土的美學與藝術——淺談土的雕塑性格與發展

The Aesthetics and Art of Clay–A Cursory Discussion on the Sculptural Character and Evolution of Earth

二十世紀初，在物體藝術出現之後，雕塑概念即不斷被擴大中，尤以媒材的多元化與作品沒有了邊界是最重要的改變。發展至今，任何媒材、任何討論三度空間或展現為三度空間、裝置形式的作品，無疑都已成為雕塑藝術的新範疇。在藝術史上，雕塑最古老、最原初的材質無非是大地上的泥土，雖然絕大部分的時間都只是造形的底材。到了一九五○年代之後，將泥土視為創作媒材之一的開創與挑戰，自美國蔓延到世界各地，臺灣是在一九六○年代初現，並在一九八○年代蓬勃發展。此陶藝創作發展最重要的意義是為雕塑創作帶來新的可能性，而與其他雕塑媒材比較，陶瓷媒材的美感與藝術性獨特之處，主要在於材質表現性的呈現與運用，以及從土與陶瓷自身既存的文化意涵的詮釋上。然而，在土的藝術中，我們不僅從陶藝家的創作中看見陶瓷獨特的表現力，也在藝術家的開創中，看見更多土的可能性。本文先就藝術材質種類多元化的時代變遷，說明雕塑材質與觀念改變的源頭；第二部分簡述引發全世界土的革命的美國，其陶藝發展的過程與內容；第三部分介紹臺灣陶藝發展的歷程，主要敘述的重點放在將陶瓷媒材視為雕塑材料的陶藝創作部分；最後則談及陶瓷媒材的美感與藝術性，介紹當代創作者如何運用陶瓷媒材，為雕塑創作開啟新的造形與觀念。

Since the advent of object art in the beginning of the 20th century, the concept of sculpture has been expanding constantly. The diversification of materials and the vanishing of what delimits an artwork constitute the most important changes. By now, any work of any material that deals with three-dimensional space or presents itself as a three-dimensional installation would undoubtedly fall under the new categories of sculptural arts. In the history of art, the oldest or most primal of sculptural materials had been clay from the ground. For most of the time, however, it had only been used as the base material for formulating images. It was after the 1950s that the seminal idea and challenge of using clay as a creative material in itself spread from USA to the rest of the world. This wave first landed in Taiwan in the early 1960s and rose to its height in the 1980s. The greatest significance of ceramic art-making as such is that it opens up new possibilities for sculpture. Compared to their other sculptural counterparts, ceramic materials are unique in their beauty and artistic qualities. This uniqueness lies mainly in the way that the materials' expressiveness is presented and employed, and also in the interpretation of the existing cultural semantics of clay and ceramics. The fact is: as far as earth-based art is concerned, we see in a ceramist's creations not only the unique expressiveness of ceramics, but also more of the possibilities of clay in the artist's innovations. This paper comes in four parts. The first looks at the historical development of how artistic materials diversified over time, on which basis it elucidates the roots of the changes in the materials and notion of sculpture. The second part gives a brief account of the hows and whats of the evolution of ceramics in USA, the country from which the worldwide“clay revolution”was set off. The third part goes on to outline the historical development of Taiwanese ceramic arts, focusing mainly on ceramic art-making that treats ceramic materials as sculptural ones. The final part touches on the beauty and artistic qualities of ceramic materials, and explains how contemporary artists make use of them to unleash new forms and ideas for sculpture.