Licentious and Scattering Illusion : The Salvation in the Consumerist Era
／Shen Bo-Cheng
Foreword
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who had read history, is man’s original virtue.
It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.
Oscar Wilde
Since Sam Su Meng-Hung’s 《Kai Dao Tu Mi(開到荼靡)》series (2003), his work has consistently aimed to explore the expression form and the essence of contemporary’s vanity vision. By borrowing from the lexicon of Chinese literary terms and appropriating traditional painting elements, the artist continues to stage one scene after another, depicting the vain shadows and lights pertaining to a consumerist society.
However, are the implicit terms hidden in the licentious illusions only a re-transcription of art history and a manipulation of the esthetic strategy on ‘kitsch’? Can the truth that exists in the artist’s work be captured among the fleeting mirages？Is the reality in the work, like what Lacan terms as desire, just a permanent lack that is empty？Or at the vanishing point of what Benjamin terms as aura, the consumerist vision provides us another ray that directs to elsewhere？
Under the fetishist and immoral expression form, Sam Su Meng-Hung reiterates implicit terms to praise the sensual ‘jouissance’ beyond the body and leads the viewer to elsewhere, among the fleeting rays. In rejecting the refined and pretentious gesture of the palace of art, and the typical official esthetic terms, the artist’s licentious images express his personal piety through a rebellious gesture.
Where the glamour is extreme, the extravagant flower blossoms the last
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
Oscar Wilde
In recent years, my work has been about revealing, with a personal interpretation, the absurdity among the seemingly rich, pretty and luxurious appearances…I chose the Chinese flower-and-bird painting that the public in general would like to hang in their interiors…
Sam Su Meng-Hung
The 《Kai Dao Tu Mi》 series that allowed the artist to emerge has a precision in its artistic strategy and aroused a considerable effect in the critic world, which is not to be repeated here. The text is simply based on the textual data of critics and exhibition reviews, and suggests that, undoubtedly, it is the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series that successfully transformed Sam Su Meng-Hung from a student of art into a real creator.
However, the series’ importance may lie rather in the fact that it opened up a unique domain in the artist’s personal creation. Through the series, the domain the artist occupies is the vanity vision situated ‘where the glamour is extreme, the extravagant flower blossoms the last’. The artist’s statement indicates that the choice of the exhibition title《Kai Dao Tu Mi》 points precisely to the border between the glamour and the decay. It is just at the point of border that is dim and impalpable; it is hard to distinguish the vanity from the illusion. It is also here that the fleeting fragments of the world appear exceptionally unusual.
In the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series, the artist uses the techniques of patterns and planes as well as three-dimensional forms to remodel the content of the Chinese traditional flower-and-bird painting. It is remarkable that the emergence of flower-and-bird painting in China began with Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty and his court painters. Ironically, it is also the emperor that brought the Northern Song from extreme prosperity to decay.
Moreover, in the artist’s statement is quoted the sentence on the flower lot picked by the maid She-Yuei in ‘Night Banquet for a Birthday Celebration at the I-hung Hall’ of the literary classic, The Dream of the Red Chamber. Again, we see the artist’s sophistication and intention. At the end of The Dream of the Red Chamber, ‘Fall into a tract of paleness; the earth is really clean’. It undoubtedly brings us from the Jia family’s previous prosperous scene gradually to the solitude and void.
Whether the richness and glamour of the flower-and-bird painting, or the licentious side depicted in the text of The Dream of the Red Chamber, they are both situated at the border between the prosperity and the decay. If we take it as a starting point to penetrate the artist’s thought, we might deduct that the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series already opened his fascination for the situation where things are no longer retrievable. Only at that dangerous point of border, ‘beauty’ can be a criteria for art. Also, only when ‘the day the Tu-mi flowers blossom, the spring fragrance come the latest’, one can perceive the existence of ‘beauty’ and its immediate disappearance.
Such fascination and exploration for that limit allows Sam Su Meng-Hung to claim that an individual’s work is real creation. At the point where things are extreme and vague, the kitsch appearance of his work points rather to the absent emptiness. Only when the viewer steps out of the meretricious and gorgeous exhibition space, can he taste what is meant by the phrase : ‘Fall into a tract of paleness ; the earth is really clean’. At the transient and irretrievable instant, the work’s ‘kitsch’ colorful graphics suddenly becomes the illusion of ‘nirvana’.
Glamour underneath a transparent veil, vague is the shadow of fallen flowers
Following the imagination of the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series, in 2007, the《Shadow》 played again on the traditional iconography. Different from the expression form of 《Kai Dao Tu Mi》, 《Shadow》took silk printing as its expression form of. In some works made with an intentional and artificial texture of classic painting, Sam Su Meng-Hung insinuates implicitly the contemporary painting vocabulary in the graphics. However, he simultaneously implants, in an implicit manner and close to the mirror reflection, classic graphics unto black, green and other modern colored planes. Here, the present and the past are both made plane altogether with the works ; time, following the plane works, loses dimension. Here, the iconography is no longer concerned with the so-called tradition, neither with whether it is contemporary or not. What remains is only a thin membrane stuck on the canvas.
Looking closely at the works from《Shadow》series, we find the artist always uses the approach of contrast and reflection to reveal slightly the membrane-like graphics. The works thus hold the viewer’s vision at the graphic’s surface. The vision cannot extend or penetrate, or further read and analyze their meaning. In confronting the meaningless membrane-graphic, the viewer starts to shift the vision towards the membrane of each work in the venue. So the membrane- graphics become the ephemeral and repetitive existence of glamour. The slight and complex vision created therein precisely reflects the ephemeral character of the contemporary images of fashion and consummation. It is the mere membrane-like images that give meaning to the sub-title,「Shadow」. It is true that the viewer can only capture brief impressions of these pretty lights and shadows and has no reason to linger over them. It is here that the artist opened the point of border in the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series. The point originally pertaining to the temporal dimension is transformed into a donut-like manifold of topology 拓樸流形. All the images stick to and circulate around the outskirt. There is neither an end nor a starting point but only the images which reflect and contrast mutually like between mirrors.
