Artist statement - roaring tigers, hovering lemons and the psychology of climate change
Karin Janssen’s work is fantastical, as blooming with vitality as it is a stagnant reminder of lingering death. Her mixed media paintings and drawings confront us with the skulls of extinct dinosaurs towering over watercolour tapestries of wild and tropical plants, of hopeful dolphins and guilty hands, of birds and bees and backbones entwined and cast back against the unforgiving lines of urban skyscrapers.
Janssen is a Dutch artist who has lived and worked in various countries around the world. Inspired by the complex realities she finds in each place, her gift is in her ability to construct ethereal figures out of forms and colours that are dark and disturbing, yet devastatingly beautiful. Her process is deeply instinctive. Figures flow and battle across the vast expanse of large-scale pieces. Using luxurious watercolours, inks and elaborate gouaches, they are both abstract and metaphorical.
Her latest body of work “Escape to Solastalgia” is rooted in Janssen's interest in environmental psychology, and explores the troubling dichotomy of finding both comfort and suffering in the future of our ecosystems. Janssen’s use of motifs such as coral reefs, exotic animals, and the creative form of the female figure, thread her pieces together with the world’s stories. They are both deeply-coded analogies for personal trauma and the universally-recognisable myths, theories, and legends that make up our collective histories. Her transitional pieces consistently convey our ongoing struggle to maintain a collaborative symbiosis with the world.
Janssen transports us out of the world of the real, the literal and the brutal, and into the unearthly worlds of her creations – giving us a surreal and cruel mirror into the distorted realities of our own. By embedding individual stories into the communal narrative of the world’s demise, in its mania, perhaps Janssen’s figures begin to hint at a need to shed the burden of personal guilt, which so frequently clouds our ability to be proactive. Instead, that burden is replaced with a clarity of thought which will enable us to act. Janssen arms us with a collective responsibility for the environment’s destiny.
Janssen uses natural elements to convey her personal struggles and contradictions. She employs coincidental techniques such as decalcomania or allowing paint to spread in large puddles over paper, which creates natural marks for her to interact with and manipulate.
In Janssen's paintings and drawings, interwoven with paper cuts and collages, recurring motifs of the roaring mouth, creeping plant forms and dynamic birds and animals represent change. Her bold and vibrant works interrogate our animalistic nature and explore the body as a site for narrative. Janssen’s work forces us to flee, to escape into our responsibility, not just to ourselves and our own emotional turmoil, but to the fate of a world of which we too are inextricably a part.
Janssen is a Dutch artist who has lived and worked in various countries around the world. Inspired by the complex realities she finds in each place, her gift is in her ability to construct ethereal figures out of forms and colours that are dark and disturbing, yet devastatingly beautiful. Her process is deeply instinctive. Figures flow and battle across the vast expanse of large-scale pieces. Using luxurious watercolours, inks and elaborate gouaches, they are both abstract and metaphorical.
Her latest body of work “Escape to Solastalgia” is rooted in Janssen's interest in environmental psychology, and explores the troubling dichotomy of finding both comfort and suffering in the future of our ecosystems. Janssen’s use of motifs such as coral reefs, exotic animals, and the creative form of the female figure, thread her pieces together with the world’s stories. They are both deeply-coded analogies for personal trauma and the universally-recognisable myths, theories, and legends that make up our collective histories. Her transitional pieces consistently convey our ongoing struggle to maintain a collaborative symbiosis with the world.
Janssen transports us out of the world of the real, the literal and the brutal, and into the unearthly worlds of her creations – giving us a surreal and cruel mirror into the distorted realities of our own. By embedding individual stories into the communal narrative of the world’s demise, in its mania, perhaps Janssen’s figures begin to hint at a need to shed the burden of personal guilt, which so frequently clouds our ability to be proactive. Instead, that burden is replaced with a clarity of thought which will enable us to act. Janssen arms us with a collective responsibility for the environment’s destiny.
Janssen uses natural elements to convey her personal struggles and contradictions. She employs coincidental techniques such as decalcomania or allowing paint to spread in large puddles over paper, which creates natural marks for her to interact with and manipulate.
In Janssen's paintings and drawings, interwoven with paper cuts and collages, recurring motifs of the roaring mouth, creeping plant forms and dynamic birds and animals represent change. Her bold and vibrant works interrogate our animalistic nature and explore the body as a site for narrative. Janssen’s work forces us to flee, to escape into our responsibility, not just to ourselves and our own emotional turmoil, but to the fate of a world of which we too are inextricably a part.
