墨的兩種呼吸方式 袁慧莉.Two methods of ink respiration Yuan Hui-Li
第一章 火墨緣起：北京
紫霾警報
2015年12月赴北京中央美院參加「傳統重塑」現地創作聯展，抵達北京遭遇生平第一次的霧霾紅色警報，第一次被鋪天蓋地的空污煙塵罩身，那種伸手不見五指的視覺與嗆味嗅覺震撼，足以將我從不食人間煙火的金山鄉間桃花源重重地拽回人間。
我被安排在北京中央美院入住的宿舍窗外，便是一根正冒著煙的聳天煙囪，煙囪後方便是市民居住的樓房，原來，這種空污煙塵，是這裡的日常！
因為遭遇如此強烈的體感經驗，我要如何使用「水」墨來表現正在面臨的真實空污經驗呢？千年的「水墨」傳統畫論裡都是表彰理想自然美的筆墨審美觀，我感到古典水墨美學不符當下真實體感，那些水墨篇章裡的筆墨呼吸，與這眼前真實嗆鼻的呼吸完全對不準了！
我決心直面我的真實感覺，並在北京中央美院舉辦的「傳統重塑」聯展現地創作中，與古代對話，用另一種方式表達空污現象，以嗅覺取代視覺，於是以燒灼為主的「火墨」在我腦中成形。
那根宿舍窗外的煙囪給我靈感，為呼應著這根煙囪的形象，我買了一刀宣紙，在當地博生藝術家的工作室熬夜燒宣紙，那燃燒的紙卷就像北京日常供暖的煙囪，也像工業區排放廢氣的煙囪，在北京紫霾的天空下，我將燒了一半的宣紙炭灰收集起來，這是我將在展覽會場現地創作「火墨」使用的素材。
我刻意選擇在中央美院七號樓的展場中間圓形的磁磚區，將之視為北京祭天的天壇，開始以手撚宣紙炭灰臨摹強調「身即山川而取之」觀點的北宋郭熙代表作《早春圖》，以燃燒又充滿焦燥氣味的宣紙炭灰，替換《早春圖》裡滋潤欣欣的水墨山水圖像，宣紙炭灰象徵燃燒後排放在空氣中的pm2.5炭微粒。在北京，象徵帝國山水的水墨《早春圖》的「潤墨」，被火墨《早春圖》的「燥墨」取代。
在這個虛擬的天壇上，我如同祭祀般地，將剩餘的宣紙炭灰放在地上，燒過的宣紙卷，一部分捲起立放或平放，一部分攤開放在臨時的台座上，就好像在舉辦一場祭奠氣候變異的場域。
第二章 古今對比：臺灣
關於嗅覺體感的墨
我1992年就開始長年生活在北台灣面海靠山金山小鎮潮濕的鄉下，多霧濕潤的空氣感是我創作早期《孤山水》風格的靈感來源，筆下的「潤墨」是回應我在這空濛中呼吸的身體感知結果。
但在北京一週之後回到臺灣，又正好碰到北京霧霾在東北季風的吹引下移動到臺灣，位處臺灣東北邊的金山是迎風區，空污無國界，隨著季風移動四處飄散，沒有任何桃花源可以逃離！碳排放在氣流中傳播，即使生活在鄉間，仍然抵擋不了無處不在的空污效應。
霾原來在生活中早已存在，只是我以前並沒有關注它，我造訪了雲林麥寮六輕石化工業區，開在中彰快速道路上，感受了無止盡的煙霾漫天遮蔽了天空與一切景物，這白茫茫一片真不乾淨，塵霧瀰漫一點也不浪漫。我開著車，自己也是製造空污的一份子，生活在以空污換取便利的時代，「火墨」，是時代的反應，也是我的懺悔。於是我知道，「火墨」必須持續進行。
什麼是「墨的兩種呼吸方式」？在當今日常生活中常會出現的兩種呼吸狀態：當清爽的濕霧來時，我們張開嘴深呼吸；當Pm2.5的霾害來時，我們摀上嘴戴上口罩，淺淺的呼吸。
「筆墨」一直是屬於視覺的，但宋代郭熙曾提出「身即山川而取之」的四時山水創作觀，留下帶有濕潤氣息的《早春圖》，是想將那畫中的潤墨，指向早春時節霧氣蒸騰的呼吸體感，那麼有沒有可能我們以身體感去表現另一種氣味感的墨？那是關於嗅覺於當下日常的呼吸感受。如果我們不再忘卻身體感知作用於山水的這一重要環節，如果我們不再只是依賴視覺的筆墨美學去畫山水畫，而是將嗅覺之身體帶入山川而取之，那麼，在霧中呼吸或者在霾中呼吸的山水將會是什麼？於是，我在「墨的兩種呼吸方式」個展中將《孤山水》與《火墨》並陳。
