試探倪灝創作的若干路徑，以及─到底，如何「發生關係」? 那又有什麼關係?(節錄)

文／張芳薇

倪灝的創作「系統」彷彿是將藝術史攤平展開，在其上放了一張半透明描圖紙 ，藝術家恣意地在描圖紙上，與描圖紙下層的藝術史進行差距式摹寫、對話， 並以此開啟自己的創作路徑。他挪用一切───不論是藝術史、網路資訊與社群媒 體，或是歷史、自然科學與科技等學科範疇。但是，不管創作路徑延伸多寬多廣 ，倪灝的內核始終維持在以其自身與當下環境相互碰撞所形成關係的互相對應 上，試圖透過創作揭示當代生活的景況。

倪灝在某次對談提到過：「我的狀態更接近一種持續騷動的騷靈，需要不斷介 入、調整、推動、試探，使情勢在我與它的互動裡逐漸產生偏移。」產生偏移 即是製造距離。而所謂的「雕塑性」於此便是在物與物之間、元素與元素之間 的偏移距離中產生。

雕塑是觸覺的藝術，與觸覺、碰觸有關。「碰觸」在倪灝的創作具有幾個不同 層次的意涵。而從他的創作，也可例證「雕塑」已經從可見的物，進一步擴延至 行動、事件與表演的「殘留」。雕塑不再是「身體的再現」，而是身體曾經在 此發生過的證據。

Ni Hao's creative "system" works as if art history had been spread out flat and a sheet of translucent tracing paper laid over it. On that paper, the artist traces freely, always at a deliberate remove, copying and conversing with the art history underneath, and from this opens up a path of his own. He appropriates everything: art history, online information and social media, as well as the disciplines of history, the natural sciences, and technology. Yet no matter how far his practice ranges, its center of gravity never shifts: the friction between the artist and the world immediately around him, the relationships that friction produces, and the attempt to reveal what contemporary life is like through the creative act.

As Ni once put it in a conversation: "My state is closer to that of a poltergeist in constant agitation. I have to keep intervening, adjusting, pushing, probing, so that through my interaction with a situation, it gradually begins to shift." To produce a shift is to create distance. Here, the 'sculptural' emerges in the distances that open up between objects, and between one element and another.

Sculpture is an art of touch; it is bound up with the tactile, with contact. In Ni Hao's work, "touch" carries several distinct layers of meaning. His practice also bears out how "sculpture" has extended beyond the visible object to the "residue" of actions, events, and performances. Sculpture is no longer a "representation of the body" but evidence that a body was once present here .