工作室的窗外，可以看見幾棟老舊大廈的後巷。後巷不是一個準確的表達，因為那是一個被欄起來，沒有人會經過的地方，雜草和樹木向著不同方向四處蔓生。即使在冬天，那角落的植物還帶著一種深沉憂鬱的綠，彷彿外界的變化與它們無關。站在窗邊，會有逐漸被時間包覆起來的感覺。
在第17期The Plant Magazine的引言中，讀到一句這樣的話：「仍然會種植的，都是相信未來的人。」是不是這樣我並不確定，可是熱愛植物的人，或多或少都能夠感受到一種與時鐘無關的時間。無論城市lock down與否，植物有空間就會生長，它們分享的是一種與地球深處連結的時間。
就像2021秋冬這期雜誌的題目：Time is always there。
The Plant是由Cristina Merino於巴塞隆拿創立的雜誌，集合了插畫家、攝影師、作家、音樂家等等不同創作者的與植物之間的生活和故事。
花園，是人類使用自然的素材，以人類的美學感受所創造出來的空間。透過花園的空間構成，我們感受到時間流逝的方式。今期雜誌的封面故事 <Time is always there> 就講述了著名園藝設計師Piet Oudolf 為雕塑家Eduardo Chillida的露天藝術館設計花園的故事。
2002年離世的Eduardo Chillida是前衛的西班牙巴斯克雕塑家，他以巨大、抽象的雕塑聞名於世。他的作品猶如從地球內部生長出來的，一些人類無法理解的巨大物件。在藝術館Chillida Leku裡，只能在當時當刻，以全部感官去嘗試接近它們，感受它們和空間的關係。雕塑成形後，就會一直矗立於地景上數百年的歷史，在巨大的雕塑旁邊，我們進入了一種更古老、漫長的時間，一切都彷彿停止了。
一個花園裡的植物卻是瞬間即逝的，每個季節都不一樣。園藝設計師Piet Oudolf在2019年接到雕塑家的後人委托為Chillida-Leku設計一個花園，他的感受是：「它們都有各自的時間。」他小心選擇不會與雕塑品形式直接呼應的植物，作為作品與作品之間緩衝的花園，他希望創造出另一種時間的質感：柔軟的、流動的、遮掩的。走過花園，你會「發現」一件雕塑品，而非只是「看見」另一件作品。植物無時無刻都在變動，它們不斷與外界溝通、連繫著。
The Plant Magazine的不同Cover也令人產生想收藏的衝動。The Plant每期也邀請不同風格的攝影師以植物為主題拍攝Photo Essay，曾經出現過的就有Paul McCartney之妻Lina McCartney、德國時尚攝影師Juergen Teller、擅於拍攝年輕情緒的Clara Balzar等等。在不同藝術家手上，植物與我們的不同關係也被放大了。可能是生活的點綴，可能是一場追溯回憶的旅程，可能是青春的燥動，也可能是一個生命的隱喻。
為什麼植物，總是那麼容易直接地打動人呢？
人類的手能夠做出無可比擬的事情，例如創造一件能夠矗立數百年的雕塑，又例如每日清晨清除野草維持花園的層次。可是，我們每人都只有80-90年的時間，無法體驗極短或極長，以及隨之以改變的情緒和觀念。我們只能從物件變化的痕跡中，偷窺時間的全貌。
透過植物，我們彷彿找到一條直達秘密深處的通道。
至於那秘密，每個人都擁有屬於自己的。
Outside the studio window, one sees the back alley of a few old buildings. Back alley is not an accurate expression, because the place is fenced off and no one passes through it, with weeds and trees growing in all sorts of directions. Even during winter, plants in that corner exude a certain sombre, melancholic green, as if all the changes outside have nothing to do with them. Standing by the window, one gets a feeling of being gradually enclosed by time.
In the prologue of The Plant magazine’s 17th issue, I read a line that goes, “The ones that still plant are the ones that still believe in the future.” I am unsure if that is really the case, but people who are passionate about plants do more or less feel a sense of time unrelated to clocks. Regardless of a city’s lockdowns, plants grow where there is space. What they offer is a temporality connected to the very core of the earth.
Much like the title of the magazine’s 2021 fall issue: Time is always there.
The Plant is a magazine started by Cristina Merino in Barcelona. It collects the lives and stories of illustrators, photographers, writers, musicians and other creators with plants.
Gardens, they are spaces humans create through the use of natural materials and aesthetic feelings. In the ways that gardens construct space, we sense the ways by which time flows. The cover story of this issue, Time is always there, tells the story of renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf designing a garden for sculptor Eduardo Chillida’s outdoor museum.
Eduardo Chillida, who passed away in 2002, was a pioneering Spanish Basque sculptor, celebrated worldwide for his gigantic abstract sculptures. His works are colossal matters that appear as if they sprang forth from within the earth, that elude human comprehension. In the museum Chillida Leku, one could only make use of all senses at the moment when attempting to approach them and gain a sense of their relationship with the space. Once the sculptures have taken shape, they remain standing in the history of the landscape for hundreds of years. Standing by the huge sculptures, we enter into a time more archaic and far-off, where everything seems to stand still.
Plants in a garden are, however, ephemeral and different every season. When garden designer Piet Oudolf received the commission from the sculptor’s descendants to design a garden for Chillida Leku in 2019, he felt that, “Each of them carries its own sense of time.” He carefully selected plants that do not correspond to the sculptures’ forms directly, such that the garden acts as a buffer between one artwork and another. He hoped to create a different texture of time: soft, fluid, shrouded. Passing through the garden, you “discover” a sculpture, instead of simply “seeing” another piece of work. Plants are changing at every moment, constantly communicating with the world outside, connecting to it.
The different covers of The Plant magazine also appeal to the impulse to collect. In every issue, The Plant invites photographers of different styles to produce photo essays on plants as a subject. Featured photographers included Paul McCartney’s wife Lina McCartney, German fashion photographer Juergen Teller, Clara Balzar, who is very good at capturing youthful emotions, etc. Under the handling of different artists, different relationships between plants and us were also expanded. They could be about decorations for a lifestyle, a journey in search of a memory, the restlessness of youth or a metaphor for life.
How is it that plants always move us so simply and directly?
The human hand is capable of unparalleled feats, like creating sculptures that stay standing for hundreds of years, or clearing weeds every morning to maintain the layers in a garden. But each one of us has only 80-90 years’ time, precluded from experiencing the shortest or the longest lifespans, as well as the emotions and ways of thinking that change along with them. We could only rely on the traces of a matter’s transformation to steal glimpses of the full picture of time.
Through plants, it is as though we have found a tunnel to the very depth of the mystery.
As for that mystery, everyone has one of his own.