在2017年於台北內湖耿畫廊舉辦「墨的兩種呼吸方式」個展時，我再製作一件正式版《火墨．郭熙《早春圖》No.2》，同時加上自製紙筆作為細部描繪工具，並以原尺寸臨摹，進行更完整的裝置展出。同時，也做更多的火墨對臨作品，成為一個系列。
器氣一體：裝置的隱喻
《火墨》系列中有三件以透明箱體裝置作品，分別是《火墨．范寬《雪景寒林圖》》《火墨．關仝《山溪待渡圖》》《火墨．郭熙《秋山行旅圖》》，《器經．大器篇》有言：「天地有器，然後有生。氣有則器，有器具氣，器氣一體。」氣在容器中存在，天地山水便是一種容器，山水之中有氣，農業時代多半是美好的空氣，而工業時代則更多不美好的空氣。
透明箱體代表「天地之器」的隱喻，在箱底中央放置一捲燃燒的紙卷比喻煙囪，以火墨臨摹三件以季候或自然景物為主題的古典圖像，對應於紙卷煙囪所燒的焦燥灰燼，隱指焦燥灰燼使山水蒙上霾氣燥墨，透明箱中的底部撒留些炭灰，象徵飄散在空氣中的炭物質，隱喻霾塵流動的特質。
裝置作品如《火墨．郭熙《早春圖》No.2》象徵祭天的圓形天壇《火墨．許道寧《秋江漁艇圖》》以三柱灼紙捲如祭桌香奠、《火墨．米友仁《雲山圖卷》》攤平層層空白灼紙卷，隱喻燃燒破壞自然，雲山消失後的空景，都象徵當代生存者面對古今氣候變異下，在殘存的勝景灰燼中，對美好自然的逐漸消失進行著唏噓奠祭。
火墨之形異：材質物性的對辯
「火墨」的觀念性來自於對「墨」的材質如何擴延其物性語彙的探問，「火墨」來自火燒宣紙後剩餘的炭灰，「水墨」的「墨」，也是從火而生的炭灰。《孟子．公孫丑上．注》曾說：「炭，墨也」。「墨」這個字就是從其「燈盞碗煙」製作工法的象形而來，在土上一豆燈火，燃燒材或煉自木材的油，覆碗收炭煙，集煙炭製墨。「水墨」與「火墨」的本質都是炭灰。
「水墨」從最原始的材質原料角度來看，所使用的「墨」是經過燒「木」取細炭灰，調膠後捶練成的墨條，加「水」研磨才產生「水墨」，在媒材特性上是「先火後水」的材質使用。
而「火墨」是以宣紙燃燒成炭灰，再取此紙炭灰作畫，作畫過程中完全不加水。宣紙的原物料是樹木或植物，在製程中必須先經過以「水」浸軟「木」皮，絞碎成紙漿後手抄製成。所以，「火墨」的宣紙炭灰是「先水後火」的材質使用。
就材料本質言，「水墨」與「火墨」都同樣包含了「水」、「火」、「木」這三種物質元素。「火墨」使用的宣紙，與「水墨」的墨條，都同樣來自於樹木原料，但與「水」、「火」的天然元素產生關係的製程不同，造就不同的結果。
研究歷代山水畫論，會發覺關於「墨」的墨性審美取向，多半偏向以「潤墨」為上的觀點。在用墨上強調「潤」的美，而摒棄「不潤」的，例如唐代杜甫在題畫詩中所說「元氣淋漓障猶濕，真宰上訴天應泣」，「障猶濕」的「潤墨」，指向了「元氣淋漓」所形成的「真宰上訴」之自然美；北宋初李成在《畫山水訣》指出「燥澀乾枯而不潤」的用墨是不美的，因此，他強調：「落墨無令太重，重則濁而不清；亦不可太輕，輕則燥而不潤。」；擅畫四時氣候山水的北宋郭熙《林泉高致》也說要以「墨色滋潤而不枯燥」為目標；元代黃公望《寫山水訣》的用墨美學追求「在生紙上，有許多滋潤處。」；明代唐志契《繪事微言》則說墨性「盎然溢然，冉冉欲墜，方烟潤不澀，深厚不薄」；明李開先談「潤筆法」；清鄒一桂說「用墨淋漓」「用墨渾融」；民國黃賓虹以「渾厚華滋」為筆墨標舉等等。
古代畫家用墨重「潤」不喜「燥」，但也有畫家提出關於「燥」的用墨觀，例如
清代龔賢《半千課徒畫說》中說「皴宜燥，不燥即墨矣」，這是指用筆的方式，所以這裡的「燥」指的是乾筆、渇筆的意思。即使使用渴筆焦墨也必須與渲染潤墨相融相生，燥墨焦墨是為了襯托「潤」的存在。
