文 肖天時 Patrick Rolandelli 譯 肖天時 圖 Athr畫廊

穿越光譜

Athr 畫廊 / 沙特阿拉伯吉達

2018/5/28-2018/8/31

聲感平行三聯畫 #3 彩色膠片翻印拼貼、刷漆鋁板 /

Sonoptic Parallel Triptych # from original color film negative, scanned and collaged, printed on white-brushed aluminum,3×265×152.8cm, 2016

挪威藝術家安妮·森斯塔曾在新加坡長大,現居紐約,並於帕森斯設計學院及社會研究新學院取得學位。她的作品由裝置、攝影、視頻、霓虹與場域特定交織,着眼於知覺、聲光與色彩的現象。她用詩意而富有批判性的文字藝術指涉倫理、文學與哲學。在她當前的大型作品中,其聯合文化、社會與政治在不同的意識形態間建立廣闊的教育與合作平臺。藉此,用斯坦森的話說,她在開拓一種“融合了後現代個體性與國際性的新型民俗藝術”的可能。

斯坦森的浸沒式燈光與空間裝置作品《元素》現正在沙特阿拉伯Athr畫廊參加羣展。她是這場集合了詹姆斯·特 瑞爾、羅伯特·歐文、卡洛斯·克魯茲·迪茲、里奧·維拉瑞爾及中東觀念藝術家Nasser Al Salem和Timo Nasseri的開拓性展覽中唯一一名女性藝術家。今年年底在中國,斯坦森的浸沒式燈光雕塑裝置即將參與深圳何香凝美術館當代北歐藝術與設計大展。

藝術匯:安妮,首先恭喜你的新作《元素》今夏參加沙特阿拉伯的Athr畫廊的羣展“穿越光譜”。能否請你談一談此次展覽,同詹姆斯·特瑞爾 , 羅伯特·歐文和卡洛斯·克魯茲·迪茲這樣的業界巨擘同臺展出有何感受?

安妮·森斯塔 :謝謝!你所說的這些業界頗具影響力的藝術家亦是我景仰多年的偶像,這對我來說是一次殊榮, 也算是夢想成真。Athr畫廊是沙特阿拉伯最大,或許也是最重要的畫廊。它有三層樓及一個室外空間用以展出室外裝置作品,比起一個畫廊更像一個博物館。鑑於此,策展人將展覽設計成一次由一件裝置到另一件的感官之旅——就像一座由光與色組成的迷宮。參展藝術家來自不同文化、不同時代,用他們獨到的視覺、文本與聽覺語言進行了西方與中東關係的探索。

安妮·斯坦森於沙特阿拉伯南部Abha遺址由其創建的跨文化女性藝術家平臺“超越時間之地”進行創作 /

Anne Senstad on site in Abha, southern Saudi Arabia, during her project Time Beyond Place, a cross cultural all women art platform initiatedby Senstad in Saudi Arabia, 2016-2017

而說到《元素》這件作品,我將其視爲我對聲光與空間基本元素探索的一次延續,並着重向觀者展現它們之間的多重交互。同時此次展覽亦是一頁新的篇章,它呈現了我基於前期作品,迄今最完整的一件燈光雕塑。可以說在《元素》中我有效融合了幾種不同的表達模式。

在創作這件作品時我很有興趣探究光同時作爲抽象與時空的表現形式:激發了色彩的主觀性與觀者知覺體驗的一 片由頻率與溫度組成的稠密光譜。

藝術匯:你稱自己爲巴洛克極簡主義者。這種風格受哪些藝術家影響呢?

安妮·森斯塔 :巴洛克極簡主義是一個戲謔的反義詞組:極簡主義往往呈現一種削減的官能,用單色的語言去定義空間與物體;而巴洛克意味着形體與色彩的極致表達。我的裝置和影像作品始終致力於試驗光與色之間的和諧, 並通過與空間相呼應的高飽和度色彩將這種和諧拓展。藉此,我的作品是關於感官與認知領域的洞察,抽絲剝繭 的形式與概念,對線、形、留白與色彩的任名之昇華。

25年來,我始終在探索不同領域間光與色彩,物品與空間在認知上的相互作用。我的創作亦受到大地藝術的影響——譬如Michael Heizer的半建築式地景介入,Robert Smithson種類繁多的大地藝術和鏡面雕塑,以及丹·弗萊文形式各異的熒光燈——對我來說均是關於燈光物體的空間語境。1950 年代拉丁美洲的動態藝術運動亦對我 影響很深。當然還有詹姆斯·特瑞爾和羅伯特·歐文。我很喜歡歐文的花園雕塑,尤其是他的超極簡感知系作品。

