

Curatorial Premise (excerpt):
How would a sculptor embody “conscience” and “respect for others” as qualities of power and strength within the individual human mind? How does the phenomenological represent the psychological? Sculpture as a discipline, despite paradigmatic shifts in perspectives on what could constitute art, remains a deep engagement with material and formal truths. Apprenticed to his chosen medium, the sculptor and chosen medium mutually condition each other within projected possibilities and stretching of perceived limits.
With the sculptor Liu Po-Chun, this wrestle becomes physically acute when the chosen material is recycled industrial steel. The conceptual dimension is forged in the physical process, wrested from this process, claimed as part of phenomenological reality: a test of, and a desire for a steely demonstration, and representation, of strength, while necessarily acknowledging frailty, anxiety, self-doubt. This wrestle is a commitment to being human, yielding to the challenges of the material, which demands honesty – and compromise – from the sculptor. For Liu, the hand-forged object is emotionally powerful, and a kind of transmutation takes place: century-old objects, once useful, memoried, are smelted down to fluid materiality, and re-membered. Agency, and mediumship, forged amidst doubt and anxiety: sculpture lays down being as ground, and claims ground for being.
台艺大教授暨雕塑家刘柏村——其家族三百年前便已在岛上扎根,深厚的台湾底蕴,体现在他的钢铁雕塑创作关系。几十年来,他与钢铁媒材之间,淬炼出一种张力十足而又深刻的关系。对刘柏村而言,工业钢铁物件蕴含着强大的情感张力:那些从废钢场中搜罗而来的世纪产物,被一一回收,然后历经熔炼、重组、以及再构造的创作生产过程。这是一个创作者与工业制程之间的一场艰深对话。在这些被去功能化物件的物质样貌与其“将”不断扩张的造型语境之间,仍然流露着一丝怀旧,甚至钟爱之情——雕塑家称之为「工业文明的浪漫」。
在宛如钢铁般的展示中,刘柏村的雕塑欲望不断测试着自我的表现力量,直接面对内心的脆弱、焦虑与自我怀疑。这种内在角力体现了一种“作为人”的承诺:坦诚并尊重材料的原始样貌,同时对应其中存在的挑战。将那些钢材原初机件造形的印记,化为铁人的形象,犹如机械残影的再现。这里,深刻的反转嘲讽如矿脉般贯穿其中:雕塑作为艺术,没有实用的功能性;然而,当钢材被再造并升华为艺术品时,却以凯旋的姿态,甚至以略带漫画色彩的人形剪影,获得了一个崭新的归宿。但这些剪影并不仅仅只是「人」—它们同时也再现了在佛教的世界里,金刚作为梵文「护法」的中文称号,其威猛身躯、肌肉强健的形象带来了绝妙的双重共鸣:它在字面上蕴含「金」属的概念,并且化为具体的「钢」材。更具深意的是,
根据传说,金刚力士亦彰显纯粹的精神存在——它守护佛陀免受无形心魔侵扰,使其远离疑惑,并阻绝妄念或恶行。
然而,刘柏村深知,这些「不坏之身」以及「理想完美躯体」的化身早已超越了佛教范畴:这些形象同样广泛流传于流行文化之中,比如漫画和电影中被重新诠释的神话——如漫威众神——或是日本动漫或科幻小说。在菲利普·金(Phillip King)撰写的一篇探讨刘柏村早期展览作品的文章中,他曾如此描述:刘柏村所雕塑的人物昂首阔步,宛如「超人」,总为「正义对抗邪恶」而战。
刘柏村不仅创作了巨大的金刚,还创造了大量的「微型小金刚」,它们共享着一样的剪影——一种流动且可伸缩的象征意涵。这两种极端形式的作品,虽然大小各异,却承担了相同的功能。一些「微型小金刚」被雷射切割得极为纤薄,其中的机械马达运转时,微微颤动与声响,似乎是以令人警醒又讽刺方式展现出一种“骚动”。刘柏村提到,他的创作是在「不安定的条件」中进行——这种不安定,存在于材料与概念之间,在二者的相互作用中逐渐累积,使得雕塑作品的「最终」呈现,徘徊于不安定的状态。
在《作为人》这档展览中,刘柏村的雷射切割铁人轮廓,是从制式的工业钢板上裁切而下。它们每一个都能像一长串的剪纸人形般密集地聚拢或被拉开。一旦拉伸后它们便成为一条可变形的链状体,刘柏村借此在空间中塑造出不同的量体,透过压缩或扩张,创造出密度、纹理以及更宏大的连结——最终呈现为一种雕塑的「风景」。
展厅中央,真人大小、层层相套的金刚独自伫立,在马达的驱动下不停颤抖着:那是一群骚动、舞动的军团。吊诡的是——这片看似茂密的丛林,竟是由无数空心的人形所构成。它们不仅在形体与材质上相互呼应,其投射出的影子更是在地板、墙面与天花板上交织缠绕。当你绕行这片由真人大小、充满张力的铁人所构成的「森林」时,必被墙上熙熙攘攘的「微型小金刚」群像所环伺,也将被那不断回响的不安金属节奏深深笼罩。
Art Space @ Helutrans, Singapore
31st Oct 2025 (Friday) - 30th Nov 2025 (Sunday)
9 am - 6 pm (Daily)
2 pm, 1st NOV 2025 (Saturday)
Guest-of-honor: Prof Kwok Kian Woon
2:30 pm: Curator speech + dialogue with artist
Speaker: Prof Liu Po-Chun, Dr Susie Lingham
Moderator: Tan Yen Peng
6:30 pm - 8 pm, 29th OCT 2025 (Wednesday)
「考古与当代冶炼 - 2022刘柏村雕塑个展」
Archaeology and Contemporary Iron Art: Liu Bo-Chun 2022 @ Thirteen Hong Museum, Taipei*
SCULPTURE 2052