「火墨」不意圖遵循古典墨性美學的複製，而是從三種自然元素互為表裡的製程關係中，透過「返」本質的材質還原探索，揭開墨的物性本質辯證，以便將千年不變的墨性美學思維，由本質向外翻轉，在同質中發現物質反向操作時產生的異質性，藉此打開「反」（古）墨性美學形意的對辯場域。
山水畫不可避免地總需與自然環境有所對應，我提出「火墨」，不僅是回應氣候變遷的當代空氣現象，同時也深及對傳統水墨之墨性本質的探究與對辯，從材質物性上辯證出墨的形式變異。回到材質的原初，就能看到不一樣的表現語彙。
火墨之意異：文化圖像墨性美學的轉向
從唐代提出「墨分五色」就證明了墨性美學與形態在山水畫中的重要地位，在往後千年的山水畫論中，針對墨性形態的討論就成為水墨畫的核心議題。即使到了「現代水墨畫運動」（以下簡稱「現代水墨」）捨筆留墨，仍舊離不開這個支撐水墨畫形意美學的核心，「墨」撐起山水畫史半邊天。
要研究如何推進或者探討山水畫在當代還有什麼可能？「墨」是一個必然面對的議題。而「墨」不該僅僅是視覺的，也應該思考如何聯覺嗅覺來表現。
火墨的「燥」不是前述古典畫論裡那種乾筆濃墨「燥」的意思，「火墨」的「燥」墨是對應於傳統水墨「潤」墨美學的反面而發生，是火焚後的焦氣，這是聚焦在嗅覺氣味上的，而非視覺上的筆墨形態。
找回失去的感官感知，真實地體驗並回應，將身體投入到生活之中，如果應該有嗅覺，就不要迴避，如果現實是不美的，就不要害怕表現真實。我藉由顛覆古典文化圖像，用以反襯氣候時空變異現狀，「火墨」不是為了表現理想山水或自然美而發聲，而是反映生存此時代的空污危機狀態，因體感與實受而出現的創作。
「火墨」所選臨摹的古畫並不是隨機取樣，而是針對帶有季候題材或者空氣內容的作品，將這些古典水墨畫作裡強調的「潤墨」換置成火墨的「燥墨」。這樣的挪用換置，意味著21世紀的工業世界取代了古代農業時代的空氣，同時也反應盛行了一千年的山水畫語言，面對時代變異有需要產生新的形式來述說新的內容。
以「火墨」挪用古典山水畫圖像，不是為了以異材質模仿古畫筆墨的效果，而是藉由與古典墨性的落差，翻轉墨性語言。當今自然世界所面臨的污霾空氣現狀，需要火墨的「燥墨」來表達。「火墨」不意圖歸返古典美學，是為了符應當今空污現象，打開新的「墨性」辯證空間而做，現實有時是不美的，這個時代不該只有「美」學，也應該有「反」美學。
第三章＿霾日常：全球
身境感受的「火墨」
「火墨」看似追隨二十世紀中葉「現代水墨畫運動」（簡稱「現代水墨」）去除使用毛筆與中鋒技法的形式變革主張，但「火墨」與「現代水墨」仍存在著極大差異。
「現代水墨」重視形式技法變異，卻仍舊遵循傳統水墨美學語彙意涵，例如強調「宇宙自然氣韻」、「似與不似之間」、「寫意氤蘊」、「墨暈篇章」等等，在水與墨之間尋找類似於古典潑墨寫意美學與形態，所以基本上是「形異而意同」的變革方向。
「火墨」，不僅材料技法與過往不同，更且在意涵語彙上與古相反，既完全在技法材料上變異，又改變潤墨美學的追求，在內容語境上都迥異於古典語彙，「火墨」在「現代水墨」的基礎上更往前邁進，在形式意涵上全然貼近當代生活真實面向，是「意異而形異」的全面革新。
從呼吸的角度去觀照氣候變遷，並以對應於空氣的墨性去表現古今差異，墨的兩種呼吸方式，「水墨」《孤山水》反應我生活在潮濕多霧金山的遼闊視野經驗；「火墨」則對應於地球暖化形成氣候異常的全球日常新聞所見所聞，一水一火都是反應我的生活日常。