聲音與文學同樣對我的視覺語言有所增益。過去六年來,我都在與作曲家、數學家兼哲學家 Catherine Christer Hennix 合作。她對聲音架構和科技的創作拓展了實驗嗡聲模擬的疆土。另一名合作伙伴JG Thirlwell則用其喧雜的鏡頭與聲音語言爲我作品中的巴洛克特質錦上添花。

藝術匯:似乎建築與自然元素是你美學鑑賞力的基石。那麼自然對你的藝術創作有怎樣的影響?

安妮·森斯塔 :作爲一名藝術家我被環境與空間所啓迪。我喜愛探索大型空間內的場域特定色彩投影。而對於自然,我發現自然之美融匯了一種對我美學鑑賞力有着深遠影響的和諧。譬如2012年我應旅居墨西哥的英國建築師Matthew Holmes之邀前去完成名爲《超現實投影》的作品:一系列投射在英國藝術藏家愛德華·詹姆斯基金 會的建築上的色彩影像。這棟名爲“超現實主義花園”的建築坐落於墨西哥Xilitla一個名爲Las Posas的村莊旁的叢林間。在基金會的贊助下,該項目旨在促進其轄區範圍內自然與人類建築間的關係。既然如此,我們的目的便是喚起公衆對保護詹姆斯重要文化遺產的認識。這座超現實主義雕塑與建築羣最初的構想,是創造被瀑布與蜿蜒的小徑環繞的一座色彩斑斕的烏托邦。

在與沙特阿拉伯與德國建築師Anna Klingman博士合作時,我進一步探索了這項嘗試。Klingman博士創立了一 個旨在保護沙特阿拉伯南部 Asir 地區歷史村落中的傳統泥石建築的藝術與建築計劃。而這個計劃最終引領我參與了沙特阿拉伯的另一個項目:2016至2017年間的《超越地域的時間》。爲此我創立了一個全由女性運營的藝 術平臺來支持當代藝術創作與社會運動,保護以該地區歷史建築及前伊斯蘭女性名爲Qut 的手工藝牆繪爲主的沙特阿拉伯南部文化遺產。

色超現實投影 場域特定視頻投影、墨西哥Las Posas超現實主義花園 色彩 通感 II 視頻30分鐘循環 聲音由 JG Thirlwell 創作 /

Projections of the Surreal, Site specific video projections onto architectural structures at The Surreal Gardens, Las Posas, Xilitla, Mexico.

Color Synesthesia II, video, 30 min loop, 6:9, sound by JG Thirlwell, 2012

藝術匯:聽說你的作品也受到Snøhetta建築公司的影響?

安妮·森斯塔 :我很欣賞Snøhetta的哲學和構想。2009至2010年,我曾在美國俄亥俄州Wolfe 藝術中心我最大型的公共藝術項目中與他們合作。我發現他們的作品致力於在不以後現代思維影響自然的前提下構建新的美學。 他們或許是同丹麥的BIG公司齊名的當今最具人性和創新的建築公司。

藝術匯:燈光裝置的通感症特質激發了色彩的主觀傾向,光與空間的元素在觀者眼中結合。你怎麼看待主觀視角與外在世界的關聯?

安妮·森斯塔 : 巴士拉在《詩意與空間》中提到了里爾克的一句引文:“世界很大,而在我們體內它深似海洋。”我相信藝術家包羅萬象的作品意在探索人類對其周遭世界感官體驗的參量,引領人們去審知自己觀看外部世界的方式,自行去抽象化其中的元素。

各領域的藝術家均棲居於照本宣科的詮釋與創意表達之間。我們是一羣對這道超升的裂隙抱有好奇的敏感者。而藝術的視角終究是關於如何激發觀者發現新事物,並以新的方式同他們的環境結合。就此而言,我相信藝術具有改變社會與生態的潛能。

至於我是怎樣將這個觀點付諸實踐的,我的作品採用模擬技術和材質,如賽璐珞膠片和霓虹燈管,而非人造LED燈。對我而言我所使用的材料是我創作流程中的重要組成部分。例如霓虹燈相較LED燈而言有種更有機, 因而也更強烈和愉悅的特質,不論從物理角度還是其所創造的心理空間。在創作霓虹作品時,我通過將不同的氣體和玻璃管組合排列創造出不同的色彩。我發現霓虹燈的色溫更加純淨,光頻可以在實體空間內可視化的體現: 那些氣體中的電流在觀者周身營造出一道溫軟的光暈。

