侯玉書:一種新紀元的精神氣質 文|顧振清
侯玉書是一個跨界的人,他的語境跨越視覺與音樂、精神與物質、自我與宇宙。在藝術上他幾乎格格能入,卻又不拘一格。他的創作既不以美術史意義上的邏輯演進為方向,又不以現有百科全書系統上的知識生產為歸宿。他的視覺表現和聽覺表達更像是一種以自我經驗為中心的修行、體悟和感知性靈的過程。侯玉書不糾纏缺乏營養的理論架構和方法論研究,更不追隨虛妄空泛的意識形態和時代精神。他在國際社會常態化的人文條件下自我成長,有如一株有機植物,盡可能吸收對生命有益的養分和光照。侯玉書時時關心的,既有頭上的星空,又有心中的道德律令。他直接叩問藝術的元問題與神智學、不可知論的各種關聯,追究自身的身體、心智與宇宙所承載的人類所有經驗的感應和溝通。侯玉書的系列作品有著自身的時間軸,猶如一份份個人心靈史的即時記錄。這些作品,與其是展示了宇宙間靈光乍現不斷點亮人內在的一層層精神境界,毋寧是調節並化解了主體經驗與持續湧現未知資訊的一次次衝突。
由表及裡,侯玉書的藝術總是散發著神秘主義文化傳統的一些靈性光澤。但他並不是一個孤立的存在。音樂界的新紀元(New Age)風格藝術家多屬於他的同道。侯玉書曾經旅居紐約12年,他的思想資源可以回溯至歐美的現代性文化,但與1980年代興盛的新紀元思想運動更息息相關。20世紀初,佛洛伊德的無意識理論與榮格的集體潛意識概念為人類打開了現實世界之外的另一個更加真實、更無邊際的「無意識」或「潛意識」世界。而歐洲達達主義、超現實主義藝術家與作家則以自動書寫等藝術實踐印證了這一發現。他們以出人意料的自動寫作強調無意識世界的真實性,同時規避創作主體的思維邏輯和各種規範。超現實主義者下意識的創作實驗和非理性的藝術方法與精神分析學的互動呼應,馬列維奇的至上主義、康定斯基的抽象藝術與歐美神智學交互影響,對二戰以後的繪畫、雕塑、音樂、文學和建築產生巨大影響力。從臺灣到紐約的早年學習時光,侯玉書廣泛涉獵人文科學各領域,關注歐亞大陸的宗教、哲學、神話與靈魂等問題。他歷練了一種多元複合的文化素質,同時也擁有了跨文化的經驗。1980年代的紐約,新紀元思想運動在知識圈中日趨興盛。這種新的社會和宗教思想強調了一種世代更替的變化。新紀元一詞則象徵了人類將從物質的追求過渡到自己內心的探索的時代。新紀元思想者認為,雖然在物質方面,人類有人種、膚色、語言、宗教信仰等等的不同。但人類的心靈深處都有一個共通點。正因為這一點共通的靈性,所有人都是同宗同源的、平等的。新紀元思想運動涵蓋了靈性、神秘主義、環境保護主義和替代療法。新紀元思想在歐美社會吸引了大量身體力行。他們注重人的直覺和潛能,平等看待並吸收東西方各個宗教和文化傳統因素,認為冥想、瑜伽、功夫都有助於瞭解自我潛能。侯玉書受其影響,日益相信宇宙間存在的偉大力量,相信輪迴。他認為應當依照適合自己的方式提升靈性、找到自我,脫離別人提供的道路和角色。於是侯玉書在大學主修藝術、在工作室做創作,同時成了一個擁有出色的音樂造詣和武術修為、又精於塔羅、星座和阿克沙記錄的人。他通過各種修行樹立了針對自己絕對的權威,堅韌地走自己想走的道路。1990年代之後,他嘗試以藝術各種途徑深入靈魂深處,去接近並傾聽各種神啟。
2008年的作品《秘錄的殿堂》,就表現出侯玉書對“阿克沙記錄”中永恆空間世界的一種傾心嚮往。他一直以自身藝術實踐質疑百科知識殿堂及其權力經驗的形成機制,追求個性的充分自由。但侯玉書並不是一個虛無主義者。他只是在擺脫站在象牙塔上和巨人肩膀上的那種虛無的自由。他依據個人的體驗來表達自身意識和潛意識之間的交互作用,提示各種文化原型與集體潛意識的關聯。尤其是《秘錄的殿堂》所提示的那個承載了所有人類意識和行為的、永無窮盡的能量回音場“阿克沙記錄”,讓侯玉書沉浸其中,潛心冥想和修行,以求自身靈性的通透。他在作品中傳達自身生存實踐時所累積的經驗、知識和結論。在侯玉書的視覺圖式中,所有的事物都能各得其所,包括各種幻想和意象,都有其自在、自足的空間。
侯玉書的作品並不追求觀看第一瞬間的視覺震撼。他的畫面色彩大都純淨、細緻、中和、無火氣。畫面生成的圖像往往介乎抽象與具象之間。整體氛圍寧靜、閑定、不張揚。觀者如不定下神來靜靜觀看,往往不得要領。由此可見,藝術家對自己的創作抱有高度的自信。侯玉書從不懷疑自己的藝術天賦。他的圖式具有一定的自發性語言特色,有章法,卻又隨性。他的畫面佈局往往舉重若輕,條理清晰。各個層次的符號深淺分明,節奏舒緩平順。畫面上各個視覺元素卻彼此關聯、互相呼應,絲絲入扣,構成一種井然有序的和諧美感。他敷色較薄,使用的畫布也多是薄薄的聚酯纖維(polyester)無紡布料,其細密網格具有很好透氣性,與壓克力顏料的質地與絹印色彩的圖元十分般配。畫布與色彩的選擇,也使藝術家盡可能摒棄各種顏色混合堆積與多層面反復疊壓的手法。落筆著色乾淨俐落、直抒胸臆。侯玉書2013年《空間‧不思議》系列作品的圓形構圖,猶如放大的眼睛虹膜,極具自我反觀的暗喻性。13幅《空間‧不思議》猶如13個色彩、紋理各異的13個虹膜,對觀者構成一種凝視般的對視。這個系列的作品也因畫材的特殊性而使懸掛在空間中的畫面呈現半透明效果,無形中為畫面形象添加又一個視覺層次。在展覽空間,這種畫幅的半穿透性所帶來的層次感、空間感往往延長觀者的審美知覺,激發更多的人聽從潛意識的召喚,在圖像的視幻體驗中打開無限想像的空間。
在許多作品中,侯玉書反復繪製了一些單色的具有象徵主義意味的幾何圖案如同心圓、橢圓形、三角形、菱形、八角形等。這些符號在《空間‧不思議》系列中以較小尺度頻頻浮現。但在2012年《顯化‧樂》系列中,它們卻常常以成群結隊的方式醒目地凸顯在畫面之上,形成不同的視覺主題。2012年組合型畫作《紫色擁抱》之中,各種菱形符號以交疊、錯位、負相等豐富的視覺呈現方式完全覆蓋整個畫面。這件作品彰顯了一種視覺事實,即看似輕與透的侯玉書風格,卻能滲透出源自他內心的沉穩的、磅礴大氣的境界。侯玉書《空間‧不思議》系列中的圓形圖式,與人類描繪宏觀的宇宙、天體、星相和微觀的原子、質子、夸克的習慣相一致。圓形可以代表人類眼睛所觀察到的大千世界表象之後的最基本的物質構造範式。而畫面上的各種同心圓構圖,既可以是視覺物件,象徵宇宙的萬般變化;又可以是視覺主體,比擬虹膜與瞳孔的匹配模式。侯玉書的創作具有相同高度的自律性和一貫性。看似平鋪直敍、波瀾不驚的畫面,卻往往暗藏玄機。《空間‧不思議》系列中如花朵般盛開的圓形圖像,卻是藝術家心靈的一個個秘密花園。然而,每個同心圓構圖的核心形象卻各有不同,猶如不同的視覺密碼。作品《空間‧不思議#09》的圖式中心是一個帶白點的三角形,顯然帶有傳統的象徵指向。三角形中的白點讓觀者聯想起美術史上的三角形天眼。它無疑指涉了古今中外文明都熱衷關注的天目、第三只眼和松果體。這類包圍在三角形中的眼睛圖像可以回溯到歐洲中世紀繪畫中的上帝之眼、全視之眼,其原型甚至可以上溯到古埃及神聖的、察知世間萬物的太陽神荷拉斯之眼。《空間‧不思議》系列的其他作品似乎無一不帶有這種隱秘的象徵內涵。藝術形式的分量,源自其所承載的精神和思想的高度契合。侯玉書雖然在《空間‧不思議》系列中運用了許多古老而常見的象徵符號,但手法老到從容、不事修飾。一個個畫面如行雲流水,詩意雋永,足見藝術家把控畫面和諧性的超常功力。
