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Review by Amalie Voss
 – TYPHOON : In the Eye of Taiwan’s New Artistic Whirlwinds, DMP Editions (2024) Amalie Voss 評論 – 收錄於《颱風：在台灣新成形的藝術風眼中》（2024）🪂 中文翻譯版本位於頁面下方



They are as strange as they are familiar, these roaming bodies vulvas out and in-our-face, their legs swathed in net stockings or low-waisted flared pants, high heels click-clacking.
However, it is not so much their choice of style, ex posed genitalia, or lack of shyness that makes them peculiar - it is the fact, that they seemingly wander about without any torso what soever. For the figures inhabiting the bizarre paintings and sketches of artist Wen Chia-Ning, or Wen Gum Gum, this seems to be a rather ordinary state of physical appearance. A figure named 'Mom' who makes their ap pearance in the work Intro 《初引》 (2022), a cartoonish digitally ren dered collage, explain to us that due to a congenital effect, every woman within the family when turning 20 experience a complete dis solution of their entire torso, eventually only leaving their head on top of their legs. In undergoing this oddly predetermined metamorpho sis, they come into an existence as "bodiless women". This "bodiless" shape seems to be the shared trait among the many feminine, mascu line, and gender-ambiguous figures appearing in Wen Gum Gum's se ries Good Will Hunting 《善的意志會狩獵》 (2022). The unusual communi ty appears comically dismantled and absurd: some are stacked on top of one another, forming a human tower on the former-shoulders-now ass of a bodiless figure, three posing bodies flaunt their chests; oth ers are busy pleasuring the side curb with a golden shower; a figure named 'Kevin's mom' elegantly pose while donning nothing but a pearl necklace (a literal one).

Wen Gum Gum draws influence from Susan Sonntag's infamous 1964 cornerstone essay on the notion of 'Camp', described as a sensibility, vision or taste that revels in artifice and stylisation, theatricalisation and exaggeration, irony and playfulness1. Through her tongue-in cheek humour and the blatant attitudes of her caricatured subjects, Wen Gum Gum addresses processes of identification and social cod ing, akin to the 'private codes' or 'badges of identity' among urban cliques inherent to Sonntag's Camp, while investigating a myriad of eroticised images and narrow gender portrayals prevalent in the me dia and on internet platforms. With coded (visual) language, signalling and 'flagging' (referring to covert and not-so-covert ways of indicat ing a belonging to a queer community) being crucial subjects of queer experience, history, and theory -not to mention the impact of appro priation of such signifiers, found in queer coding and queer-baiting within cinema, media, and marketing.

1 Sontag, Susan. (2018). Notes on camp. Penguin UK. (Original work published in 1964). Note 1).




Not unrelated to matters of queer signalling, the series Good Will Hunting explores queer 'prowling' culture and -discourse, conjuring the image of particularly queer men roam ing among bars, (sex)clubs, dance floors, parks, bath houses and back alleys (not unlike 'cruising', generally considered a code word or slang term referring to the act of walking around urban areas, or 'cruising grounds', in the hope of finding sexual partners2). How are we to understand this hunting motif (also luring in the exhibition title borrowed from In Gus Van Sant's popularised film from 1997) in the works of Wen Gum Gum? The figures seem caught up in camaraderie, a variety of social activities and solo-explorations - are the figures, carried by the bodiless figure, 'prey' of the nights prowling? Or is something considerably different taking place? Perhaps we might consider the very definition of 'ca maraderie' as "a spirit of trust and goodwill among people closely associated in an activity or endeavour3". The uncertainty itself is a key feature of camp, Sontag notes: "To camp is a mode of seduction - one which employs flamboyant mannerisms susceptible of a double interpretation; gestures full of duplicity, with a witty meaning for cognoscenti and another, more impersonal, for outsider.4

Another concern of Wen Gum Gum is the role of information and knowledge-production along with (aesthetic) sensory experience, in which the medium of painting becomes crucial. She finds herself confronted with the devaluation of painting, by some considered lack ing in terms of creating a sensuous space for active social engage ment or questioned as a carrier or producer of knowledge. However, to Wen Gum Gum, even pieces of trash can come to be carriers of information: "As I am constantly attracted by restless images in front of my eyes, I pick them up and paint them; lured by garbage paper fragments on the ground, I stop my busy hands to sort out the layered information that arise and trouble me at the same time." In this way garbage, internet-phenomena, media images, queer bodies, spiritual ity, and self-introspection come to serve as an intertwined, hodge pudge-palette of information.