在其他作品中,如 2012 年的《共性》,該雕塑源自一個光固化燈項目。我通過將視頻作品《色彩通感I-VII》投影到建築物上,在物理與心理層面重塑了這些空間。在《共性》中,我受到柏拉圖許多關於洞察的概念的啓發, 同時影響我的還有馬列維奇關於至上主義的文稿——這些作品中關於藝術即洞見的觀點:藝術作爲一個物體或一 種概念的體現,而不是這種概念本身。

藝術匯:與你的燈光作品不同,你的文字藝術作品似乎傳達着一種幽默的敏銳——譬如2008年在上海的《別再提弗雷文了》,和2015年在布魯日藝術與建築三年展上的《黃金引領我》。你對於後者這種直觀的表達形式和前者更爲微妙的表達之懸殊有何看法?

安妮·森斯塔 :對於追求燈光這種藝術形式我更着重於技術層面客觀上怎樣實現一種氛圍或觀者的一種感受。對於創造特定裝置作品,這更像是一種需要解決問題的反覆過程。而在文字藝術中,我仍在思考如何使霓虹燈招牌或大型廣告燈箱的風格爲我所用。在實現這種藝術體驗的過程中,我的着眼點在於如何最好的聯繫作品所指涉的社會政治問題。用些小智慧和幽默感從文學與歷史中引經據典,並結合時政爲其創造出新的含義。

藝術匯:安妮,感謝你參與此次採訪。作爲結語,我想知道全世界範圍內有沒有一個地方是你特別想爲其創作場域特定裝置的?

安妮·森斯塔 :有很多地方都是我夢寐以求的。然而有一個地方尤其激發我的想象——紐約的公園大道軍械庫。 我可以預想創造一件與詹姆斯·特瑞爾對羅丹火山口的改造相齊名的作品——一件標誌着地球人類文明同時宣示着更遼闊的宇宙,將這些空間與人類靈魂的深廣相連。這將使用我光與色彩的語言,或許還將包含聲音,紋理, 與半透明的鏡面。

我也曾考慮過在瑞典大型強子對撞器附近創作一件關於人類與科技關係的作品。我研究過它的圓形建築結構,亦 曾考慮過以其形態援引俄羅斯宇宙主義運動對於烏托邦的探索。這個地點有很多的可能性,對於在它現有的文化重要性與超人類主義概念間建立關聯;通過藝術獲得永生;藝術與科技,以及社會與科技的動態關聯我也進行了很多思考。

Anne Senstad : A Postmodern Folklore

by Tansy Xiao, translated by Tansy Xiao, Image Courtesy of Athr Gallery, Patrick Rolandelli

Through The Spectrum

Athr Gallery / Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 28 May-31 August 2018

元素 I 浸沒式燈光雕塑裝置、霓虹燈管變壓器、聚氨酯條、尺寸可變 /

Elements I, an immersive light sculptural installation, neon tubes, transformers, polyurethane rods,

size: variable, 2018

Norwegian born artist Anne Senstad grew up in Singapore and received her education at Parsons School of Design and The New School for Social Research in New York City where she currently lives. She works in the intersections of installation art, photography, video, neon and site specificity, with a focus on the phenomena of perception, light, sound and colour. She draws on critical and poetic text based works to address ethics, literature and philosophy. In her ongoing field projects, she engages in cultural, social and political interactions to create a wider educational and collaborative platform between diverse ideologies. Through this, Senstad seeks to develop the possibility for what she sees as ‘a new folklore and an amalgamation between postmodern individualism and internationalism.

She is currently showing at ATHR gallery in Saudi Arabia with her immersive light and space installation Elements as the only female artist in the groundbreaking exhibition Through The Spectrum alongside light artist legends James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Leo Villarreal and middle eastern conceptual artists Nasser Al Salem and Timo Nasseri. In China she will be showing her immersive sculptural light installations at the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen opening winter 2018 as part of an exhibition presenting contemporary Nordic Art and Design.

ART FRONTIER:Anne, congratulations on the inclusion of your light installation, Elements in the group exhibition, Through The Spectrum at Athr Gallery in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this summer. Tell us about the exhibition and what it feels like to show work alongside such prolific artists as James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and Carlos Cruz Diez.

