新展预告 | 「声之海」八木良太个展
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万一空间荣幸呈现日本艺术家八木良太（Lyota Yagi）自疫情以来的首次全球个展——「声之海」，该展览主要阐释了艺术家通过媒介创作反思“被教化的直觉”。区别于以往八木良太的个人项目，本次展览也是一场策划实验，即万一空间对话海洋，媒体装置对话法螺和古贝；同时发表艺术家在地新作品。艺术家，策展人以在地共生的参与方式与格物致知的展览视角配合空间，试图用艺术的手法回应黑格尔式的启蒙：从我到我们，从教化到发现，从艺术到智性。
海与节拍器 Sea and Metronome
©八木良太 Copyright ©Lyota Yagi
同时，直面大海的万一空间在此次展览中呈现了在地性元素，即利用古代语境下的海洋物质对展览进行人文性的互文回应。贝类因稀缺性在古代社会的流通中被赋予财富属性，经由社会演变既形成宗教精神性的媒介载体，又作为装饰品流通于世俗生活中。贝从商业媒介到审美媒介的演化路径反映了自然与人的共存关系。在后疫情的语境中，声的谐音“超えkoe”即“超越”，而海的谐音“生みumi”即“新生”。如同生生不息以轮回，首尾相接的圆一般，苦难是某种幸福的匮乏，当触及苦难之底，必将向上反弹——“超越并且新生。”
17-18世纪 清代早期西藏地区白色法螺
本次展览由三条线索串联空间的三个章节。第一，艺术家的媒介本体观；第二，艺术家的自然媒体观；第三，艺术家对媒体本体的哲学思辨。在首章，观者可以看到八木良太的经典作品黑胶唱片（Vinyl）以一种约瑟夫·科苏斯（Joseph Kosuth, 1945-）式的呈现来呼应和致敬经典“关系美学”。艺术家的媒介本体观再次以图样、具象媒介及动态形式呼应展览主题中的“超越”和“新生”，并开启媒体形态和表现的多样化呈现的序曲。
黑胶唱片 Vinyl
©八木良太 Copyright ©Lyota Yagi
第二章节中，作品呈现出八木良太将自然客体化并深入观察的过程和结果。在创造这些作品的过程中，深度的参与和在地观察被显化和可触化，八木良太在这个环节极力展现了对自然的重视。桌下的海（Sea under the Table）为艺术家在这个领域的深度实践，该作品通过媒体艺术家的视角将自然中的媒介审美化。液体的海面和硬木的桌面两种毫不相关的材质，通过声音的联系相交并耦合，带来一种不同感官间错位的奇妙体验。当观众在桌前上下位移，耳机里的声音会在海平面上下的海浪声和潜水声间切换，产生一种神秘且深邃的自然交互。
桌下的海 Sea Under the Table
八木良太 Lyota Yagi
材质：综合材料
Medium: Mixed Media
尺寸：116x116x85cm
2010
浮图塔（Stupa）和蝉（Cicada）这两件作品概括性的体现了第三章节中作品的抽象和深刻。“Stupa”之名来自佛教中的窣堵波（stūpa）舍利塔，其形态也呼应舍利塔本身的构造，也一定程度上对钟乳石进行了形象复现。高僧圆寂后肉身寂灭，浴火成珠。而钟乳洞内水滴罄磬，凝水成石。两种看似水火不容的事物和解共存。令人联想起曾游学唐朝的东密祖师空海，在土佐国的海边山洞中修行，啜饮洞水观望大海静闻蝉鸣，在洞中悟出了“空”的真谛。因此八木良太在作品中以另一种形式试图重建宗教寓言。
八木良太 Lyota Yagi
材质：综合材料
Medium: Mixed Media
尺寸 Size：高99cm，底座45x45x6cm
2023
三个线索不约而同都指向对惯常媒体的观看和构成方式的进一步解构。值得深究的是，展览指涉艺术家八木良太个案的研究中多个重要的母题，包括艺术家在花费大量时间进行田野实践和调研中作品所蕴含的独特人文关怀和文献价值。让人感到轻松的是，拓印（Frottage）和献给阿尔吉侬（For Algernon）这种极具幽默感和戏剧性的解谜式阅读犹如一场化学实验，在结果的惊喜中牵引论理和学思，从而激发内化的艺术体验。同时，“冰制成的唱片（Vinyl）”“蚀刻了摩尔纹的石头（Frottage）”和“绳文祥云模样的CD（CD）镭射拼贴”，这些低科技媒介既是新技术发展下思想和材料的剩余，也在八木良太构造的实践语言中以一种艺术的方式被重新分解甚至回归自然。如同在本次展览不断被提及的圆形所代表的循环和旋转——历史总在更新中往复，在结束中开始。
磁带（F50）Tape(50)
八木良太 Lyota Yagi
材质：盒式磁带布面
Medium: Cassette tape, canvas
尺寸 Size:
2017
海报设计：周嘉慧
Amidst the Sounds
Lyota Yagi Solo Exhibition
Koe no umi “Amidst the Sounds”, the theme of the exhibition, is taken from “koe”, the Japanese word for human-made sound, and “umi”, a symbol of natural-flowing sea. Both words and theirs meanings are like mirrors reflecting each other, separating but yet mapping each other by the mediation of cultural contexts. Lyota Yagi's artistic creations seamlessly integrate and refine humanity and nature, establishing a profound link between urban landscapes, natural environments, civilizations, and cutting-edge technologies through the masterful use of artistic mediums.
W.ONESPACE, a gallery situated directly overlooking the ocean, showcases indigenous components in its exhibition by presenting marine elements in a historic context as a humanistic and intertextual response. Seashells were assigned great value due to its scarcity in ancient society. As time progressed, they came to be regarded as carriers of religious significance, while simultaneously being appreciated as decorative items in everyday life. Its evolutionary path from conmmerical to aesthetic medium reflects the symbiotic