It is remarkable that the artificially made skin-deep surfaces have a visual structure that corresponds to the Mandala structure of esoteric Vajrayāna Buddhism 密宗佛教. Thus what the psychoanalyst Jung terms as representing ‘shaping, metamorphosing, eternal creation of eternal mind’ and ‘the representative of all roads leads towards a core, one that leads towards self’s integration ’ ironically finds its realization in the purposely shallow and consummerized kitsch and gorgeous images by the artist. Therefore, a possibility of nirvana is produced in the consumerist images purposely made. Just like the artist has emphasized in one of his statements, ‘seen from the history, any form of vulgarity once redressed by art becomes refined and serious…when kitsch becomes a kind of artistic performance and exhibition…it actually also bears the halo of art…’. Through the endless contrast and reflection of the shallow membrane-like graphics on the plane of the canvas, unexpectedly, a Mandala that embraces the universe of the mind is constructed. Thus it allows the viewer an escape from the circles made of endless membrane-graphics, and toward ‘ a road that leads towards self’s integration’ as described by Jung.
From the fleeting and irretrievable point of border in《Kai Dao Tu Mi》, to the endlessly circulating manifold in 《Shadow》, the meretricious lights and shadows in the artist’s work continuously point to the state of vanity beyond and after the glamour. Only when the viewer is at the moment of the artist’s 「The blooming day of Neverfower,The very ends of aromatic spring 荼靡花開日、春芳最晚時」, and in the realm where ‘flower shadows are vague’, can he experience the ‘nirvana’ of escape.
Albizzia knowing the words written in the path of Licentious fantasy
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
Oscar Wilde
As stated above, Sam Su Meng-Hung’s work consistently leads the viewer to the emptiness through its licentious, pompous and fleeting character. However, the essential question to be asked is : what is that which lies in the illusory substance of the work ? Is it comparable to what Lacan terms as desire, that the illusion is originally nothing, or that the veiled desire has some form to be revealed ? Or, is the desire itself also a way leading to the illusion ? In examining the artist’s work, we find that, apart from the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》which is a series of two-dimensional paintings with the traditional flower-and-bird painting as their subject, the videos and photography works in《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》and《Unreachable Blooming》correspond further to the artist’s body or the senses per se.
In this series, the artist presents his own body. In the images, he is bare and wears a mask of leopard’s head. He keeps on copulating with the dolls and models in the room and masturbating. Different from the British director Peter Greenaway’s films which satirize the phallocentric consumerism through stripping off the procreativity and the bodily, the intercourse or the masturbation in Sam Su Meng-Hung’s work suggest a praise to objects’ life and the possibility of genesis from there.
In Book X of The Republic, the Greek philosopher Plato described a fable about the cave. The fable describes in a metaphorical way that the journey of human evolution started from a vague sensual world in a cave, then towards the shining sunlight outside and all the truths along with it. It puts the realm of the senses as opposite to the light representing the reason. However, the French feminist thinker Luce Irigaray re-interpreted the cave in the fable as the womb. According to her interpretation, then the logic of feelings exists as opposite to Plato’s reason and it has to lie and gestate in the deep and obscure cave.
Applying the perspective to interpret Sam Su Meng-Hung’s work about the body, we find that the space where the body is situated is like the cave-womb described by Irigaray. Thus there is a meaning of procreation in the artist’s intercourse in 《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》. Besides, we see the process of giving birth and killing the dolls with hands. Consumer goods here are endowed with a biological quality, and it is for this reason that the artist can intercourse with them, that the objects are alive. What is interesting is the leopard-head mask worn by the artist, which gives an almost primary religious meaning to the obscene acts in the cell. Rather, the artist enacts again the ceremony of the consumerist era through the intercourse with objects.
In〝S aM khya-K a rik a-Bhasya〞《數論頌注疏》, Gaudapada talks about Asura’s theory on the genesis of the cosmos in the Indian antiquity："Like the birth of a baby comes from the combination of a man and a woman, the genesis of all things also comes from the copulation of yin and yang." Besides, Upanishads奧義書 and Bhagavad Gita《薄伽梵歌》also mention this kind of cosmology. According to the esoteric Vajrayāna Buddhism’s密教 theories, human body is an epitome of the cosmos itself. They suggest that the world originates from the copulation of yin and yang and for no other reason, except for the sexual impulse. For human beings, it is the combination of man and woman that results in the process of genesis of new lives. It is in the same way that the universe was created through the copulation of yin and yang. In the vast and boundless void, the great pulsation of genesis is incarnated, for human beings, as the sexual impulse. It is sexual desire and love that result in new names and new colors（’name’ means spiritual phenomenon ; ‘color’ means material things；human being is the combination of the spirit and the material, so he is sometimes termed as name-color）. Therefore, human beings can generate and procreate. It is just in this sense that the leopard-headed priest in《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》 wants to lead the viewer beyond the phenomenal realm and to make again the genesis of all things.
Following the comprehension and the interpretation of the mysticism, it seems we can understand why, in the works where the artist presents himself naked, there is always a sexually provocative obscenity in the expression form. If seen from the angle of the mysticism, sex itself is an effective means to escape the world of phenomenon and it is the most sacred. Therefore, sex in such a ritual does not manifest itself as passion, but an act that is non-characterized. It is a state of mind that is stateless, and a self that is integral. What indulges therein is the utmost self and self-escape. It is in the sense of nirvana that the body in 《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》and《Unreachable Blooming》 no longer belongs only to the artist but to a ‘a state of mind that is stateless, and a self that is integral’, which is beyond one’s body. It is the shift of the body’s attributes that allows the nirvana of the viewer through the works. And the obscene body figure of Sam Su Meng-Hung’s is no longer, either, the subject of desire, in Lacan’s terms, that is castrated and becomes powerless.
Warm scenery melt ; fragrances everywhere. Butterflies and bees play ; the spring color has arrived
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
Oscar Wilde
In 2008, after his artist residency in Korea, Sam Su Meng-Hung began another series of works. There we can see the gorgeous flowers and shadows of the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》 series come to be represented in a circular and smooth fashion. For sure, the artist has returned to his familiar subject and medium, like Wilde’s words quoted above, that a work of art must result from a unique temperament of the creator. According to Wilde, art is the strongest and purest individualism ever known in this world. The works that are pompous and licentious but lead the viewer to escape the present and to jump into the illusion come precisely from Sam Su Meng-Hung‘s personal strong and refined temperament.
The implicit terms in these licentious illusions manipulate and transcribe not only the art history and the contemporary aesthetic strategies. Among the fleeting and fragmentary mirages, exists the truth in the artist’s soul. Under the fetishist and immoral expression form, Sam Su Meng-Hung consistently uses implicit terms to reiterate the sensual ‘jouissance’ beyond the body, thus leads the viewer to elsewhere among the fleeting rays of the consumerist vision. With his rebellious gesture, the artist has a singular temperament which comes to refine the licentious images through which is revealed his personal piety for art.
