DIGITAL EXHIBITIONS2
藝彩相映
祈大衛的色彩空間
David Clarke
Colour in Space
Curated by Dr Florian Knothe
Edited by Christopher Mattison
Translated by Jasmin Lin
Website designed by Susana Lam
策展人：羅諾德博士
文字編輯：馬德松
文字翻譯：連維清
網站設計：林采琪
前言 Foreword
香港大學美術博物館欣然呈獻「藝彩相映：祈大衛的色彩空間」展覽，展出祈大衛的個人水彩畫作的數位版畫。祈氏透過將一種藝術媒介以另一種媒介呈現，繼而發展出一種靈活操縱尺寸大小，同時探索不同物料性質的抽象藝術形式。這些作品捕捉了精心暈染的水彩顏料的透亮度和遮蓋度的特性，而數碼印刷科技有助於令作品的視覺設計得以重現於或轉化成一種可調節尺寸的印刷形式。
在這些作品所蘊含的多元視覺性之外，祈氏對文字與圖像之間的關聯和雙向轉譯深感興趣。抽象藝術並不拘泥於只表達具體題材，而視覺構圖則能夠用於表達言辭文句，賦予了作品一個容讓觀者感知、易於解讀的面向。祈氏曾與作曲家及作家合作，對他的攝影作品作出回應。在此次項目中，祈氏邀請了一位作曲家和一位視覺藝術家從是次項目的核心⸺祈氏的畫作中汲取靈感。
是次展出的作品與陳慶恩所創作的一首樂曲相得益彰。祈氏與陳氏曾就不同的項目合作，當中包括港大美術博物館的一個過往展覽。此次協作進一步展現祈氏的跨學科創作方式，他以自己的視覺作品為靈感泉源，引發其他範疇的藝術家作出回應。
另外，每幅作品各附有由新加坡學者兼多媒體藝術家梁秀文撰寫的一則評論。她對這些圖像的理解為作品增添一個更深層的面向。通過她的註釋，梁氏為祈氏的視覺作品賦予意涵，及加上另一重文字意義，加深祈氏旨在以圖像表達文字、以文字表達圖像的創作意念。此外，物理教授貝達理就祈氏的水彩畫作原稿提出他的個人見解。這種呈現方式透過他者回應來邀請觀者內省思考，促進他們與祈氏的作品產生一種個人及情感方面的連繫，而非為了提出一個決定性的評價。觀者可以視之為一段更為深入的引言，作為他們賞析祈氏在空間中的色彩運用的起點。
The University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG), The University of Hong Kong is thrilled to present David Clarke: Colour in Space, an exhibition displaying giclée prints of the artist’s own watercolour paintings. By presenting one medium as another, David Clarke develops an abstract art that plays with scale and explores different materialities. The images capture both the translucency and opacity of the carefully applied watercolours, while the digital printing technology helps to represent or transfer the design into a scalable print form.
Beyond the multifaceted visual qualities of these works, he is interested in the relation and transfer of words into images and vice versa. Where abstract art is less confined to representing definable subject matter, the ability of visual compositions to represent verbal content offers a tangible or readable dimension. Clarke, who has previously collaborated with composers and writers in response to his photographs, now invites a composer and visual artist to draw inspiration from the paintings central to his current project.
The group of images is complemented by a piece of music composed by Chan Hing-yan. Clarke and Chan have worked together on several projects, including a past exhibition at UMAG. This collaboration further demonstrates Clarke’s cross-disciplinary approach, using his visual displays as a stimulus and starting point for responses from artists in other fields.
Each work is also accompanied by a comment from Dawn-joy Leong, a scholar and multi-media artist based in Singapore. Her reading of the images adds a further dimension. By offering her interpretation, Leong provides content and adds verbal meaning to Clarke’s visual images, multiplying the latter’s intention to represent words in images and images in words. Furthermore, physics professor Terry Boyce offers his own impression of the original watercolour painting. The presentation of these responses invites reflection, offering not a conclusive evaluation, but rather a personal and emotional engagement with Clarke’s work. Visitors can view this as a further introduction and the starting point to their own analysis of the artist’s use of colour in space.
「十方一念」由陳慶恩所創，以回應祈氏的藝術作品。
請按「播放」鍵收聽。
‘Decaptych Epiphany’ is composed by Chan Hing-yan
in response to David Clarke’s artworks.
