【藝述心言】跟著矛盾去藝行 / 何敏儀 【Intimate Portrait】Travel with Art / Blanche Ho
（2016年5月）一個陶瓷咕「口臣」（Cushion，墊子）、一杯半滿清水、一部舊式按紐手機、一個「凸」字形水樽、一隻似紙非紙而投射著「stress is a poison but I’m addicted」的陶瓷碟……尋常、零碎、錯置，落入駐JCCAC L5-01單位（clayground）藝術家何敏儀（Blanche）手裡，通過特定形式，建構種種偶然或命定、變幻或永恆、虛擬與真實，讓置身不同時空脈絡的觀者自行對號入座。「創作是一趟旅程，我與作品互相融合、轉化。」
J︰JCCAC
B︰何敏儀
J︰你2012年分別入選「臺灣國際陶藝雙年展」及入圍「香港當代藝術奬」；作品為臺灣新北市立鶯歌陶瓷博物館、香港藝術中心及香港滙豐私人銀行等委約及收藏。藝途一帆風順，你自小立志當藝術家嗎？
B︰我在香港理工大學唸平面設計，曾任職平面設計師多年。自小對藝術產生濃厚興趣，還在上班時就利用工餘時間學習工藝創作，最初接觸玻璃。最瘋狂一次是為了到紐約視覺藝術學院學習雕塑，請了一個月長假！
後來發現陶瓷與玻璃特性相近，我便報讀澳洲皇家墨爾本理工大學藝術文學士課程，主修陶藝，從此不能自拔。畢業後到香港中文大學進修藝術文學碩士學位，就在這段時期，我辭去設計師工作，全職投身藝術。為了更全面鞏固藝術基礎和技巧，取得碩士學位後，我再到香港視覺藝術中心深造雕塑。
J︰你剛才提到對陶藝不能自拔，又曾經說過「陶泥是作為自我解構的鑰匙」、「喜歡陶泥是基於生物與生俱來跟大地的親密關係︰孕育於泥土，發芽、成長。其後，再次歸於塵土」。你如何理解創作媒介（或物料）與藝術家的關係？
B︰藝術家透過不同媒介呈現所思所想，而媒介同時卻帶來一定限制。作為藝術工作者，我希望發掘更多表述空間與選項；相比起鑽研某特定媒介，更希望發揮及突破各類藝術媒介，探討不同主題。
J︰談談創作吧。去年12月在「觸感藝術節」，我們看到你的作品《混同》（圖1）。不難發現，那陶瓷咕「口臣」貫穿著你多年的創作。為甚麼鍾情陶瓷咕「口臣」意象？
B︰陶瓷咕「口臣」最初出現在《歇》（2009，圖2），作品表達當時的痛楚。你看，上面滿是受傷和掙扎的痕跡。
當時我獲委約為一間銀行的周年晚會製作700隻陶瓷小鴨紀念品（圖3），要一個月內完成。一般做法是設計好後交工廠大量生產，但我堅持自己用手逐隻做，為的是把自己變成機械化生產工序的一部分，體驗身心麻木、疲累、瀕臨崩潰邊緣的狀態。這強烈而新奇的感覺，後來被捕捉轉化成作品《歇》的能量。這件作品之後又變成另一件裝置作品《虛擬感知》（2011）的一部分；與魚缸內的虛擬魚、浸在水中仍長響的電話、投射的句子，建構一個荒謬的狀態。
J︰感覺很存在主義噢！
B︰對！我受存在主義作家影響，特別喜歡沙特和卡夫卡。（Blanche著我們細看《虛擬感知》的「凸」字形水樽）從側面看只是一瓶清水，鳥瞰才見到水中有兩尾魚在游，但留心看會發現魚只是投射並非真實。我們以為是真實的世界其實未必。
J︰我們還以為你的陶瓷咕「口臣」是舒適的意象。
B︰這是後來的事。《混同》同是2011年的作品，這個陶瓷咕「口臣」再看不見裂痕，上面的紋理和起伏是我肚臍的倒模！我把玩陶泥的安靜和幸福感投注其中，意味我們融為一體。
J︰同為陶瓷咕「口臣」，在不同的作品及人生階段就呈現不同的主題和感受。存在主義批判客觀真理，推翻理性主義，認為人被拋擲到世界上，凌空飄浮。你算是個悲觀的人嗎？
B︰際遇我們作不了主，但慶幸我懂得「珍惜當下」的重要性。記得在紐約時，有次因搭錯船，去到一個不甚了了的小島。正懊惱浪費時間等船折返之際，我們頭上的天空突然綻放出煙花，教人喜出望外！我相信做人要「門常開」，指的是心態；放開懷抱，感受機遇帶來的幸福。
藝術作品中，往往滿載教人捨不得遺忘的感覺與回憶。如蔣勳說︰「生命裡忘不掉、捨不得，都是幸福的開始……」
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(2016 May) A ceramic cushion, a half-full/empty glass of water, an old-fashioned mobile phone, a glass bottle, a paper-like ceramic plate with the motto “stress is a poison but I’m addicted” projected on it…… Just ordinary, fragmented and misplaced things and ideas that coalesce into something magical in the creative hands of JCCAC resident artist Blanche Ho (L5-01 clayground). Arranged and displayed in a certain way, they construct simultaneously the contingent and destined, ephemeral and eternal, virtual and real, for free interpretation and association by the viewer. “Through the journey of art-making, we permeate into each other and transform.”