relationship of nature and humanity. In the post-epidemic context, the melodic intonation of "sound" - "超えkoe", conveys the idea of transcendence, while the harmonious resonance of "sea" - "生みumi", emphasizes a new beginning or birth. Similar to the cycle of reincarnation, with the beginning and end connecting，suffering is an inherent lack of happiness. When one touches the bottom of suffering, one will rebound upwards --“transcending the challenges and emerging anew.”
The exhibition consists of three threads linking the three chapters of the space. First, the artist's view of medium ontology; second, the artist's view of natural media; and third, the artist's philosophical reflection on media ontology. In the first chapter, audiences can see Lyota Yagi's classic work “Vinyl” echoing and paying homage to the classic "relational aesthetic" with a Joseph Kosuth-style presentation. The artist's medium ontological view once more echoes the theme “transcend” and “new born”in the exhibition with its iconography, figurative mediums and dynamic forms, at the same time opens the prelude to the diverse presentation of media forms and expressions.
Within the second chapter, the exhibition presents Lyota Yagi's objectification and meticulous observance of nature. Throughout his creative production process, Yagi’s profound engagement and in-situ examination are manifested and become tactile. The works on display in this segment are a strong testament of the artist's attention for nature. “Sea under the Table” is a comprehensive artistic practice that employs the medium of nature to create aesthetic appeal, through the adept lens of the artist. By intertwining two seemingly disparate materials, namely the liquid surface of the sea and the sturdy hardwood table, an association of sound is generated, resulting in a remarkable sensory dislocation experience.As viewers circumnavigate the table, the audio experience transports them above and below sea level with the ebb and flow of waves and subaquatic sounds. This creates a mysterious and profound interactive experience and appreciation for the natural realm.
The installations “Stupa” and “Cicada” represent the abstraction and profundity emblematic of the works in the third chapter. Stupa takes its name and form from the Buddhist reliquary, mirroring the structure of the stupa and evoking stalactite formations. Following the death of Buddhist monks, their remains were cremated, leaving behind śarīra or relics. The water droplets in stalactite caves resemble chimes, coalescing and hardening over time into dramatic mineral formations. Two seemingly incompatible materials, calcite and water, coexist in harmony. This juxtaposition is reminiscent of the esoteric Buddhist master Kūkai, who traveled to China in Tang dynasty and meditated in a seaside cave in Tosa. There he drank the cave waters, gazed at the sea, and contemplated the song of cicadas, attaining enlightenment into the “void”. Yagi attempts to reconstruct this allegory, recontextualizing Buddhist philosophy into a modern sculptural form.