Click the ‘play’ button to enjoy.
此水彩圖像系列建基於我在一段長時間裡創作的一連串抽象畫作。部分早期作品同樣以水彩作媒介，但其中許多探索是以丙烯顏料為媒介進行的。偶爾，從形式主義的角度看來，抽象藝術被視為一種與主題無關的藝術形式。然而，對我來說，藝術與意義之間的關係密不可分，縱然其意涵可能難以言喻。要將文字意旨轉化成視覺圖像同樣困難重重，但是這並非意味著言辭文字本身欠缺深意，反之亦然。
This series of watercolour images builds on a line of abstract paintings I have created over a long period of time. Earlier works have also sometimes been watercolours, but many of those explorations also used acrylic as a medium. Sometimes, abstract art is viewed formalistically, as being unconcerned with subject matter. However, to me art is always tied up with meaning, even if the meaning it shares may not be something which is easy to put into words. It is also difficult to translate verbal meaning into visual images, but that doesn’t mean words are not meaningful in their own right—and the reverse is also true.
祈大衛
David Clarke
祈大衛 David Clarke
水彩紙本 Watercolour on paper
35.2 x 42.9 厘米 cm
2021–2022
貝達理 Terry Boyce
回應 Response：
The image portrays my inner visualisation of the wave-particle duality of photons: oscillating electromagnetic wavelets of different colours (wavelengths) inside spatially restricted pockets of space. I know it's simplistic, but I have always found it benefi cial in helping to understand the quantum behaviour of light. In a similar manner, Picasso's cubist paintings helped me visualise how space would appear if you were able to travel at the speed of light.
祈大衛 David Clarke
數位版畫紙本 Giclée print on paper
71.4 x 90.2 厘米 cm
2024
梁秀文 Dawn-joy Leong
回應 Response：
Wriggling, but not writhing, a happy movement, like soft autistic 'stimming' to express gentle joy (not exuberance). Blue blobs in the middle ground suggest a jelly-like liquid, some kind of liqueur that's sweet… I taste olives, sundried
tomatoes…
色彩與光線是此系列的關鍵。透過摒棄描繪具象事物，色彩得以更直接地作為一種獨立的力量展現在作品之中。一筆一劃的色彩依然保留各自的獨立性，而非融合成一體來達成某種具象的表達。觀者不時可感知到勾勒這些筆觸背後的那隻手。我們意識到繪畫是一個隨時間推移而產生的創作過程，個中並無決定性、終結的假象。然則，這裡卻有一種對全面的整體性的考量：縱使每一次的勾勒都在建構畫面，那種整體性從來也不是一種靜止不變的完整性。畫面中的重疊與並置，引起因這種層疊方式所容許（或需要）的混色而生的色彩變化。
Colour and light are essential concerns of this series. Abandoning recognisable objects in the paintings allows colour to be present more directly as a force in its own right. Individual touches of paint still retain autonomy, not being merged together to play some representational goal. The presence of the hand that made the marks can frequently be sensed. We are aware of painting as a process taking place over time, with no illusion of closure. There is a concern for an all-over totality, however, that individual painterly gestures contribute towards, but that totality is never a static completeness. Overlap occurs as well as juxtaposition, with colours shifting as a result of the mixing that this layered approach permits (or requires).
祈大衛
David Clarke
祈大衛 David Clarke
數位版畫紙本 Giclée print on paper
71.4 x 90.2 厘米 cm
2024
梁秀文 Dawn-joy Leong
回應 Response：
A happy frenzy of bubbles moving outside from inside the middle, but not aggressive, just obliviously jostling and floating out. The larger blue circles/bubbles taste stronger, like aubergine in olive oil, more determined to
emerge. Littler red, feisty tomatoes are 'buzzing' as they shimmy forth, piquant and sweet at the same time. The yellow liquid 'frame' tries valiantly to contain the exuberance but fails, and decides to just 'go with the flow'.
祈大衛 David Clarke
數位版畫紙本 Giclée print on paper
71.4 x 90.2 厘米 cm
2024
梁秀文 Dawn-joy Leong
回應 Response：
A gentle underwater scene: a close-up of tiny organisms floating, squiggly creatures swimming back and forth, as vertical blue and red 'reeds' sway in effortless stillness. The human ear cannot hear, but they are singing a polyphonic soundscape of pops and crackles, punctuating contrapuntal undulating melodic patterns.