侯玉書常常通過精密計算的黃金比例來設定畫幅的尺度,然後在中規中矩的古典美學規則中自由遊走。使用膠合玻璃固化畫面的《重見天日的散文》系列作品,即體現為藝術家對玩味規則的一種境界。他認真地比劃傳統美學規則,卻有以接近自動寫作的感性方式去鋪陳、結構圖像,注重自己的直覺和自然靈性的每一個巧合。侯玉書這種不斷超出邏輯規範的語言,時而奇崛、時而沖和,最終卻構成畫面總體均衡的視覺形式。侯玉書憑藉膠合玻璃的固化作用,瞬間定格了一幅又一幅典雅、唯美的繪畫,從而凝固了他在創作過程中追究人文記憶的所有時間線索,以及隨著時間線索流逝的感傷和鄉愁。侯玉書有他自己的永恆宇宙。這個另類宇宙本來屬於地球上存在的每一個人。然而全球化條件下,實證主義主導的文化思潮、功利主義驅動的社會習性,卻讓許許多多人產生狹窄、短促的隧道視野。由此其身心自由被遮蔽,對外部世界的洞察力、對內心世界的感悟力雙雙退化,從而對現實表象背後的真相視而不見。侯玉書《重見天日的散文》系列呈現出了一種被層層疊壓的空間和時間。在他透視一切的超驗主義感覺中,時間並不是一種物是人非的阻隔。藝術家似乎可以隨時遊走當下、過去和將來,可以隨心所欲地羅列記憶、梳理舊雨新知。而觀者往往只能觀看作品在空間疊壓之後的一種永恆結果。若非藝術家有意提示,觀者似乎只能在各種時間線索之中盲人摸象。侯玉書在藝術上的創意,其實持續傳遞著一種富有穿透力的正向思維和能量。這種思維和能量讓更多的觀者擺脫物質主義羈絆而走向自身內心,認知自身原本就有的心智自由。侯玉書歷久彌新的空谷踅音,無疑會喚起更多的人關注對其自我靈性。
2014年3月,侯玉書在北京荔空間以靈性繪畫的空中圍合的方式營造一個橢圓形陣局。陣局中放置並演示的正是藝術家平時作為音波療癒和冥想之用的水晶頌缽。水晶頌缽是西藏傳統的原音(Acoustic)樂器喜馬拉雅“天鐵缽”的最佳替代品,由高純度的矽砂熔化後一體成型製成。敲摩水晶頌缽所發出的低音頻,既與大自然本身的頻率產生共振,又能深入人體核心、與人的內在頻率產生共鳴。侯玉書試圖通過一個精心打造的原音充盈的藝術能量場,為現場觀眾再現出大自然平靜的氣氛和宇宙浩渺的感覺,喚起人內心的寧靜和安詳。其實,侯玉書試圖與人分享的能量,正是一種人類共同經驗。
侯玉書深具個人精神氣質的藝術實踐,把藝術創造無比生動地轉化為一種新紀元式的靈修方式。無論在當今體制化的本地社會,還是在國際藝術圈的金字塔結構。侯玉書的藝術都無法歸類。也許侯玉書的靈性藝術只能是一種新藝術、一種未來的藝術。
由表及裡,侯玉書的藝術總是散發著神秘主義文化傳統的一些靈性光澤。但他並不是一個孤立的存在。音樂界的新紀元(New Age)風格藝術家多屬於他的同道。侯玉書曾經旅居紐約12年,他的思想資源可以回溯至歐美的現代性文化,但與1980年代興盛的新紀元思想運動更息息相關。20世紀初,佛洛伊德的無意識理論與榮格的集體潛意識概念為人類打開了現實世界之外的另一個更加真實、更無邊際的「無意識」或「潛意識」世界。而歐洲達達主義、超現實主義藝術家與作家則以自動書寫等藝術實踐印證了這一發現。他們以出人意料的自動寫作強調無意識世界的真實性,同時規避創作主體的思維邏輯和各種規範。超現實主義者下意識的創作實驗和非理性的藝術方法與精神分析學的互動呼應,馬列維奇的至上主義、康定斯基的抽象藝術與歐美神智學交互影響,對二戰以後的繪畫、雕塑、音樂、文學和建築產生巨大影響力。從臺灣到紐約的早年學習時光,侯玉書廣泛涉獵人文科學各領域,關注歐亞大陸的宗教、哲學、神話與靈魂等問題。他歷練了一種多元複合的文化素質,同時也擁有了跨文化的經驗。1980年代的紐約,新紀元思想運動在知識圈中日趨興盛。這種新的社會和宗教思想強調了一種世代更替的變化。新紀元一詞則象徵了人類將從物質的追求過渡到自己內心的探索的時代。新紀元思想者認為,雖然在物質方面,人類有人種、膚色、語言、宗教信仰等等的不同。但人類的心靈深處都有一個共通點。正因為這一點共通的靈性,所有人都是同宗同源的、平等的。新紀元思想運動涵蓋了靈性、神秘主義、環境保護主義和替代療法。新紀元思想在歐美社會吸引了大量身體力行。他們注重人的直覺和潛能,平等看待並吸收東西方各個宗教和文化傳統因素,認為冥想、瑜伽、功夫都有助於瞭解自我潛能。侯玉書受其影響,日益相信宇宙間存在的偉大力量,相信輪迴。他認為應當依照適合自己的方式提升靈性、找到自我,脫離別人提供的道路和角色。於是侯玉書在大學主修藝術、在工作室做創作,同時成了一個擁有出色的音樂造詣和武術修為、又精於塔羅、星座和阿克沙記錄的人。他通過各種修行樹立了針對自己絕對的權威,堅韌地走自己想走的道路。1990年代之後,他嘗試以藝術各種途徑深入靈魂深處,去接近並傾聽各種神啟。
2008年的作品《秘錄的殿堂》,就表現出侯玉書對“阿克沙記錄”中永恆空間世界的一種傾心嚮往。他一直以自身藝術實踐質疑百科知識殿堂及其權力經驗的形成機制,追求個性的充分自由。但侯玉書並不是一個虛無主義者。他只是在擺脫站在象牙塔上和巨人肩膀上的那種虛無的自由。他依據個人的體驗來表達自身意識和潛意識之間的交互作用,提示各種文化原型與集體潛意識的關聯。尤其是《秘錄的殿堂》所提示的那個承載了所有人類意識和行為的、永無窮盡的能量回音場“阿克沙記錄”,讓侯玉書沉浸其中,潛心冥想和修行,以求自身靈性的通透。他在作品中傳達自身生存實踐時所累積的經驗、知識和結論。在侯玉書的視覺圖式中,所有的事物都能各得其所,包括各種幻想和意象,都有其自在、自足的空間。
侯玉書的作品並不追求觀看第一瞬間的視覺震撼。他的畫面色彩大都純淨、細緻、中和、無火氣。畫面生成的圖像往往介乎抽象與具象之間。整體氛圍寧靜、閑定、不張揚。觀者如不定下神來靜靜觀看,往往不得要領。由此可見,藝術家對自己的創作抱有高度的自信。侯玉書從不懷疑自己的藝術天賦。他的圖式具有一定的自發性語言特色,有章法,卻又隨性。他的畫面佈局往往舉重若輕,條理清晰。各個層次的符號深淺分明,節奏舒緩平順。畫面上各個視覺元素卻彼此關聯、互相呼應,絲絲入扣,構成一種井然有序的和諧美感。他敷色較薄,使用的畫布也多是薄薄的聚酯纖維(polyester)無紡布料,其細密網格具有很好透氣性,與壓克力顏料的質地與絹印色彩的圖元十分般配。畫布與色彩的選擇,也使藝術家盡可能摒棄各種顏色混合堆積與多層面反復疊壓的手法。落筆著色乾淨俐落、直抒胸臆。侯玉書2013年《空間‧不思議》系列作品的圓形構圖,猶如放大的眼睛虹膜,極具自我反觀的暗喻性。13幅《空間‧不思議》猶如13個色彩、紋理各異的13個虹膜,對觀者構成一種凝視般的對視。這個系列的作品也因畫材的特殊性而使懸掛在空間中的畫面呈現半透明效果,無形中為畫面形象添加又一個視覺層次。在展覽空間,這種畫幅的半穿透性所帶來的層次感、空間感往往延長觀者的審美知覺,激發更多的人聽從潛意識的召喚,在圖像的視幻體驗中打開無限想像的空間。