「火墨」面對的是日常生命經驗的議題，在二十一世紀已然全球化的實際生活中，生存議題是共通的，全球暖化已成為日常近身的現象。此時代的創作者，不再如上世紀中至末以「筆墨」為唯一關心的繪畫問題。當代創作者需要面對的是將失去的其他身體感知找回，透過有效地使用媒材技法、去轉化出適於當代情境的形式，將生命的真實經驗透過觀點去更新歷史語言，以提出適情適性適境的美學內容與語彙。在尊古的同時，也莫忘身境於此時此地的真實感受，並且誠實地表現這種真實，是之謂「真山水」。
Two methods of ink respiration
Yuan Hui-Li
Chapter the First＿Origin of Fiery Ink：Beijing
Haze Alert
I encountered a code-red smog warning for the first time when I arrived in Beijing on a trip there in December 2015 to attend the “Reshaping Tradition” on-site creation group exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. This first experience of being enveloped by a blanket of air pollution and dust, and the shock to the visual and olfactory senses of not being able to see one’s own fingers and sense of airways tightening jolted me back into the world of mortals from the ethereal Peach Blossom Spring paradise of the Jinshan countryside.
In direct view of the window in my assigned dormitory room at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing was a smokestack, behind which were the residential high rises of the citizenry. In fact, this type of air pollution and dust is a daily occurrence here.
How can I use ink “wash” to express the visceral experience of pollution in the real world after this overwhelming somatosensory experience? Millennia of traditional ink art theory have been of a brush and ink aesthetic in praise of the beauty of nature. I sensed a discrepancy between classical ink art aesthetics and the sensory reality of the present. The breathing brush and ink in the ink art chapters are entirely out of sync with the gasping breath in present reality.
