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When Arrow is not on the string By ˇ§Make Love, No Warˇ¨ to peruse Leung Yiu-Wahˇ¦s Art Career Lin Kan-Sheng An artist may love only one creative proposition a lifetime and, Hong Kong artist, LEUNG Yiu Wah sojourning in France, is that case. Apple is the core of Leungˇ¦s work. It is the theme he has always focused on. To understand this core, the logic of conceptual art must be applied. In fact, if Apple is regarded as the motif or subject matter, it would be caught in the dichotomy structure of form and contents of the traditional aesthetics. We should view from a propositional perspective of conceptual art, in order to understand the significance of the work of Leung Yiu Wah. The so-called propositional thinking is a common condition of contemporary art that emphasizes the contemplation and process of creation and which is precedent to all the external forms. This conceptual thought of contemporary art must go beyond the framework of the theme or subject matter. It is just like a starting point of a train of thought, and then extends to other aspects of theme and form; just as the artist, Sol LeWittˇ¦s comment on art: ˇ§The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.ˇ¨ The imagery of Leung Yiu Wah's Apple is similar to the prototype of visual psychoanalysis. As a proposition, Apple is not only the concept itself, but also the matter, contents and form and, the creative process is to continue to make conversion, derivative and expansion with the Apple prototype, resulting in a series of work, a series of artistic events. In the early 90s, at Villa Arson Art Institute, Nice, France, Leung Yiu Wah had a performance art, "Fruit of Labour". It is undoubtedly an important beginning. At a long and wide stairway in the college, he placed a large wooden box with the work title in French (Le fruit d'un très long travail) printed on the surface. When the artist moved towards the box and opened it, the full-loaded green apples gushed out, falling along the stairs. This seemingly simple process was strongly provided with a dramatic tension. Apples as the metaphor of personal life or the state of personification sprang up from the wooden box of "Fruits of Labour", from the quiet stairway. As like as the beat of musical notes turning suddenly and rapidly, they scattered over the stair steps with the running sound of ticktack. ˇ§Fruit of Labour" implies that life experience has accumulated to a saturation point, only then step by step from the stairs, a long way upward to sublimate, it can achieve the corporeal fruit as an object symbolizing primordiality, nature and vitality, to accomplish personal expressive declaration. Even more it has firmly established the artist's follow-on creative direction. Apple is always associated with the primitive desire and the forbidden fruit of religion. This symbolic reference of course is also reversed to differentness critical discourse for countering the subject of the grand narrative. It is the symbol of both the nature essence and the nutrients nourishment and, is another reality in the body politics context of the current society. For the art of Leung Yiu Wah, Apple is a general symbol - a prototype state. Once he has chosen other objects - fruit such as orange, peel ..., the symbolic concept of Apple would be extended. This imagery, no matter in painting, sculpture or installation work, the artist has deliberately shown the immediateness of the objects and the rough hand-wrought traces. Especially his work in 90s, the narrative device of fruit being installed directly, the dialogue tension between restoration of the material itself and space-time continues using the poetry manner of Minimalism and Arte Povera. During the ingenious combination of different materials, the frontier disposition it reflects is to satirize the exquisite and mainstream culture, as the Bard poem of Bohemian-style. Apple may be regarded as the image of the subjective volition, but we do not see the artist is captivated by a symbolic concept and get bogged down into an expressionist-style dejected state of fetish complex. The unique of Leung Yiu Wah's work is that the desire-denotative symbol is transformed into introspective vocabulary emphasizing differentness. Such as the national flag design (ˇ§Love apple of China and Hong Kong, 2004ˇ¨) on behalf of national identification, the apple sculptures with a very sleek texture, let audiences associate them with humorous taste and commercializing symbol; or attempt to use his self-image in the torture gesture and state of martyr, St. Sebastian Sting (ˇ§To arrow love, 2005ˇ¨), to dig at Chinaˇ¦s conservative thinking so as to penetrate into the identification link of body politics. Apparently the intense ego symbol has been converted into collective identification with cultural identity. This change represents that the development of the artistˇ¦s refined visual language has found a new balance between ego and the world. In the solo exhibition ˇ§Make Love, No Warˇ¨, Leung Yiu Wah has effectively developed a symbol closely related to the Apple: Arrow, what it metaphorically presents is exactly the imagery under the tactic of that primitive-desire-symbolic body. In fact, back in "Love Arrows" we can see that Arrow is not entirely the symbol of the martyrˇ¦s physical pain. It is really not only because of the self-possession of the martyr yet, the Arrow needs not to be regarded as a weapon. Apples have replaced the wounds; while arrows were shot and pierced into the apples, the wounds are healed because of love. This time Leungˇ¦s installation project can clearly show the refined combination of these symbols. He uses dozens of groups of combination of apple and arrow hanging from the ceiling. The whole space installation is just like "arrows rain" from heaven. The trenchant arrow is transformed into fruit as the arrowhead is connected to the apple. A weapon is dissipated to become a stem of fruit, exactly as what the work tells: "Make Love, No War". Carefree man ˇ§preachesˇ¨ with Apple and, the fruit's nutrient nourishment reverses the violence into words of great love. Translated by Alannala Lau |
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