GREAT EXPECTATIONS

08/03/2008 - 29/03/2008

Josef Bolf Great Expectations 

Opening: Friday, 07/03/2008, 7 pm

 

Incomplete memories of things that never happened

One might feel trapped in a bizarre story that has gone astray: Josef Bolf creates images, whose sceneries, rich in detail and imagination, appear like tangled dreams or lost bits of memory.
His own memories are at the source of his new series “Great Expectations” (2007-2008). Bolf returns to the old flat of his grandmother, a cosy surrounding, sofa, wallpaper and flowers mingle with uncertain gloom  and unsettling details.
Bolf borrows the title from the well known novel of Charles Dickens. The book also offers retrospection, into a childhood and youth that is overshadowed by future developments - although never foretold by the author, they are omnipresent through the choice of words and allusions.
For “Great Expectations” the artist uses a painting technique that he has refined over several years: he applies the images in many layers, the first colorful paintings are later covered with thick black wax-paint, in which he then scratches meticulous drawings, thus again revealing the colored background. It is a technique that for many may be familiar from childhood, and not only thanks to this detail, it suits perfectly for the purpose of his topic: the scratching and digging in long forgotten memories. The lines are shimmering delicately on a pitch-black surface, exposing small bits of the hidden layers, much though remains sealed below.

秋，是什麼令你甩毛。
你要保重
在我不在的時候

一方面，神經疾病患者是非常容易激動的，即他們十分敏感，神經脆弱、身體虛弱; 但是另一方面，他們也有一個敏感的靈魂、一個躁動不安的心，對周圍發生的事情極易產生共嗚。…但是，這種過度煩躁有其特點：它會減弱，甚至泯滅靈魂的感覺; 彷彿神經器官的感覺過分承擔了靈魂的感受力，佔用了因自己的極度變動而引起的大量感覺; 神經系統「處於這樣一種煩躁和反應狀態，因此不能將自己的體驗傳送給靈魂; 它的全部印象都是混亂的; 它不能理喻它們。」這樣就出現了敏感(sensibility)不是感覺(sensation)的觀念，即由靈魂和肉體衍生出來的敏感與抑止神經刺激抵達靈魂的感覺麻木成反比的關係。歇斯底里患者的喪失知覺不過是其過於敏感的反面。…

然而，「神經疾病」的道德意義卻因此而發生深刻變化。凡是當神經疾病與胴體較低部位聯繫起來時(甚至是由各種模糊不清的交感渠道聯繫起來的)，這些疾病也就屬於某種慾望倫理的範疇：它們代表了肉體的報復; 人之所以生病乃是情緒過份熾烈的結果。從此，人會因感情過度而生病，會因與周圍一切過於密切而生病。人不再受自己的秘密性質驅使，而是世界表面的一切誘惑肉體和靈魂的事物的犧牲品。

結果，人變得更無辜也更罪孽深重。更無辜，是因為人被神經系統的全面煩躁推入不省人事的狀態，其程度與病情成正比。更罪孽深重，是因為他所依戀的萬物、他的生活、他曾患過的疾病、他曾洋洋得意地釀造的感情和想像，都匯聚在神經質的煩躁之中，這既是它們的正常後果，也是對它們的道德懲罰。全部生活最終受到這種煩躁的審判，其中包括非自然的習弊，城市的定居生活，閱讀小說，觀賞戲劇，渴求知識，「過強的性欲，或其它既傷害身體又為道德所不容的犯罪習性。」…


---傅柯 瘋癲與文明 p136-137

收到越洋寄來的<字花>
覺得好感動
我在誠品猶豫了半小時要不要買
拿起走來走去又放下
也不是因為有我的畫
而是書評寫得很好看
畫畫得不好
覺得好慚愧
公文封貼郵票的一角被剪掉了
懷生說那是蔥哥的所為
…
這年頭喜歡集郵的青年人還真不多