Seeing the Artist’s Profound Beam Amidst the Noises: Written on the Event of Lin Liang-tsai's Solo Exhibition In an Austere Manner

Text by Cheng Nai-ming

Lin Liang-tsai is a wielder of poetry.

His sculptural art is a visualization of literature as well as a poetic incarnation of vision.

In Lin’s art, one may perceive the coherent context in which the artist conceives his work. Through a highly intentional contour and drafting process, Lin has has transferred the flow of his thoughts onto the artistic medium of steel sheets. It is as if we can trace each turning point and the entire flow of his thought process via each action of welding, calcining, casting and hammering. From his final work, it is like we are reading the artist’s breathes, pauses, his review from near and from afar, and how he polishes the details as he creates; for we find retractable clues.

Lin approaches the structure of his work with the logic of the negative space.

Presenting the negative space by casting indeed is a common technique in sculptural art. Yet it is not merely an expressive technique for Lin—it presents his living attitude, to be precise, as well as his personal life attitude. His physical disability—being deprived of his sense of hearing—which prevents him from expressing ideas fluently by spoken words, has probably caused inconvenience in Lin's life. Yet, it may also enable him to concentrate on creative activities in a quiet state. Hence his application of negative space in his creative language, in fact, aligns with his character quality, while proving to be a significant characteristic in his art.

Whether it is the renowned Walking series which is admired by many viewers and collectors, or his less displayed Animals/Horses series, viewers will find Lin's excellent ability to capture the dynamics of life in details by observing his work. Due to Lin's personal affection towards, and long time observation of, horses, he is able to subdue the rigid sheet metal and turn it into soft and lively sculptures, forming the frameworks, postures, and expressions of the horses. His art is like a poem that flows: the words contain the narrative and climax in musical rhythm without being overly turbulent. The poetic quality created by these tensions is full of rich expressions; I liken it to Lin's own expressive gestures and facial expressions as he communicates via sign language, which often steal the entire show.

The rich emotions with which Lin endows his works are always full of abundant inner strength. He is an expert of forming shapes with very concise contours; even so, he is still able to pull a deep tension out of his works, which always amazes me. My personal favorite is his series work of Hands—though some viewers think this series is to representative and linear, yet I deem it the best interpretation among all series works by Lin. His portrayal and his presentation of the hand is like physiognomy of man, in which each life chapter are disclosed in a clear fashion—in which we can see changes in mood, traces of years, even the disappointments and the hills and valleys in life. There are both muscular hands and bony hands—most of them are bony, naturally; pulling, tearing, holding onto and letting go of something, and struggling... the artist always strives to present every detail and thus, has brought a distinctive character to this series. One can discover Lin's sensitivity in capturing each being in his presentation. I always think that, although he chooses to create with metallic material, yet in his work it is the hands that are the most affectionate and soft.

In the past couple of years during the pandemic situation, Lin's late work debuted in distinct appearances; focusing on the lower body figure, his recent sculpture contains more bouncy foot movements. In comparison to the walking motions in his past work, the recent works express a still yet restless posture; some of them seem to be dancing. Lin has discarded the expression of hammered marks in the past and returned to a simpler structure; yet the postures themselves are full of expressions, and so enrich the interpretation of the works.

I am personally intrigued by his Tempest series, which subverts the expressive style in Lin's past works: he has attempted to leave his comfort zone, using metal sheets of different shapes as substitutes for his contour construction in earlier works. Through welding, the metal sheets form both individual and collective connections. Without the sleek shape in the past works, the figure structures are like Transformers—that can suddenly transform from vehicles into gigantic robot-like creatures. Through meeting and overlaying metal sheets, Lin has assembled a series of more complicated human figures, and thus demonstrated the volume and power of these figures. Lin refers to the influence of the pandemic these couple of years through this series; as we cannot accurately foresee the destruction brought by the tempest, we can only improve ourselves to approach self-reliance.

Several pieces in this series are presented like human pyramids, comprising the entanglement and stacking of multiple human figures. This kind of arrangement has created an aesthetic that diverged from Lin's past works, and also indicates the epidemic has awakened a longing for unity and a stronger relational bond in people’s hearts. Last but not least, it implies that we should not lose our sense of humor during the epidemic. In my personal experience, the human pyramid was often performed in circus shows when I was a child; the joyful atmosphere was coupled with marveling exclamations and laughter. Lin always likes to implant humor, pranks and mischievousness in his personality into his creations, and viewers can see this atmosphere which he is eager to communicate from these pieces.

Perhaps the title of Lin's solo exhibition at Moon Gallery in Taichung, In an Austere Manner, has been made even more meaningful given that the artist's intention arises from simplicity, stillness, modesty and joy; his art does not count on fine rhetoric.

In an Austere Manner comes from Book of Change:

“Nine at the beginning means: Simple conduct. Progress without blame.”

 It is a demonstration of a simple, unstained, self-controlled and disciplined manner of life, as one stands alone on this austere attitude amidst this world of vanity fair.

And this disciplined attitude is the core of spirituality, in a concrete way of description. Such quality is more subtle and more challenging to communicate via the presentation of sculptural work, in comparison to painting art. However, Lin's metal sculptures have a strong characteristic akin to the quality of sketching. Through his smooth contouring of metal sheets, he always quickly captures the charm of his subject while carefully preserving it in his sculptural creation. If I were to recapitulate his artistic quality in a rather inductive description, it should contain the following keywords: a vivid verve, strong quality of life, and with an upright, concise and unpretentious mind.

In all artistic creation, no matter whether it is about the artist’s inner truth or the external society, ultimately the artist himself is still the main subject of viewers' concern. For where the artist’s heart and roots are, there we will discover true feelings.

This perspective should serve as an entrance into approaching Lin's art.