Business Times 採訪: "Things that Blend in the Night" | 融於夜色之中的事物

Business Times 25 July 08, pg 30 (Arts Section)

謝謝記者Clarissa Tan為我的個展「夜曲IV」(Nocturne IV) 寫的這篇報導

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（↓ 往下滑看中文版）

Things that Blend in the Night 

By Clarissa Tan

    LIN Bao Ling’s work, much like the artist himself, gives the impression of longing to disappear into the ether.

His latest series of paintings is of landscapes at night, that time when hills, trees, buildings and rocks are almost completely hidden by darkness. These hills and buildings are often blended into a kind of misty glow, so they become virtually indistinguishable from each other.

Lin’s exhibition, called Nocturne IV is on display at the Marina Mandarin until the end of August. It consists of 27 paintings, all done in a mixture of oil and acrylic, produced during the six months that Lin was artist-in residence at the hotel. Many of them are scenes of Singapore’s Little Guilin Area.

“It’s an emotional thing,” said Lin, who lives in Bukit Gombak and visits Little Guilin a few times a week to seek tranquility. “Just like I try to find a peaceful place outside to calm my mind, I also try to find a peaceful place within my paintings.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Lin said that one of his artistic influences is American-born James McNeill Whistler. “I like the mysterious, poetic quality of Whistler’s paintings,” he revealed. “Whistler also said that a painting must be like music, which I agree with.”

In terms of style, Lin’s current series of works also recalls the impressionistic, swirling studies of light and darkness of Englishman J M W Turner. Lin’s paintings are most effective when they veer towards the abstract, such as in Little Guilin Night #1 or Was Raining. When the objects of a landscape are more clearly delineated-such as with the buildings and condominiums depicted in Little Guilin Night #7 and #8, the effect is slightly jarring, as though modern life has intruded on an Arcadian setting, And there is no doubt that the painter’s sensibilities are romantic, from his eagerness to seek beauty in nature (transforming Little Guilin, which is basically a quarry, into a meditative haze, for example). To giving his exhibition a title that recalls Frederic Chopin.

Even in appearance, Lin reminds one of the melancholy student – tall, pale, lanky with a shock of black hair over the brow. This image does not seem caculated, for Lin appears to be genuinely shy and on the less-talkative side. Only 27, Lin has already had three solo exhibitions under his belt. Born in Taiwan, he moved to Singapore when he was 13 and received his BA (Hons) in Fine Arts from LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts in 2006. That was the same year, Lin won the UOB Painting of the Year competition, after clinching the Della Butcher overall award in 2005.

At Nocturne IV, Lin’s paintings are priced in the $2,500 to $4,500 range. His Paintings are actively collected corporate and private collectors.

Lin is the third painter to come under the Marina Mandarin’s artist-in-residence programme. The programme, launched in 2006, provides studio space for emerging Asian artist where they can work several days a week. The studio is situated on the fourth floor of the hotel. Rae Tan, marketing communications manager of the Marina Mandarin, said the programmme shows the hotel’s commitment to the value of creativity and art. She estimates that each six-month artist-in-residence season costs the hotel about $21,000 in terms of rental foregone, opening cocktail reception and the cost of other publicity collaterals.

The sensitive Lin said that working in the studio, where visitors can peek through a viewing pane, took some getting used to and was at times “a bit distracting”. But he felt the experience was a unique and helpful one, especially as the viewers-some tourist at the hotel-were from all over the world. “People from South Africa, the UK, America, Malaysia and Australia- they all showed a great interest,” he added.

Click here to see Nocturne IV online.

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融於夜色之中的事物

Business Times

2008年7月25日，第30版

文／Clarissa Tan

林葆靈的作品，如同藝術家本人一般，給人一種渴望消失於虛空之中的印象。

他最新系列的畫作描繪夜晚的風景——那是山丘、樹木、建築與岩石幾乎完全隱沒於黑暗之中的時刻。這些山丘與建築經常融化成一片朦朧的光暈，以致彼此幾乎難以分辨。

林葆靈的展覽《夜曲 IV》（Nocturne IV）目前於濱海文華酒店（Marina Mandarin）展出至八月底。展覽包含27件作品，皆以油彩與壓克力混合媒材完成，創作於他擔任該飯店駐村藝術家的六個月期間。其中許多作品取材自新加坡「小桂林」（Little Guilin）一帶的景色。

「這是一種情感上的需求，」居住於武吉甘柏（Bukit Gombak）、每週數次前往小桂林尋求寧靜的林葆靈表示。

「就像我試圖在外面的世界尋找平靜之地來安頓思緒，我也嘗試在自己的畫裡尋找一處平靜。」

或許並不令人意外，林葆靈提到他的藝術影響之一是 James McNeill Whistler。

他說：「我喜歡惠斯勒作品中神祕而富詩意的特質。惠斯勒也曾說過，繪畫必須像音樂一樣，這點我十分認同。」

從風格來看，林目前這批作品也令人聯想到英國畫家 J. M. W. Turner 對光與暗旋動關係的印象派式研究。當作品更趨向抽象時，其效果最為強烈，例如 Little Guilin Night #1 或 Was Raining。

然而當景物輪廓變得較清晰——例如 Little Guilin Night #7 與 #8 中出現的建築與公寓——觀看經驗則略顯突兀，彷彿現代生活侵入了一處田園牧歌般的景境。

毫無疑問，這位畫家的感性氣質帶有浪漫主義色彩。無論是他熱衷於從自然中尋找美——例如將原本只是採石場的小桂林轉化為冥想般的朦朧景象——或是將展覽命名為令人聯想到 Frédéric Chopin 的《夜曲》，皆可見一斑。

即便外貌上，林葆靈也讓人聯想到憂鬱的學生形象：高瘦、蒼白、略顯單薄，黑髮垂落額前。這種氣質似乎並非刻意營造，因為林葆靈給人的感覺確實較害羞、寡言。

年僅27歲的他，已舉辦過三次個展。出生於台灣，13歲移居新加坡，並於2006年取得 LASALLE College of the Arts 美術學士榮譽學位。也正是在那一年，他獲得了 UOB Painting of the Year 獎項；此前於2005年，他曾獲得 Della Butcher 總獎。

此次《Nocturne IV》展出作品價格介於 2,500 至 4,500 新幣之間，其作品亦受到企業收藏家與私人收藏家積極收藏。

林葆靈是濱海文華酒店駐村藝術家計畫中的第三位藝術家。該計畫創立於2006年，提供新興亞洲藝術家工作室空間，使其能於每週數日進行創作。工作室位於飯店四樓。

濱海文華酒店市場傳播經理 Rae Tan 表示，此計畫體現了飯店對創意與藝術價值的重視。她估計，每位駐村藝術家六個月的駐村期間，包含場地成本、開幕酒會與宣傳支出，飯店約投入21,000新幣。

感性而敏銳的林葆靈表示，在這間讓訪客可透過玻璃窗觀看創作過程的工作室裡工作，一開始需要適應，有時也「有些分心」。

但他認為這段經驗相當獨特且有所幫助，尤其觀看者——包括入住飯店的旅客——來自世界各地。

「來自南非、英國、美國、馬來西亞與澳洲的人們，都展現出很大的興趣。」他補充說。