Determined to face my realistic senses, I engaged in a dialogue with the ancients in the on-site creation for the group exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing to express the phenomenon of air pollution through another form of expression that replaces the visual sense with the olfactory sense. Hence, a “fiery ink” focused on charring began to take shape in my mind.
That smokestack outside the dormitory window provided inspiration. In response to the imagery of this smokestack, I purchased a hundred sheets of xuan (rice) paper which I began to burn at the workshop of a local artist. The burning roll of paper resembled the quotidian chimneys used for heating in Beijing as well as the chimneys in industrial areas that emit exhaust gases. Under Bejing’s purple haze, I collected the ashes of the half-charred xuan paper. This will be my medium for the on-site production of “fiery ink” at the exhibition.
I intentionally chose the circular tiled area at center of the exhibition space in Building 7 of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, representing Beijing’s Temple of Heaven. Wielding the charred xuan paper ash in my hand, I began my emulation of the Guo Xi masterpiece Early Spring from the Northern Song Dynasty with its emphasis on the “extract with the body directly from the mountains and streams” perspective. The scorched, burnt scent of xuan paper ash replaced the glistening moisture in the ink wash shanshui landscape imagery. The charred xuan paper ash represents the microscopic PM2.5 carbon particles released into the air after burning. In Beijing, the “moistened ink” of the ink work Early Spring representing the imperial landscape has been replaced by a version of Early Spring rendered in the “arid ink” of fiery ink.
In this simulated Temple of Heaven, I have reverentially placed the remaining xuan paper ash on the ground. Some of the charred rolls of xuan paper have been placed upright, and some laid flat; yet others have been unfurled on a temporary pedestal, as though in a ceremonial arena in a rite for climate change.
Chapter the Second_ Comparison of Ancient and Modern: Taiwan
An Olfactory Contemplation of Ink
I began living in the humid countryside of Jinshan Town in Northern Taiwan in 1992. Facing the sea with the mountains behind me, the sense of misty, moistened air was a source of inspiration for creating the earlier works in my Discrete Islands series. The slick ink in my brushwork was a response to my corporeal senses as I breathed in vast mistiness.
But when my return to Taiwan after a week in Beijing coincided with the Beijing smog shifting to Taiwan due to a northeasterly monsoon. Located on the northeast coast of Taiwan, Jinshan is a windward region. Air pollution knows no boundaries, and drifts in all directions according to seasonal winds. There is no escape to a Peach Blossom Spring paradise. Carbon emissions disseminate in the air currents. Even life in the countryside does not provide a bulwark against the all-pervasive effects of air pollution.
I was inattentive to the fact that smog has long existed in my daily life. Driving along Provincial Highway 74 on a visit to the Mailiao Sixth Naphtha Cracking Petrochemical Industrial District in Yunlin, I encountered the endless smog that obscured the sky and scenery. This vast whiteness was unclean, the dusty fog was not romantic at all. Driving my car, I was among those creating air pollution, living in an era when air is exchanged for convenience. “Fiery ink” is a response to the era, as well as my repentance. I knew then that I must continue in “fiery ink.”
What are the “two methods of ink respiration”? There are two types of breath in daily life today: when fresh, damp mist comes, we open our mouths to draw deep breaths; when smog of Particulate Matter PM2.5 descends, we cover our mouths with masks and take shallow breaths.
“Brush and ink” have always belonged to the visual sense; however, when Guo Xi of the Song Dynasty proposed the perspective of creating seasonal shanshui landscapes that “extract from bodily immersion in the mountains and streams” to retain a moist atmosphere in his work Early Spring, it was an effort to pivot the moist ink within the painting toward the corporeal sense of breathing the steam and mist of early spring. Do possibilities exist for us to express ink of a different olfactory sense through our bodily sensations? One that is related to the sense of breath in the present moment? If we remain mindful of the effects of the corporeal senses in shanshui; if we no longer rely solely on brush and ink of the visual sense in painting shanshui; and instead, bring our olfactory bodies into the mountains and streams in our extraction, then what is the shanshui landscape created from respiring in the mist or smog?
