Transformation and Refining – Hsu Yung-Hsu and His Ceramic Art
Introduction
“The grey-colored alchemical pill is like the dust on the window.” – Cantong qi[1]. Through the transformation, the shining alchemical pill is like the dust glimmered on the window.” – Chen Xian-Wei, the Song Dynasty.
When I was in Tainan National University of the Arts, I was impressed by the natural scenery there, and, the sunshine slightly fell on the meadow in front of the ceramic tiles after the “Sai Pat Ho[2].” The giant and understated artwork has stood in the meadow of the campus for several years. Through the years passed, some young fresh moss grew on the black ceramic tiles, the time and the earth gave the art piece breaths and life.
This artwork was made by Hsu Yung-Hsu when he studied in Tainan National University of the Arts. Since then, Hsu has endeavored to surpass the intangible, wide gap between the traditionally modern ceramic art and the contemporary art. Through practical realization, the artworks by the artist were discussed and debated aesthetically and spiritually by the contemporary art. The art practice of Hsu, as the ceramic tiles next to the meadow, gradually transformed and integrated with the environment. The art practice of Hsu surpassed the material and technique of ceramics and art, and entered into the field of philosophical aesthetics.
From the meadow in the Tainan National University of the Arts, the artworks by Hsu have transmitted the messages of life, as breathing like organisms, which exist and derivate by themselves. His artworks are full of vitality, and the shape of the artworks implies the movement trajectory and life memory of the artist, and through refining into different artworks.
Although the artist is not a Taoist who pursue the mysterious alchemical methods, the shape and texture of his artworks can precisely present the flowing, transforming spiritual objects, which is a unit work with multiple appearances, thereby making us feel the same “breath” and “life” from different artworks and witness his art spirit and physical surpass.
Every creation of his artwork is the transformation and refining of Hsu and materials. The artwork transformed from him and refined into his artwork. Through the repetition of refining, the art path of Hsu surpasses and transcends his past and transforms to a new form.
- Chord – The Rhythm of Ceramics
“The beautiful Guzheng played the songs in the fourteen strings in the winds of autumn.” – Gu, Ying “Two Song of Yushan Pugao”
“…Life is full of surprises…,“ this kind of wording appears in many literature works of biography. Through this wording, we can read the different life of the authors from ordinary life and the different choices made by the authors. This wording also applies to Hsu Yong-Hsu, who dramatically highlights the surprises of his art life.
When he started to engage in ceramics creation, he started his art life. When Hsu was young, he was a famous Guzheng players and had a Guzheng recital in Taipei. At that time, numerous students learned Guzheng with him. His great achievement in music encouraged him to create rhythm and movement of artworks. In the collection of “Dancing” in 1994, we can see his great admiration and searching for life.
His music accomplishment and the training of Guzheng enable the artworks of Hsu full of clear and vivid vitality, thereby reflecting on the surface of his artworks. For years of Guzheng achievement, he transformed his emotions and memories and left the imprints on his artworks. After years of creation, finally in 2008, the collection of his artwork makes the great rhythm of ceramic art.
From a musician to a ceramic artist, his art life is full of opportunities and coincidences. When he realized his limit on music, his colleague in the primary school invited Hsu Yong-Hsu to establish a ceramic workshop. From a beginner, he explored the ceramic art. Even his friend left the workshop, he continued his ceramic art lift and ceramic art become the main rhythm of his life. After playing some many beautiful songs, he finally found the extra rhythm of his art life.
- Prepositions – Beyond the Mainstream Logic
“Do not think in languages, but think along with directions of the languages” – Heidegger
If the ceramic life is the extra page of his life, his full involvement is the exhibition of strong will of artists. More interesting, Hsu explored the path of ceramic art on his own and he experiences that those ordinary artists never experience, learns many techniques that those traditional artists never know, and reads important knowledge that professional ceramic artists may neglect. And all of those made Hsu have broad and deep understanding on ceramic art. And all of those began from the language barrier.
As Heidegger said, our thinking exists in languages and we think with the direction of languages. But if we don’t understand the languages and words, can we liberate our thinking? Apart from other traditionally ceramic artists, Hsu is a totally outsider. Although the beginning gave the artist many difficulties, it also gave him freedom and assets. Because he had rare knowledge about ceramic art, he has searched for ceramic books since he determined to develop his ceramic art life. Hsu has collected every ceramic art books and pictures, whether published in any language. And it is the progress that brought unexpected outcome because of his English barrier.
