江口綾音：晝夜的賦格曲
EGUCHI Ayane: Fugue of Day and Night
展期 Duration｜May 10 — June 15, 2025
開幕 Opening｜May 9, 2025 19:00
地點 Venue｜Hiro Hiro Art Space (台北市中正區紹興南街10號)
Hiro Hiro Art Space 榮幸宣布推出日本藝術家江口綾音於台灣的全新個展。江口綾音繪畫中反覆出現的似熊非熊的「KUMA」，既非寫實的生物描繪，也非單純的虛構角色，而是自然現象與情感想像之間的介質。靈感源於北海道「可愛」卻「殘暴」的棕熊，他們在畫面中扮演的並非自然界被動的旁觀者或共生者，而是具能動性的主體——悠然恣意地仰浮於海面之上，攪動絢爛海景，掀起接連襲來的驚濤駭浪；也潛行於水下，所經之處潛伏著不可預測的裂變暗流。這群熊的姿態，並非江口綾音對生物棲位行為的忠實捕捉，而是用以延續她對自然「表面之美／內在之險」的二元辯證：「平靜水面之下，潛藏著另一個世界。我們無法確知那裡有什麼，在水中甚至無法呼吸。我不會游泳，總是穿著泳圈或救生衣，在海上拼命漂浮著，然而，即使內心懷抱畏懼，那股渴望一探水底可能蘊藏之美的衝動，依然難以壓抑。」江口綾音說。她面對不可知世界時的情感投射，也映照出其創作中常見的二元構造：表面的可親與深層的威脅、感官的愉悅與潛藏的不安。
本次展覽《晝夜的賦格曲》進一步揭示了她作品中的時間感與形式節奏。「賦格曲」（fugue）作為一種音樂技法，其特點是主題旋律在多個聲部中有系統地反覆與變奏，如同一場不斷推進的對位式對話。江口將這樣的結構轉化為繪畫實踐的隱喻：日復一日的生活與創作看似重複，實則在每次重現中積累差異。如同她筆下的KUMA，即便在形式與姿態上重複出現，卻不斷以微差的姿勢與情境發生變奏。在此脈絡下，江口長期所關注的「可愛」與「可怕」、「生」與「死」，亦非純粹對立的概念，而是語意軸線上的兩端——在她畫布中並置、揉合，構成曖昧卻和諧的張力。
作品中的「可愛」不是裝飾，而是一種視覺感官的引子，讓觀者進入一個無法輕易分類的狀態之中。她筆下的熊，既非純善、也非純惡，其內部所潛藏的危險性不具明確的負面指向，而是起源自然界運作機制本身的中性邏輯，一種不可化約的自然狀態，在不同的觀看角度下顯現出不同的感知面向。江口的作品所呈現的「可愛／可怕」二元，並非意圖製造矛盾效果，而是讓觀者意識到感知經驗的流動性與層疊性，可愛性（kawaii）與殘酷性（cruelty）的併置，構成江口繪畫語法中的基本張力，既不順從觀看者對粉嫩柔紫的熊產生童話般的美好預期，也無法被簡化為單一意義。
江口筆下的自然景觀從來不是靜態的環境背景，而是與這些擬熊角色共同作用的生成場。在此，風景不再是觀看的客體，而是與角色共構、共振的生命圖譜。自然現象不只是被描寫的「對象」，而是透過熊的行為——造浪、腐化、飛行——而顯現的存在。
從繪畫表現的層面來看，江口綾音的作品具有強烈的「觸感」——一種透過觀看即能引發觸覺聯想的畫面經驗。她曾指出，人類能透過指尖精細感知其物理性；然而，視覺作為另一種感官，雖不如手指精確，卻也同樣具備觸覺的想像功能。當我們看見某種物質的表面質地時，往往會不自覺地在腦中模擬它的觸感。正是這種感官間的連動，使她對 matière（肌理／物質性）的探究成為其繪畫實踐的基石。她不僅以色彩組構畫面，更以顏料作為物質本體進行操作，將視覺轉化為觸感的劇場。
她透過點狀厚塗的方式，細密堆疊出如同毛絨般的蓬鬆毛髮，又在某些區域進行刮除處理，讓底色與表層色彩彼此穿透、交錯；有時則以半透明質地的薄刷技法，讓底層風景在畫布中幽微顯影。這些技術不只是形式語言，而是對花瓣的柔軟、樹葉的繁茂、水花的泡沫感、乃至樹幹的粗糙肌理——這些來自日常經驗的觸感記憶——進行一種繪畫性的再轉譯，彷彿畫布本身成為了一塊具有感官記憶的皮膚。
Hiro Hiro Art Space is proud to announce the upcoming solo exhibition of Japanese artist EGUCHI Ayane in Taiwan. In EGUCHI Ayane’s paintings, the recurring figures of KUMA, quasi-bear beings, are neither realistic animal depictions nor purely fictional characters, but rather serve as mediators between natural phenomena and emotional imagination. Inspired by the brown bears of Hokkaido, known for being both “cute” and “ferocious,” these KUMA are not passive observers or inhabitants of nature, nor are they mere imaginary constructs. They operate as active agents: floating leisurely atop dazzling seascapes, stirring waves and triggering successive surges; or diving beneath the calm surface, giving rise to unpredictable undercurrents and undertow.