J︰JCCAC
B︰Blanche Ho
J: As an established artist, being final-listed for “Taiwan Ceramics Biennial” and shortlisted for “Hong Kong Contemporary Art Award” in 2012, your works have been collected or commissioned by various organisations, including New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum, Hong Kong Arts Centre and HSBC Private Bank. Have you always wanted to become an artist?
B: I studied graphic design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and had worked as an in-house graphic designer for many years. First dabbling in glass art as a hobby, it soon became my passion to learn different skills in artistic creation. I once even took a month-long leave from work, thanks to my understanding employer, in order to study sculpture at the School of Visual Arts in New York!
I saw certain similarities between glass and ceramics and switched to focusing on the latter, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) with major in ceramics from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, followed by a Master of Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. It was then that I decided to quit my day job to become an artist. To hone my artistic skills, I further trained in sculpture at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre.
J: You mentioned your obsession with ceramics, saying that “clay is the key to the path of my innermost mind” and “maybe my adoration of clay has its roots in the natural intimacy between creatures and the earth: we are born of fertile soil, we prosper, grow and ultimately fall back to dust”. How do you perceive the connection between the choice of artistic media and the artist?
B: Through various means of art (media and material), artists express their profound thoughts, ideas and emotions. At the same time, media and material are not without their limitations. As an artist, what concerns me most is the freedom of expression. I am more interested in the possibilities that different media allow me to express my ideas, instead of sticking to any particular one medium.
J: Let us talk about your artwork. Included in the “The Third Hong Kong Touch Art Festival” exhibition last year was your work “An Undifferentiated Whole” (fig. 1). We could not help but notice that the ceramic cushion seems to be a recurrent motif in your works. What special meaning does it have for you?
B: The ceramic cushion first appeared in “A Break” (2009, fig. 2) to express pain; you can see explicit scars and signs of struggle on it.
I was commissioned by a private bank to deliver within one month 700 small ceramic ducks (fig. 3) as souvenir gifts for its annual dinner. While the norm is to create the design then source a factory for mass production, I insisted on making each and every one of them with my own hands. The sheer scale of the task, desperate race against time and dumbing mechanical repetition pushed me to the edge of exhaustion and break down. This intense physical and emotional feeling later powered my work “A Break”, which in turn subsequently formed part of the installation for “Virtual Perception” (2011). The latter conveys a sense of the absurd with virtual fish swimming in a bowl, a submersed mobile phone that would not stop ringing and projected written statements.
J: So existentialist!
B: Quite so! I am deeply influenced by existentialist writers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Franz Kafka. (Blanche asks us to look closely at the glass bottle which forms a component of “Virtual Perception”.) Looking at it sideways, it is just a glass of clear water, but from above you will see fish swimming in it. Peer closer, then you realise that the fish is just a projection - an illusion. What we perceive as real may well not be.
J: We once thought that your ceramic cushion symbolises comfort.
B: It does, in the later work “An Undifferentiated Whole” (2011), on which is a cast of my own abdomen with belly button! It reflects the calm and contentment I feel when working with clay, as if we have become one and complete.
J: It seems that the ceramic cushion is just a vehicle for expressing different, even contradictory, themes and feelings according to the context of that moment in your life. Existentialism overthrows rationalism and argues that objective truth does not exist; we, human beings, are brought to the world and left unattended. Do you hold such pessimistic views towards life?
B: We are helpless receivers of all twists and turns in life, but I count myself lucky to know the importance of “living the moment”. I remember taking the wrong ferry in New York and ending up on an unremarkable little island. Just when we were feeling mad about wasting our time waiting for the ferry back, the most spectacular firework display unexpectedly erupted right over our heads! Imagine our surprise and joy! I believe it is so important to keep our hearts and minds open, so that we may embrace every happiness lurking around the corner.
Candies of emotions and memories, which are too sweet to let go, are veiled in works of art. As the writer Chiang Hsun said, “that which one cannot forget or let sows the seed of happiness……”
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