在許多作品中,侯玉書反復繪製了一些單色的具有象徵主義意味的幾何圖案如同心圓、橢圓形、三角形、菱形、八角形等。這些符號在《空間‧不思議》系列中以較小尺度頻頻浮現。但在2012年《顯化‧樂》系列中,它們卻常常以成群結隊的方式醒目地凸顯在畫面之上,形成不同的視覺主題。2012年組合型畫作《紫色擁抱》之中,各種菱形符號以交疊、錯位、負相等豐富的視覺呈現方式完全覆蓋整個畫面。這件作品彰顯了一種視覺事實,即看似輕與透的侯玉書風格,卻能滲透出源自他內心的沉穩的、磅礴大氣的境界。侯玉書《空間‧不思議》系列中的圓形圖式,與人類描繪宏觀的宇宙、天體、星相和微觀的原子、質子、夸克的習慣相一致。圓形可以代表人類眼睛所觀察到的大千世界表象之後的最基本的物質構造範式。而畫面上的各種同心圓構圖,既可以是視覺物件,象徵宇宙的萬般變化;又可以是視覺主體,比擬虹膜與瞳孔的匹配模式。侯玉書的創作具有相同高度的自律性和一貫性。看似平鋪直敍、波瀾不驚的畫面,卻往往暗藏玄機。《空間‧不思議》系列中如花朵般盛開的圓形圖像,卻是藝術家心靈的一個個秘密花園。然而,每個同心圓構圖的核心形象卻各有不同,猶如不同的視覺密碼。作品《空間‧不思議#09》的圖式中心是一個帶白點的三角形,顯然帶有傳統的象徵指向。三角形中的白點讓觀者聯想起美術史上的三角形天眼。它無疑指涉了古今中外文明都熱衷關注的天目、第三只眼和松果體。這類包圍在三角形中的眼睛圖像可以回溯到歐洲中世紀繪畫中的上帝之眼、全視之眼,其原型甚至可以上溯到古埃及神聖的、察知世間萬物的太陽神荷拉斯之眼。《空間‧不思議》系列的其他作品似乎無一不帶有這種隱秘的象徵內涵。藝術形式的分量,源自其所承載的精神和思想的高度契合。侯玉書雖然在《空間‧不思議》系列中運用了許多古老而常見的象徵符號,但手法老到從容、不事修飾。一個個畫面如行雲流水,詩意雋永,足見藝術家把控畫面和諧性的超常功力。
侯玉書常常通過精密計算的黃金比例來設定畫幅的尺度,然後在中規中矩的古典美學規則中自由遊走。使用膠合玻璃固化畫面的《重見天日的散文》系列作品,即體現為藝術家對玩味規則的一種境界。他認真地比劃傳統美學規則,卻有以接近自動寫作的感性方式去鋪陳、結構圖像,注重自己的直覺和自然靈性的每一個巧合。侯玉書這種不斷超出邏輯規範的語言,時而奇崛、時而沖和,最終卻構成畫面總體均衡的視覺形式。侯玉書憑藉膠合玻璃的固化作用,瞬間定格了一幅又一幅典雅、唯美的繪畫,從而凝固了他在創作過程中追究人文記憶的所有時間線索,以及隨著時間線索流逝的感傷和鄉愁。侯玉書有他自己的永恆宇宙。這個另類宇宙本來屬於地球上存在的每一個人。然而全球化條件下,實證主義主導的文化思潮、功利主義驅動的社會習性,卻讓許許多多人產生狹窄、短促的隧道視野。由此其身心自由被遮蔽,對外部世界的洞察力、對內心世界的感悟力雙雙退化,從而對現實表象背後的真相視而不見。侯玉書《重見天日的散文》系列呈現出了一種被層層疊壓的空間和時間。在他透視一切的超驗主義感覺中,時間並不是一種物是人非的阻隔。藝術家似乎可以隨時遊走當下、過去和將來,可以隨心所欲地羅列記憶、梳理舊雨新知。而觀者往往只能觀看作品在空間疊壓之後的一種永恆結果。若非藝術家有意提示,觀者似乎只能在各種時間線索之中盲人摸象。侯玉書在藝術上的創意,其實持續傳遞著一種富有穿透力的正向思維和能量。這種思維和能量讓更多的觀者擺脫物質主義羈絆而走向自身內心,認知自身原本就有的心智自由。侯玉書歷久彌新的空谷踅音,無疑會喚起更多的人關注對其自我靈性。
2014年3月,侯玉書在北京荔空間以靈性繪畫的空中圍合的方式營造一個橢圓形陣局。陣局中放置並演示的正是藝術家平時作為音波療癒和冥想之用的水晶頌缽。水晶頌缽是西藏傳統的原音(Acoustic)樂器喜馬拉雅“天鐵缽”的最佳替代品,由高純度的矽砂熔化後一體成型製成。敲摩水晶頌缽所發出的低音頻,既與大自然本身的頻率產生共振,又能深入人體核心、與人的內在頻率產生共鳴。侯玉書試圖通過一個精心打造的原音充盈的藝術能量場,為現場觀眾再現出大自然平靜的氣氛和宇宙浩渺的感覺,喚起人內心的寧靜和安詳。其實,侯玉書試圖與人分享的能量,正是一種人類共同經驗。
侯玉書深具個人精神氣質的藝術實踐,把藝術創造無比生動地轉化為一種新紀元式的靈修方式。無論在當今體制化的本地社會,還是在國際藝術圈的金字塔結構。侯玉書的藝術都無法歸類。也許侯玉書的靈性藝術只能是一種新藝術、一種未來的藝術。
George Y. Ho:A Spiritual Temperament of The New Age By Zhenqing Gu
George Y. Ho is a person with cross-over capacity. His creative vocabulary spans across the visual and the musical, the spiritual and the material, the individual and the universal. He seems to be very compatible with different styles and yet not restricted to any one in particular. His works neither develop alongside the logical evolution of art history, nor are they based on the knowledge from the existing encyclopedia system. His visual and audio presentations are more like a process of spiritual journey based on his personal experience. Ho does not entangle himself in the rigid framework of theoretical and methodological research, nor does he