【展覽資訊｜小自然 – 陳宛伶個展】

什麼是「自然」？水、空氣、岩石、山脈、河流、海洋、植物、動物、微生物、地球、宇宙…。自然，廣義而言指的是自然界、物質世界、物質宇宙與物理學宇宙，現在很多時候也被指意為自然的環境或是荒野，那些未受人類介入的，而這樣的自然概念也意味著自然與人工的區別。

在現代生活中，這普遍意義上的自然有時顯得有些遙遠，在我們身邊無所不在的是經由人類介入而留存下來的自然片段，稍微離開市中心的城鎮或許有著較接近大自然應有的面貌，然而卻也總是在城市規劃的界線上留下不自然的邊界 ;有時被自然包覆著的印象翻轉為我們包覆著自然。於是生活中容易接近的是那些公園裡的草皮與樹木、規劃過的樹蔭、綠化植物、門外的植物路障、庭院造景等，那麼我們現在能如何觀看它、描寫它？如何回應面對自然時我們的經驗？

有一個來自童年的記憶：獨自帶著補蟲網在空中、在草叢裡補撈著蜻蜓、蝴蝶或蚱蜢，蹲在泥土堆中搜尋著雞母蟲與肚猴，在樹下撿拾掉落的果殼與種子等，這些捕獲來如珍藏品的昆蟲與植物總能放在手裡把玩許久，接著將牠們放入玩具盒裡，或關在紗窗與玻璃窗之間，然後不小心牠們可能就死掉變成捨不得丟掉的標本，或被父母責罵趕緊放生。在田野間遇見的牠們很美，然而在手裡面的、被關在窗戶與盒子裡的、死去後的屍殼被另外保存的牠們，亦有著獨特的吸引力。

那些原本難以捕捉的，能以什麼樣的方式被取樣，以何種形式被觀看與觀察，使得那些原本無法看見也無法描述的變得可視，讓原本不可親近的變得容易親近，且顯現出那些不可理解的事物所傳達的神祕性？這次個展中的作品，取材自日常生活中的自然碎片，有來自居家環境周圍、網路上、Google map 衛星地圖以及想像中的自然景觀等，將這些碎片捏塑成縮小的模型後，再次將其視為觀察的對象並進行描繪 ; 此刻面對的不再是直接經驗裡的自然或造景，而是面對經過層層再造的對象來進行寫生，藉由這樣的觀察方法以及這些作為不可理解事物一部份的物體，體現這一世界與主體經驗的關係。

What is “nature”? Water, air, rocks, mountains, rivers, oceans, plants, animals, microorganisms,the Earth and the universe…etc. Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural, physical, or material world or universe. Nowadays, nature for most of the time refers to natural environment, the wilderness, and those untouched world. The concept of nature thus distinguishes itself from the artefacts.

In modern life, the general conception of nature is sometimes a bit distant from daily life although there are fragments of nature created by human beings everywhere. If we somewhat get away from the city centre, we can get closer to see the real nature. However, the most unnatural border lies in between the nature and the city due to the urban planning. Sometimes we have the illusion of being surrounded by the nature while we try to convert the urban city into nature with elements of nature. So when life is accessible to cultivated lawn and trees in the park, the designed tree shadow, greening products, plants placed as roadblocks, garden landscapes…etc, how do we see and portray the nature? How do we respond to the certain kind of experiences of the nature?

I came up with childhood memories. I was alone in the grass, waving the net in the air to catch the dragonflies, butterflies and grasshoppers. Sometimes, I couched down in the mud, searching for crickets and larva of beetles, picking up fallen nutshells and seeds. After appreciating these insects and plants like my collection in my hands for some time, I would either put them in my toy box or lock them in between the screen window and glass window. They might accidentally die and become one of my specimen collections. Or when my parents found it out and scolded at me, I would quickly set them free. It was a beautiful encounter with them in the field. No matter they died or when they stopped in my hand, flying in the box and in between the windows, a unique appeal was delivered and preserved in the dead shells as well.

How to sample those originally intangible? How to make those invisible and indescribable be visible? In what form should they become? How to get closer to those inaccessible and make the mystery of those incomprehensible prominent? Works in the solo exhibition are drawn from the fragments of the nature in daily life, such as residential surrounding around the artist’s house, the Internet, satellite images of Google map and imagined natural landscape. The artist firstly sculptures those pieces of material into prototypes. Afterwards, instead of sketching the physical body of nature and landscape, taking the prototypes as the subject, the artist observes and depicts the prototypes. The methodology of portraying transformed and reshaped objects, which embodies the incomprehensibility of matters, indicates the relationship between subjective experiences and the world.