評論 by 釋惠敏

身體、影像與意像—談陳永賢的身體經驗與錄像創作

文/釋惠敏（日本國立東京大學博士）

（資料來源：陳永賢，《身體之歌》，台北：鳳甲美術館，2006，頁28-29。 ）


「身體」（body）是存在活動的基盤，心意（mind）是認識作用的來源。就身體而言，它可包括含「肉體」（flesh-body）與「呼吸體」（breath-body）等兩種，而身體經驗來自於對身體活動的認識與覺察，覺知身體經驗的真相與意義則是探究生命之真、善、美價值的關鍵。以身體經驗作為藝術表達的主體來說，在當代藝術範疇中，不論是媒料或媒體上的應用均有相當多元的發展，但是，藝術家如何找出適合的創作元素與方向，則是一種難題。

「文字」（language）與「圖像」（picture）是人類的視覺性表達媒介。如何突破此種表達媒介的局限與氾濫的困境，是文明發展的永恒課題。藉由感官、觸覺、文字到圖像，其媒材的表現是否能在內心中形成影像經驗，則是完成認知過程中的重要條件。進一步來說，「反照」（reflect）一詞，看似相互對應於客觀世界的影像，其實不外乎是一種由內在心識所建構的「意像」（mental images）。對於這種實際領悟的表達，不僅挑戰哲學家的智慧，亦可讓藝術家發揮深度思考轉而表現於創作的內涵之中。藉此，我們似乎可從陳永賢的身體經驗與錄像創作等作品，感受到這些訊息。
　
作者說明〈減法〉的創作概念，這件作品是從《金剛經》「一切有為法，如夢幻泡影」的含意，去除依附在感官或身體上的各種障礙，想去尋找解除之外的一種答案。因此，作品中以橡皮圈層層綁上鮭魚片、培根肉片的人頭之感官與身體經驗，錄製了肉慾束縛的影像，引發厭離心的效果而產生解脫的意像（mental images）。此種厭離心（disgusted mind）的產生方式，如何引發著「無常」（impermanent）、「苦」（suffering）、「空」（emptiness）等諸多體驗，這也關係著禪定如何引發智慧的問題。

再者，陳永賢的錄像裝置作品〈心經〉，他邀請觀眾先穿過近十二萬顆的木製念珠簾幕，而後閱讀其視覺影像。此時，念珠的符號概念不只是手的觸覺經驗，進而延伸成為遍滿全身的觸覺活動。當觀眾揮手穿過念珠簾幕時，可以聽到每串念珠間碰撞所產生啪啪的聲響，猶如穿越千山而遨遊於念珠簾海中的遐想，停留片刻，當觀眾靜止於念珠簾幕時，又好像浸潤於檀香念珠的池場，念珠釋放陣陣的檀香氣味引發嗅覺反應，頓時之間，觸覺、嗅覺與巨形念珠簾幕的視覺效果產生一種奇幻景觀。這些經驗可說是身體感官的無限延伸與擴張，成功地呈現作者想表達「心經是一種景觀」的意像。

到達〈心經〉念珠簾的盡頭，觀眾最後看到陳永賢的影像呈現，他在頭臉部書寫經穴脈點，對照著另一半逐漸浮現「般若波羅蜜多心經」二百字的中文經文，配合以雙手來指示五官部位（〈心經〉提出無眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意等感官之非主體性）的動作。這種表達提供了認識佛典的影像經驗，但是這些中文文字符號，卻也挑戰了作者想說明「心經不是經文」的意圖，因為，我們同時領會到的是「心經不只是經文」的意像。

接著，以《心經》中所述「照見五蘊皆空」的聯想，陳永賢將頭部與身體分離，藉由其錄像裝置作品〈盤中頭〉讓五官的主體獨自呈現出〈吞吐〉、〈蛆息〉、〈彼岸〉、〈草生〉系列作品。雖然所表現的「五官的主體」與《心經》之「五蘊」不同，但是藉由頭部的象徵與文字、媒體、蛆動、水池、蓮花、稻穀發芽的成長經驗與影像變換，巧妙的表達了身體與社會文化、身體與自然環境的「相互主體性」（inter-subjectivity），這種意像與佛教《心經》所說的「五蘊皆空」的義理是相通的。其中最特別是，引發觀眾感受全身浸潤於蓮花池漂浮的體驗，以及稻穀在頭部發芽成長一個多月的經驗，確實具有強烈的說服力。

此種「相互主體性」的意像，也可在陳永賢另一件名為〈位移〉的雙幕錄像裝置作品中感受到。作者從禪師們討論「當風吹動幡」的時候，到底是「風動」、「幡動」、或「心動」的辯證中得到靈感，藉由巧妙的移動影像與視覺語言來詮釋風動的不確定性。

〈站潮〉和〈坐潮〉的作品中，陳永賢選擇在倫敦橋附近的泰晤士河畔，雙手合十，以站立與靜坐的姿勢，讓潮水進退時緩緩地衝擊著身體，以表達外在環境與身體禪定的曖昧關係，以及相生共融的環境對應。這種情景讓我聯想到，在日本的苦修傳統中，修行者站立或坐在瀑布下，讓瀑布水注劇烈地衝擊身體，洗滌身心的苦修法。相對於垂直的瀑布水注劇烈地衝擊身體經驗，此時我們感受到的是水平的潮水緩緩地衝擊著身體，以及等待潮水進退的時間因素，使其體驗的面相（dimention）更加豐富。