In my Moist and Burnt: As Ink Breathes solo exhibition held in TKG in Neihu in 2017, I created another official edition of Fiery Ink, Displacing Guo Xi's Early Spring, No.2 emulated in its original size and exhibited as a more comprehensive installation. At the same time, I created additional fiery ink emulation works that comprise a series.
Integration of Vessel and Air: The Installation Metaphor
Three works in the Fiery Ink series are contained in transparent boxes. These include Fiery Ink, Displacing Frosty Forest Amid Snowy Landscape by Fan Kuan Fiery Ink, Displacing Wait to Cross a Mountain Stream by Guan Tong), and Fiery Ink, Displacing The Guo Xi's Travelers in Autumn Mountains. In the “Grand Vessel Chapter” of the Qijing (Sutra of Vessels), it was written: “The heaven and earth contained a vessel, and then life emerged. The breath has its vessel, the vessel has breath. The vessel and breath are one.” Air is contained within vessels. The heaven, earth, mountains and waters are vessels. There is air within shanshui landscapes. The air was mostly wonderful during the agrarian era; and more often unpleasant during the industrial age.
The transparent box represents a metaphor for “vessel of heaven and earth;” at the bottom of the box is a charred roll of paper at the center which represents a smokestack (Image), the three works emulated using fiery ink are classic images with the seasons or natural scenery as theme. These respond to the arid ashes of the paper smokestack, suggesting scorched ash that envelopes the shanshui landscapes in smog. Some scattered ashes remain at the bottom of the transparent box, representing the carbon particles that are suspended in the air as a metaphor for drifting characteristic of smog.
Installation works such as Fiery Ink, Displacing Guo Xi's Early Spring, No.2 represent the circular Temple of Heaven. In Fiery Ink, Displacing Xu Dao-Ning's Fishermen's Evening Song, three pillars of charred paper rolls are reminiscent of the incense censor on an altar (page). The unfurled layers of blank charred paper in Fiery Ink, Displacing Mi You-Ren’s Cloudy Mountains alludes to the nature destroyed by burning, and the vacant vistas after the clouds and mountains vanish. All represent the contemporary survivor, in the face of historical climate change, lamenting the gradual vanishing of nature’s beauty amidst the charred remains of magnificent landscapes.
The Form of Fiery Ink: The Dialectic of Materiality
The concept of “fiery ink” originates in an inquery of ways in which the medium of “ink” extends its material vocabulary. “Fiery ink” is created from the charcoal ash that remains after xuan paper has been burned. The “ink” of “ink wash” also comes from charcoal created with fire. In Mencius: Gong Sun Chou I, it is written: “Charcoal is ink.” The Chinese character for “ink” evolved from a pictogram of its production method of “lamp bowl and smoke,” where fire is lit upon soil to burn wood or oils derived from wood and then a bowl is inverted to gather its smoke to make ink. The essence of both “Ink wash” and “fiery ink” is charcoal ash.
From the perspective of the most primordial of raw materials, the “ink” in ink wash is made by forming an ink stick from mixing the fine charcoal ash from burning wood with glue. It becomes ink wash by adding water and grinding it on an inkstone. The medium is characterized by its “fire first, then water” method of utilization.
Fiery ink is created by burning xuan paper into charcoal ash, and then using the paper ashes to create paintings. No water in added in the painting process. Xuan paper is made of wood or plants that are soaked in water during the production process to soften the bark, and then ground into paper pulp and then formed by hand. Hence, the charcoaled ash of xuan paper is a “water first, then fire” method of utilization.
In terms of the essence of the materials, “ink wash” and “fiery ink” both encompass the three physical elements of water, fire, and wood. The xuan paper used in fiery ink and the ink sticks used in ink wash both come from trees as a raw material, but they differ in the resulting relationship and production process of the natural elements which leads to different outcomes.
