NIU Jun-Qiang Solo Exhibition 2018 牛俊強個展
light, the space of gallery
12.08.2018 – 01.20.2019
Quite, but not still,
He is before me, He is not here.
The NIU Jun-Qiang Solo Exhibition 2018 is a continuation of the artist’s previous exhibitions in 2014 and 2015. Deliberately not giving the exhibition a title, the artist returns to the idea of temporality. The exhibition title does not dwell on a certain subject, but focuses on the artist’s state of being. In this 2018 exhibition, the artist expands his ongoing exploration of blindness since 2015 into a discourse on vision as a way of existence, by probing the similarities between the sense of empathy in art and religious experience in faith.
The exhibition is divided into two parts. In the first part, the artist investigates how God is envisioned, as well as the forms of faith in Eastern and Western religions by posing three questions in a series of work: What is God? How does God look? How does God’s presence make one feel?
The second part involves an experiment conceived by the artist and curator where the exhibition view is empty, with no sight of the work. A video on view shows the artist leading a visually impaired man Jia-Feng Hsu in the empty exhibition space, describing to Hsu the details, position, concept, and production process of each work, perceived by the viewer solely through the video. No longer a venue to display the work, the exhibition space morphs into the work itself carrying the specter of the work. The ending scene of the video shows the muted exhibition space, blurring the boundary between the virtual space on screen and the physical space in reality.
The Encyclopédie, published in mid–18th-century Paris by French philosopher Diderot, who served as the chief editor and co-wrote alongside a group of scholars, sees the blind as the different others, in a contrast of the cosmological order and logic between the blind and the sighted, elucidating the diverse possibilities in the perception of the world. Drawing parallels between blindness and bodily experience, NIU considers the viewer’s act of navigating the exhibition space the core of the exhibition, where bodily experience echoes religious ritual, further transmuted into divine (nonvisual) experience.
The ritualization of the exhibition is manifested in the work Foresee, a brass scale comprising a mirror and a candle on each side, previously on view in NIU’s 2014 and 2015 solo exhibitions. This installation work is first exhibited in a state of imbalance. The candle begins to burn on the first day of the exhibition, and gradually loses its weight as time goes by. The mirror and the candle finally reach a state of equilibrium as the exhibition comes to an end: the burned-out candle reflected in the mirror. As an intangible entity, the exhibition period, or time, here becomes measurable, something that can be put on display, and serve as contemplation on void and being, nothingness and materiality, existence and eternity.
是安靜，但不是靜止的。
祂在眼前，祂不在這。
這次展覽「2018 牛俊強個展」延續「2015 牛俊強個展」與「2014 牛俊強個展」，不另起展名，純然地回到時間的軸線，展名不是一個主題的集合，而是更聚焦與反映了創作者的生命狀態。在展覽中我延續2015年對「盲」的詮釋，加入討論藝術中的無形共感和信仰中的抽象經驗相似之處，對視覺作為一種存在的形式的辯證。
這個展覽可以分為兩個部分：第一個部分藝術家從東西方宗教中對神的型貌、信仰的形式，提出三個問題：分別討論了「神是什麼？」、「神的外貌？」、「祂臨在的感受」，我創作了一系列作品，來回應這三個問題。
第二部分在展覽的現場，我與策展人實驗了一個新的展覽方式。觀眾在展覽現場看不到實際作品，是空的展場。展場中播放一件紀錄影像，我以口述影像的方式，引領一位視障者(許家峰)，在空無一物的展場，告知作品的位置、形貌、概念和製作過程。觀眾藉著這個影像，去感受作品的存在。展場不是展示作品之處，而是承載幽靈的「作品」自身。展場成為影像的結局，虛體空間（影像內的空間）與實體空間被巧妙的串接起來。
這部錄像一開始的畫面便從我與策展人馮馨以TKG+ Projects等比大小的展場模型模擬展出狀況開始，接著鏡頭切換至我帶著許家峰，實際走訪全空的展覽空間，兩人邊遊走在空間內邊講述即將於TKG+ Projects展出的三組作品《The Hand of God》、《褪色的神像》、《無題》，我以極為細節的方式描述作品的樣貌、尺寸，觀眾除了透過影像中的口述之外，影片中也出現許多關於作品發展中，或是已完成的樣貌，錄像的尾聲則是與藝術家與策展人針對整體空間的討論，以及展場佈展、封窗工程、打燈的過程，當觀眾看完影像，走進展場，看到未被封起的窗戶，窗外灑進來的陽光、空無一物的展場，和牆上若有似無的燈光，就會有認知上的落差，而這落差就是我希望觀眾可以思考神性、不可見與藝術的存在的交會。
在18世紀中葉的巴黎，迪德羅（Diderot）領導著一整群的學者撰寫《百科全書》這部集體鉅著，將盲人當作「不同的他者」，將屬於盲人與明眼人的宇宙秩序和邏輯相對照，闡述世界被註解的多元性。此次展覽牛俊強將盲比喻為視覺外的經驗，也就是身體感經驗（bodily sensory experience）。觀眾在空間移動，是完成的最重要因素，這樣身體感與宗教中的儀式是一樣的，這種儀式經驗就是神性經驗（非視覺）。
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