Page 234 - 臺中市第二十七屆大墩美展專輯

233
Crafts

Category
Juror's Statement SIAO Ming-Tun

The nature of crafts is everyday practicality; however, the “beauty of form” and “beauty of content” created through craft media and techniques
are the reasons why artisans abandon “everyday practicality” and pursue “expressions of mindscapes.” The Crafts Category at this year’s Da Dun
Fine Arts Exhibition received 128 submissions; formally speaking, other than the Second Prize winner that retained the practicality of a “vessel,”
all the other entries among the top three prize winners and Award of Merit winners emerged from the 18 shortlisted entries in the final review were
“expressions of mindscapes” that put emphasis on contents.
First Prize went to HUANG Ming-Wen’s ceramic work Bud.Wonder, which depicts the process of a seed budding and growing. Through a
number of connected black organic spheres in different sizes and holes on their surfaces, as well as the white seedlings growing out of the holes of
various sizes, the work symbolizes the process of free imaginations “budding” from seeds into plants.
The Second Prize winner was Plain Charm by HUANG Kuei-Chu, which was a rentai shikki (basket lacquer ware) that is both practical and
aesthetic. The unique feature of the work is the three-dimensional and openwork visual effects created by weaving double-coin pattern into the
delicate bamboo vessel; the contrast of colors is enhanced by combining lacquer plaster and lacquering techniques, enriching the expressions of the
work and displaying the topic through an unadorned style.
PENG Guan-Ming’s metalwork Bionic Dream won Third Prize. Like Bud.Wonder, this is also a bionic creation, with a focus on “wings;”
nonetheless, the overall emphasis is the moveable “mechanics” and “frame.” Cutting and sawing bronze plates and connecting with intricate chains,
the artisan created a “sturdy mass” through cumulative complicated structures, and the openwork planes to express “lightness,” while also looking
forward to realizing the “phototactic” dream of “flying.”
Furthermore, works receiving Award of Merit have all put the artistic qualities of respective materials on full display; regardless of design, color,
material, texture, sense of space, or interpretation of theme, all pieces manifest the beauty of crafts.
Despite still looking like a piece of “intricately woven” bamboo ware, SU Szu-Huan’s lacquered bamboo ware Respiratory Regulation has broken
free from the traditional bamboo ware’s framework of “vessel;” instead, through “concave and convex” curves, the work expresses the state of “inhaling
and exhaling” of human survival, and is arguably an “expression of mindscape” through the media of crafts.
For The Light of Love, a mixed media glass ware, LIN Fang-Shih layers and piles transparent and opaque colored glasses and utilizes glazes,
as well as thermal processes of “fusing and contour baking” in kiln, to complete the work with no distinguishable front and back. The work reflects
ever-changing light to express fate and remembrance of father.
HOU Chun-Ting’s ceramic work Impression Delivery exhibits the traits of Koji pottery. Appearance-wise, the work does not have the shape of a
vessel; primarily through the techniques of Koji pottery and expressions of glazes, the artisan creates the surface texture of the Buddha’s head made
up by dense curves, which symbolizes the virtuality and reality in the cyberworld, and highlights the artisan’s appeal that men must be able to “reflect”
on the online information in the high-tech age.
In general, although the entries of this year’s Crafts Category, including the other 12 Shortlisted Works, are mainly “expressions of mindscapes,”
the application of craft materials and expressions of techniques still exhibit the spirit of crafts, highlighting the beauty of crafts created through “genius
ideas” and “genius techniques.”