A study of historical shanshui painting theory would reveal that in regards to “ink,” the aesthetic orientation of ink leans toward perspectives that emphasize the moistness of ink, with an emphasis on its lubricative beauty, and eschewing that which is “not moistened,” for instance, Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty wrote in an inscription poem, “The original breath splattered makes the screen look wet; the true lord up above commands and heaven responds with weeping,” the moistened ink that “makes the screen look wet” points to the formation of a natural beauty that “the true lord above commands” shaped by “the original breath splattered”. Li Cheng of the early Northern Song Dynasty, who pointed out in On Painting Landscapes, that the application of ink that is “parched and dry without lubrication” is not desirable, hence, he emphasized, “avoid applying ink with a heavy hand, heaviness creates turbidity and lacks clarity; nor apply ink with too light a hand as to be dry and unlubricated.” Adept in painting landscapes in all four seasons, the Northern Song painter Guo Xi wrote in Lofty Aims in Forests and Streams, to aim for “ink coloration that is moist and not parched.” The aesthetic pursuit of ink application according to Huang Gongwang of the Yuan Dynasty in Method of Landscape Painting also aspired to “many moistened areas on raw paper.” While Tang Zhiqi of the Ming Dynasty described ink character in Remarks on Painting to be “brimming on the brink of dropping, a moist smoke that is not dry, that is rich and not thin.” Li Kaixian of the Ming Dynasty writes of “Methods for the Moistened Brush,” and Zou Yigui of the Qing Dynasty advocated “drench with ink,” and “blend with ink.” And Huang Binghong of the Republic set “honest and full, lush and nourished” as a measure for brush and ink; etc.
Ancient painters emphasized “moistness” in ink application and eschewed “dryness,” but some artists did propose a “dry” approach to ink application, for instance, Gong Xian of the Qing Dynasty wrote in Gong Xian’s Manual on Painting Instruction that “dryness is suited for texturizing, without dryness it becomes ink.” This was a reference to the brush technique, and the “dryness” here is describing the dry, thirsty brush. Even a dry brush with burnt ink must harmonize and coexist with rendered ink. The purpose of dry ink or burnt ink is to provide contrast for the existence of “moisture.”
Fiery ink does not intend to follow in the reproduction of classical ink aesthetics, but reveals a material dialectic in the relationship of corresponding production process between the three natural elements through an exploratory “return” to its essential materiality. Hence, contemplations of essential ink character that have remained unchanged for millennia are turned outward, uncovering the heterogeneity produced within homogeneity resulting from the reversed operation of matter, thus instigating an arena for debating an anti-(ancient) ink aesthetic form and intention.
Shanshui landscape paintings inevitably correspond to the natural environment. My proposal of “fiery ink” not only responds to the contemporary air phenomenon due to climate change, but also profoundly explores and debates the ink essence of traditional ink wash in the dialectics of formal transmutations in the materiality of ink.
Disparities in the Significance of Fiery Ink: The Pivoting of Ink Aesthetics in Cultural imagery
The Tang Dynasty proposition of “five colors of ink” established a key stance for ink aesthetics and forms within shanshui painting. In the millennia of scholarship on shanshui paintings that followed, discussion on the forms of ink nature became pivotal issues for ink art. This core in support of form, connotation, and aesthetics of ink art remained intact even with the advent of the Modern Ink Art Movement (hereafter referred to as Modern Ink Art) which advocated preserving the ink and eschewing the brush. Ink is the pillar that upholds the history of shanshui painting.
What other possibilities remain for the study or advancement of shanshui paintings in the contemporary? Ink is a necessary issue that must be confronted; where ink is more than a visual perception, but thought must be given to an expression of olfactory synesthesia.
The “aridness” of fiery ink differs from the aridness of concentrated ink applied with a dry brush as defined in the aforementioned classical painting theories. The aridness of fiery ink is a response in opposition to the “moist” ink aesthetic of traditional ink wash. It is a post-incineration scorched quality, a brush and ink form that focuses on the olfactory aura rather than visual sense.