As he said, “My English is very poor. I don’t know what are prepositions…” He always looks up dictionary for even prepositions, but he reads more than any other people. More importantly, even he bought wrong books, those wrong books gave him overestimated assets in his creation progress in the future. From the overall design of furnaces and the chemical principal and composition of glazes, those ceramic-creation-related technology, engineering, and knowledge facilitate his capacity of design, deployment, and construction, and he can mix glazes as scientists. Through the process of breaking the language barrier, he has equipped strong knowledge and practices regarding the technology, material, and tools of ceramic art creation. From late 1990s to 2005, he did his best to exhibit his outstanding control capacity regarding shape, kilning, and coloring matching. In 1998 and 1999, he transformed the abstract body twisting artwork of Henry Moore and Constantin Brancusi – “Qian.” In 2005, he got rid of those complex shapes and left highly difficult kilning artworks. Those artworks have shown his astonishing techniques, not even mention to his big furnace and well-deployed clay blender, which are designed by Hsu. This is a training process beyond traditional ceramic knowledge education, which made Gong, Jow-Jiun said that “…it is just like Leonardo Da Vinci” after he saw those tools designed by Hsu.
If the field of ceramic art is the knowledge system with certain subject, then the self-education process of Hsu is a post-modern fight – Hsu searches for possibilities to connect different knowledge and explore the possibilities of ceramics. Apart from the traditional language and ceramic knowledge, from looking up dictionaries, he has explored his techniques, knowledge and thinking of ceramic art, thereby accumulating the assets of artists, which turning him from ceramic artists into artists and turning his artworks from ceramic art into art.
- Turning Spirits into Tangible Objects
“We don’t just think of the relationships between different parts of our body, the visual part and the sense of touch; we are the person who connects arm and legs, and we can see and touch them. From the words of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, human bodies are regular changes.” – Maurice Merleau-Ponty
If we can carefully observe the artwork collection of Hsu for those years, we can find that human bodies are the primary portion in his early creation collections. From the collection of Dancing in 1994 and 1995 and the collection of Myth in 2004, even though his artworks have different shapes and diversified styles, human body was the primary topic for the artist. The presentation of human body in the collection of Hsu provides us as a reference to experience his art life process.
The collection of Dancing in 1994 and 1995 can be regarded as the primary try of human bodies for the artist, and as audience, we can see how Hsu explore and interpret human bodies from the perspective of music and pursue the surpass of style technology, which can be observed in his artworks in 1996 and 1997. In 1997, the clay-modeling and furnace techniques made him enable to use one single clay line to twist and turn into human posture. More worthy attention, since 1996, Hsu also focus the overall art history. The artwork “Appearance” in 1998 showed the atmosphere of Henry Moore, and the artwork “Transcending” in 1999 showed the atmosphere of Constantin Brancusi. The artwork of “Looking” showed the atmosphere of a tribe villager. In these highly technique-requiring artworks, we see Hsu’s development and growth in his techniques and the art history, and we can also see he transcend from the technological knowledge of materials and shapes, and looking and thinking toward the art history.
Compared to the human body artworks before 1999, Hsu further investigate the 3D and sculpture issues of human bodies – size – in his artworks from 2000. In his large-sized artwork “Like an Emperor” in 2000, he used simple shape to explore the difference in senses brought by the size of 3D artworks. It is the time when Hsu started to turn from shape technology to shape art, and then turn to shape sense. And it is his art practice path of ceramic art.
From 2004, the artwork of Hsu began to appear a large-size thin-china folding and curling, such as the artwork of “Myth 2004-7″ and the artwork of “2004-11." In these works, the image of the body began to thaw and decrease, but the artist’s physical labor are more dense and large. We can see deeper artistic practice and thinking. If the artistic practice concern is how to create the body shape, then Hsu focused on how to create bodily sensations in 2000. After 2004, the artist further focused on how to make the body feelings become artworks.
If Hsu’s focus transferred his attention of human bodies from shape to creation after 2004, then the collection in 2008 is the artist’s response. In this collection of artworks, we don’t see any simulation and metaphor of body shapes, leaving only the infinite derivative artworks. It is then clay and ceramic art became his material of artworks, as well as the overall art history and aesthetic questions. In the collection, the body of the artist and the body of the art shapes and the body of art history and aesthetic thinking converge and derive within the artworks.
[1] “The Kinship of the Three,” also called “Cantong qi,” is deemed to be the earliest book on alchemy in China, which also been translated as “Akinness of the Three.” The authorship was attributed to Wei Bo-Yang in the Eastern Han Dynasty. And the “three” refers to the three major subjects, namely Cosmology, Taoism, and Alchemy.
[2] Taiwanese “Sai Pat Ho” is also misunderstood as summer rain, which means thunder-rain in the afternoon. However, the original meaning refers to heavy rainfall in the afternoon. The original meaning is elegant and poetic.