「回推記憶時間軸的話，應該是小時候有一次下大雨，整個社區淹水，我和哥哥在車庫玩泥巴，埋下喜歡做陶的種子。」台灣藝術家賈勛甯（Lydia）說。把泥放在手心上，毫無目的地玩弄著，小時候的她也許是感覺被水濕潤了泥土質感黏稠，很好玩吧。長大後，她雙手還是玩弄著濕了的泥，只是加入了一些想像、好奇和實驗，反覆地探索陶泥的可能性。
陶瓷能不能像布料般飄逸？像彈簧一樣充滿彈性？或像麻繩般擁有粗獷質感的表面？
抱著這些疑問，Lydia展開一系列的測試與實驗，把瓷漿結合其他物料創作，就像她的「陶的纖維式」系列。「把棉繩加上瓷漿後，在模具上編織，待乾後進行噴釉，在窯燒的過程中，將纖維在高溫中燒盡，僅剩下陶瓷坯體，這使纖維成為陶瓷的載體。」回歸工藝「取之自然」的本質，Lydia利用植物纖維使陶瓷成形的編織籃子，同時擁有纖維的輪廓與陶瓷的質感，形成有趣的對比。
她的創作既有藝術性的實驗成分，卻又是能融入生活中、擁有功能性的設計。「我覺得我的作品好像是一種介於藝術與設計之間的模糊關係，有人跟我說過這樣對我來說很不好，因為這是一種很不乾脆的狀態。不過，摸索到現在我好像慢慢才可以接受自己就是喜歡這樣，也就是這種個性的人耶！」
早前Lydia在台北的朋丁舉辦了名為《取塵》的首次個人展覽，從最微小的塵土開始，「取塵」是來自日文「塵取り」（畚箕），像畚箕般蒐集塵土、整理想像，聆聽材料的聲音，拋掉固有的設計思維，直覺地以雙手把它呈現出原本的樣子。「將塵土集中時身體進入的狀態就像創作時的專注狀態，進入一種身體規律、意識流動的樣子。這次展覽我開始練習相信直覺、交給身體去進行實驗。」
Lydia說，過去她想像的「首次個展」應該是很盛大，並呈現現階段最完美的自己，而且是內心覺得完全準備好的那種，但其實來臨的時候一切根本就跟想像的不一樣。「好好地與自己對話後才發現自己想要的比較像是一個階段性狀態的發表，所以這次的展場像我 sketch book 的延伸，從過去『陶的纖維式』繼續發展的實驗系列，除了針對不同纖維與瓷漿結合加入工藝技法的實驗試片，還有關於比較穩定、正在販售的籃子系列以外，我幾乎把這三個月以來實驗的各種結果，重新整理並有序地一起呈現了。展桌分為『解構』、『彈簧』和『動態』，有點像是人類學、考古的感覺，讓大家看看我的想像筆記和實驗結果。」
「展覽中讓我最開心的作品是關於『彈簧』的實驗。高溫燒成後纖維的消逝，使得陶瓷結構比起一般來得更鬆散，保留了彈簧的彈性效果，突破了我們對陶瓷的固有印象。雖然實驗的過程仍讓我感到起起伏伏，不過看到彈簧這個實驗結果，再次感受到材質變化的趣味及魅力，與不同材質充滿了各種可能性，這點還是實實在在的吸引著我呢！」Lydia說實驗性的創作方式總是有很多好玩的想像、複雜的過程、挫折的結果，反反覆覆的充滿痛苦，卻又能在痛苦中感受到一絲喜悅，而那些喜悅總是比做其他事所帶來的喜悅擁有更豐富的層次，這讓她更享受現時的創作方式。
實驗，是一場無休止的旅程，因為沒有終點，所以每次「成功」或「失敗」都是過程的一部分。「有人說過展覽的開始就是結束，不過我覺得這邊的「結束」不是一種現階段的結束，指的應該的是對自己內心各種糾結的結束，接受自己現階段的不足，然後調整、敞開自己與不同領域的人交流，聽聽看不同面向的想法，並且攝取經驗再邁出下一步。不同領域的人看作品的角度都很不同，給的回饋是我以前從沒想過的，這點很有趣！雖然大家看得到的與我實際在做的事情會有點落差，不過這個落差很美，能夠直接的與收藏家聊聊天的感覺有點害羞，也很開心，覺得自己沒有自信的部分被接住了。」
把塵土翻開，只要我們細心觀察，也許就能看見從塵土中長出的美麗花朵。
“If we are to go down the memory lane, it was probably one time during a massive downpour when I was small, and the whole community was flooding, that my brother and I played with mud in the garage, and that the seed of my love for making ceramics was planted,” said Taiwanese artist Chia Hsun Ning (Lydia). Putting clay on the palm, playing with it aimlessly, young Lydia probably found the texture of wet clay sticky and fun. As she grew older, her hands still play with wet clay, but with more imagination, curiosity and experimentation, as she explores the possibilities of clay over and over again.
