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“Eckland 利用我们对叙述的饥渴和因缺乏资讯的不安两者间
带来的张力去创作艺术，加以奉献给眼睛的审美，令其丰盛和
满足。。。”
－Kenneth Baker，艺术评论家，《旧金山纪事报》
Ruth Eckland 的影像作品并非线性的故事叙述。它们用的是诗
词般的结构和音乐般的谱写。梦境般的隐喻，加以合唱或叠句
般的反复回荡，作为主题的增强和内在的节奏。与观众的合作
也在演绎，包括联想的叙述中结合。
Eckland 的大部分作品把单一的题材放在显微镜下放大，并赞
美其行为所赋予的微妙变化和潮起潮落。她常常用新的语境和
形体去窥视流行文化的碎片，去暴露和解释我们的潜意识反应。
由于我们太过于受视觉的冲击，同时又习惯于各色各样的移动
媒体，她把出现在绘画、版画或摄影中的情感色彩带入影像作
品中。讽刺的是，作品却是通过高度的数字加工达到了看上去
象传统媒体的效果。
因为作品中的暗示性，观众需要用注意力、经验和创造性的想
像力去产生共鸣和创造自己的故事。通过多种应用方式，音乐
也把信息传递给感官， 成为一种给视觉形象带来多层意义、产
生呼唤和沉浸经历的工具。多位音乐人和Eckland合作，并为
她的作品创作音乐。
蜂巢
蜂鸣的巢有如动态的筑造，代表着人与人之间产生的关联和向
私人空间的回归。都市生活感觉混乱，
附带着交通、商业和人的亢奋，忍受着光线和移动的轰炸，以及24小时的噪音混合曲。我们在刺激和无休止的、有意无意的
社会接触中繁荣。同时，我们也需要从这样的屠杀中释放出来，
需要一个保护起来的空间，在里面，我们可以独自地或与适当
的人进行松弛、思考、再生。
欢迎来到“蜂巢”，一个隐喻的表现：描写现代生活现实特征
的某些分歧和断裂。在潮起潮落的活动中，我们连接着和扩充
至周围的世界，或回归到内在的世界里。但无论独处或共存、
公众或私下，我们都因为科技、拥有的东西、思想和记忆而链
接起来，形成一个更广的社会肌体。无论是从形式还是内容，
这些装置作品都试图去提供内心的经历－ 当代生活中的亢奋和
相互关联，及试图去寻找某种通往平静的出入口，哪怕是在长
期的刺激与资讯的负荷中。
走进黑暗的展示空间，观众会遭遇到一个三维的装置－ 层出的
纱幕从天花板下垂至地面，活生生的浮现出狂热的几何抽象图
形投影，有机地溶解、形变至不可磨灭的蜂窝洞痕迹。这种行
为的迷宫浮现出细微和具像的形体，成为缓慢、刻意的运动和
意向。弥漫整个空间的音乐是由Matt DiFonzo 创作的，与视
觉形象互动、回响着，指引并把观众带入沉浸的经历中。观者
可以徘徊在纱幕间，探视在不同视角同时出现的形象。同时，
合作画家冯健伟的墙上大幅绘画被漏出的视线所转化。
如果说这次科技窝是三维与合作的产物，那么Eckland和冯健
伟则是先锋，这样的经验绝对是一种开创。Eckland的美学观
念来源于影像艺术家Stan Brakhage 和画家Gerhard Richter
的原创灵感，及当今的互联网和电视。而冯健伟挥洒的笔触融
合了加州的文艺运动（他在加州接受过艺术教育）、传统的风
景画、以及在中国常见的商业艺术产物。
虽然这两位艺术家来自地球的两端，但他们都认同这样的需要
－ 回归到内在自我，并通过刻划当下人生经历的新方式进行链
接。“蜂窝” 就这样－ 为观众提供一个独自深思的空间和媒介，
一个在这个浑浊刺耳的世界中去寻找自己休止符的机会。 |
“Eckland makes art of the tension between our hunger for narrative and
the discomfort of insufficient information, plus aesthetic offerings to the
eye that strike it as ample and rewarding…”
Kenneth Baker, art critic, The San Francisco Chronicle
Ruth Eckland’s videos are non-narrative pieces in the sense of any linear form of storytelling. Rather, they have the form and structure of poetry or a music composition. They are metaphoric, almost like dreams, with the device of repetition used like a refrain or a chorus for both thematic emphasis and internal rhythm. Interpretation, including associative narrative, becomes a collaboration with the viewer.
Much of Eckland’s work puts a single subject under the microscope of the
lens to capture and honor the ebb and flow of movement and subtle changes inherent in those actions. She often examines fragments of popular culture in new contexts and forms to expose and explicate our subconscious responses. Since we are so visually stimulated and inured at the same time by all forms of moving media, she defuses preconceptions by bringing the sensibility of painting, etching or altered photography to her videos. Ironically, though they often have the look of more traditional media, they are highly processed digitally to achieve this effect.
Because of the allusive nature of these pieces that require the attention, experience and creative imagining of the viewer to make their own connections and devise their own stories, sound is utilized in a variety of ways as one more carrier of information to the senses, as a way of adding layers of meaning to the visual images, and creating a more evocative, immersive experience. Eckland collaborates with several composers who create original music for the works.
Hive
A buzzing hive is a dynamic construct representing both connection with others and retreat into private worlds. Urban life, in particular, can feel chaotic, with the excitement of traffic, commerce and people, the bombardment of light and movement, the medley of noise 24/7. We thrive on the stimulation, and the constant incidental and intentional social contact with others. But we also need relief from this onslaught, a protected space where we can relax, contemplate, regenerate, by ourselves or with a chosen few.
Welcome to Hive, a metaphorical representation of some of the dichotomies
and fragmentation that characterize the realities of modern existence. In an ebb and flow of activities, we connect with and expand into the world around us, and retreat into inner worlds to relax and recharge. But whether we are alone or with others, in public or in private, we are connected through our technology, our possessions, and our thoughts and memories to a wider social fabric. In form and content, this installation attempts to provide a visceral experience of the excitement and interconnectivity of contemporary life, and the attempt to find some sort of portal to tranquility within the context of constant stimulation and information overload.
Walking into a darkened room, the viewer encounters a three dimensional
installation of staggered scrims hanging from ceiling to floor, alive with projected, frenetic tracings of abstract geometric drawings that form, dissolve and morph organically into palimpsests of hive-like cells and patterns. Emerging from this maze of activity are more subtle, figurative images that form a counterpoint of slow, deliberate motion and intent. Music fills the space, an original score by Matt DiFonzo, echoing, informing, guiding the visuals and contributing to the immersive experience. Viewers can wander among the scrims, piecing together different imagery from different angles. Jianwei Fong’s wall paintings further transform and are transformed by the various lines of sight.
If the buzz of today’s techno-hive is 3D and collaboration, then Eckland and Fong are on the cutting edge, though the experience is anything but trendy. Eckland’s aesthetic owes as much to such originals of art video as Stan Brakhage, and painters such as Gerhard Richter, as it does to today’s Web and television. And Fong’s splashy strokes are a strong mix of California movements (where he completed his artistic education,) traditional landscape painting and the everyday commercial art of the China where he was born and currently lives.
Both artists, though coming from opposite sides of the globe, understand the need to go within themselves to connect with new ways of defining their current experience with the life around them. Hive reflects this, offering viewers a space and a vehicle for their own contemplation, an opportunity to find their own rest notes in this cacophonous world.
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