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who had read history, is man’s original virtue.
It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.
Oscar Wilde
Since Sam Su Meng-Hung’s 《Kai Dao Tu Mi(開到荼靡)》series (2003), his work has consistently aimed to explore the expression form and the essence of contemporary’s vanity vision. By borrowing from the lexicon of Chinese literary terms and appropriating traditional painting elements, the artist continues to stage one scene after another, depicting the vain shadows and lights pertaining to a consumerist society.
However, are the implicit terms hidden in the licentious illusions only a re-transcription of art history and a manipulation of the esthetic strategy on ‘kitsch’? Can the truth that exists in the artist’s work be captured among the fleeting mirages？Is the reality in the work, like what Lacan terms as desire, just a permanent lack that is empty？Or at the vanishing point of what Benjamin terms as aura, the consumerist vision provides us another ray that directs to elsewhere？
Under the fetishist and immoral expression form, Sam Su Meng-Hung reiterates implicit terms to praise the sensual ‘jouissance’ beyond the body and leads the viewer to elsewhere, among the fleeting rays. In rejecting the refined and pretentious gesture of the palace of art, and the typical official esthetic terms, the artist’s licentious images express his personal piety through a rebellious gesture.
Where the glamour is extreme, the extravagant flower blossoms the last
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
Oscar Wilde
In recent years, my work has been about revealing, with a personal interpretation, the absurdity among the seemingly rich, pretty and luxurious appearances…I chose the Chinese flower-and-bird painting that the public in general would like to hang in their interiors…
Sam Su Meng-Hung
The 《Kai Dao Tu Mi》 series that allowed the artist to emerge has a precision in its artistic strategy and aroused a considerable effect in the critic world, which is not to be repeated here. The text is simply based on the textual data of critics and exhibition reviews, and suggests that, undoubtedly, it is the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series that successfully transformed Sam Su Meng-Hung from a student of art into a real creator.
However, the series’ importance may lie rather in the fact that it opened up a unique domain in the artist’s personal creation. Through the series, the domain the artist occupies is the vanity vision situated ‘where the glamour is extreme, the extravagant flower blossoms the last’. The artist’s statement indicates that the choice of the exhibition title《Kai Dao Tu Mi》 points precisely to the border between the glamour and the decay. It is just at the point of border that is dim and impalpable; it is hard to distinguish the vanity from the illusion. It is also here that the fleeting fragments of the world appear exceptionally unusual.
In the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series, the artist uses the techniques of patterns and planes as well as three-dimensional forms to remodel the content of the Chinese traditional flower-and-bird painting. It is remarkable that the emergence of flower-and-bird painting in China began with Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty and his court painters. Ironically, it is also the emperor that brought the Northern Song from extreme prosperity to decay.
Moreover, in the artist’s statement is quoted the sentence on the flower lot picked by the maid She-Yuei in ‘Night Banquet for a Birthday Celebration at the I-hung Hall’ of the literary classic, The Dream of the Red Chamber. Again, we see the artist’s sophistication and intention. At the end of The Dream of the Red Chamber, ‘Fall into a tract of paleness; the earth is really clean’. It undoubtedly brings us from the Jia family’s previous prosperous scene gradually to the solitude and void.
Whether the richness and glamour of the flower-and-bird painting, or the licentious side depicted in the text of The Dream of the Red Chamber, they are both situated at the border between the prosperity and the decay. If we take it as a starting point to penetrate the artist’s thought, we might deduct that the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series already opened his fascination for the situation where things are no longer retrievable. Only at that dangerous point of border, ‘beauty’ can be a criteria for art. Also, only when ‘the day the Tu-mi flowers blossom, the spring fragrance come the latest’, one can perceive the existence of ‘beauty’ and its immediate disappearance.
Such fascination and exploration for that limit allows Sam Su Meng-Hung to claim that an individual’s work is real creation. At the point where things are extreme and vague, the kitsch appearance of his work points rather to the absent emptiness. Only when the viewer steps out of the meretricious and gorgeous exhibition space, can he taste what is meant by the phrase : ‘Fall into a tract of paleness ; the earth is really clean’. At the transient and irretrievable instant, the work’s ‘kitsch’ colorful graphics suddenly becomes the illusion of ‘nirvana’.
Glamour underneath a transparent veil, vague is the shadow of fallen flowers
Following the imagination of the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series, in 2007, the《Shadow》 played again on the traditional iconography. Different from the expression form of 《Kai Dao Tu Mi》, 《Shadow》took silk printing as its expression form of. In some works made with an intentional and artificial texture of classic painting, Sam Su Meng-Hung insinuates implicitly the contemporary painting vocabulary in the graphics. However, he simultaneously implants, in an implicit manner and close to the mirror reflection, classic graphics unto black, green and other modern colored planes. Here, the present and the past are both made plane altogether with the works ; time, following the plane works, loses dimension. Here, the iconography is no longer concerned with the so-called tradition, neither with whether it is contemporary or not. What remains is only a thin membrane stuck on the canvas.
Looking closely at the works from《Shadow》series, we find the artist always uses the approach of contrast and reflection to reveal slightly the membrane-like graphics. The works thus hold the viewer’s vision at the graphic’s surface. The vision cannot extend or penetrate, or further read and analyze their meaning. In confronting the meaningless membrane-graphic, the viewer starts to shift the vision towards the membrane of each work in the venue. So the membrane- graphics become the ephemeral and repetitive existence of glamour. The slight and complex vision created therein precisely reflects the ephemeral character of the contemporary images of fashion and consummation. It is the mere membrane-like images that give meaning to the sub-title,「Shadow」. It is true that the viewer can only capture brief impressions of these pretty lights and shadows and has no reason to linger over them. It is here that the artist opened the point of border in the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》series. The point originally pertaining to the temporal dimension is transformed into a donut-like manifold of topology 拓樸流形. All the images stick to and circulate around the outskirt. There is neither an end nor a starting point but only the images which reflect and contrast mutually like between mirrors.