follow the vague and general ideologies and der Zeitgeist. His works developed independently under the humanistic condition of international society, just like an organic plant absorbing nutrients and daylight as much as possible to best benefit its own life. Ho cares about the starry sky above as well as his personal morals. He directly inquires the connections among theosophy, Agnosticism and the fundamental questions in art. He investigates the perception and communication of all mankind’s experiences that are stored in his own body, his mind and the universe. George Ho’s artwork series form their own timelines, like individual documents that record the history of his mind activities. These artworks are more like moderators that dissolve the frequent conflicts between the subjective experiences and the continuously emerging information from the unknown, rather than just a display of epiphanies that light up the mental space of mankind.
On the surface, Ho’s art always exude certain spiritual luster of occultism. However, he is not isolated as a result, as New Age music artists are his colleagues. Ho has lived in New York for twelve years, and thus in general his inspiration could be traced back to the 20th century modernistic culture of America and Europe, but perhaps more specifically with the New Age movement that began to flourish during 1980s. In the early 20th century, the theory of the unconscious by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and the collective unconscious by Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) opened a much more real and boundless “unconscious” world that is different from this physical reality. Artists and writers of Dadaism and Surrealism in Europe affirmed such findings through art practices such as automatic writing. These artists emphasize the realness of the unconscious world while avoiding the logic and the rules of artistic production. The interaction between Psychoanalysis and the Surrealist artists, with their unconscious creational experiments and non-rational artistic methods, as well as the mutual influence among Suprematism by Kazimir S. Malevich, the abstractive art by Wassily Kandinsky, and theosophy in the Western world, have great impact on painting, sculpture, music, literature and architecture after WWII. During his study period from Taiwan to New York, Ho explored many areas of the humanities and paid attention to issues relating to religion, philosophy, mythology and spirituality of Europe and Asia. From there he cultivated diverse and compounded cultural traits and amassed cross-cultural experiences. In New York during 1980s, the New Age movement became increasingly popular in the intellectuals’ circle. This new social and religious mindset focuses on a generational transcendence. The term “New