最後談到陳永賢的〈蛆‧體〉系列，他以蜷伏裸身的軀體，狀若嬰兒出生般的體態，畫面視覺鋪陳有序，並安排蛆蟲從四周漸次爬入，直到蛆蟲與人的軀體結合為一。此種影像語言直接地產生了破除生與死的迷思，希望觀眾體會：解脫生與死的恐懼是探究生命的終極意像，而此種經驗與歷程，不就是我們每個人的必經之路嗎？


Body, Images and Mental Images
—Yung-Hsien Chen's Bodily Experience and Video Creation

Huimin Bhikkhu
Litt.D., University of Tokyo, Japan



The human identity can be viewed usually as being made of mind and body. Body, which includes flesh-body and breath-body, is the foundation of existential activity. Bodily experience comes from the recognition and perception of physical activities. Perceiving the authenticity and meaning of body experience is a key to truth, good and beauty of life. There are numerous development in the contemporary art in terms of the subjectivity, material and medium of artistic expression based on physical experience. In this diverse field seeking out one’s own artistic direction proves to be a difficult question.

Language and pictures are the expressive media of human visual perception. How to break through the limitations as well as the overwhelming difficulties of the media is forever an issue of cultural development. Through sensual contact with language and picture, the formation of images in our minds is an essential condition for completion of recognition. Furthermore, reflecting these seemingly objective external images of the world is actually an inner construction of images within the mind. Not only does the realization provide a challenge for philosophers; it also opens a space for artists to develop. We can sense these messages from Chen’s bodily experience and video works.

The conception of the work Release derives from the Buddhist Jingangjing (Diamond Sutra): “all rules of intention are like vanishing dreams and bubbles.” In these videotaped images of the constraints of desire, the experience of the sense organs and of the entire body derives from fastening sliced salmon and bacon to the head with plastic bands. This produces an effect of disgusted mind and also generates mental images of release. The way in which the disgusted mind produces these images is the means by which the work give rises to experiences of impermanence, suffering, and emptiness. These experiences in turn relate to the problem of how Zen-ding creates wisdom.

The video installation ‘Heart Sutra’ invites viewers to pass through a curtain of twelve thousand Buddhist rosaries. In this moment Buddhist rosary is not merely an experience of hand contact but of whole body contact. When the viewers pass through the curtain, it is like swimming in a sea of Buddhist rosaries; when they stop and stay among the rosaries, they seem immersed in the pond of sandalwood rosaries. With sandalwood scent, visual effect and clunking sound that Buddhist rosaries produced, those experiences can be thought of as extensions of bodily senses. The work successfully expresses Chen’s mental images: “Heart Sutra as a spectacle”.

At the end of the rosary sea, the viewers will see a picture of face. On half of the face, the nerve point system is written. This contrasts with the other half, which contains the Chinese Heart Sutra. Two hands point to five different parts of the face (the Heart Sutra reveals the non-subjectivity of the means of perception -- eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and intention). Such an expression offers an image experience of knowing Buddhist classics. However, those Chinese characters and symbols challenge his intention to explain the phrase “The Heart Sutra is not a text.” The inclusion of sutra text in the work means that we comprehend a mental image in which “ the Heart Sutra is not only a text.”

According to the ‘Heart Sutra’ creed of “Knowing that the five constitutions of being (forms, feelings, perception, volition and recognition) are empty in their own nature,” Chen separated his head from body and let the subjects of five senses to be represented independently in ‘In & Out’, ‘Breathing with Maggots’, ‘Unknown Shore’ and ‘Grassing’. Though the expressed “subjects of five senses” are different from five constitutions of being in Heart Sutra, the words on the head, the moving of maggots, the pond, the lotus and the germination of rice in his works all skillfully express the inter-subjectivity between body, society and culture. Such mental images are compatible with the creed of five constitutions of being in the Heart Sutra. Especially persuasive in this regard are works depicting a body floating in the green water of a lotus pond and the germination of rice in a clay head. The mental images of inter-subjectivity are also seen in the double images of ‘Uncertainty of Wind Power’. Chen obtained the inspiration from Zen masters’ debates about “when the wind blows a banner, what moves – the wind, the banner, or the mind?”

In the works of ‘Standing in the Tide’ and ‘Sitting in the Tide’, Chen stands and sit by the Thames clapping both hands in salutation. Being washed by the tide, he expresses an obscure relationship between the surroundings and body, and the corresponding problems of harmonious co-existence. This reminds me of a Japanese tradition of Buddhist practice. Standing or sitting under the waterfall, practitioners wash their body and mind when the water column cascades down on them. Contrasting to this strong experience, the Thames tide peacefully washes Chen’s body. Because of the added element of time, the dimension of experience is more abundant.

The ‘Worms Would’ series describes a nude in a pose of a newborn baby. The surrounding maggots get close to the body and finally combine with the body as a whole. These images directly break with the mythical experience of birth and death. Chen’s works expect the viewers to appreciate that such depictions of release from fear of birth and death are the ultimate mental images for exploring life. Isn’t this precisely the road that we must travel?