It is remarkable that the artificially made skin-deep surfaces have a visual structure that corresponds to the Mandala structure of esoteric Vajrayāna Buddhism 密宗佛教. Thus what the psychoanalyst Jung terms as representing ‘shaping, metamorphosing, eternal creation of eternal mind’ and ‘the representative of all roads leads towards a core, one that leads towards self’s integration ’ ironically finds its realization in the purposely shallow and consummerized kitsch and gorgeous images by the artist. Therefore, a possibility of nirvana is produced in the consumerist images purposely made. Just like the artist has emphasized in one of his statements, ‘seen from the history, any form of vulgarity once redressed by art becomes refined and serious…when kitsch becomes a kind of artistic performance and exhibition…it actually also bears the halo of art…’. Through the endless contrast and reflection of the shallow membrane-like graphics on the plane of the canvas, unexpectedly, a Mandala that embraces the universe of the mind is constructed. Thus it allows the viewer an escape from the circles made of endless membrane-graphics, and toward ‘ a road that leads towards self’s integration’ as described by Jung.
From the fleeting and irretrievable point of border in《Kai Dao Tu Mi》, to the endlessly circulating manifold in 《Shadow》, the meretricious lights and shadows in the artist’s work continuously point to the state of vanity beyond and after the glamour. Only when the viewer is at the moment of the artist’s 「The blooming day of Neverfower,The very ends of aromatic spring 荼靡花開日、春芳最晚時」, and in the realm where ‘flower shadows are vague’, can he experience the ‘nirvana’ of escape.
Albizzia knowing the words written in the path of Licentious fantasy
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
Oscar Wilde
As stated above, Sam Su Meng-Hung’s work consistently leads the viewer to the emptiness through its licentious, pompous and fleeting character. However, the essential question to be asked is : what is that which lies in the illusory substance of the work ? Is it comparable to what Lacan terms as desire, that the illusion is originally nothing, or that the veiled desire has some form to be revealed ? Or, is the desire itself also a way leading to the illusion ? In examining the artist’s work, we find that, apart from the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》which is a series of two-dimensional paintings with the traditional flower-and-bird painting as their subject, the videos and photography works in《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》and《Unreachable Blooming》correspond further to the artist’s body or the senses per se.
In this series, the artist presents his own body. In the images, he is bare and wears a mask of leopard’s head. He keeps on copulating with the dolls and models in the room and masturbating. Different from the British director Peter Greenaway’s films which satirize the phallocentric consumerism through stripping off the procreativity and the bodily, the intercourse or the masturbation in Sam Su Meng-Hung’s work suggest a praise to objects’ life and the possibility of genesis from there.
In Book X of The Republic, the Greek philosopher Plato described a fable about the cave. The fable describes in a metaphorical way that the journey of human evolution started from a vague sensual world in a cave, then towards the shining sunlight outside and all the truths along with it. It puts the realm of the senses as opposite to the light representing the reason. However, the French feminist thinker Luce Irigaray re-interpreted the cave in the fable as the womb. According to her interpretation, then the logic of feelings exists as opposite to Plato’s reason and it has to lie and gestate in the deep and obscure cave.
Applying the perspective to interpret Sam Su Meng-Hung’s work about the body, we find that the space where the body is situated is like the cave-womb described by Irigaray. Thus there is a meaning of procreation in the artist’s intercourse in 《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》. Besides, we see the process of giving birth and killing the dolls with hands. Consumer goods here are endowed with a biological quality, and it is for this reason that the artist can intercourse with them, that the objects are alive. What is interesting is the leopard-head mask worn by the artist, which gives an almost primary religious meaning to the obscene acts in the cell. Rather, the artist enacts again the ceremony of the consumerist era through the intercourse with objects.
In〝S aM khya-K a rik a-Bhasya〞《數論頌注疏》, Gaudapada talks about Asura’s theory on the genesis of the cosmos in the Indian antiquity："Like the birth of a baby comes from the combination of a man and a woman, the genesis of all things also comes from the copulation of yin and yang." Besides, Upanishads奧義書 and Bhagavad Gita《薄伽梵歌》also mention this kind of cosmology. According to the esoteric Vajrayāna Buddhism’s密教 theories, human body is an epitome of the cosmos itself. They suggest that the world originates from the copulation of yin and yang and for no other reason, except for the sexual impulse. For human beings, it is the combination of man and woman that results in the process of genesis of new lives. It is in the same way that the universe was created through the copulation of yin and yang. In the vast and boundless void, the great pulsation of genesis is incarnated, for human beings, as the sexual impulse. It is sexual desire and love that result in new names and new colors（’name’ means spiritual phenomenon ; ‘color’ means material things；human being is the combination of the spirit and the material, so he is sometimes termed as name-color）. Therefore, human beings can generate and procreate. It is just in this sense that the leopard-headed priest in《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》 wants to lead the viewer beyond the phenomenal realm and to make again the genesis of all things.
Following the comprehension and the interpretation of the mysticism, it seems we can understand why, in the works where the artist presents himself naked, there is always a sexually provocative obscenity in the expression form. If seen from the angle of the mysticism, sex itself is an effective means to escape the world of phenomenon and it is the most sacred. Therefore, sex in such a ritual does not manifest itself as passion, but an act that is non-characterized. It is a state of mind that is stateless, and a self that is integral. What indulges therein is the utmost self and self-escape. It is in the sense of nirvana that the body in 《Tasteless & Colorless Aphrodisiac》and《Unreachable Blooming》 no longer belongs only to the artist but to a ‘a state of mind that is stateless, and a self that is integral’, which is beyond one’s body. It is the shift of the body’s attributes that allows the nirvana of the viewer through the works. And the obscene body figure of Sam Su Meng-Hung’s is no longer, either, the subject of desire, in Lacan’s terms, that is castrated and becomes powerless.
Warm scenery melt ; fragrances everywhere. Butterflies and bees play ; the spring color has arrived
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
Oscar Wilde
In 2008, after his artist residency in Korea, Sam Su Meng-Hung began another series of works. There we can see the gorgeous flowers and shadows of the《Kai Dao Tu Mi》 series come to be represented in a circular and smooth fashion. For sure, the artist has returned to his familiar subject and medium, like Wilde’s words quoted above, that a work of art must result from a unique temperament of the creator. According to Wilde, art is the strongest and purest individualism ever known in this world. The works that are pompous and licentious but lead the viewer to escape the present and to jump into the illusion come precisely from Sam Su Meng-Hung‘s personal strong and refined temperament.