Age” indicates that human beings develop from the pursuit of the material to a search of the internal. The New Age thinkers believe that despite the external differences in ethnic groups, skin colors, languages and religions, there is a commonality in the heart and soul of every human deep inside, and with this connection, all human beings are cognate and equal. Spiritualty, occultism, environmental protectionism and holistic therapy are all included in The New Age movement, and in the Western societies, it has attracted great numbers of practitioners. Generally, the New Age movement places importance on human intuition and potentials, regards the Eastern and Western religions equally while learning from these traditions. The followers believe that meditation, yoga and the martial arts are all helpful for realizing one’s own potentials. Ho is strongly influenced by the New Age movement, its belief in the great universal source as well as reincarnation. He feels that one ought to elevate one’s spiritualty and find self-identity with modalities suitable for one’s personality in order to break away from the paths and roles assigned by others. Consequently, in addition to majoring in art in college and producing artworks in his studio, Ho also cultivated himself to be outstanding in the fields of music, martial arts, tarot and astrology. Through these different modalities, he established a firm sense of self-knowledge on the journey of his chosen path. After the 1990s, he began to explore the depth of soul through different artistic media to approach and listen for divine inspirations.
Hall of Records from 2008 shows Ho’s wholehearted yearning for the eternal space described in the Akashic records. In order to seek out total personal freedom, he has been questioning the everyday reality, its power structure, and the mechanism of its formation, with his creative life. Nevertheless, Ho is not a nihilist. He desires to free himself from the vague freedom resulting from subscribing to some particular “-ism” or authoritative view. He expresses the interaction between his own consciousness and the unconscious based on personal experiences and suggests the linkage between all kinds of cultural prototypes and the collective unconscious. In particular, the “Akashic Record” depicted in Hall of Records, which is the endless energy resonance field that carries all of human beings’ consciousness and behaviors, allows Ho to immerse himself in a meditation and enables him to find personal enlightenment. In his artworks, he delivers all experiences, knowledge and conclusion accumulated through the affirmation of his own existence. In Ho’s visual vocabulary, everything has its own place, including all kinds of illusions and imageries. They all have their own unrestrained yet self-contained spaces.