Anne Senstad:Thank you! Well, it has been an honor and a dream come true as the artists you mention are inspirational figures in the art world that I have looked up to for many years. And Athr Gallery is the largest, and arguably the most important, gallery in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With 3 floors, as well as outdoor space dedicated to presenting installation work, I would say it functions more like a museum than a gallery. Considering such, the curators of the exhibition designed an experience that serves as a visual-perceptual journey from one installation to the next—a labyrinth of light and color, so to speak. The participating artists’ respective visual, textual, and aural languages span generations and cultures in their exploration of the relationship between the West and the Middle East.

Speaking to Elements, I view this work as a continuation of my exploration of the foundational elements of light, sound, and spatial relations with special attention paid to how the viewer perceives their various interrelations. At the same time the exhibition is something of a new chapter as it represents the most complete form of light sculpture I have executed to date, building upon previous works. With Elements I have effectively merged several of my modes of expression.

In executing the installation I was interested in exploring the idea that light can be presented simultaneously as form in the abstract, as well as form in spacetime—a dense spectrum of frequencies and temperatures that invoke the subjectivity of color and the sensorial realm of the viewer’s experience.

ART FRONTIER:You have described yourself as a baroque minimalist. Which artists have in uenced you in this regard?

Anne Senstad:Baroque minimalism is something of a playful contradiction of terms—as minimalism represents a reductive sensibility, commonly speaking in a monochromatic language to define space and object, while Baroque connotes maximalist expression of form and color. My installation and photographic works have always sought to test the reasonable harmony between light and color, pushing the terms of this harmony with saturated colors that respect their spatial context. In this sense, my work is about exploring the sensorial and cognitive realms of perception, decoupling form and concept and transcending designations such as line, shape, void, and color.

I have been exploring the perceptual interrelations between light and color, and object and space across various disciplines for over 25 years. My artistic practice has also been informed by land art—like Michael Heizer’s semi- architectural land interventions, Robert Smithson’s diverse land works and mirror installations, and Dan Flavin’s fluorescent tubes in various sculptural forms—which to me are all about the spatial context of the light object. The kinetic movement in Latin America of the 1950s is another major influence. And of course there’s James Turrell and Robert Irwin. I love Irwin’s garden installations, and his hyper-minimalist perceptual works in particular.

Sound and literature also contribute to my visual languages. I’ve been working with composer, mathematician, and philosopher, Catherine Christer Hennix for the past 6 years. Her work in sound composition and technology pushes the boundaries of experimental drone sound emulations. JG Thirlwell is another collaborator whose cinematic and boisterous aural language complements the baroque aspect my work rather well.

ART FRONTIER:It would seem your aesthetic sensibility connects elements of architecture with aspects of nature on a fundamental level. How does nature inform your practice as an artist?

Anne Senstad:As an artist I am inspired by context and space. I like to explore large narrative spaces for site- specific color projections. As far as nature is concerned, I have found that the aesthetics of nature have a way of articulating certain harmonies that have informed my artistic sensibilities. For example, in 2012 I was invited by Mexico City-based British architect, Matthew Holmes to realize an installation I would name Projections of the Surreal—a series of color projections onto the British art collector, Edward James’s surrealist structures at his foundation, The Surreal Gardens located in the jungle near the village of Las Posas in Xilitla, Mexico. Under the auspices of the foundation, the mission of the project spoke to the evolving relationship between nature and the structures that humankind realizes within its domain. In this case, the objective was to raise awareness for the need to preserve James’s culturally significant landscape consisting of concrete sculptural and architectural surrealist structures originally meant to exist as colorful utopian structures surrounded by waterfalls and winding paths.

I further explored this practice in Saudi Arabia as part of my collaboration with the German architect, Dr. Anna Klingman who developed an art and architecture program for the preservation of traditional stone and mud buildings in historic villages in the Asir region of southern Saudi Arabia. This project would eventually lead me to another project in Saudi Arabia, Time Beyond Place over the course of 2016 and 2017 in which I initiated a women- run artist platform to champion contemporary art practices, social engagement, and to the preservation of the cultural heritage of rural Southern Saudi Arabia—with particular attention paid to the historic architecture of the region, as well as its pre-Islamic women's artisanal practice of Qut wall painting.

軟幾何 3 號 2015 一輯三件霓虹燈、變壓器、緊固器攝影：Roger Borg

Soft Geometry no. 3, 2015, Edition of 3, 80 × 84 × 6 cm, neon, transformer, fasteners, Photo credit: Roger Borg

ART FRONTIER:I’ve read that your work has been influenced by the architectural philosophy of Snøhetta.