The implicit terms in these licentious illusions manipulate and transcribe not only the art history and the contemporary aesthetic strategies. Among the fleeting and fragmentary mirages, exists the truth in the artist’s soul. Under the fetishist and immoral expression form, Sam Su Meng-Hung consistently uses implicit terms to reiterate the sensual ‘jouissance’ beyond the body, thus leads the viewer to elsewhere among the fleeting rays of the consumerist vision. With his rebellious gesture, the artist has a singular temperament which comes to refine the licentious images through which is revealed his personal piety for art.
淫靡影～消費主義時代的救贖
／沈伯丞
前言：
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who had read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.
- Oscar Wilde
在任何讀過歷史的人眼中，不服從就是人類原始的美德，就是藉由不服從與反叛，才有了進步。
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
自2003年的《開到荼靡》系列以來，蘇孟鴻的作品一貫地探索著，當代其浮華視界裡的表型與本質。透過對中國文學詞語的採借與傳統繪畫元素的挪用，藝術家持續著搬演一齣又一齣屬於消費社會裡的浮華光影。
然則潛藏在這些淫靡幻影中的隱語，是否僅是對藝術史的再轉寫與操弄「媚俗」的美學策略？存在於藝術家作品裡的真實（truth），是否得以在這些流光片羽般的幻象（mirage）中被捕捉？是否作品裡的真實一如拉岡的慾望一般不過是個空無一物的永恆懸缺？亦或者在班雅明其靈光（aura）消逝處，消費視界給了我們另一道通往彼方的閃現（ray）？
在作品拜物、惡德般的表型下，蘇孟鴻以隱語持續地覆頌著超脫即體的官能歡愉（jouissance），引領觀者在倏乎的閃現間朝向彼方。拒絕了藝術殿堂裡那高雅的矯造姿態與官方印刻的美學語詞，藝術家的淫靡影像，以逆反的姿態表現個人的虔誠。
韶華勝極處、名香開最晚
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
- Oscar Wilde
幻象乃歡愉最勝之物
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
「近年來我的創作就是在看似富美奢華的表象中，以個人的解讀揭示當中的荒謬…我選擇了一般大眾會想掛在家裡的中國花鳥畫…」
- 蘇孟鴻
做為藝術家綻露頭角之作的《開到荼靡》系列，其創作策略上的精準以及隨後產生的藝評效應等等，無須筆者在此多做贅述。僅從藝評與展覽評論等文字資料來看，無疑地《開到荼靡》系列，讓蘇孟鴻從一個美術系學生成功地轉化為一個真正的創作者。
然則此一系列真正的重要性或許更在於，其開啟了蘇孟鴻個人在藝術創作中的獨特領域；透過《開到荼靡》系列，藝術家其占領的獨特領域是那處於「韶華勝極處、名香開最晚」的浮華視界。從藝術家個人的自述中，我們可以得知藝術家將展覽取名為《開到荼靡》，其正意旨著那華麗與衰敗的臨界處，正是在這個幽微而難以補捉的臨界點上浮華與空幻難以分辨，亦正是在這個臨界點上世間的流光片羽最勝尋常時分。
在《開到荼靡》系列中，蘇孟鴻以圖案化、平面化及立體造型等重新模寫了傳統中國花鳥繪畫的內容，值得注意的是花鳥繪畫在中國的興起，乃是由宋徽宗與其宮廷畫師開始的，而諷刺的是正是這位皇帝將北宋由韶華勝極帶往衰亡。
再者藝術家個人的創作自述中引用了古典文學名著《紅樓夢》【壽怡紅群芳開夜宴】中的丫鬟麝月的花簽，再一次我們看見了藝術家個人其精微的用心，《紅樓夢》一書的最後寫到「落得一片白茫茫大地真乾淨」，更無疑地將人從先前賈府的繁華勝景中逐步引領至孤寂與空無中。
無論是花鳥繪畫的富麗華美抑或紅樓夢文字雕琢的淫靡，其皆處在於繁華與衰亡的臨界處，若從此處探尋創作者的思維，或者我們可以推想《開到荼靡》系列已然開啟了創作者對於那事物處於無可挽回處的迷戀，而唯有在那個危險的臨界點上「美」才可能做為藝術的判准，而亦唯有在「荼靡花開日、春芳最晚時」人方能知覺「美」的存在以及其即將的消逝。
正是對於那事物臨界處的迷戀以及探尋，讓蘇孟鴻得以宣稱其個人的作品乃是真正的創作，在那個事物其極致而幽微的點上，藝術家作品「媚俗」的表型下毋寧是指向那不在場的空幻感，觀者唯有踏出那浮華、豔麗的展覽空間時，方能品味「落得一片白茫茫大地真乾淨」的滋味，在那個倏乎即逝、無法復返的片刻間，作品「媚俗」的豔影轉瞬成為「超脫」的空幻。
韶華透碧紗、迷離落花影
延續了《開到荼靡》的想像，2007年的《開到荼靡之浮光掠影》再一次地玩弄了傳統圖像，有別於《開到荼靡》的表型方式，《開到荼靡之浮光掠影》以絹印版畫做為作品的表型，在其某些刻意造作古畫質感的作品中，蘇孟鴻以極為幽微方式的在圖像間滲入當代的繪畫語彙，卻又同時以隱沒的方式將古典圖像以鏡像映射的方式植入黑色、綠色等現代色彩性的平面上，在此當下與過往與作品一起鋪平，時間隨著平面性的作品一同失去了向度，在此圖像不再具有所謂的傳統、當代與否的問題，僅剩下薄薄的一層皮膜貼覆在畫布之上。
仔細觀察《開到荼靡之浮光掠影》系列的作品，可以發現創作者其持續地以對稱映射的手法讓皮膜般的圖像清淺地浮顯，作品由是促使觀者的視覺停止在圖像表面本身，視覺無由得以展延、穿透或更進一步地去閱讀、分析作品的意義，無意義的皮影讓觀者開始將視線遊移於展場中的每一件作品的皮膜上，從而這些皮影成為觀者眼中短暫而重複的華麗存在，其所創造出的清淺、繁複的視界，精準的映射了當代時尚消費影像的短暫特質，正是那僅存皮膜般的圖像，讓「浮光掠影」的副標產生了意義，誠然觀者僅能捕捉到這些美麗皮影的短暫印象，而無由駐留其上，正是在此處藝術家在《開到荼靡》系列所開啟的那個臨界點，從原本在時間維度上的一個點，轉換為如同甜甜圈一般的拓樸流形，所有的影像皆貼覆並環繞著那外沿，沒有終點、起點只是持續的以圖像彼此交互鏡射、對映。