BiographyKarin Janssen has her studio in Taipei, Taiwan, where she had two solo exhibitions. She has exhibited in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, China, Brazil, Greece and Switzerland.
After her studies at AKV St Joost in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, Janssen set up various art projects in Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay. She went on to undertake an Artist in Residency in Casa das Caldeiras in São Paulo, before returning to Amsterdam. There she founded NIKA Art Projects, whose project Drawing her Story used art to cultivate mutual understanding between immigrant and Dutch women, and has reached 50,000 people in the Netherlands.. In 2011 Janssen opened Karin Janssen Project Space in London, which she ran until 2015, when she relocated to Shanghai to work full time in her studio. In 2018 she moved to Taipei in Taiwan. Her work has attracted much international press attention, amongst others featuring on the cover of the East End Review in London and on national television in Taiwan and is part of various private collections in the Netherlands, the UK, Brazil and Asia. |
Stories behind the work in "Escape to Solastalgia" | 作品背後的故事
Dolphins in Venice, 2020-21
Pen, gouache, watercolour, pencil on paper 183 x 135 cm At the beginning of the Corona virus pandemic there were lots of stories going around that the human lockdown was good news for nature: there were sightings of wild animals in big cities all over the world, and the sighting of dolphins and swans retaking the canals in Venice went viral. However, later these stories appeared to be fake and the dolphins were filmed off the coast in Sardinia, not Venice. People’s desperate desire to see some good coming out of the pandemic and the hope that nature is strong enough to recover, that no matter what we’ve done, nature is powerful enough to rise above it, appeared to be just that, hope and desire, but not true. In the work there are dinosaur skeletons again, hugely popular since Jurassic Park in the 90’s, and blurring the lines between what is real, what is fantasy and what is extinct. My worry is that by the popularity of dinosaurs we imbed our children and ourselves with an acceptance of animal species going extinct, only living on in picture books and as plastic toys. The swimmer on the right is trying to swim with the dolphins, but her hands are covered in a black oil like substance, as in blood covering the hands of the guilty. At the top we see parts of skyscrapers in this unsustainable circle of life, whilst the sun is going down on us at the bottom. The snake at the bottom gets blamed for expelling us all from paradise whilst now snakes are going extinct themselves, thanks to us. In the middle there is a spine, referring to my own struggles back then with severe back pain, yet at the same time the spine is visually trying to hold this mess together. |
〈 海豚在威尼斯〉, 2020-21
原子筆、不透明水彩、透明水彩、鉛筆、紙 183 x 135 cm 在新冠肺炎肆虐的開端,有好多的傳謠說封城對於自然界來說是一大好消息。網路上瘋傳著野生動物「重返」世界多個大城市以及海豚、天鵝重新「拿下」威尼斯的運河的影像、報導。然而事後證明,許多這些故事是假的,這些海豚經查證後證實是攝於義大利薩丁尼亞島的海岸,而非威尼斯。在疫情期間,人們強烈地渴望看見好事的發生,並期盼大自然足夠強壯──無論人類如何破壞,它終將能夠克服、自我復育。人類的渴望終歸是希冀,不是事實。 從作品中可以見到恐龍化石。從九十年代、《侏羅紀公園 》推出後,恐龍化石大受歡迎,模糊了真實、幻想與滅絕之間的界線。我的擔憂是恐龍的流行程度會讓我們以及孩子接受物種滅絕的可能性,接受這些物種的存在僅此於圖畫書和塑膠玩具。畫作右側有一名游泳的人正嘗試與海豚一起游泳,她的雙手佈滿黑油般的物質,就如同兩手沾染鮮血的罪人。畫作反映出一種不具永續性的生命循環:在上方我們可以看見高樓大廈的身影,在底部則見太陽西下。太陽旁的蛇因將人類驅逐出天堂而備受指責,諷刺的是,蛇也因人類面臨絕種危機。畫作中央是脊椎,象徵我前些陣子相當嚴重的背痛以及它帶給我的掙扎。然而,在這幅作品中,正是脊椎在嘗試撐起這團泥淖。 |
Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet, 2020-21
Pen, gouache, watercolour, pencil on paper 80 x 183 cm Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet is partly inspired on Samson’s biblical riddle, partly Sally Weintrobe’s theory on the psychological roots of the climate crisis, and my own personal struggle for balance between raw ambition on the right side and a more wholesome life on the left. It shows on the right side a dead lion in which bees made a hive. It supports the cogs of a neoliberal culture of greed, limitless ambition and uncare from which grows a poisonous oil leaking orchid, killing a baby sea turtle (there has been a huge oil spill in the south of Taiwan where I went snorkelling with amazing sea turtles, which I fear are now struggling if not dead). Propped up against that lion is a sleeping tiger. My son’s innocent play is threatening to wake the tiger from which grow the supporting vines holding up a home, thus potentially collapsing the whole dream. |
〈食物出自食者,甜物出自強者〉, 2020-21
原子筆、不透明水彩、透明水彩、鉛筆、紙 80 x 183 cm 〈食物出自食者,甜物出自強者〉的靈感來自聖經中參孫的故事、Sally Weintrobe 所提出與「氣候危機下的心理因素根源」相關的理論以及我個人為求平衡所面臨之掙扎:右邊象徵我最純粹的野心,左邊則象徵一個更為良善的生活。 在畫作的右側邊有隻死獅子,蜜蜂在牠的軀體上築巢 。牠的軀體同時支撐著齒輪的轉動,有毒、漏油的蘭花與遭殺害的海龜寶寶便是在這些推動新自由主義文化的齒輪下生長。在齒輪的運作下,貪婪、無窮盡的野心與冷漠持續被推動(近期在台灣南部有起重大的漏油事件。我曾經在漏油處附近與美麗的海龜一起游泳。一想到這些海龜若不是死去了,可能也正徘徊在死亡邊緣就讓我擔憂不已)。 支撐獅子軀體的是一只沈睡的老虎,老虎身上的藤蔓撐起了一個家庭。我的兒子在一旁無憂無慮地玩耍,隨時可能吵醒這只老虎,崩壞美夢。 |
K1 + U1 = K2 + U2, 2020-21
Pen, gouache, watercolour, ink, pencil, gold leaf on paper 183 x 113 cm When you are stuck in any kind of mental problem, the only person who can get you out, is you yourself. This work deals with this circle of energy, that the things you create are also the things that fill you up again. The heart in the middle is a sea urchin, spikey on the outside, soft and vulnerable on the inside. The swimmer put a golden ball (made with gold leaf) back into the heart. The seal at the bottom left is playing with a plastic octopus toy, which is of course totally wrong, and it fills me with dread to think that my son might not be ready to dive in time for him to enjoy the richness of coral reefs before they go extinct. “I had the thought that maybe when wild animals become extinct, they will simply carry on as existing in our imagination or as cuddly toys (like the dinosaurs)” ( Sally Weintrobe, Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis: Neoliberal Exceptionalism and the Culture of Uncare) The title is an equation regarding the conservation of energy K1 = initial kinetic energy U1 = initial potential energy K2 = final kinetic energy U2 = final potential energy |
〈K1 + U1 = K2 + U2〉, 2020-21原子筆、不透明水彩、透明水彩、水墨、鉛筆、金箔、紙
183 x 113 cm 當你陷入某種心理問題時,唯一可以幫助自己擺脫困境的人便是自己。這幅作品探討了能量循環──你創造的事物正是讓你感到「滿出來」的事物。位在畫作中間的心臟是顆海膽,牠的外部帶滿了刺,內部卻是柔軟又脆弱。一名游泳的人正將金球(用金色葉子製成的)放回心臟。在畫作左下側有一隻海豹正在玩塑膠製成的章魚玩具(這完全不對!每次想到「當我兒子長大準備好要潛水享受珊瑚礁的豐富性,但它們可能已經滅絕」這件事時,我都感到相當地害怕)。 「我有個想法:也許當野生動物滅絕後,牠們僅會在我們的想像中或是變成可愛的玩具(如恐龍)繼續存在著。」( Sally Weintrobe 《氣候危機下的心理因素根源:新自由主義下的例外主義與漠不關心的文化》) 作品名稱是一套能量保存的公式 K1 = 初始動能 U1 = 初始位能 K2 = 最終動能 U2 = 最終位能 |
Baobab core, 2020-21