2 Gove, Ben. Cruising Culture: Promiscuity, Desire and American Gay Literature. Edinburgh University Press. 2000.
3 Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. "comradery,
["camaraderie"]. 
4 Sontag, note 17.)


In this manner, Wen Gum Gum aligns with numerous contemporary feminist artists who have turned to figurative painting in reimagin ing queer and female bodies. Like the medium of painting, particular bodies have been historical hot spots of dispute and violence - or phrased in the words of Barbara Kruger: "Your body is a battleground" (a phrase appearing in her influential piece Untitled depicting the dis embodied face of a woman for the Pro-Choice March in 1989)5 .s Art ists and art historians have long investigated how canonised art and media images-often produced by men-have perpetuated and ideal ised the female form, while feminist artists have reclaimed the female body and depicted it through a variety of lenses. Departing from these bodies-as-images, Wen Gum Gum addresses another fraught space within feminist and queer theory: the politics of pleasure. Here 'pleas ure' is configured as a space of re-imagination, protest, and politics. Wen Gum Gum's (de)fetishised figures prompts an investigation of projected imaginaries and portrayal of individuals, particularly in rela tion to defining, confining, and expanding gender roles, -expressions and -boundaries.

While the notion Camp denotes a love "for the exaggerated, the "off," of things-being-what-they-are-not", "a love for the unnatural", the re lationship to the unnatural bodies of Wen Gum Gum is one of ambi guity and complexity6. In Adoption 《舉與養》 (2022), a bodiless figure, is running off with a strange body-image on its head, while an odd slogan across Intro reads: "the duality of the bodiless women - to emulate classic feminine image while at the same time commemo rate its defeat. The disturbed figures seem to find themselves in a loop of adopting, rejecting, and challenging the images imposed on them (especially those conjured by the Male gaze) - images akin to statues of Henry Moore, such as Reclining Woman (1930) depicted in Intro. We are familiar with such imagery: elegant and graceful women; lying, resting and passive women; women integrated into architecture, bearing weighty elements without displaying the strain and strength evident in their male counterparts. Conversely, in their campy-naïivety, sketchiness, and diluted forms, Wen Gum Gums figures are on-the move, in the process of building-up, holding-up, pissing-off as active figures coming into being - rather than being the virtual image of the static female stone-figure of Henry Moore.


"One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious," notes Sontag7. Somewhere within the Campiness of it all, within the irony, playfulness, and mockery-along with the queer bodies, seman tic bodies, and absurd bodies - we come to find a conglomerate of vulnerable bodies and pounding sensibilities.
5 Murphy, Julien. Gender Struggles: Practical Approach es to Contemporary Feminism, Edited Anthology, (with Constance Mui), 2002, 10.
6 Sontag, notes 8.) and 1.) 
7 Sontag, note 41.)


Amalie Voss 評論 – 收錄於《颱風：在台灣新成形的藝術風眼中》（2024）🪂
她們既陌生又熟悉，這些游走的身體──外露的陰部直接呈現在我們面前，雙腿穿著網襪或低腰喇叭褲，踩著高跟鞋啪嗒啪嗒地響。