值得注意的是這些特意造做出的膚淺平面，其視覺結構上竟無意間貼和了密宗佛教的曼陀羅（Mandala）結構，從而心理學家榮格筆下那個表徵「成形，變形，永恆心靈的永恆創造」以及「一切道路的代表，是通向中心點，通向自體完整化的道路」的內在宇宙結構，竟諷刺性的完成於創作者特意膚淺化、消費化的媚俗豔影中，由是特意營造的消費影像產生了超越性的可能性，一如藝術家在自述中強調的：「從歷史上來看,任何形式的通俗低俗一經藝術扶正後皆能成為高雅嚴肅…媚俗成為一種藝術展演時…其實也同樣具備藝術的光環…」。透過那無止盡的對稱、映射畫布平面上那皮膜般膚淺的圖像，竟足以構成一個涵納心靈宇宙的曼陀羅（Mandala），而觀者得以在這個由無止盡的皮影構成的環圈中脫逸而出，朝向榮格筆下那「通向自體完整化的道路」上。
從《開到荼靡》中那倏乎即逝、無法復返的時間臨界點，以致於《浮光掠影》中那無止盡環繞的拓樸流形，蘇孟鴻其作品的浮華光影持續地指向那越出浮華後的虛空狀態，而唯有當觀者處在藝術家那「荼靡花開日、春芳最晚時」的片刻唯有處在那「花影迷離」的場域中，方可能體驗到越出的「超脫」。
合歡花解語、奇淫夢裏路
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
- Oscar Wilde
掙脫誘惑的唯一方法就是屈服於誘惑本身…我可以抗拒任何事物除了誘惑
一個不危險的概念根本不值得被稱為概念
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
一如文章先前所提，蘇孟鴻其作品一貫地藉由淫豔、華美倏乎即逝的性格引領觀者指向虛空，然則真正應該提問的是在作品其虛空本質的究竟是什麼？是否一如拉岡所說的慾望一般，虛空本就是毫無一物，抑或面紗下的慾望存在著可以被揭露的形體。亦或者慾望本身亦是一種指向虛空的道路。檢視藝術家的創作，可以發現在《開到荼靡》以傳統花鳥繪畫為主題的平面繪畫系列之外；《奇淫合歡散》及《開不到荼靡-以蘇孟鴻為名》的錄像及攝影是更為貼近藝術家身體或者說官能自身的作品。
在此系列的作品中藝術家以個人的身體出現在作品之中，影像裡蘇孟鴻赤裸著身軀的身軀，帶著豹頭面具，持續地與房間裡的玩偶、模型等等進行生殖交配及手淫。有別於英國導演彼得‧格林那威（Peter Greenaway）電影中，對消費資本主義其陽性本質中去生殖性、身體性的嘲諷，蘇孟鴻的性交抑或手淫其存在著對物的生命性禮讚以及期待從其中創生的可能性。
希臘哲學家柏拉圖在其《共和國》第十冊中講述了一個“洞穴神話” ，故事裡以隱喻的方式描述出人類演化的旅程是從一個洞穴中模糊的感官世界，朝向洞外陽光閃耀其所有真理的歷程，將歸屬於感知範疇的知覺置於歸屬於光的理性的反面。然則“洞穴神話”在法國女性主義思想家露西‧伊瑞葛萊（Luce Irigara）卻將洞穴重新轉譯為子宮，依據露西‧伊瑞葛萊（Luce Irigara）的詮釋，則感覺的邏輯成為柏拉圖理性的對立存在，它必須潛伏、孕育於幽深、陰暗的洞穴中。
以此觀點回望蘇孟鴻的身體作品，可以發現其身體所處在的空間正如同露西‧伊瑞葛萊（Luce Irigara）的子宮洞穴之中，由是藝術家在《奇淫合歡散》中的性交出現了某種生殖性的意義，此外影片中可以看見手對進行玩偶賦生與奪殺的過程，在此處藝術家給予了消費性物件生物性的質地，而此亦是其之所以可能與玩偶性交的前提～物具有生命。有趣的是藝術家的豹頭面具，讓小房間的淫褻行為產生了近乎原始宗教性的意義。藝術家毋寧是透過對物件的性交再進行一次，消費時代的祭典。
喬荼波陀（Gaudapada）在《數論頌注疏》中言及印度古代阿修羅的宇宙發生論時說：「像小孩的出生由男女結合而來一樣，萬物的創生也是由陰陽交媾而生成。」而 奧義書、《薄伽梵歌》也提到了這種宇宙觀。依據密教的理論，人的身體是宇宙本身的一個縮影。它認為，世界起源於陰陽交合，除了性愛的推動，沒有其他原因。對人類來說，導致新生命創造的過程是男女結合，宇宙也是以同樣的方式通過陰陽交合而創造出來的。廣闊無垠的虛空中偉大的創世搏動，就人而言便具體表現為性欲的衝動，正是性欲和愛導致新的名和新的色（名代表精神現象，色代表物質事物；人是精神和物質的結合體，所以有時也稱為名色），從而使人類得以生成和繁衍。而正是在這種意義上，《奇淫合歡散》裡那個豹頭祭司要引領觀者超越現象世界，重新進行一次萬物的創生。
沿著神秘主義對於世界的理解與詮釋，我們似乎可以理解為何藝術家在其裸身顯現的作品中，其表型總是帶有著性搏動的淫褻，若從神秘主義的角度來看，性愛本身即是超越現象世界的有效手段，是最為神聖的，因此在儀式中的性事並不表現為激情，而是一種非個性化的行為，一種無狀態的心靈狀態和渾然一體的自我，沉浸於其中的是徹底的自我和自我的解脫。正是在這種解脫的意義上《奇淫合歡散》及《開不到荼靡-以蘇孟鴻為名》的身體，已然不在僅屬於藝術家而是從屬於一個外於個人身體的「無狀態的心靈狀態和渾然一體的自我」，正是這個身體屬性的轉變讓觀者透過作品而超脫成為可能，而蘇孟鴻的淫褻身影亦不再是拉岡（Lacan）那被閹割而射精無能的慾望主體。
暖景溶溶、遍芳菲 蝶戲蜂遊、春色已歸來
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
- Oscar Wilde
一件藝術作品即是一個獨特氣質的獨特凝練
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
2008年韓國駐村結束後，蘇孟鴻開啟了另一系列的新作，在作品中觀者可以看見《開到荼靡》系列的豔麗花影以一種圓轉而流變的姿態進行表現，藝術家無疑地回到了其熟悉的題材與媒介中，誠如上文中所引用的王爾德的語句，作品必定要存在著創作者其獨特氣質的凝練。藝術依據王爾德的說法乃是這世界已知最為強烈、純粹的個人主義，那些屬於浮華的、淫靡的卻又讓觀者逸脫當下躍入空幻的作品，即是蘇孟鴻個人濃烈的氣質凝練。
在這些淫靡幻影中的隱語，蘇孟鴻操弄、轉寫的不僅是藝術史與當代的美學策略，這些流光片羽般的幻象（mirage）中存在著藝術家靈魂裡的真實（truth）。作品拜物、惡德般的表型下，蘇孟鴻以隱語持續地覆頌著超脫即體的官能歡愉（jouissance），引領觀者在消費視界那倏乎的閃現間（ray）朝向彼方。藝術家以逆反的姿態、其獨特氣質所凝練出淫靡的影像裡帶著個人真摯的藝術虔誠。
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who had read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.