To regain a lost sensory perception, to truly experience and respond by engaging the body into the sphere of living – if the olfactory sense is necessary, then it should not be avoided. Do not be wary of expressing reality if reality is grotesque. I attempt to subvert classical cultural imagery to mirror the current conditions of climate change. Fiery ink is not an expression to voice idealized shanshui landscapes or the beauty of nature, but is a reflection of the status of existential crisis in the current era, it is creativity that results from the corporeal senses and actual experience.
The ancient paintings selected for emulation in fiery ink have not been selected at random, but are works pinpointed for their seasonal themes or content of air. The “moist ink” emphasized in these classical ink wash painting has been replaced by the “arid ink” of fiery ink. This appropriation and displacement are allusions to the replacement of air from the ancient agrarian era by the industrialized world of the 21st century. It also responds to the lexicon of shanshui landscape paintings that has prevailed for millennia, and the necessity for the production of new forms in order to narrate new content in the changing times.
The appropriation of classical shanshui imagery through fiery ink is not for the purpose of demonstrating the effects using disparate media in imitating ancient brush and ink paintings, but rather to invert the language of ink character through the disparities from classical ink character. The current conditions of smog that confronts the natural world today requires an expression through the arid ink of fiery ink. Fiery ink does not intend to return to classical aesthetics, but has been created to correspond to the contemporary phenomenon of air pollution to open a new dialectical space for “ink character.” Reality is sometimes grotesque. The current era calls not only for a study of aesthetics, but also for anti-aesthetics.
Chapter the Third_ Quotidian Smog: Global
Extracting from bodily immersion in the air, Fiery Ink
Though fiery ink may ostensibly follow in the reforms advocated by the mid-20th century Modern Ink Art Movement to eschew the bamboo brush and the centered brushstroke techniques, but major difference remained between fiery ink and modern ink art.
Modern ink art values variations in form and technique but continues to uphold the aesthetic language and connotations of traditional ink art. For instance, there is an emphasis on the “universal natural artistic conception”, “between likeness and unlikeness”, “unfettered mist”, and “pages of rendered ink”, etc., that aspire to the freehand aesthetics and forms between water and ink that resemble classical splashing ink technique, etc., so it is a reformation that is fundamentally in the direction of a “similarity of connotation with a disparity in form.”
Not only does fiery ink differ from the past in its medium and technique, it also exists in opposition to ancient connotations and vocabularies. It represents a mutation in technique and medium as well as a shift from the pursuit of the moistened ink aesthetic. It diverges from the classical lexicon in both content and context. Fiery ink takes further strides on the foundations of modern ink art, to thoroughly adhere to the realities of contemporary life in form and connotation. It is a complete renewal that is disparate in form and connotation.
By observing climate change from the perspective of respiration, and to express the differences between the contemporary and the ancient using a ink character that corresponds to the air through the two respiratory methods of ink: the “ink wash” in Discrete Islands responds to my experience of expansive panoramas while living in humid, foggy Jinshan; “fiery ink” corresponds to the quotidian sights and scents of smog formed by global warming. The water and fire are both a part of my daily life.
Fiery ink confronts issues in the quotidian life experiences. In the realistic life of the globalized 21st century, issues of survival are universal. Global warming has become an everyday phenomenon. Unlike their counterparts from the latter half of the last century, creators in the present era are no longer preoccupied by the issue of “brush and ink” in painting. What contemporary creators must confront the need to recover their lost corporeal senses in order to transform formats appropriate to the contemporary condition through an effective application of media and techniques. They must update the historical language through the perspective of real-life experiences in order to propose aesthetic content and lexicons appropriate to sentiments, characteristics, and environment. A reverence for the ancients, while mindful of the sensorial reality located in the present place and moment, and truthfully conveying this reality -- this is the definition of "True shanshui landscape."