Rather than faithfully depicting animal behavior, Eguchi uses these characters to embody her ongoing investigation into the duality between nature’s surface beauty and its underlying danger. “Beneath a calm surface lies another world,” she says. “We don’t know what’s down there, and we can’t even breathe underwater. I can’t swim—I’m always floating with a life vest or a swim ring. And yet, despite the fear, I still feel compelled to glimpse whatever beauty might exist down below.” This sense of emotional projection toward the unknown mirrors a fundamental structure in her work: a tension between the accessible and the threatening, between sensory delight and latent unease.
The exhibition Fugue of Day and Night further reveals the sense of temporality and rhythmic structure inherent in Eguchi's practice. The fugue, as a musical technique, is characterized by the systematic repetition and variation of a principal theme across multiple voices, unfolding like a contrapuntal dialogue in motion. Eguchi adopts this structure into a metaphor for her painterly process: the repetition embedded in daily life and artistic routine is not a closed cycle, but an accumulation of subtle differences with each recurrence. Her recurring motif of the quasi-bear figure, KUMA, may appear in similar forms and poses, yet it is continually reconfigured through minute shifts in gesture and context. Within this framework, long-standing dichotomies in her work—such as cuteness and horror, life and death—are not treated as fixed oppositions, but as poles on a spectrum of meaning that together articulate a complex duality. On her canvas, these dualities are juxtaposed and entangled, generating an ambiguous yet harmonious tension.
In Eguchi’s work, cuteness is not decorative, but rather a sensory invitation that draws the viewer into an indeterminate perceptual space. Her bears are neither wholly innocent nor malevolent. The latent danger they hold does not carry a negative connotation, but instead emerges from a neutral logic intrinsic to nature’s mechanisms: a state of irreducible naturalness, appearing differently depending on one’s angle of approach. The tension between cuteness and cruelty is not a contradiction, but a way to reveal the fluidity and layered nature of perceptual experience. The coexistence of cuteness and cruelty forms the core tension in Eguchi’s visual grammar—one that does not conform to the viewer’s expectations of fairy-tale innocence projected onto pastel-colored bears, nor collapse into any singular meaning.
The landscapes in her works are never static backgrounds, but co-creative fields that interact with these quasi-bear figures. Here, the scenery is no longer a passive object of vision, but a resonant ecology co-constructed through presence and movement. Natural phenomena are not merely depicted as “subjects” but are activated through KUMA’s behaviors—churning waves, decaying matter, taking flight—manifesting as existential conditions.
On a technical level, Eguchi’s paintings possess a tactile quality—a visual experience that evokes the sensation of touch. She has remarked that just as humans discern materials through the sensitivity of their fingertips, our eyes can also trigger tactile associations. When we see the surface of an object, we instinctively simulate its feel in our minds. This intersensory linkage underpins her engagement with matière( materiality, texture) as a foundational element in her practice.
Rather than using pigment solely to construct her compositions, she treats it as a material substance, transforming vision into a theater of touch. She builds up soft, fluffy bear fur through dense dotted impasto, scrapes away sections of the surface to let underpainting and upper layers interweave, and applies semi-transparent washes that allow earlier layers to subtly emerge through the surface. These techniques are not merely stylistic but function as painterly translations of remembered touch: the softness of petals, the lushness of leaves, the froth of seawater, the rough bark of trees. The canvas becomes, in a sense, a skin that holds tactile memory.
Also check out other Arts events in Taipei, Exhibitions in Taipei.