- Oscar Wilde
在任何讀過歷史的人眼中，不服從就是人類原始的美德，就是藉由不服從與反叛，才有了進步。
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
自2003年的《開到荼靡》系列以來，蘇孟鴻的作品一貫地探索著，當代其浮華視界裡的表型與本質。透過對中國文學詞語的採借與傳統繪畫元素的挪用，藝術家持續著搬演一齣又一齣屬於消費社會裡的浮華光影。
然則潛藏在這些淫靡幻影中的隱語，是否僅是對藝術史的再轉寫與操弄「媚俗」的美學策略？存在於藝術家作品裡的真實（truth），是否得以在這些流光片羽般的幻象（mirage）中被捕捉？是否作品裡的真實一如拉岡的慾望一般不過是個空無一物的永恆懸缺？亦或者在班雅明其靈光（aura）消逝處，消費視界給了我們另一道通往彼方的閃現（ray）？
在作品拜物、惡德般的表型下，蘇孟鴻以隱語持續地覆頌著超脫即體的官能歡愉（jouissance），引領觀者在倏乎的閃現間朝向彼方。拒絕了藝術殿堂裡那高雅的矯造姿態與官方印刻的美學語詞，藝術家的淫靡影像，以逆反的姿態表現個人的虔誠。
韶華勝極處、名香開最晚
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
- Oscar Wilde
幻象乃歡愉最勝之物
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
「近年來我的創作就是在看似富美奢華的表象中，以個人的解讀揭示當中的荒謬…我選擇了一般大眾會想掛在家裡的中國花鳥畫…」
- 蘇孟鴻
做為藝術家綻露頭角之作的《開到荼靡》系列，其創作策略上的精準以及隨後產生的藝評效應等等，無須筆者在此多做贅述。僅從藝評與展覽評論等文字資料來看，無疑地《開到荼靡》系列，讓蘇孟鴻從一個美術系學生成功地轉化為一個真正的創作者。
然則此一系列真正的重要性或許更在於，其開啟了蘇孟鴻個人在藝術創作中的獨特領域；透過《開到荼靡》系列，藝術家其占領的獨特領域是那處於「韶華勝極處、名香開最晚」的浮華視界。從藝術家個人的自述中，我們可以得知藝術家將展覽取名為《開到荼靡》，其正意旨著那華麗與衰敗的臨界處，正是在這個幽微而難以補捉的臨界點上浮華與空幻難以分辨，亦正是在這個臨界點上世間的流光片羽最勝尋常時分。
在《開到荼靡》系列中，蘇孟鴻以圖案化、平面化及立體造型等重新模寫了傳統中國花鳥繪畫的內容，值得注意的是花鳥繪畫在中國的興起，乃是由宋徽宗與其宮廷畫師開始的，而諷刺的是正是這位皇帝將北宋由韶華勝極帶往衰亡。
再者藝術家個人的創作自述中引用了古典文學名著《紅樓夢》【壽怡紅群芳開夜宴】中的丫鬟麝月的花簽，再一次我們看見了藝術家個人其精微的用心，《紅樓夢》一書的最後寫到「落得一片白茫茫大地真乾淨」，更無疑地將人從先前賈府的繁華勝景中逐步引領至孤寂與空無中。
無論是花鳥繪畫的富麗華美抑或紅樓夢文字雕琢的淫靡，其皆處在於繁華與衰亡的臨界處，若從此處探尋創作者的思維，或者我們可以推想《開到荼靡》系列已然開啟了創作者對於那事物處於無可挽回處的迷戀，而唯有在那個危險的臨界點上「美」才可能做為藝術的判准，而亦唯有在「荼靡花開日、春芳最晚時」人方能知覺「美」的存在以及其即將的消逝。
正是對於那事物臨界處的迷戀以及探尋，讓蘇孟鴻得以宣稱其個人的作品乃是真正的創作，在那個事物其極致而幽微的點上，藝術家作品「媚俗」的表型下毋寧是指向那不在場的空幻感，觀者唯有踏出那浮華、豔麗的展覽空間時，方能品味「落得一片白茫茫大地真乾淨」的滋味，在那個倏乎即逝、無法復返的片刻間，作品「媚俗」的豔影轉瞬成為「超脫」的空幻。
韶華透碧紗、迷離落花影
延續了《開到荼靡》的想像，2007年的《開到荼靡之浮光掠影》再一次地玩弄了傳統圖像，有別於《開到荼靡》的表型方式，《開到荼靡之浮光掠影》以絹印版畫做為作品的表型，在其某些刻意造作古畫質感的作品中，蘇孟鴻以極為幽微方式的在圖像間滲入當代的繪畫語彙，卻又同時以隱沒的方式將古典圖像以鏡像映射的方式植入黑色、綠色等現代色彩性的平面上，在此當下與過往與作品一起鋪平，時間隨著平面性的作品一同失去了向度，在此圖像不再具有所謂的傳統、當代與否的問題，僅剩下薄薄的一層皮膜貼覆在畫布之上。
仔細觀察《開到荼靡之浮光掠影》系列的作品，可以發現創作者其持續地以對稱映射的手法讓皮膜般的圖像清淺地浮顯，作品由是促使觀者的視覺停止在圖像表面本身，視覺無由得以展延、穿透或更進一步地去閱讀、分析作品的意義，無意義的皮影讓觀者開始將視線遊移於展場中的每一件作品的皮膜上，從而這些皮影成為觀者眼中短暫而重複的華麗存在，其所創造出的清淺、繁複的視界，精準的映射了當代時尚消費影像的短暫特質，正是那僅存皮膜般的圖像，讓「浮光掠影」的副標產生了意義，誠然觀者僅能捕捉到這些美麗皮影的短暫印象，而無由駐留其上，正是在此處藝術家在《開到荼靡》系列所開啟的那個臨界點，從原本在時間維度上的一個點，轉換為如同甜甜圈一般的拓樸流形，所有的影像皆貼覆並環繞著那外沿，沒有終點、起點只是持續的以圖像彼此交互鏡射、對映。
