Moonlight Night in a Bag

Katsue Kitazono’s Visual Poetry

北園克衛,是一位編輯、畫家、平面設計師,也是一位攝影師,不過,他畢生花最大力氣去延續的,始終是他詩人的身分。

這本名為《カバンのなかの月夜,北園克衛の造型詩》(Moonlight night in a bag,北園克衛的造型詩),說是詩集,英文名字卻寫成《Kitasono Katue Photographs》,英語與日語名字為此書設下了兩種截然不同的定義,但我想,或許可以故且將其稱作「影像詩集」。

若說北園克衛的照片富有詩意,你可能會感到納悶,那些照片大量留白的空間之中,似乎沒有甚麼情感的流動,你甚至很難讀得出一個所以然來。不過這正正是北園克衛所追求的,他沒打算拍攝「富詩意的照片」,而是視照片為詩本身。

要明白北園克衛的影像詩,或許得先從他的文字詩創作說起。在寫文字詩時,北園克衛重視的是文字的組合、詩印刷在畫面上時的空間感、各種元素的對立與彼此間的張力。在他的詩裡文字脫離了作為思想的符號的責任,無需建構任何邏輯,寫「の」時,只是一條弧線,寫「黑」時,則只是一個筆劃密麻的方塊,而他的影像詩的類同。

此書中主要收錄了北園克衛名為「Plastic Poem」的影像詩系列之中,他將各種印有文字的紙張剪裁、揉毁、拼貼、排列。文字在「Plastic Poem」當中並沒有任何意義,你不需要讀懂紙張內的多國語言,也能自紙張的呈現方式、物件的配置之中,感受到北園克衛的影像詩的趣味。

Katsue Kitazono was a renowned Japanese editor, painter, designer and photographer. However, the only tag he was most tirelessly dedicated to would be the one as a poet.

The poem collection Moonlight night in a bag was given an English title Kitasono Katue – Photographs, which sets a completely different tone from the original Japanese title. To me, the collection could perhaps be called as Visual Poetry.

It may not be entirely convincing to describe the photos of Kitazono as poetic. After all, the abundant amount of whitespace does not seem to hold too much sentiment or imply any underlying messages. However, this is exactly what Kitazono pursued. He did not intend to make poetic photographs, he rather treated photography itself as poetry.

To get into Kitazono’s world of visual poetry, one has to first start with his poems in text form. Kitazono’s composition stressed on the combination of characters, as well as the visual orientation of the printed form, without compromising on the contrast and tension of all the elements together. In his poems, words have gone beyond mere symbols of thoughts. They are unleashed from all kinds of logical constraints. The character の could be written as just a curve; whereas the character 黑 (black) could be replaced by a square densely stroked. The same structure can well be applied to his visual poetry.

This book features a series of Kitazono’s visual poetry called Plastic Poem, in which he made use of paper printed with words as a medium to create a collage of visual feast. Word itself has no significance in Plastic Poem; it is the juxtaposition of elements that create a world of its own. Readers do not even need to understand the different languages on the shattered paper to feel the playfully poetic quality presented by Kitazono’s visual poetry.

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