Pen, gouache, watercolour, pencil, gold leaf on paper 183 x 113 cm In this work we see a woman trying to become one with nature, and succeeding. Years ago I made a few drawings called “trying to become one with nature and failing”, but now she is succeeding, perhaps because she, like nature, is embracing the limitations of her strength. The woman is becoming one with a sort of baobab tree (I loved seeing them in Senegal and how they were used as landmarks: “turn right at the baobab” or “the bus stop is at the baobab”), she is sitting up confidently posing, her legs turning into a cheetah (as my four year old son became obsessed with cheetahs, certain cheetah species in India went extinct). There is a hole inside her, but it is closing up. Her pain is turning into power, she is learning from having fallen and from the sap of the tree a sort of tiny super spider woman emerges. Life is growing from her, although the sleeping snake is also there, ready to mess things up again. The work has become a combination of weakness turning into strength, which is then again potentially undermined. |
〈猴麵包樹中心〉, 2020-21
原子筆、不透明水彩、透明水彩、鉛筆、金箔、紙 183 x 113 cm 多年前,我曾經創作一系列的畫作──《試圖與自然合而為一,卻失敗了》。與該系列不同的是,在這幅作品中,我們看見一名女性嘗試與自然融為一體,並且成功了。或許她就如同大自然一樣,欣然接受自身的侷限性。這名女性正與猴麵包樹合體(我是在塞納加爾認識這種樹。我很喜歡當地人使用猴麵包樹作為地標,像是「看到猴麵包樹向右轉」或是「公車站就在猴麵包樹旁邊」),自信地坐著擺姿勢。她的腿逐漸變成獵豹(我四歲的兒子對獵豹非常著迷,很難想像在當前的印度有部分品種的獵豹正瀕臨絕種)。她體內有個洞在逐漸閉合──她的痛苦正逐漸轉變為力量。這名女性學習從跌倒中爬起、從樹的汁液掙脫出來成為超級女蜘蛛人,她的生命正在擴張。而在一旁沈睡的蛇,似乎準備好隨時要搗亂。這幅作品展現了脆弱如何轉化成強大的力量,而這股力量隨時可能遭受威脅。 |
A.C.T. or Pig headed clear minded bulldog with boobs, 2021
Gouache, watercolour, ink on paper 117 x 80 cm A.C.T stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy but it has the nice double meaning of also encouraging to act. The tentacles are the useless thoughts that cloud one’s mind, trying to distract this woman who is trying to rescue a small baby turtle from pollution. Her hands are covered in red blood, showing that even though she is guilty and imperfect, she can still aim to think clearly and perform a positive act. That is what the climate crisis needs: we need imperfect warriors. |
〈A.C.T. 或者有胸部的鬥牛犬固執又神智清醒〉, 2021
不透明水彩、透明水彩、墨水、紙 117 x 80 cm A.C.T 代表了「接受與承諾療法」,它同時也具有「鼓勵行動」的雙重意義。章魚的觸手象徵頭腦無用的思緒,這些思緒使得這名正在拯救烏龜寶寶免於污染的女性分心。她的雙手佈滿鮮血,展現出即便她不完美,甚至有罪,她仍然可以釐清思緒並積極行動。在氣候危機之下,這正是我們需要的──不完美的戰士。 |
Holobiont, 2020
Gouache, watercolour, ink on paper 110 x 79 cm This work I started right before the pandemic, it was originally called Corona Queen, when I had the frustrating experience of on one hand trying to warn friends and family in Europe that the virus was going to spread to them and on the other how extremely limited the amount of control I have over anything. Then I learned about symbiosis through Lynn Margulis (Symbiotic Earth), that symbiosis is the key driver of evolution, that humans are 90% not human by cell, and that for every one of our human genes our body contains 200 microbial genes, so we are complex ecosystems ourselves. This, together with Margulis’ and James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that the whole earth is one big ecosystem, brings up the question where a human starts and ends. The fact that the virus jumped from animals to humans because we cut down their natural habitat lead to the title Holobiont, meaning an assemblage of a host and the many other species living in or around it, kind of a teɑm, e.g. ɑ humɑn. |