Anne Senstad:I appreciate Snøhetta's philosophy and vision. I worked with them on my largest public art commission for the Wolfe Center for the Arts at BGSU in Ohio from 2009 to 2010. Their practice—I have found— is oriented around discovering new aesthetics without imposing postmodern ideas on nature. They are probably some of the most humane and innovative architectural firms around—alongside BIG from Denmark.

ART FRONTIER:The synesthetic nature of light installations would seem to invoke the subjectivity of color—that is, the degree to which the elements of light and space combine in the viewer’s perception. What are your thoughts on how the notion of the viewer’s perception relates to the outside world?

Anne Senstad: In Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, there is a quote by Rainer Maria Rilke, “The world is large, but in us it is as deep as the sea.” I believe the overarching project of the artist is to explore the parameters of the human being’s sensorial experience of the world around her—to lead her to becoming more self-aware and cognizant of her own perception of this outside world, abstracting its elements on their own terms.

Artists of all disciplines live in the space between interpretation and creative expression. We’re sensitive people with a deep curiosity about this transcendent interstices. Ultimately the perception of art hinges on how its experience inspires the viewer to see new things and connect with her environment in new ways. In this regard, I believe art has the potential to drive change in social and ecological contexts.

甘蔗迷宮——位於美國路易斯安納州 Theriot 市甘蔗地的農場大地藝術 4000 平米

The Sugarcane Labyrinth - a site specific agricultural land-art sculpture placed on a Sugarcane farm in Theriot, Louisiana, USA, 2009, 4000 sq. m

Speaking to how I have practically executed on this idea, my work mixes analogue techniques and materials such as celluloid film that directly records light and color, and neon light tubes as opposed to artificial LED lights—to name a couple of specific examples. For me the materiality of the tools I use in my work is an important part of my process. For example, neon has this organic quality that I find to be stronger and more pleasant than LED light— both in terms of the physical, as well as the psychological spaces it creates. In working with neon, I’ll manage color variations by adapting various combinations of gases and different types of glass tubes. I find that with neon the color temperatures are purer and the light frequencies may be experienced synesthetically in navigating the physical space they create—the electric currents in the gasses create a soft atmospheric glow the viewer feels all over her body.

In other works such as Universals (2012) my sculptures derive from the project of solidifying light, whereby I realized light and color interventions by projecting my abstract color video work, Color Synesthesia I-VII, onto architectural structures, recasting physical and psychological aspects of these spaces. With Universals I was inspired by Plato’s various concepts of perception, as well as Malevich’s essays on Suprematism—drawing from these works’ views of art as perception—that is, art being a representation of an object or idea—rather than the actual idea itself.

ART FRONTIER:In contrast to your work with light, your text art would seem to convey a playful sensibility— like Forget Flavin (2008) in Shanghai and Gold Guides Me (2015) at the Bruges Art and Architecture Triennial. What are your thoughts on the contrast between the direct communication of the latter and the subtle modality of the former?

Anne Senstad:In approaching light as a medium I’m thinking more on a technical level with the objective of creating an atmosphere or feeling in the viewer. This is more of an iterative process that entails problem-solving related to execution of a given installation. With text works I’m still thinking in these terms as I’m utilizing light through neon signs or the aesthetics of large advertising signage; however, in realizing an experience my process is focused more on how to best engage with the reality of the sociopolitical issues my work is addressing. This is where I get to employ my wit and humor in adapting phraseology from history and literature to create new meanings.

ART FRONTIER:Anne, thank you so much for sitting down with us. To conclude, I was wondering if there is place in the world you dream about as the location for a site-specific installation that is still gestating in your imagination?

Anne Senstad:There are quite a few places I dream about; however, there is one in particular that continues to pique my imagination—The Park Avenue Armory here in New York City. I envision something comparable to Turrell’s transformation of the Roden Crater—a structure that connotes humankind’s civilization of the Earth while manifesting aspects of the cosmos beyond and connecting these spaces to the universality and depth of the human psyche. It would entail my light and color vocabulary—perhaps including sound, textiles, and semi- transparent mirrors.

I have also thought about an installation making a statement about humankind and its relationship to technology near the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. I have studied its circular architecture and have ideas for connecting its shape to themes related to the Russian Cosmism movement’s search for utopia. There are many possibilities for this location and I have thought a lot about connecting its current cultural significance to ideas of transhumanism, eternal life through art, the relationship between art and science, and the dynamics between society and technology.