然而，這些畫中女性顯得特殊的原因，並不是出於她們的風格選擇、暴露的生殖器或毫無羞怯的態度，而是她們完全沒有軀幹。對於藝術家溫佳寧，或稱溫金金（wen gum gum）奇異的畫作和素描中的人物而言，這似乎是一種相當普通的身體狀態。作品〈Intro II（2022）〉是一件卡通風格的數位拼貼紙平版畫，畫面中一位名為「媽媽」的角色告訴我們：「由於先天性原因，家族中的每個女性在二十歲時，都會經歷身體軀幹的完全消失，最終只剩下頭在雙腿之上」。經歷這種異常預定的變身過程，她們成為「無身驅的女人」。這種「無身驅」形態是溫金金在2022年「善的意志會狩獵」個展中，眾多女性、男性和性別模糊角色身體的共同特徵，而這個不尋常的群體顯得荒謬可笑：一群人堆疊在一起，形成一個人塔，無身人物一個接一個，站在彼此曾經的肩膀──現在則是屁股之上；三位擺弄姿勢的女性身驅亮著胸脯；另一人忙於在路邊進行金淋浴的便溺（golden shower）；一位名為「凱文媽媽」的人物優雅地擺著姿態，僅佩戴著一條珍珠項鍊（真正的珍珠）。

溫金金由蘇珊·桑塔格1964年著名的「坎普（Camp）」札記中汲取靈感，桑塔格將其描述為一種關於視覺或品味的獨特感性，陶醉於技巧、誇張的、諷刺並俏皮的風格塑造，以及戲劇化呈現。[1] 溫金金以她畫中滑稽、幽默，諷刺人物的直白態度，剖析了身份認同和社會編碼的過程，類似於桑塔格於坎普札記中，描述城市小圈子中的「私密代碼」或「身份徽章」。同時，她也研究媒體和網絡平台上大量流行的情色化圖像和狹隘的性別描繪。藉由視覺語言編碼、發出訊號和「flagging（指的是暗示或明示屬於酷兒社群的方式）」是酷兒集體經驗、歷史和理論的重要課題——更遑論這些符號在電影、媒體和市場營銷中的酷兒編碼（queer coding）和酷兒釣魚（queer-baiting）中受挪用而產生的影響。

關於酷兒訊號，溫金金在《Good Will Hunting》系列作品中，探索了酷兒「四處徘徊（prowling）」的文化和話語，喚起了酷兒男子在酒吧、（性）俱樂部、舞池、公園、浴室和後巷中漫遊的形象（類似於「巡遊」，這是一個代碼或俚語，指的是在城市區域或「巡遊地帶」走動，希望找到性伴侶[2]）。在溫金金的作品中，我們應如何理解這個狩獵主題（這也是展覽標題借自蓋斯·范·桑特1997年廣為流傳的電影的原因）？畫作中的這些人物似乎陷入了友情、社交活動和獨自探索之中——由無身體人物所承載，是否他們亦是夜晚徘徊的「獵物」？或是有著完全不同的敘事正在發生？也許我們可以考慮「友情」的定義，即「在共同活動或事業中密切相關的人之間的信任和善意精神」[3]。不確定性本身就是坎普的關鍵特徵，桑塔格指出：「坎普是一種誘惑的手法——運用艷麗的舉止，這些舉止可以有雙重解釋；這些充滿雙重性的姿態，對明白的人富有意義，而對於外行人則顯得較為冷漠。」[4]

在創作上，溫金金另一個關注的重點是訊息和知識生產的角色，以及（美學）感官經驗，其中她認為繪畫非常重要。她發現自己面臨著繪畫被貶值的情況，在當代藝術的場合中，有些人認為繪畫無法創造足夠豐富的感官空間，或促進觀看者互動，或懷疑繪畫是否能傳達深刻的知識。然而，對她來說，即使是垃圾也可以成為訊息的載體：「我不斷被眼前不安的圖像吸引時，我會撿起它們描繪紀錄；當我被地上垃圾紙片吸引，我會停下忙碌的手來整理出其層層堆疊的訊息，這些訊息同時困擾著我也同時吸引著我。」藉由這種方式，垃圾、網絡現象、媒體圖像、異質身體、精神和自我反省，成為了一個相互交織、色彩雜亂的訊息調色盤。