29th Oct 2025 | Wednesday @ NAFA
6:30 pm – 8 pm
「考古与当代冶炼 - 2022刘柏村雕塑个展」
Archaeology and Contemporary Iron Art: Liu Bo-Chun 2022 @ Thirteen Hong Museum, Taipei*
长期关注于钢铁创作的刘柏村教授,2022年受邀进驻十三行博物馆 *展出,藉由治铁文化的历史遗址,提供对于考古的想像,在转化的过程中,聚焦在炼铁的材质、工具、冶炼技术及场所的精神性,进而从当代的生活经验重新诠释铁器时代文化,并反思今日科技发展的社会型态,进而引申、召唤未知的宇宙深处的时空意识,这里存有混杂文明与预言般视域的复义场景,也展现艺术家面对钢铁材料少有的创作方法与美学观点!
*十三行博物馆位于新北市八里区,十三行文化遗址区域,属于北台湾地区的铁器时代,时间约距1800-50

Lives and works in New Taipei City
Liu Po-Chun is one of the representative figures among the mid-generation sculptors. He received his MFA in sculpture from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France, and is currently the director of Juming Museum, a professor of the Department of Sculpture and the dean of the Fine Art College, National Taiwan University of Arts. He has garnered numerous prizes and awards, including prestigious awards in Taiwan, such as the Wu San-Lien Arts and Culture Award and the Sun Yat-sen Award for Arts and Literature. He has exhibited internationally in Italy, Hungary, Romania, China, Japan, and South Korea.
After studying carving, molding, and sculpting in clay for more than a decade, Liu has acquired strong sculpting techniques. His five-year study in France allowed him to have systematic training in theory and sculpture history. His early body of work is mostly figurative sculpture, which demonstrates his carving, molding, and casting skills. In recent years, he is known for his work of steel forests and heroes, which contemplates the ideal of nature and humanity.
Notable solo exhibitions include: Field of the Unknown, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2023); Steel Romance, Remarkable Cultivation Museum, Tainan, Taiwan (2020); Iron Man Transformation, Gallery Royal, Seoul, South Korea (2012); Metallic Heroes and Demythification: Dong-Hun Sung and Po-Chun Liu Duo Exhibition, Ju-Ming Museum, New Taipei City, Taiwan (2011); Steel Forest, National Taiwan University of Arts, New Taipei City, Taiwan (2010). Important group exhibitions include: Dalseong Daegu Contemporary Art Festival, Daegu, South Korea (2019); Ask the Way: Keelung Harbor Biennale, Keelung Cultural Center, Keelung, Taiwan (2018); 35th Annual Exhibition Sculpture Survey 2018, Gomboc Gallery Sculpture Park, Middle Swan, Australia (2018); Group Exhibition, Otawara City Museum, Otawara, Japan (2013); Power, where does the beauty lie? Special Exhibition for the 25th anniversary of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, SOMA, Seoul Olympic Sculpture Park, South Korea (2013); Taiwan Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (2012); The Open-air Sculpture Biennial, Racconigi, Italy (2010); Discourse, State, Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan; National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (2009); Miercurea Ciuc International Art Symposium, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania (2004).

Dr Susie Lingham is an interdisciplinary thinker, writer, artist, curator and educator. Susie was Creative Director of the Singapore Biennale 2016, An Atlas of Mirrors, and from 2013 to 2016, was the Director of the Singapore Art Museum. Prior to these appointments, she was Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education/NTU, Singapore (2009-2013).
Susie has a DPhil in Literature, Religion and Philosophy (University of Sussex, U.K.), and has taught at universities and art colleges in Australia, Singapore and the U.K. Conferred the Distinguished Alumni Medal 2014 by the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, Susie is currently appointed as Visiting Professor at the National Taiwan University of Arts.