Ho does not strive for visual shock at first glance with his artworks. His palette is pure, clean, delicate, neutral and non-aggressive. His imageries are often between abstraction and the figurative, with an overall atmosphere of quietude, ease and restraint. Without spending time doing some focused viewing, the viewers would have difficulty grasping the main points. It is a sign that the artist is highly confident of his own creations. Ho has never doubted his artistic talents. His tableaus contain certain impulsive visual vocabulary, instinctive yet orderly. His composition is always seemingly effortless and very consistent: symbols at each layer are clearly and well-arranged while the visual rhythms are easy and smooth. The separate visual elements in the tableaus connect with each other and respond to each other tightly and without lag, forming an orderly and harmonious aesthetic sensibility. He often applied colors thinly on canvas of thin, non-woven polyester fabric. The finely gridded polyester fabric lends a translucency that matches well with the texture of acrylic pigments and the silk-screen patterns. The choices of canvas and color also allow the artist to forgo techniques such as mixing and heavy impasto layering, which results in brushstrokes and color application that are clean, well-executed and to the point. The circular composition of his 2013 series, Space of Wonder, is like an enlarged iris and implies strongly of self-reflection. The 13 Space of Wonder paintings are like 13 irises of diverse colors and textures. Together they seem to suggest a “stare-off” with the viewer. Due to the particular nature of materials and the way they are hanging in mid-air in the space, this series shows off a semi-transparent effect that adds another visual layer to the images. The stratification of space created by the translucent quality of these paintings extends the viewer’s aesthetic perception and inspires more people to listen to the calling of the unconscious and to be receptive to an unlimited imaginative space through this visual experience.
Ho paints repeatedly, among many of his artworks, single-colored geometric patterns with symbolic meanings, such as concentric circles, ovals, triangles, rhombus and octagons. Those symbols appear frequently on a smaller scale in Space of Wonder. However, in the 2012 Manifestations.Joy series, those patterns are the main visual theme, as they are accentuated and appear in large numbers within the composition. In the 2012 Mixed Media painting The Violet Embrace, he created a rich visual presentation by covering the entire tableau with different types of rhombus shapes which are overlapping and interlocking. This particular artwork brings to attention one visual fact: Ho’s style, while lightweight and transparent, still penetrates and allows his profound, grand and magnificent inner world to come through. The circular images of Ho’s Space of Wonder series are consistent with the conventional ways human beings describe the universe and celestial bodies, as well as the microscopic atoms, protons and quarks. Circular form could also represents the formula of fundamental material construction behind the boundless universe that mankind could observe. The composition of concentric circles can be regarded objectively, like an ever changing universe, or it can be actively looking back at the viewer, like the iris and pupil of the eye. Ho’s creations possess high self-discipline and consistency. The tableaus may look very straight forward with no surprises, yet often they contain some hidden theories. The blossom-like circular images in Space of Wonder series are indeed secret gardens in the mind of the artist. The mysterious code-like core imageries at the centers of these circular compositions are not alike. The image at the core of Space of Wonder #09 is a triangle with white dot, which obviously refers to some traditional symbol. The white dot inside the triangle suggests the triangular Eye of the Divine in art history. It undoubtedly refers to the eye of heaven, the Third Eye and pineal gland which have been enthusiastically followed in both Western and Eastern cultures through the ages. Such images of an eye inside a triangle could be traced back to God’s Eye and the All-seeing Eye of European medieval paintings. Its prototype can even be traced back to the Eye of Horus, the mystical Egyptian Sun god who literally knows everything in the world. Others in the Space of Wonder series bear no exception to having esoteric symbolic content. The richness of art form comes from the tight bonding between the ideal and its execution. Ho may have adopted many ancient and common symbols in the Space of Wonder series, but his approach and skills are very tactful, confident and not too deliberate. Every tableau is an enduring yet easy going poem, bearing witness to the artist’s extraordinary skill at harmonious composition.
Ho often uses carefully calculated golden ratio to determine the measurements of his tableaus and then takes liberties with the straight and narrow rules of classical aesthetics. The Excavated Essay series in laminated glass is a great example of how the artist plays with the rules. On one hand, he seriously parallels the rules of conventional aesthetics. On the other hand, he composes images in an intuitive way that resembles automatic writing, focusing on fortuity between his own intuition and natural spirituality. Ho’s language, consistently out of the bounds of logic, is sometimes peculiar, sometimes subtle and conformed, yet eventually constitutes a holistically balanced tableau. The glass lamination process seems to have made freeze-frames out of these classically elegant paintings. It also solidifies the clues from his investigation of the humanity’s memories through history, along with the sentiments and nostalgia caused by the fading-away of these clues. Ho possesses his own eternal universe. This alternative universe originally belongs to each and every one on Earth. However, under globalization, with the culture of Positivism and habits motivated by Utilitarianism, people have developed increasingly narrow and nearsighted “tunnel vision.” As a result, people’s physical and mental freedom became blocked, and their insights to the external world as well as their appreciation of their inner world have gradually deteriorated, as they became blind to the truth behind the superficial reality. Ho’s The Excavated Essay series shows a type of compressed time and space. With his Transcendentalist view, Ho does not see time as a barrier. The artist could almost travel between the present, the past and the future, cataloguing his memories and acquaintances old and new. The viewer can only see the frozen result after the artwork has undergone a process of space overlay. Without the artist’s intentional suggestion, the viewer may seem only able to make wild guesses based on the clues. Essentially, Ho’s creativity maintains the delivery of highly penetrative energy of positive thinking. This energy encourages more viewers to break away from the bondage of materialism and to face their own inner world and recognize their pre-existing mental freedom again. Such timelessly insightful viewpoint would undeniably compel more people to pay attention to their own spirituality.
