玉屑集 Splinters of Jade  


艺术家韩梦云经年积习于梵语、佛教与佛教艺术,这让她得以广涉细究大量的佛寺遗址出土报告。我们从这类考古报告中读到的大多是陶器的碎片、织物的残缕、无首的佛、断臂的菩萨或无形之物。虽然都难逃时间的暴政,但它们的美仍然在缺失残破之中闪烁着灵光。这些时间的残余也恰好应证了佛教对无常的理解:


譬如陶家,埏埴作器,

一切要壞,人命亦然。


《北傳法句經・第一無常品》


这次画展的题目来自魏庆之的《诗人玉屑》,这一意象的挪用是用来强调韩梦云对残破的理念、物件、认同与历史的理解。


这次展览是对韩梦云最近佛教题材墨画的一次陈布,是她对从印度、健陀罗、尼泊尔到中国乃至其余东亚各地佛教雕塑的研究的结果。在游历敦煌莫高窟与其它佛教艺术遗址时,韩梦云意识到佛像与佛龛、以及与整个石窟群的星罗密布的空间关系,与当代装置艺术之间的相似性,亦即这两者都是建构于空间与身处其中的观者的身体体验之间的艺术。韩梦云尝试重新塑造古代石窟,她拆分并重新陈设了固有元素中的空间架构、文本与图像。


这次展览中也包括了由艺术家本人与泰国玛希敦大学佛教学教授玛提亚·沙维尼一同摘取的佛经、佛论与佛教诗歌。沙维尼教授认为图像与文本的协作常常是对菩萨面相的直接印象,以唤起有关慈悲的特定偈颂,而有时与图像的匹配则强调的是佛教二谛的矛盾与本质上的和谐,这一点在佛教的文献中一般表述为:最上的佛教三宝并不落于知觉或心智的统摄范围之内——因此,我们会寻求将容纳这一智慧的文字分列在佛与菩萨的视觉现身之旁。


为了暗示“观”的不同方式,展览的空间经过了周密设计,而空间之中的文本与图像则将会展示佛教诸观的深度与广度,不仅是从艺术地,而且是哲学地与经验地。


*特别鸣谢: 感谢一门社设计制作工作室(Amass Studio)为这次展览提供的技术支持、佛龛的设计和制作。


Splinters of Jade


Han Mengyun’s studies of Sanskrit and Buddhism as well as Buddhist art led her to reading archaeological reports of excavations on Buddhist sites in abundance, especially those of the British archaeologist Aurel Stein. What we generally encounter in these reports are pieces of broken pots, strips of floral textiles, headless Buddhas, armless Bodhisattvas, or the bodiless beings. Their beauty, however defaced by the atrocity of time, retains the aura even in their own fragmentation. The remnants of time attest to the Buddhist idea of impermanence:


Just like a clay vessel

Made by a potter

Each life of a mortal

Ends in breaking.


(Impermanence. Book I, Udānavarga).


The title comes from Shiren Yuxie 诗人玉屑(Jade Splinters of the Poets [on the valuable gleanings about poetry] by Wei Qingzhi 魏庆之(1240-1244) , serving as an emphasis of Han’s appreciation of fragmented ideas, artifacts, identities and histories.


Included in the exhibition are sūtras, treatises, and poems chosen by both the artist herself and Professor Mattia Salvini of Buddhist Studies at Mahidol University.


According to Professor Salvini, the association between image and text is at times a direct impression of the face of a Bodhisattva that recalls certain verses on compassion, whereas in other instances, the match with an image highlights the paradox and natural harmony of the two truths, as expressed in the text: the ultimate Three Jewels are not within the range of perception or mind – thus, here we are, placing this wisdom, in words, next to visual manifestations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.


The text and images placed within a meticulously designed space suggesting various routes of viewing will present the depth and vastness of the Buddhist view both artistically, philosophically and experientially.