與許多當代女性主義藝術家一致，溫金金藉由重新塑造畫中的酷兒和女性身體，表達自己的看法。繪畫這樣的媒介，使某些身體成為歷史上爭議和暴力的焦點——芭芭拉·克魯格曾說過：「你的身體是一個戰場」[5]，這句話出現在其1989年為支持墮胎自由而創作的作品《無題》，其中展示了一個無身體的女性臉孔。藝術家和藝術史學家長期以來探討標準化的藝術和媒體形象——這些形象通常由男性製作——如何持續理想化女性形象，而女性主義藝術家則重新主張女性身體，透過多重的角度來描繪它。與這些作為圖像的身體不同，溫佳寧探討了女性主義和酷兒理論中另一個令人擔憂的空間：快樂的政治。在這裡，「愉悅」被配置為一個重新想像、抗議和政治的空間。她與其（去）物化的人物，激發了對投射幻想和個體描繪的探究，特別是在定義、限制和擴展性別角色、表達及邊界方面等關聯。

坎普顯示出一種對於「誇張的、異常的、事物本不應有的」的愛，以及對於「非自然」的喜愛，溫金金對於非自然身體的關係與詮釋則充滿了模糊性和複雜性。[6]在畫作《Adoption 舉與養》（2022）中，一名無身驅人物的頭上頂著怪異的身體形象，對應於〈Intro〉中的奇怪標語寫道：「無身體女性的雙重性——模仿經典女性形象，同時又紀念它的失敗。」這些擾人的形象似乎陷入了一種採用、拒絕和挑戰她們所被強加的圖像（特別是那些由男性凝視產生的圖像）的循環——這些圖像類似於亨利·摩爾的雕像，如《Reclining Woman》（1930）在〈Intro 初引〉中的複製形象。我們對這些形象並不陌生：優雅而有氣質的女性；躺著、休息和被動的女性；不像男性雕像同伴那樣充滿疲憊和力量，相反的是，融入建築外牆的女性，在她們坎普的天真、草率和稀薄形態中，肩負著建築重量。溫金金筆下的人物形象處於不斷變動的過程中，正在建構、支撐、激怒，作為主動的形象誕生——而不是亨利·摩爾靜態女性石雕的虛構形象。

「人可以對輕浮的事物認真，對認真的事物輕浮」，桑塔格指出。在這一切的坎普性格，諷刺、玩世不恭和嘲弄之中——以及酷兒身體、語義身體和荒謬身體——我們在溫金金的創作中，發現了一種脆弱身體和激烈感性的綜合體。


[1] Sontag, Susan. (2018). Notes on camp. Penguin UK. (Original work published in 1964). Note 1).

[2] Gove, Ben. Cruising Culture: Promiscuity, Desire and American Gay Literature. Edinburgh University Press. 2000.

[3] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. "comradery, ["camaraderie"].

[4] Sontag, note 17.) Sontag, note 41)

[5] Murphy, Julien. Gender Struggles: Practical Approach es to Contemporary Feminism, Edited Anthology, (with Constance Mui), 2002, 10.

[6] Sontag, notes 8.) and 1)

  • 本文節錄自 Amalie Voss 評論，原刊於《颱風：在台灣新成形的藝術風眼中》（2024，DMP Editions），由溫金金翻譯。






Review by Kevin You Singgan
 – Hunting Season for Bodiless Women, talks.taishinart(2022) 游承彥評論 – 無身體女性的狩獵季節 刊登於台新銀行文化藝術基金會ARTalks 🪂
 

溫佳寧　初引　2022　圖片來源：溫佳寧 2022.11.29


一個穿著高跟鞋的人身體扳成九十度，頭穿過胯下看著你，健壯的雙腿從這個角度被凸顯，網格絲襪幾乎變成鐵絲做的，甚至可以當作血管。時間定格，想像畫面變成立體的，所有人的身體和雙手都消失了，頭直接被安裝在胯下，連接雙腿——這對某些人可能是一場惡夢，同時卻又是一場充滿裸體及戀物元素的春夢，一個同時使人極度抗拒卻又渴望的組合。

