Paul Hanrahan - Ebb and Flow of Mt. Jade

“This painting of Mount Jade makes use of long strips of canvas buried inside thepaint. These strips trace the contours of the mountain and enhance the idea offlow. I used black and white acrylic paintonly to create the stark image of darkrock and white snow on the mountain in winter.Iwanted thepaintingprocessresemble thenatural forces that brought thismountaininto existance. Also tomimic the daily barrage of wind and water that it endures.Hence I tried to “build”a mountain rather than paint it. I tried to set processes in motion and let the finalresults be spontaneous and governed by natural processes, rather than mypreconceptions.I tried to not use conventional brush strokes but rather pouringand mixing of paint by other techniques.I floated washes over the images tocreate naturalistic interactions at the boundary of black and white, something likea chemical reaction.I wanted the black and white paint to have naturalinteractions inthe process ofwetting anddrying to mimic the erosion andexfolitaion that takes place on the mountain. I see people, objects andenvironments as a process. Something that ebbs and flows with time and theforces of nature. Nothing is isolated everything interacts, just like this far awaymountain that few people will climb,still affects the psyche of Taiwanese people.They have pride and awe of this majestic mountain peak.” — Paul Hanrahan.

「玉山的潮起潮落。與其說我畫了這座山，不如說我「建造」它了。以長條狀畫布鋪排，勾勒山的輪廓，也強調山的流動性；透過黑色與白色的壓克力顏料，營造出冬天山頂上，黝黑岩石和皚皚白雪的鮮明對比。我在創作時，刻意模擬大自然的造山過程，也模擬日復一日風吹雨淋的侵蝕感。我想強調自然隨機的動態意識，試著在創作過程中，讓畫面有其自主性的形成，宛如雄偉的山在被大自然逐漸雕琢的過程一般。我與畫布的互動，即是大自然與山脈的關係，是一場精采的化學變化。我不使用傳統畫筆雕琢，而是以潑灑、混合、流動顏料的其他技法，來凸顯造山的痕跡。再刻意以黑與白色顏料，濕和乾的交替下，創造岩石受侵蝕、風化的質地。人、物、環境於我來說是一體，彼此互動，共同見證時間與大自然力量的來去與起伏，無一者置身之外。就如同這座瑰寶，屹立於寶島，儘管不易讓人親近，卻使人們心中永存敬畏與榮耀，與人們一同經歷著種種。」 —— 安保羅