In March of 2014, Ho will hang his spiritual paintings in midair to make an oval shape formation at Li Space, Beijing. Crystal singing bowls that the artist uses for sound healing and meditation will be on display and played inside this formation. Made by melting very fine and pure silicon sand into a mold, these crystal singing bowls are the most ideal replacement of the traditional Tibetan acoustic instrument, the Himalayan metal singing bowls. The low audio frequencies emitted from striking and rubbing the bowls resonates with the frequencies of nature and also penetrates deeply into the human body to generate consonance with one’s inner frequencies. Ho intends to portray for the audience the tranquil ambience of nature and the openness of the universe with a carefully designed visual and acoustic energy field which will also evoke one’s inner peace and serenity. In fact, the energy that Ho wishes to share with others is a collective heritage among human beings.
Ho’s artistic output, with its strongly personal spiritual temperament, vividly and vigorously transforms art creation into a New Age-style spiritual practice. It cannot be categorized under the current local art scene nor the pyramid-structure of global art circle. Perhaps Ho’s spiritual art can only be a new art, an art of the future.
On the surface, Ho’s art always exude certain spiritual luster of occultism. However, he is not isolated as a result, as New Age music artists are his colleagues. Ho has lived in New York for twelve years, and thus in general his inspiration could be traced back to the 20th century modernistic culture of America and Europe, but perhaps more specifically with the New Age movement that began to flourish during 1980s. In the early 20th century, the theory of the unconscious by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and the collective unconscious by Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) opened a much more real and boundless “unconscious” world that is different from this physical reality. Artists and writers of Dadaism and Surrealism in Europe affirmed such findings through art practices such as automatic writing. These artists emphasize the realness of the unconscious world while avoiding the logic and the rules of artistic production. The interaction between Psychoanalysis and the Surrealist artists, with their unconscious creational experiments and non-rational artistic methods, as well as the mutual influence among Suprematism by Kazimir S. Malevich, the abstractive art by Wassily Kandinsky, and theosophy in the Western world, have great impact on painting, sculpture, music, literature and architecture after WWII. During his study period from Taiwan to New York, Ho explored many areas of the humanities and paid attention to issues relating to religion, philosophy, mythology and spirituality of Europe and Asia. From there he cultivated diverse and compounded cultural traits and amassed cross-cultural experiences. In New York during 1980s, the New Age movement became increasingly popular in the intellectuals’ circle. This new social and religious mindset focuses on a generational transcendence. The term “New Age” indicates that human beings develop from the pursuit of the material to a search of the internal. The New Age thinkers believe that despite the external differences in ethnic groups, skin colors, languages and religions, there is a commonality in the heart and soul of every human deep inside, and with this connection, all human beings are cognate and equal. Spiritualty, occultism, environmental protectionism and holistic therapy are all included in The New Age movement, and in the Western societies, it has attracted great numbers of practitioners. Generally, the New Age movement places importance on human intuition and potentials, regards the Eastern and Western religions equally while learning from these traditions. The followers believe that meditation, yoga and the martial arts are all helpful for realizing one’s own potentials. Ho is strongly influenced by the New Age movement, its belief in the great universal source as well as reincarnation. He feels that one ought to elevate one’s spiritualty and find self-identity with modalities suitable for one’s personality in order to break away from the paths and roles assigned by others. Consequently, in addition to majoring in art in college and producing artworks in his studio, Ho also cultivated himself to be outstanding in the fields of music, martial arts, tarot and astrology. Through these different modalities, he established a firm sense of self-knowledge on the journey of his chosen path. After the 1990s, he began to explore the depth of soul through different artistic media to approach and listen for divine inspirations.
Hall of Records from 2008 shows Ho’s wholehearted yearning for the eternal space described in the Akashic records. In order to seek out total personal freedom, he has been questioning the everyday reality, its power structure, and the mechanism of its formation, with his creative life. Nevertheless, Ho is not a nihilist. He desires to free himself from the vague freedom resulting from subscribing to some particular “-ism” or authoritative view. He expresses the interaction between his own consciousness and the unconscious based on personal experiences and suggests the linkage between all kinds of cultural prototypes and the collective unconscious. In particular, the “Akashic Record” depicted in Hall of Records, which is the endless energy resonance field that carries all of human beings’ consciousness and behaviors, allows Ho to immerse himself in a meditation and enables him to find personal enlightenment. In his artworks, he delivers all experiences, knowledge and conclusion accumulated through the affirmation of his own existence. In Ho’s visual vocabulary, everything has its own place, including all kinds of illusions and imageries. They all have their own unrestrained yet self-contained spaces.
Ho does not strive for visual shock at first glance with his artworks. His palette is pure, clean, delicate, neutral and non-aggressive. His imageries are often between abstraction and the figurative, with an overall atmosphere of quietude, ease and restraint. Without spending time doing some focused viewing, the viewers would have difficulty grasping the main points. It is a sign that the artist is highly confident of his own creations. Ho has never doubted his artistic talents. His tableaus contain certain impulsive visual vocabulary, instinctive yet orderly. His composition is always seemingly effortless and very consistent: symbols at each layer are clearly and well-arranged while the visual rhythms are easy and smooth. The separate visual elements in the tableaus connect with each other and respond to each other tightly and without lag, forming an orderly and harmonious aesthetic sensibility. He often applied colors thinly on canvas of thin, non-woven polyester fabric. The finely gridded polyester fabric lends a translucency that matches well with the texture of acrylic pigments and the silk-screen patterns. The choices of canvas and color also allow the artist to forgo techniques such as mixing and heavy impasto layering, which results in brushstrokes and color application that are clean, well-executed and to the point. The circular composition of his 2013 series, Space of Wonder, is like an enlarged iris and implies strongly of self-reflection. The 13 Space of Wonder paintings are like 13 irises of diverse colors and textures. Together they seem to suggest a “stare-off” with the viewer. Due to the particular nature of materials and the way they are hanging in mid-air in the space, this series shows off a semi-transparent effect that adds another visual layer to the images. The stratification of space created by the translucent quality of these paintings extends the viewer’s aesthetic perception and inspires more people to listen to the calling of the unconscious and to be receptive to an unlimited imaginative space through this visual experience.
