淺嚐邱掇  邱掇專訪● 你好藝術

撰文 /李育萱

攝影/ FiXER Photographic Studio、陳奕揚

喜歡沖茶的人都知道，茶葉會隨著人的狀態，改變茶湯的味道。如果再說得深入些，品茶的過程裡，有時候是可以在舌尖到鼻頭，感受茶湯所賦予的「空間感」。採訪那天，看著邱掇沖茶的手勢，喝著他泡的茶，觀賞著他的畫作，我把茶湯、工作室和邱掇作品裡空間交疊著，品嚐。

邱掇是一位「從頭」進行創作的藝術家。他從胚布上膠開始，繃畫框，背面加工木板，最後再轉回正面，發展他的構圖。點、線、面是他作品中經常出現的元素，這些數學幾何裡的基礎，按照他的說法，就如同詩詞當中的「格律」：讓人在條件下盡情發揮，投射創作當下的自己；看得更仔細些，會發現邱掇更專注於肌理的處理，材質的追求。

Tea enthusiasts know how the taste of tea leaves follows the mood of the taster. Furthermore, whilst savoring the tea, sometimes a sense of spatial awareness woos the tip of one’s tongue or nose. On the day of the interview, I watched Qiuduo’s hands steep the tea as I observed his paintings, had a sip of his brew, and began to sample the overlapping spaces found within the tea, the studio and Qiuduo’s works.

Qiuduo is an artist who starts his work from scratch. He begins by gluing the canvas, tacking the stretcher and inserting a wooden board on the back, after which he turns the thing right way round and starts to work on his composition. Points, lines and planes are elements often found in his works. According to Qiuduo, these geometric fundamentals are like metrics in poetry: to an extent, they allow indulgence to one’s heart’s content, reflecting oneself during the time of creation – in likeness to the way I saw Qiuduo focus on working the texture and conforming the medium. 

「早期的作品裡，會在作品背後進行木板加工，是因為我會把畫布打磨。為了要讓打磨過程能夠順利進行，因此用木板增加受力。」邱掇刻意破壞畫布本身的肌理，讓布面光滑，去呼應創作脈絡中對於空間感的討論，不讓肌理影響觀賞畫面。近期看邱掇的作品，他則慢慢讓畫布的肌理浮現，作品更直觀揭露畫布的材質狀態，讓幾何線條所構築的畫面多了變化。

「現在不打磨了，但是木板的加工程序依舊。」木板成為邱掇作品的一個標記。同時，木板也透露出邱掇「執著」的個性本質：讓作品維持最佳狀態，降低環境條件造成作品不易保存的影響，即便曾有藏家跟他表示，加上木板的作品重量過重。「油畫畫布通常會因為台灣潮濕的環境，或是擺放方式不正確，導致畫布變形，因此還是會在畫布後方進行加工。」盡力做到最好，邱掇堅定表示。

從事創作20多年的邱掇，一路從創作瓶頸中不斷和自己對話，透過媒材紀錄自己此刻當下的想法；如今，在創作之外，邱掇也開始進行教學，和不同年齡層的朋友們一起交流。「如果說自己是被創作給拯救了，那麼教學讓我可將創作的習得，毫無保留地分享出去。」

“At the time of my early works, I began to fit the stretcher with a wooden board so that I could sand the canvas. The board added structural support so that the sanding process would go smoothly.” Qiuduo deliberately disrupts the canvas’ original texture, making it smooth, so as to better correspond with the way he experiences dimensions midst his streak of various creative ideas, by not having the surface-texture obstruct the picture. In Qiuduo’s recent works, the texture has slowly begun to come about, uncovering intuitively the object medium, which is allowed to somewhat alter the pictures that constitute of geometric strokes.

“I don’t do the sanding anymore, but the board is added regardless.” The wooden board has come to mark Qiuduo’s works, and it also discloses his persistent nature: it allows the works to stay in pristine condition, lessening the impact of the elements on them, regardless of the time when a collector  expressed worry over the increased weight that comes with the board. “Oil painting canvases can often deform due to Taiwan’s humid climate or if subjected to improper placement, and thus I insist on having the board” is Qiuduo’s way of saying: better safe than sorry.

Having practiced arts for twenty years, all the while recounting creative bottlenecks to himself, Qiuduo uses his chosen medium to document his most immediate thought-processes. Recently, alongside arts, he has taken up teaching and interacting with folks of different ages. “If art is about personal relief, then teaching is about acquiring creativity and sharing it wholeheartedly”.