〈合生〉, 2020不透明水彩、透明水彩、水墨、紙
110 x 79 cm 我在疫情尚未爆發前就開始創作這幅本來叫做〈新冠皇后〉的作品。那段時期我因為多次嘗試警告在歐洲的家人與朋友疫情很快就會擴散過去這件事,以及發現很多事情皆不在我的掌控內而感到沮喪。而後,我透過 Lynn Margulis(《共生地球 》)認識到「共生」 。共生是進化相當關鍵的驅動力。人類 90% 的組成不是人類細胞,且我們體內的每一個人類基因都含有兩百個微生物基因體,證實我們本身就是複雜的生態體系。 Margulis 的理論以及 James Lovelock 蓋亞假說提出了一個疑問:地球本身作為一大生態體系,人類的起點與終點究竟何在?而當我們剝奪了動物的棲息地,病毒也因此從動物身上散播到人類。作品標題〈合生〉講的便是宿主與其他不同物種共同生活的現象,他們像是個團隊,他們是人類。 |
Lacuna, 2019
Pen, gouache, watercolour, pencil on paper 79 x 111 cm Lacuna literally means “an unfilled space; a gap”. This work deals with my period of eco grief which followed my involvement with climate change activism. The iceberg theory from Virginia Satir utilizes the metaphor of an iceberg to represent human experiencing, so at the top there is your behaviour, and underneath that there are feelings, feelings about feelings, expectations, yearnings and at the bottom the self. Swimming down into the layers of the psyche and the body became a recurring theme around that period. The polar bear in this work swims down into a microscopic view of the human stomach wall, below which are some - soft on the inside but spikey and poisonous on the outside - sea urchins of buried trauma and other strange yet beautiful growths. |
〈空隙〉, 2019
原子筆、不透明水彩、透明水彩、鉛筆、紙 79 x 111 cm 作品的原名〈Lacuna〉字面上的意思正是「一個未被填滿的空間、空隙」。這幅作品描繪了我的氣候悲痛期(對環境破壞或氣候變化造成的損失的心理反應)以及悲痛期過後,我投入氣候變遷運動所經歷的變化。薩提爾(Virginia Satir)提出的冰山理論利用冰山比喻人類體驗。在冰山最上層(水面上)的是「行為」,往下(水面下)是「應對方式」、「情緒」、「期待」、「渴望」與最底層的「自我」。在那段期間裡,我一再再潛入心靈和身體探索我經歷的每一個冰山層次。作品中的北極熊游至畫作底部,以微觀的視角望著人體胃壁。在胃壁的下方有個海膽,海膽的外部充滿了刺與毒素,內部卻柔軟又脆弱,象徵埋藏在深處的創傷以及其他怪誕卻美麗的成長經歷。 |
Broken chain, 2020
Pen, gouache, watercolour, acrylic, pencil on paper 80 x 184 cm Broken Chain was made during my period of intense eco grief which followed my involvement with climate change activism. The female figure on the left is contemplating death by holding a skull on her head, whilst the tentacles of her thought push her newborn baby up. It deals with my fears as a new mother and the desire to catapult my young child out of this mess into a better future. The broken chain refers to the break I hope there will remain between us and extinct animals like dinosaurs. An emu looks up disturbed and slightly sternly accusing to the viewer, as if to hold them accountable. |
〈斷掉的鎖鏈〉, 2020
原子筆、不透明水彩、透明水彩、壓克力、鉛筆、紙 80 x 183 cm 〈斷掉的鎖鏈〉創作於我的氣候悲痛期(對環境破壞或氣候變化造成的損失的心理反應)以及悲痛期過後,我投入氣候變遷運動的這段期間。在畫作左側的女性將骷髏頂在頭上思考著死亡,她的思想觸手將她的新生兒推了上去。作品探討了我作為一名新手母親的恐懼以及協助我年幼的孩子擺脫困境,走向美好未來的渴望。我希望能將這條象徵動物滅絕(像是恐龍)的鎖鏈切斷,不再有物種走上滅亡之路。一隻鴯鶓抬起頭來看著觀眾,牠看起來有些不安、嚴厲,彷彿要他們為一切負責任。 |
Bigger on the inside, 2019
Gouache, watercolour, acrylic on paper 183 x 140 cm⠀ This mixed media work on paper deals with notions of escapism into nature, climate change denial and eco grief. The work uses decalcomania, a technique often used by Max Ernst in the early 1900’s, providing an accidental starting point on which I can react instinctively, using gouache, watercolour, and ink. The resulting work is a fictitious coral, inspired on corals seen off the coast of Taiwan where I often go snorkelling. The coral has elements which resemble parts of the human body, celebrating nature and how intertwined human life is with it. As the coral reefs are dying and our planet is overheating, in the corner of the reef is a woman