Intro

Name

影像之後：湯瑪斯．魯夫1989-2020攝影作品展 - Thomas Ruff: after.images – WORKS 1989-2020

Period

2021-03-27 ~ 2021-07-04

Venue

國立臺灣美術館

Address

臺中市西區五權西路一段2號

「湯瑪斯．魯夫-影像之後 1989-2020 攝影作品展Thomas Ruff - after.images WORKS 1989-2020」為德國藝術家湯瑪斯．魯夫（Thomas Ruff，1958 年生於德國哈默斯河畔采爾）於東南亞的首次大型機構個展，展出藝術家1979 年創作以來，約31 個系列中的15 個系列，共105 組件作品，本展將是魯夫自慕尼黑藝術之家（Haus der Kunst Munich，2012）的回顧展，到近期於日本的考察展（東京國立近代美術館、金澤21 世紀美術館，2016 ／ 2017）與杜塞道夫北威州K20 美術館的個展（K 20 – Kunstsammlung NRW，2020-2021）以來，至今最完整的展覽之一。湯瑪斯．魯夫的新作品系列《中國樣板畫》（tableaux chinois）也將於亞洲首次展出。 1989 年，也是展出作品時序的起點，文化上不僅恰好碰上如德國柏林圍牆倒塌、北京天安門大屠殺等政治事件，也與全球數位攝影的興起及網際網路發明後數位影像的加速流通重疊。於此框架下，本展從魯夫的藝術作品自1989 年以來愈來愈加明顯的幾個關鍵面向開始：魯夫自七〇年代晚期，多數的作品是利用相機創作，今日，他則以典藏影像資料庫進行創作，包括自己的藝術產出、透過電腦的無相機影像生產，以及攝影圖像多層技術性疊合的作品愈來愈多。這樣的主題框架，加上確信影像絕不中性與客觀，而是因意識型態動機直接或間接的創造和驅動，讓我們能掌握魯夫創作的完整主題核心，也為其藝術生產拉出歷史向度的時間框架。展名「影像之後」取自生理現象「後像」（afterimage），即人眼短暫受到視覺刺激後，在眼前徘徊、如同影子般的暫留影像，通常包含顏色變異及視角變化――這也是藝術家運用於自身作品的手法。標題也引導人們思索往往稱之為「後攝影」（postphotographic）的當今攝影圖像世界：我們生活的世界，被現有的影像環繞，這些影像也大多透過濾鏡、編輯、操弄等手法進行處理，魯夫對現實的影像興趣有限，卻深受影像本身的多重現實吸引，因此他的藝術創作中，大量使用這些技巧，而觀念導向攝影的重點即為反映攝影媒體的狀態及運用。本展由馬丁‧格曼策展，展覽以美術館空間的形式與條件，組織為五大主題章節：（1）系列創作：中國樣板畫；（2）攝影史的轉折點；（3）天文學；（4）影像類型；（5）新聞報導，方便觀眾從多個角度理解和閱讀魯夫的創作，其中許多議題亦相互交織。本展以介紹藝術家創作手法及攝影史上各種科學性轉捩點揭開序幕，也闡述攝影與繪畫的關係及其科學方法，融入藝術家個人對天文學等領域的興趣，最後收束於日常面向，以攝影對媒體與傳播的意義結尾。 "Thomas Ruff: after.images" will be the first institutional solo exhibition of the German artist (born in 1958, Zell am Hamersbach) in South East Asia. It presents excerpts of 15 of the in-between 31 series the artist has produced since his beginnings in 1979. With around 105 works it is, after his retrospective at Haus der Kunst Munich (2012) and his recent Japan survey (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2016/17) and his solo show in K20 – Kunstsammlung NRW (2020-21) one of his most comprehensive exhibitions by now. A new series by Thomas Ruff, entitled Tableaux chinois , based on propaganda photography from a magazine for foreign relations from the PR China and coffee table books on Mao's life and the history of the great achievements of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1950s and 1970s, will have its premier in Asia. The year 1989, where the timeframe of the work on display starts, culturally coincides with political events, such as the fall of the German wall, the massacre at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but also with the global rise of digital photography and the accelerated circulation of digital imagery through the invention of the World Wide Web. Within this framework, the exhibition departs from crucial aspects of Ruffs artistic work, which since 1989 come increasingly to the foreground: while he was using the camera for most of his work from the late 1970s, from now the work with archival image databases, including his own artistic output, the camera-less image production on the computer, and the multilayered technical layering of photographic pictures increases. This thematical framework, plus the certainty that images are never neutral and objective but instead authored and primed directly or indirectly by ideological motivations, allows to embrace the full thematic output of Ruffs work, while setting a historical timeframe in his artistic production. The exhibition title "afterimages" refers to the physiological phenomenon of the afterimage. Like a shadow, it hovers over the human eye as a representation of what was seen shortly before, often including color alterations and perspective shifts – methods, which the artist also includes in his repertoire. The title can also lead to speculations of the contemporary status of world of photographic images, repeatedly described as "post-photographic": we live in a world surrounded by existing images, and a huge part of dealing with those consists of filtering, editing, and manipulating those images. The artistic practice of Thomas Ruff makes fully use of these techniques, since it is not so much interested in the images of reality, but instead in the multiple realities of images themselves. To reflect the conditions and protocols of the photographic medium is a key feature of conceptually oriented photography. The exhibition curated by Martin Germann and the show is conceived as a spatial network of museum galleries with five visitor friendly thematic chapters to understand and to read Ruffs practice from various angles: 1. Working in Series: Tableaux chinois, 2. Turning Points in the History of Photography, 3. Astronomy, 4. Genre, and 5. Press, in which many of the issues interfere. It starts with introduction in the way the artist works and covers various scientific turning points in the history of photography, as well as photography's relation to painting and its scientific means, which also embed personal interests of the artist such as astronomy, and ends with its meaning in the everyday, for press and communication.

Intro

Related Links

Artworks

About the Curation

Exhibitions recommended for you