陳宜艷 Chen I-Yen| 轉身之藝 The Art of Transformation

陳宜艷

CHEN I-Yen

1990年生於臺北。歷史系畢業後轉向當代藝術，2016年自維多利亞藝術學院獲碩士學位。她總是被生活的脆弱和周遭環境的瞬息萬變牽引，創作圍繞在人與外在環境的關係，探討無法被輕易看見的「風景」（landscape）。雖不限媒材，但陶瓷既脆弱又粗獷的特質非常切合她當前的創作概念。

《模糊之境》聚焦看不到的邊界，試圖描繪難以言狀的分離與歸屬感。何謂邊界？是由物理界線定義，又或更像一種心靈或信仰劃分的狀態？以兩張由17世紀的荷蘭人繪製的臺灣古地圖為參考。這兩張地圖揭示了外來者的視野，也透露了當時的人對於邊界的想像。《我曾居住過的地方》融合過去在不同地區居住、遷徙的經驗，傳達在歸屬、自由、禁錮、流浪等光譜上游移擺盪的情感。

日常軌道上，她常覺得自己必須穿上不同外衣，去扮演一些特定角色。駐村並不是讓她蛻變成誰，而是能脫去那些外衣，回想起自己是誰，再次心無旁騖地忠於創作、忠於自己。

Born in 1990 in Taipei, Chen received her MA from Victorian College of the Arts in 2016, having studied history first and contemporary art thereafter. Intrigued by life's fragility and her ever-changing surroundings, Chen's creations deal mostly with the relationship between people and the environment and explore the underlying "landscape" that often goes unnoticed. She uses an array of media, but the fragility and ruggedness of ceramics match well with her creative concepts at the moment.

Her work “A State of Obscurity” focuses on invisible borders and strives to articulate the sense of partition and belonging. What is a border? Is it a physical line, or rather a state of mind and belief? This work took reference from two of the earliest maps of Taiwan depicted by the Netherlands sailors in the 17th century. Both maps reveal the sight of outcomer, as well as the idea of border of the time. “Places I Have Lived” is a fusion of her past experiences of habitation and relocation. It expresses the swings of emotions she had, like the sense of belonging, freedom, confinement, and wandering.

Chen often feels impelled to dress up differently to play certain roles. A residency does not make her become more fitted to a role, but rather helps her get rid of the clothes for it and reminds her who she is, so she can fully devote to her work and be true to herself.