simultaneously becoming a part of this world and is hiding from it all, in climate change denial or eco depression. The title of the work is borrowed from the British television series Dr Who, where the “tardis” is a magical time traveling police phone box, which can travel through space and time to save the world and many other planets, and it’s much “bigger on the inside”. With the title I refer to the fact that although coral reefs only take up less than 1% of the ocean floors, they support over 25% of all marine life and half a billion people’s lives are dependent on coral ecosystems. The title also reflects the hope that somehow we can turn back time and still save planet earth.⠀⠀ |
〈內心比較大〉, 2019
不透明水彩、透明水彩、壓克力、紙 183 x 140 cm 這幅使用混合媒材的紙上作品探討逃避主義與自然的關係、全球暖化否定說以及氣候悲痛期(對環境破壞或氣候變化造成的損失的心理反應),並使用馬克思·恩斯特在二十世紀初期經常使用的轉印技術(decalcomania)。透過這個技法,我得以使用透明水彩、透明水彩與墨水憑著直覺下筆創作,繪出虛構的珊瑚,繪出我在台灣沿海浮潛時所獲得的創作靈感。畫作中的珊瑚與人體有些相似之處,頌揚大自然以及人類與自然密不可分的關係。正當珊瑚礁在逐漸消亡、地球持續過熱之時, 在礁石一處有名女性同時成為這個世界的一部分。她躲藏起來,不願面對全球暖化否定說或是生態憂鬱症。 作品的名稱借自英國電視劇《超時空奇俠》。劇中有個叫 Tardis 的警察電話亭,它能夠穿越時間與空間拯救世界與其他星球,而且「它裡面比較大」(《超時空奇俠》的經典台詞之一)。 藉由這個名稱,我想點出儘管珊瑚佔整個海底面積不足 1%,卻孕育著超過 25% 的海洋生物,維持五億人的生活。此外,〈內心比較大〉同時反映了人類的希冀──時光倒流好以拯救地球。 |
Core Muscle, 2019
Gouache, watercolour, pen on paper,
121 x 183 cm
Gouache, watercolour, pen on paper,
121 x 183 cm
Extraordinary machine, 2014 - 2015
Gouache, watercolour, pencil and ink on paper 180 x 400 cm The woman in this work is a self-portrait combined with Michelangelo’s Libyan Sibyl, a prophetic priestess in the Sistine Chapel. As Michelangelo only used male models, she has a very muscular body and by using this male power she turns into a trans powerhouse. I made this work as I was moving from London to Shanghai, whilst I was actually longing to escape to nature and not to a big city. The cat in the bottom left is a way of me focussing all my fears into the image of my cat freezing to death during the journey. Shanghai is still pencilled in, as I didn’t know what it was going to be like, but she is holding the reigns of ambition in her left hand, also symbolized by the green claw. The snake around her waist might betray her. In her right hand she holds a human embryo at its earliest stage, whilst she is weighing up motherhood versus ambition. The butterflies and exposed human heart symbolise her recent wedding. The quetzal bird leading the way is her desire to live in the jungle in Costa Rica. The tiger coming from underneath her skirt roars powerfully into the future she is heading, its roar drowning out her fears. Extraordinary Machine talks about how sometimes being in certain challenging situations requires you to be an extraordinary machine: a person who in chaotic circumstances has to be powerful and in her calm steadiness resembles partly a human being and partly a machine. |
〈超凡的機器〉, 2015
不透明水彩、透明水彩、原子筆、鉛筆、水墨、紙 180 x 400 cm 在這幅作品中的女性是結合了我的自畫像與米開朗基羅《利比亞女先知》的形體(藏於西斯汀禮拜堂)。米開朗基羅僅使用男模特兒作畫,因此女先知的體型相當健碩。於是,藉由這股陽剛的力量,她成了一名跨型別強者。 這幅作品是我準備從倫敦搬至上海時創作的。當時,我其實比較渴望逃進大自然,而非搬遷至另一個大城市。我同時也擔心我的貓在長途旅行中可能會凍死,遂將這股恐懼轉為創作動力,畫成左下方的貓。上海的一切皆相當未知,就如畫中女性以鉛筆創作的草稿。即便如此,她的左手顯示她野心勃勃準備君臨天下(以綠色爪子作為象徵)。她腰間的蛇隨時可能背叛她。她的右手握有人類胚胎,權衡著母親身份與野心。蝴蝶和人類心臟象徵了她近期步入婚姻,而引路的魁札爾鳥道出了她期盼居住在哥斯大黎加叢林的渴望。女性裙子底下有隻老虎在用力咆哮,將她推向馬上要到來的未來,牠有力的咆哮聲淹沒了她的恐懼。 〈超凡的機器〉講的是某些時候當你在面對具挑戰性的狀況下,你需要變成一台超凡的機器──一個在混亂環境中仍可以保持冷靜、穩定的強者就如同半機半人的混合體。 |