我與一個怪物的距離

The Collages of Raintree1969

有些人認為拼貼藝術是一種充滿限制性的藝術形式，因為需要使用現已存在的圖像作為媒介，但這並沒有阻止台灣視覺藝術家Raintree1969生動地創作出一個蘊藏無限創意的宇宙以及天馬行空式的幻想之物。在他達利式的超現實世界中，充滿了各式幻想怪物和怪奇形體，並以他獨特的復古美學呈現出來。他最喜歡從二手雜誌（特別是80年代和90年代的雜誌）中搜集創作素材，這也可能是他形成自己獨特的復古風格的原因之一。他說：「我現在還蠻喜歡《Flaunt》雜誌，記得有幾期雜誌包裝得很漂亮。」

Some might consider collage art to be an artform with many unavoidable limitations and restrictions due to the medium』s use of pre-existing imagery, but that hasn』t stopped Raintree1969 from bringing to life the seemingly creatively boundless universes and creatures of his imagination. The Taiwanese visual artist』s surreal, Dali-esque worlds are filled with fantastically freakish monstrosities and strange deformities, all of which are presented in his signature retro aesthetic. The type of material he prefers to source from – vintage magazines, especially ones from the 』80s and 』90s – can be partially credited for his distinctive aesthetic. 「I loveFlauntmagazine,」 he says. 「They had several beautifully designed issues that are still very memorable to me.」

Raintree回憶說：「小時候看超人英雄卡通，每回妖怪被打敗後，就匆匆帶過，那時我都會想後來妖怪們怎麼樣了，是否也有家人小孩等著他呢? 」他解釋這種奇怪的想法並不是對弱勢憐憫，而是總覺得花了很多時間金錢打造的怪物們，就這樣結束掉滿可惜的。他對壞蛋和反派角色的熱愛在《我最喜歡的50個虛構角色》（My top favorite 50 fictional characters）系列中尤為明顯，這一系列展現了眾多著名的超級反派，比如「謎語人」（Riddler），吸血鬼「德古拉」（Dracula）和科學怪人「弗蘭肯斯坦（Frankenstein）。「我於是就漸漸研究和迷戀上這些比較屬於非正常的物種上。」

「I watched a lot of superhero cartoons as a child, and whenever I saw the monsters get defeated, I would always wonder what happened to them,」 Raintree recalls. 「Do they have children or a family waiting for them at home?」 Elaborating on this unconventional line of thought, he explains that it』s not exactly a sense of sympathy for the underdogs, but rather he considers it a pity that these characters just disappear so unceremoniously. His love of antagonists and baddies is made even more evident in hisMy top favorite 50 fictional charactersseries, which is chock-full of popular villains such as the Riddler, Dracula, and Frankenstein. 「Over time, I grew quite fond these unconventional and unusual creatures.」

怪奇的生物和一致的美學風格是他作品的特色，此外，Raintree在自己的創意世界中，還會經常探索「尋找」和「孤獨」這兩個主題。Raintree 主要通過圖像中的角色來詮釋這些主題，這些角色的肩膀往往朝下耷拉著，蜷縮著身體或是有著其它看上去同樣脆弱的姿勢。有時候，這些主題也會令人聯想到有關身份認同的更大的主題; 他所創作的角色都是類人生物，卻像弗蘭肯斯坦一樣，通過想像，將不尋常的不同元素結合在一起。這些角色常常置身於格格不入的奇異環境當中。而這也可能是他的作品如此引人入勝的原因之一。這些怪物提醒著我們到底是誰——我們在本質上是由自己的經驗組成的生物，我們都有一個共同願望：迫切地想要融入和適應一個快速變化的世界，而這個世界有時候又令人感到十分的陌生。

Besides the odd creatures and an unchanging aesthetic being unifying traits of his work, certain motifs make appearances again and again in Raintree』s world, more specifically, a sense of isolation and searching. The main way that Raintree presents these themes are through his characters, who are often depicted with slumped shoulders, hunched over, or in an otherwise equally vulnerable posture. At times, these themes feel like they tie into a larger story around identity; his characters are humanoid, yet Frankenstein-like, an amalgamation of different and unusual parts, often placed in an alien surrounding, seemingly out of place. This is perhaps part of what makes his work so intriguing – these monsters remind us who we are, as creatures who are made up of the sum of our experiences, desperate in our collective desire to fit in and belong in a fast-moving world that may, at times, feel like a strangely unfamiliar place.

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