【台北·敦仁】 【台北·仁愛】 「縫合 Sew up」── 卡里．安妮．赫勒伯格．巴赫里Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri 亞洲首個展 2022.10.08- 2022.12.11

衣服與我們每個人息息相關，也和我們的身體有著親密接觸。紡織品具有不同程度的柔軟度，但它們必須是舒適的，且具有可隨身體擺動及適應的特性。然而在Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri 的織品雕塑中，衣服已經僵硬、身體也消失了，卻往往留下清晰的印記。凸出的襯衫和夾克在幾件作品中反覆出現，不是直接放置在地上、底座上，就是放在牆上，重複的形體通常以米色或白色等中性色彩呈現，然而即使它們是日常生活中熟悉的物件，卻也給人一種不合時宜的感覺。“Das Unheimlich” （詭異）是精神分析學家西格蒙德·佛洛伊德用來解釋對熟悉和親切的事物感到不安的感覺，而這可以用於Bahri 多數的作品上，也反映在他所表現的主題中。

身心健康是Bahri 多年來一直致力於研究的主題。透過“服裝般”的雕塑、假肢雕塑和織品裝置，她以藝術指涉從嚴重精神疾患到形塑我們行為方式的文化社會結構等議題。她關注人際關係、規範和規則如何限制、塑造我們，她將限制描述為她藝術實踐的觸發因素，並以防止移動的衣服及類似假肢的物體來呈現生理或心理的限制 —— 可能來自自身或社會。透過她的雕塑實踐，Bahri 審視了社會環境、人類同胞或社會規範限制或癱瘓個人的案例，關於與眾不同及遵循規範的差異。

在Bahri 的作品中，觀者能感受到一個人在各種情況下的想法和感受，例如思考身份、存在、找到自己的定位、不確定性、壓力和混亂，同時也有樂觀、幽默及歸屬感。展場內展現的並非有趣的事物，Bahri 寧可強調那些疲憊、悲喜交織的日常，她的作品視覺化了一個人的日常生活組成，是非常真實且私人的，根據她所聚焦的情緒狀態，創作出服裝般的形態或材質。

我們所穿著的衣服構成私領域與公領域的界線，介於個人與外部世界之間。儘管織物輕薄而易碎，但它們構成了重要的界線和保護。相較起其他事物，這種內部和外部的邊界感在她的創作中可以被清楚識別，她以粗縫線將袖子與襯衫縫合，再把幾件衣服縫製成無法辨認的雕塑，組合並轉化為奇怪的突變。

織品雕塑可以依附在金屬架構上或在玻璃櫥窗中展示，以在更大程度上創造或跨越內部和外部結構之間的界限。如同Louise Bourgeois 的「細胞」系列作品，Bourgeois 以她個人背景創造複雜的心理裝置去探討心理、女性成就、身體或生活條件之間的關係。而Bahri 則對這些主題有更多社會學方法，藉由將安全感、不安等情緒放入各種形式的邊界感中，她創造了挑戰並反思人類基本經驗的藝術。

撰文者：馬爾特・丹尼爾森・約爾博 Marte Danielsen Jølbo

知名藝術策展人、作家。被任命為挪威國家藝術機構 KORO 的策展人。

Clothes are something everyone has a relationship with and which is intimately connected to our bodies. Textiles have different degrees of softness, but they must be comfortable and characterized by being mobile and adapting to the body they surround. In Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri’s sculptural clothing objects, the clothes have stiffened and the bodies are absent, but they have often left a clear imprint. Bulging shirts and jackets recur in several works, placed close together either directly on the floor, mounted on a pedestal or on the wall. The repetitive shapes are typically kept in light colors of beige and white, and even though they are objects we easily recognize from everyday life, they give a feeling of unheimlichkeit. “Das Unheimlich” is an expression the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud used to explain a disturbing feeling of unease at things that otherwise feel familiar and homely, and this can be said for much of Bahri’s art and which is also reflected in the themes she deals with.

Mental health is a subject that Bahri has worked on consistently for many years. Through “clotheslike” objects, prosthetic sculptures and textile installations, she processes everything from serious mental disorders to cultural societal structures that shape the way we behave. Bahri is concerned with how interpersonal relationships, norms and rules limit and shape us. In this work, she describes restrictions as a triggering factor for her artistic practice. Physical limitations are actualized through items of clothing that prevent mobility and constructed prosthetic-like objects. The restrictions in the objects can also mirror psychological restrictions – implemented either by oneself or by the society around one. Through her sculpture practice, Bahri investigates cases where the social environment, fellow human beings and society’s norms limit or paralyze individuals, it is about being different versus following norms.

In connection with the exhibition “I dress /ergo am I?” at Akershus Art Center in 2018, one could read “Bahri’s clothesobjects describe thoughts and feelings that a person can have in various situations, such as pondering identity, existence, finding one’s place, uncertainty, pressure and chaos, but also optimism, humor and finding ones place. The highlights are not given space in this room, Bahri rather highlights the more tired, everyday and tragicomic that life after all primarily consists of. The objects visualize components of a person’s life, unpolished and personal”. Based on the human situations Bahri works with, she creates works of art that are clothing-like in form or material.

The clothes we wear constitute a boundary between the private and the public, “(…) between the individual and an external world. Despite the thin, fragile nature of the textiles, they constitute a significant boundary and protection” (Bahri). This boundary between the inner and the exterior can be seen, among other things, in the way Bahri treats the textile itself, with large coarse stitches, she sews shirt sleeves to the body of the shirt, she sews several garments together into unrecognizable sculptures, assembles and transforms cloth into strange mutations.

The textile sculptures can be attached to hard steel structures or exhibited in glass vitrines to create or cross boundaries between internal and external structures to an even greater extent. Thoughts quickly turn to Louise Bourgeois and her series of cell installations. Where Bourgeois used her own personal background to create complex psychological installations that dealt with relationships between the psyche, women’s work, bodies and living conditions, Bahri has a more sociological approach to these subjects. By putting the safe and the disturbing into play through various forms of boundary situations, Bahri creates art that challenges and opens up for reflection on elementary human experiences.

Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri (born 1975) has an education from Oslo Academy of the Arts, Department of Clothing and Costume. She has also studied aesthetics at the University of Oslo and art at the Interdisciplinary Art Institute (Bærum). Recent exhibitions include “I dress /ergo am I?” at Akershus Art Center and part of the Kunstvisitten tour (2018), “Uncontaminated” 2017 – art and fashion festival at Mellomstasjonen, National Museum in Oslo (2017), “Constraint were placed on the circulation of clothing” at Oppland Arts Center (2016), “Inside – Extra” at Buskerud Kunstsenter (2016), “Close(d)” at Bærum Kunsthall (2015) and “Needless” at Trafo Kunsthall (2015). Bahri lives and works in Kongsberg, Norway.

撰文者：Marte Danielsen Jølbo

Marte Danielsen Jølb is a curator, writer, editor and art mediator.She has recently been appointed curator at KORO in Oslo.