2020 / 複合媒材

2020 / mixed media

作品名取自1946年創刊的《人民導報》文藝專欄《南虹》，為左派版畫家黃榮燦所編輯，南虹指涉搭起台灣與中國的橋梁，使人民相互往來的美好願景；「霓」是虹再折射的產物；〈南國之霓〉試圖透過對左派經典版畫作品的挪用拆解，併置當代影像，圖像是對寫實亦或寫「時」的探問。

 

版畫中的圖像作為事件在不同意識形態與價值觀中折射的產物，常被主流挪用為政治宣傳工具。作品試圖讓敘事矛盾，透過對中國左派版畫圖像的再製，取凹版壓印的物質狀態，削弱以色塊構成的圖樣，留白作為自我保護與失語地訴說。

 

取原作的外殼與痕跡，並置入對照台灣、香港、新疆、藏族乃至於肺炎疫情的影像。標示人物在不同影像載體中相近的姿態，將圖像回返給跨時代裡經歷相近暴力與顛沛的人。從當代脈絡回頭探問過去搭起虹橋的美好願景。
 

The name of the work is derived from the "Southern Rainbow," a literary column edited by leftist painter HUANG Rongsan in the People's Herald News founded in 1946. The name Southern Rainbow implies a visionary ambition that the column would serve as a bridge to connect people between Taiwan and China. A secondary rainbow is caused when sunlight reflects twice inside rain droplets. Taking up the tradition but at the same time questioning it, “the Secondary Rainbow in the South" appropriates/deconstructs the classic left-wing woodcut prints and juxtaposes contemporary images onto the prints as a form of reflection. The picture is an inquiry into whether the subject is depicted truthfully or timely.

 

As the way an image of certain event represented in a print often reflects specific ideology and values, woodcut prints are often misappropriated by the mainstream as political propaganda tools. Instead, this artwork attempts to create a contradictory narrative, to repurpose the image of classic Chinese leftist woodcut prints. The material state of letterpress is used to weaken the pattern composed of color blocks in this work, leaving the blank as self-protection and speaking without words.

 

Images implying Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibetans, and even the Covid 19 pandemic are added to the original frame and trace of the prints. Characters in similar postures on different media are highlighted as a reflection of individuals living through similar violence and turbulence across different times and places. It is a reflective view in the contemporary context on the visionary ambition of a rainbow bridge in the past.