Ho paints repeatedly, among many of his artworks, single-colored geometric patterns with symbolic meanings, such as concentric circles, ovals, triangles, rhombus and octagons. Those symbols appear frequently on a smaller scale in Space of Wonder. However, in the 2012 Manifestations.Joy series, those patterns are the main visual theme, as they are accentuated and appear in large numbers within the composition. In the 2012 Mixed Media painting The Violet Embrace, he created a rich visual presentation by covering the entire tableau with different types of rhombus shapes which are overlapping and interlocking. This particular artwork brings to attention one visual fact: Ho’s style, while lightweight and transparent, still penetrates and allows his profound, grand and magnificent inner world to come through. The circular images of Ho’s Space of Wonder series are consistent with the conventional ways human beings describe the universe and celestial bodies, as well as the microscopic atoms, protons and quarks. Circular form could also represents the formula of fundamental material construction behind the boundless universe that mankind could observe. The composition of concentric circles can be regarded objectively, like an ever changing universe, or it can be actively looking back at the viewer, like the iris and pupil of the eye. Ho’s creations possess high self-discipline and consistency. The tableaus may look very straight forward with no surprises, yet often they contain some hidden theories. The blossom-like circular images in Space of Wonder series are indeed secret gardens in the mind of the artist. The mysterious code-like core imageries at the centers of these circular compositions are not alike. The image at the core of Space of Wonder #09 is a triangle with white dot, which obviously refers to some traditional symbol. The white dot inside the triangle suggests the triangular Eye of the Divine in art history. It undoubtedly refers to the eye of heaven, the Third Eye and pineal gland which have been enthusiastically followed in both Western and Eastern cultures through the ages. Such images of an eye inside a triangle could be traced back to God’s Eye and the All-seeing Eye of European medieval paintings. Its prototype can even be traced back to the Eye of Horus, the mystical Egyptian Sun god who literally knows everything in the world. Others in the Space of Wonder series bear no exception to having esoteric symbolic content. The richness of art form comes from the tight bonding between the ideal and its execution. Ho may have adopted many ancient and common symbols in the Space of Wonder series, but his approach and skills are very tactful, confident and not too deliberate. Every tableau is an enduring yet easy going poem, bearing witness to the artist’s extraordinary skill at harmonious composition.
Ho often uses carefully calculated golden ratio to determine the measurements of his tableaus and then takes liberties with the straight and narrow rules of classical aesthetics. The Excavated Essay series in laminated glass is a great example of how the artist plays with the rules. On one hand, he seriously parallels the rules of conventional aesthetics. On the other hand, he composes images in an intuitive way that resembles automatic writing, focusing on fortuity between his own intuition and natural spirituality. Ho’s language, consistently out of the bounds of logic, is sometimes peculiar, sometimes subtle and conformed, yet eventually constitutes a holistically balanced tableau. The glass lamination process seems to have made freeze-frames out of these classically elegant paintings. It also solidifies the clues from his investigation of the humanity’s memories through history, along with the sentiments and nostalgia caused by the fading-away of these clues. Ho possesses his own eternal universe. This alternative universe originally belongs to each and every one on Earth. However, under globalization, with the culture of Positivism and habits motivated by Utilitarianism, people have developed increasingly narrow and nearsighted “tunnel vision.” As a result, people’s physical and mental freedom became blocked, and their insights to the external world as well as their appreciation of their inner world have gradually deteriorated, as they became blind to the truth behind the superficial reality. Ho’s The Excavated Essay series shows a type of compressed time and space. With his Transcendentalist view, Ho does not see time as a barrier. The artist could almost travel between the present, the past and the future, cataloguing his memories and acquaintances old and new. The viewer can only see the frozen result after the artwork has undergone a process of space overlay. Without the artist’s intentional suggestion, the viewer may seem only able to make wild guesses based on the clues. Essentially, Ho’s creativity maintains the delivery of highly penetrative energy of positive thinking. This energy encourages more viewers to break away from the bondage of materialism and to face their own inner world and recognize their pre-existing mental freedom again. Such timelessly insightful viewpoint would undeniably compel more people to pay attention to their own spirituality.
In March of 2014, Ho will hang his spiritual paintings in midair to make an oval shape formation at Li Space, Beijing. Crystal singing bowls that the artist uses for sound healing and meditation will be on display and played inside this formation. Made by melting very fine and pure silicon sand into a mold, these crystal singing bowls are the most ideal replacement of the traditional Tibetan acoustic instrument, the Himalayan metal singing bowls. The low audio frequencies emitted from striking and rubbing the bowls resonates with the frequencies of nature and also penetrates deeply into the human body to generate consonance with one’s inner frequencies. Ho intends to portray for the audience the tranquil ambience of nature and the openness of the universe with a carefully designed visual and acoustic energy field which will also evoke one’s inner peace and serenity. In fact, the energy that Ho wishes to share with others is a collective heritage among human beings.
Ho’s artistic output, with its strongly personal spiritual temperament, vividly and vigorously transforms art creation into a New Age-style spiritual practice. It cannot be categorized under the current local art scene nor the pyramid-structure of global art circle. Perhaps Ho’s spiritual art can only be a new art, an art of the future.