The convergence of the three threads suggests a potential dissection of the traditional approach to consuming and constructing media content. It is imperative to delve deeper into the exhibition as it showcases several significant themes embodied in the artistic endeavors of Lyota Yagi. The exhibition highlights the artist's distinctive humanistic approach and theoretical worth, attributes that were derived from extensive fieldwork and research. The humorous and dramatic modes of interpretation found in "Frottage" and "For Algernon" can be likened to a chemical experiment in their capacity to generate enduring outcomes and inspire novel modes of thinking, while simultaneously stimulating creative development. Simultaneously, the "Vinyl - records made of ice", "Frottage - stones etched with moiré patterns", and "CD - laser collaged in the shape of Jomon auspicious clouds" are not solely the residual concepts and resources from the advancement of contemporary technologies, but are also the pragmatic vernacular formed by Lyota Yagi. These “low-tech” mediums have been deconstructed and transformed in an artistic manner, returning to nature. Analogous to the cycles and revolutions emblematic of circles depicted in this exhibition, history likewise perpetually renews itself, starting anew as it concludes.
A Zen notion was proposed by the Japanese monk Shirohane of Edo: "When two hands are slapping, how can one differentiate the sound of one hand from the other? If one hand cannot make any sound, then where does the sound of one hand exist?" Despite its apparent insignificance, this question has the potential to offer insights into things that are beyond rationality and comprehension. In reality, there are voiceless sounds and even images without appearances in this world. By adopting a non-traditional approach to observe the world with our physical senses, it may be possible to perceive the "one-handed sound" that inhabit the core of our being, so as the "Amidst the Sounds".
八木良太
Lyota Yagi
八木良太生于1980年，毕业于京都艺术大学，现工作、生活于京都。他的创作涉猎声音艺术、雕塑、影像和互动装置。在创作中，他通过使用辩证思维模式，致力于打破人类局限的感知方式和学习态度，主张发掘常态以外的内容。他将现成物和既定系统重组并形成新的秩序，最大化地启发观者的知觉和机能体验。
信息时代的开启，媒体渗透各个领域，八木用一种信息考古学和人类学的视角以及艺术家的幽默，避开主流，对“前信息时代”的媒介进行了浪漫而深刻地演绎和提及。八木的作品关照五感和时间，近年甚至将视野维度拓宽至“地质时间”的领域，并将媒体间的关系并置和重构。从刚刚离开我们视野的CD和磁带到拉斯科洞穴的岩画和石雕，纸张与磁带共生，石器与打印交互，八木用一种当代艺术式的叛逆，反抗教化后的直觉。这些艺术将超越时代和媒介，用创造性来学习和反思“过去”的未知，让我们获得重新审视媒介与媒体的艺术视角。
Lyota Yagi was born in 1980 and graduated from Kyoto University of the Arts. He currently lives and works in Kyoto, Japan. He focuses on sound art, sculpture, video and interactive installations. The artist strives to break the limits of human perception and learning attitudes by thinking dialectically, and advocates the discovery of content that is beyond the norm. He reorganizes and forms a completely new order of existing objects and established systems, thus inspiring the viewer's perceptual and functional experience.
With the beginning of the information era, media constantly penetrates in all fields. In order to avoid following the mainstream, Lyota Yagi adapts an information archaeological and anthropological perspective, as well as his personal humor. He creates profound and even romantic interpretations and references to the media of the "pre-information age". Yagi’s works concentrate on the five senses and time. In recent years, he has even explored to the realm of "geological time”, and juxtaposed and reconstructed the relationship between different medias. From the CDs and tapes, things that are out of our sights at the moment, to the petroglyphs and stone sculptures of the Lascaux Caves, papers and tapes live in symbiosis, stonewares and prints dance in unison. The artist uses a contemporary rebellion to work against the instincts of indoctrination. The art will transcend time and medium. Creativity always enlights us to learn and reflect on the unknown of the "past”, and to gain an artistic perspective to re-examine the medium and media.