„Peony
Pavilion“ at
the Apartment
der Kunst – apartment of art / Munich is the first Solo exhibition
of Isa
Ho (何孟娟)
in
Germany. Born in 1977 the Taiwan based photographer, already received
a number of honors.
In
this exhibition we will show works from three series, made during the
last years.
The
“Girls”
series , also known to many as the “Falling Down” series, is
content wise constantly moving between the conflicting priorities of
a strong tradition and the requirements of modern live. Specially the
present generation of young asian woman often feel lost and helpless
in organizing their lives.
“Westbeth”
is an ongoing project and a collaboration of Isa
Ho
and the Munich based artist Moriz
Partenheimer.
They both met in New York 2013 during a residency stay at ISCP.
Westbeth
Artists Housing was established in 1868. This mysterious building
full of stories was open to resident artists to stay till they pass
away for relatively cheaper rents since 1970. In present mostly
artists in the age between 60 and 100 year live in the famous
Westbeth building. In this project Ho is concentrated on the portrait
of the the artist as a human image and also using interviews.
Partenheimer works on the image of the space where the artist life
takes place.
“Peony
Pavilion” is
the latest project of Isa
Ho
and also the title of the show. Since the nineties of the last
century K-Pop entertainment is dominant in a lot of Asian countries
an specially in Taiwan. It has a big impact on the self perception
of asian women. Femininity freedom is traditionally narrowed, but it
seems that the “Korean wave” has the power, throughout the medium
of dancing and moving, to create a new self-consciousness
and a feeling of positive female independence.
Isa
Ho
is questioning this new hedonistic model of femininity with the means
of contemporary photography. Therefore she is also comparing the
“Korean Wave” with the classical Chinese opera. As an example she
is using the eponymic Kunqu-opera “The Peony Pavilion” and what
she discovers a quite a lot similarities according to the perception
of women and aesthetics in Korean music videos.
With
her works Isa Ho is creating simulated realities. Playful,
self ironic and ruthlessly honest.
2015牡丹亭
討論韓國流行音樂崛起呈現的亞洲女性新風貌。K
pop席捲亞洲延燒至歐美，在台灣新世代年輕人身上造成的影響超乎想像，但韓國流行文化的影響不僅在年輕世代，韓劇、電影的觀眾年齡層更是橫跨老中青三代。韓流的崛起，除了韓國政府大力推廣之外，我認為亞洲女性自我意識的轉變是更大的原因。
對我來說，面對這些舞蹈動作，我覺得尷尬而且詭異，很類似我看傳統戲曲的感覺，有一種不理解距離感，之於我，一個是上一代的世界，一個是下一代的世界。越是深入了解，越是覺得KPOP有著中國傳統戲曲的影子，仔細分析KPOP的手勢、身段、心態，以及舞蹈結構後，我相信這現象有更深入的探討面向。
任何一種曲藝型式都是繼承與發展而來，金元雜劇北曲南戲到歌仔戲。這系列作品以崑曲牡丹亭為題，元朝湯顯祖崑曲作品。在元朝文人無用的低迷氛圍下，關漢卿曾說:
我玩的是梁圓月、飲的是東京酒、賞的是洛陽花、攀的是章台柳，以放浪不羈形容自己。崑曲故事結構諸多以夢境有關，虛實相交，以追求不朽的愛情暗示當時文人志不可伸但仍有夢想的心境。牡丹亭裡湯顯祖寫到:
情不知所起
一往情深，情之所至，生可以死，死可以生。女主角杜麗娘追求自己的愛情，由死而生。崑曲從元朝發展至清朝全盛時期，這段時間韓國同時也是中國的附屬國，我想這是為什麼KPOP對所有亞洲人來說比較容易接受，由此又可以討論亞洲音樂舞蹈的肢體特性。
若是將KPOP與傳統戲曲並置，在共通性中去突顯差異，最明顯的會是身體意識。不論從戲劇、舞蹈來看，亞洲女性對自己的身心有了不同的認知，不僅在於掌握自己、享受成為自己，面對自己的身體不再囚禁在傳統的羞愧窘境，而是一種熱衷與喜愛，觸摸、改變、掌握自己。在同樣的女性自我意識轉變相較於西方這樣的自我掌握中仍不失傳統的呈現出示弱的、可憐的、對男性的需求與幻想。我認為在這當中，突顯出亞洲女性正式開始正面面對自己的慾望。相對於西方是相當的遲，但十分有趣的截然不同於西方的發展出了屬於自己的性感，是女性自我意識的巨大變革。不只是身為女性，擁有性別平權，而是一種享受身為女性的獨立狀態。
而身為一個台灣藝術家，低迷的藝術環境，或許也造就了台灣藝術型態的放浪不羈，自嘲遊戲狀態。自比湯顯祖，我的牡丹亭。