Can ceramics become as airy as fabric? As bouncy as springs? Or as rough and raw on the surface as twine?
With these questions, Lydia began a series of tests and experiments, combining clay slip with other materials in her creation, such as in her “Fibered Ceramic” series. “After applying porcelain slip on cotton threads, I wove them on a mould, and sprayed glaze on them when they have dried. In the process of kiln firing, the fibre is burned out in extreme heat, leaving only the clay body, that makes fibre the vessel for ceramics.” Returning to the craftsmanship principle of “drawing from nature”, Lydia used plant fibres with ceramics to create woven baskets, giving it the appearance of fibre and the texture of ceramics, as an intriguing contrast took form.
Her artworks contain elements of artistic experimentation, but are also functional designs capable of integrating into life. “I think my works amount to an ambiguous relationship between art and design. People have told me that this is not good for me, because it is an unclear state. However, through my explorations until now, I seem to have slowly accepted the fact that this is how I like it, that I’m of this kind of disposition.”
Previously, Lydia held her first solo exhibition at Taipei’s Pon Ding, titled “Gathering Dust”. Starting off with dust, which is the smallest, “gathering dust” comes from the Japanese term chiritori (塵取り; dustpan), it is about collecting dust as if with a dustpan, organising ideas, listening to the voice of the material, abandoning preconceived design thinking, and using both hands intuitively to shape it into its original form. “As you gather dust into one place, the body enters into a state much akin to the focused state of creating, it enters into a sort of bodily rhythm, a stream of consciousness. In this exhibition, I began to practise trusting my intuition, to let my body do the experimenting.”
Lydia said that she used to imagine her “first solo” to be very lavish, that it would present her best self at the moment, where she should feel completely ready mentally, but when the time actually came, nothing was as expected after all. “After having a proper conversation with myself, I realised that what I wanted more was a presentation of my state of progress. And so this exhibition is like an extension of my sketch book, it is a series of experiments that have developed out of “Fibered Ceramic”. Besides test tiles made of different fibres combined with clay slips through handicraft, and the sturdier basket series currently on sale, I almost reorganised all kinds of outcomes from these three months of experimentation and presented them in order. The display table is categorised into ‘Deconstruction’, ‘Springs’ and ‘Dynamics’, with a kind of anthropological or archaeological feel to it, to present to everyone my journal of imaginations and the results of my experimentations.”
“What pleased me the most in this exhibition are works related to experiments about ‘springs’. Upon high firing, the burning out of the fibre causes the structure of the ceramics to become looser and creates that stretchy effect of springs, which transcends our usual impression of ceramics. I find the experimenting process quite fluctuating still, but seeing the results of the springs experiment, I found the fun and charm in the changes of materiality again, and all kinds of possibilities that could be found in different materials, this appeals to me substantially!” Lydia said that the experimental approach to creating is often filled with lots of delightful imagination, complex processes and defeating results. There is so much suffering in the back-and-forth, yet in that suffering a tinge of joy is also felt, a joy more richly layered than the joy that comes from doing anything else. It made her enjoy the current creative approach all the more.
Experimentation is a never ending journey. With no destinations, every “success” or “failure” is part of the process. “There is a saying that the beginning of an exhibition is the end. I think, however, that this ‘end’ is not the end of the current phase per se, but probably means the end of all kinds of internal conflicts, to accept the inadequacies in this phase, and then to adjust, open up to interacting with people from different fields, listen to different perspectives and accumulate experience before taking the next step. People from different fields see artworks in very different angles, and what they reciprocate is beyond my usual consideration, a very interesting point indeed! Although there is slight discrepancy between what people see and the things that I actually do, it is a beautiful discrepancy. I get a bit shy when I chat with collectors directly, but I am very happy about it too, and I feel that the parts that I am not so confident about are accepted.”
Taking the clay apart, we need simply to observe closely, then we shall perhaps see the beautiful flower that has grown from dust.