「狩獵」是英語同志文化時常使用的詞彙，冒著被出櫃或更嚴重的風險，非主流性向者以往必須前往森林、公廁等特定場所，現在則於網路交友軟體上，以衣著暗示、動作挑逗等方法尋覓對象滿足性需求。溫佳寧於「善的意志會狩獵」個展，正是以一群「失去身體」的角色，挑戰發生在當代藝術裡的「狩獵」文化。


溫佳寧　火瓶　2022　照片來源：王仲平 2022.11.29


溫佳寧　怪獸骨粉-1　2015　圖片來源：溫佳寧 2022.11.29


《火瓶》發展自2015年的舊作《怪獸骨粉-1》，是展覽少數保留正常身體想像空間的作品。入場處漫畫海報《初引》附有木框和一張彩圖，漫畫中母親向孩子解釋：「所有女性在二十歲時身體都會消失，頭長到雙腿上，不過她們還是會活得好好的。」

接下來的展場近似完全黑白無聲的科幻異托邦／烏托邦情色電影，隨著腳步，畫質於240p至4K之間轉換，依據畫布大小、筆觸及跳接的場景和顏色相反的背景，閃爍於無身人類皮革褲擋的反光，或是以幾幅保留運送作品時包覆的塑膠膜，彷彿嬉笑地提醒觀眾現實的界與限：你可以看，但你不能碰。在畫廊裡你也沒有手，在畫廊裡你就是無身之人，僅止於目光的狩獵，如同「禁慾」、「控射」在某些性愛遊戲中的運作機制，畫作的被動攻擊使觀眾在意識到之前，就潤滑地進入戀腿癖等被一般人視為「畸形」、「變態」，沒有顏色卻溢滿光澤的肉體經驗，並且獲得比預料中更強大的刺激。

早在溫佳寧成為藝術家／出版商／寵物社群帳號經營者「溫金金 (wen gum gum) 」之前，她便著手策造形象上／實際上包含無身、變形人類的幾個宇宙。她活躍於網路論壇，同時以濾鏡特效改造人體製作錄像作品。2022年於福利社「善的意志會狩獵」個展中，她將過往彩度鮮明、情慾化宗教與政治偶像的創作歷史，移轉到黑白色「無身人」的「無身」上。除了挑戰不同的禁忌，這也是一種將「寫信給愛慕對象」，再進一步發展成面對所有「難以觸及現實」的創作方法，將它靜止／放大，接近它，但又同時創造距離。

無身人沒有身體——沒有手、沒有胸部，使得胯下、雙腿、腳掌、鞋跟腫脹，獲得如同狩獵場景裡的注視。畫作中，有些臉龐是中性的，但其實大部分輪廓及五官帶有明顯的二元男性／女性生理性別特質及服飾，以「女性」角色居多，安裝在無身人的各式表演上。帶著安逸舒適的表情，無身人丟火瓶、疊成塔、頭戴荊棘赤足踩蛇籠、以私處卡住籬笆尖銳處、展示時髦服裝（的下半身）、散步、在公眾場合小便、到美術館看展覽。

雖然與ORLAN「下樓梯的裸體」帶有相似的意象，溫佳寧卻不是以ORLAN回應杜象時期的性別凝視，或者如同杜象回應立體主義的方式思考；她沒有意圖特別針對性別的二元性進行批判，也不費力去反對、反轉，而是自在的擴展、把玩「女性／陰性」被慾望時各種可能的性別和身體形象。

不過，如果狩獵行為中重要的「身體」確實消失了，沒有身體的人們在網路和藝廊便成功獲得滿足，這個世界是否還真少了那麼點顏色？


福利社　善的意志會狩獵：溫佳寧個展　2022　照片來源：王仲平 2022.11.29