as "bandit spies" (匪諜), meaning spies for Chinese communists, and punished as such. The "White Terror" left many Taiwanese with a deep-seated bitterness towards the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek, and the mainland Chinese.

Fear of discussing the White Terror and the 228 Incident gradually decreased with the lifting of martial law in 1987, culminating in the establishment of an official public memorial and an apology by President Lee Teng-hui in 1995.

 

 

再會吧!春秋閣 by Wu Tien-chang

 

 

春秋閣，全名「東南帝闕樂善社啟明堂春秋閣」，又稱「春秋御閣」，是為紀念武聖關公而建的廟宇，位於台灣高雄市左營區的蓮池潭畔。

春秋閣建於民國42年（1953年），為兩座中國宮殿式樓閣，一稱春閣，另一稱秋閣，春秋閣之名取其合稱。兩樓閣各為四層八角，綠瓦黃牆，宛如寶塔，古色古香的塔影倒映水中。其間有九曲橋相通。

春秋閣的前端有一尊騎龍觀音，地方相傳觀音菩薩曾騎龍在雲端現身，指示信徒要依其現身之形態建造聖像在春閣與秋閣之間，故有現在的騎龍觀音聖像。

 

 

Sayonara by Wu Tien-chang (mixed media )

 

 

A Dream of a Spring Night by Wu Tien-chang

 

 

* 華麗／俗豔，恰如其份的氣味——吳天章之台客創作風格 by 小米哥

Excerpt: 「在讀建中夜校的時候，就被叫做『台客』」，吳天章回答的倒是相當乾脆。當時舉家才從基隆遷到台北不久，一身土氣，被班上的僑生笑是「台客」，「那時候的『台客』是有嘲笑的意味，聽到之後多少覺得自卑，然後就會學人家去聽那個Billboard排行榜」，說到這段被最早被貼上「台客」標籤的回憶，吳天章以「近乎是種族歧視、傷害幼小心靈」來形容自己被同學稱作「台客」時的心情。

時過境遷數十年，吳天章再度被冠上「台客創作者」的稱號，但現在他對此「殊榮」倒是坦然許多。被列入台客藝術家，在於吳天章作品中呈現出的在地特質是如此強烈，並且和台灣社會的脈動相呼應。1980年代末期，吳天章以蔣經國、毛澤東等政治人物的肖像畫為人所所知，是為在解嚴前後對政治神像禁忌的進犯。解嚴對台灣社會產生巨大的衝擊，由政治解嚴帶來了文化追尋工程，過去飽受壓抑的語言、文化、思想亟欲重建自尊與自信，文化主體性的的確立、台灣研究成為顯學等現象因應而生。那麼，台灣文化的特色在哪裡？便成了吳天章思考的課題。

 

 

* A Taiwanese Artist Puts a Face on His Native Culture by Pat Gao

Excerpt: Liu notes parallels in the focus of Wu's artwork, changing from radical protests against the political violence of the martial law era in pieces from the mid-1980s, to works in the early 1990s concerning the issues of "home" or "Taiwanese-ness." Wu says the latter period included a search for identity. "I was trying to find how one can call oneself a Taiwanese," Wu recalls.

Many of Wu's works from this period were oil paintings, but arranged in the format of salon photographs--photos shot in the studio amid rococo furnishings and a backdrop such as a painted landscape--which were popular in Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. The shapes of masculine bodies painted in an angry, protesting line in earlier works gave way to portraits of women or "feminized" men posing seductively in obviously artificial settings. Sometimes the subject matter was a parody of an old work by a distinguished Taiwanese painter or a famous poster from an old movie. In addition to oil paints, Wu used mixed media including photographs, imitation leather, plastic flowers, glass "diamonds" and all manner of other shiny items and fake gems. A feeling of gaudiness and luridness prevails in the works. Liu says the style suggests a black sense of humor, with a dark eroticism lurking behind the serene or familiar scenes.

Liu regards these works as an ambivalent reference to Taiwan's past. For the professor, Wu's appropriation of local Taiwanese folk elements reflected a common trend in the 1990s to establish a Taiwanese identity and consciousness. There is something uncanny, however, in this burgeoning identity. "Taiwanese culture has something unnatural or unreal about it," Wu notes, "and my work does, too." He says that Taiwan has many artificial elements such as the "bamboo" or "wooden" railings and benches found at scenic spots that are actually made of cement, for example, as well as magnificent model houses that are torn down a couple of weeks later when construction of the real ones begins. "Why do many people and critics say my work is very Taiwanese?" Wu asks. "It might be that the sense of unreality in my work resonates in the collective unconsciousness."

Wu's work is a cultural critique of what he sees as a Taiwanese tendency to choose convenient substitutes for something real, mature and enduring. The artist believes that this "substitutive culture" has its origins in a history of being occupied by a succession of powers from outside Taiwan, with the resultant mentality of a population "passing through" and reluctant to set down roots in local soil. He says that pieces like Farewell! Chun-chiu Pavilion (1993), in which a guitar-carrying sailor in uniform stands in front of a backdrop featuring the pavilion--a tourist spot near a military base in Kaohsiung--have a less political and more psychological context, such as a popular "obsession" with the naval uniform.

 

 

瞎子摸巷 by Wu Tien-chang

 

 

永協同心 byWu Tien-chang

 

 

* 台客藝術家---吳天章 by 陳妤旻

Excerpt:吳天章是悍圖社創始成員之一。吳天章的作品乃是以「安排式攝影」(Set-up Photography)手法，進行創作，在於拍攝者在拍攝之前就已構想好所需元素，透過裝設、擺置進行實際拍攝，藝術家猶如電影導演掌握著全盤畫面，從角色扮演、服裝、道具乃至於背景皆出自其手，形成了吳天章式的矯揉風格，畫面中的人物一方面以歡欣姿態面對鏡頭，另一方面卻似乎在攝影中成就了他內心深處不為人所知的自我想像。

細看吳天章歷年來作品發展的脈絡，他意圖以龐大歷史文本做為反思歷史發展的創作根據，之後更以攝影技術巧妙地結合台灣歷史、黑色喜劇及豔俗現成物，自創台灣特有的嬉謔悲情風格，而這種豔俗的創作風格，讓他有著「台客藝術家」的封號。

 

 

Wu Tian-Chung 吳天章

 

 

Taiwan's Glory * 台灣之光 * Taiwan's Glory