值得注意的是這些特意造做出的膚淺平面，其視覺結構上竟無意間貼和了密宗佛教的曼陀羅（Mandala）結構，從而心理學家榮格筆下那個表徵「成形，變形，永恆心靈的永恆創造」以及「一切道路的代表，是通向中心點，通向自體完整化的道路」的內在宇宙結構，竟諷刺性的完成於創作者特意膚淺化、消費化的媚俗豔影中，由是特意營造的消費影像產生了超越性的可能性，一如藝術家在自述中強調的：「從歷史上來看,任何形式的通俗低俗一經藝術扶正後皆能成為高雅嚴肅…媚俗成為一種藝術展演時…其實也同樣具備藝術的光環…」。透過那無止盡的對稱、映射畫布平面上那皮膜般膚淺的圖像，竟足以構成一個涵納心靈宇宙的曼陀羅（Mandala），而觀者得以在這個由無止盡的皮影構成的環圈中脫逸而出，朝向榮格筆下那「通向自體完整化的道路」上。
從《開到荼靡》中那倏乎即逝、無法復返的時間臨界點，以致於《浮光掠影》中那無止盡環繞的拓樸流形，蘇孟鴻其作品的浮華光影持續地指向那越出浮華後的虛空狀態，而唯有當觀者處在藝術家那「荼靡花開日、春芳最晚時」的片刻唯有處在那「花影迷離」的場域中，方可能體驗到越出的「超脫」。
合歡花解語、奇淫夢裏路
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
- Oscar Wilde
掙脫誘惑的唯一方法就是屈服於誘惑本身…我可以抗拒任何事物除了誘惑
一個不危險的概念根本不值得被稱為概念
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
一如文章先前所提，蘇孟鴻其作品一貫地藉由淫豔、華美倏乎即逝的性格引領觀者指向虛空，然則真正應該提問的是在作品其虛空本質的究竟是什麼？是否一如拉岡所說的慾望一般，虛空本就是毫無一物，抑或面紗下的慾望存在著可以被揭露的形體。亦或者慾望本身亦是一種指向虛空的道路。檢視藝術家的創作，可以發現在《開到荼靡》以傳統花鳥繪畫為主題的平面繪畫系列之外；《奇淫合歡散》及《開不到荼靡-以蘇孟鴻為名》的錄像及攝影是更為貼近藝術家身體或者說官能自身的作品。
在此系列的作品中藝術家以個人的身體出現在作品之中，影像裡蘇孟鴻赤裸著身軀的身軀，帶著豹頭面具，持續地與房間裡的玩偶、模型等等進行生殖交配及手淫。有別於英國導演彼得‧格林那威（Peter Greenaway）電影中，對消費資本主義其陽性本質中去生殖性、身體性的嘲諷，蘇孟鴻的性交抑或手淫其存在著對物的生命性禮讚以及期待從其中創生的可能性。
希臘哲學家柏拉圖在其《共和國》第十冊中講述了一個“洞穴神話” ，故事裡以隱喻的方式描述出人類演化的旅程是從一個洞穴中模糊的感官世界，朝向洞外陽光閃耀其所有真理的歷程，將歸屬於感知範疇的知覺置於歸屬於光的理性的反面。然則“洞穴神話”在法國女性主義思想家露西‧伊瑞葛萊（Luce Irigara）卻將洞穴重新轉譯為子宮，依據露西‧伊瑞葛萊（Luce Irigara）的詮釋，則感覺的邏輯成為柏拉圖理性的對立存在，它必須潛伏、孕育於幽深、陰暗的洞穴中。
以此觀點回望蘇孟鴻的身體作品，可以發現其身體所處在的空間正如同露西‧伊瑞葛萊（Luce Irigara）的子宮洞穴之中，由是藝術家在《奇淫合歡散》中的性交出現了某種生殖性的意義，此外影片中可以看見手對進行玩偶賦生與奪殺的過程，在此處藝術家給予了消費性物件生物性的質地，而此亦是其之所以可能與玩偶性交的前提～物具有生命。有趣的是藝術家的豹頭面具，讓小房間的淫褻行為產生了近乎原始宗教性的意義。藝術家毋寧是透過對物件的性交再進行一次，消費時代的祭典。
喬荼波陀（Gaudapada）在《數論頌注疏》中言及印度古代阿修羅的宇宙發生論時說：「像小孩的出生由男女結合而來一樣，萬物的創生也是由陰陽交媾而生成。」而 奧義書、《薄伽梵歌》也提到了這種宇宙觀。依據密教的理論，人的身體是宇宙本身的一個縮影。它認為，世界起源於陰陽交合，除了性愛的推動，沒有其他原因。對人類來說，導致新生命創造的過程是男女結合，宇宙也是以同樣的方式通過陰陽交合而創造出來的。廣闊無垠的虛空中偉大的創世搏動，就人而言便具體表現為性欲的衝動，正是性欲和愛導致新的名和新的色（名代表精神現象，色代表物質事物；人是精神和物質的結合體，所以有時也稱為名色），從而使人類得以生成和繁衍。而正是在這種意義上，《奇淫合歡散》裡那個豹頭祭司要引領觀者超越現象世界，重新進行一次萬物的創生。
沿著神秘主義對於世界的理解與詮釋，我們似乎可以理解為何藝術家在其裸身顯現的作品中，其表型總是帶有著性搏動的淫褻，若從神秘主義的角度來看，性愛本身即是超越現象世界的有效手段，是最為神聖的，因此在儀式中的性事並不表現為激情，而是一種非個性化的行為，一種無狀態的心靈狀態和渾然一體的自我，沉浸於其中的是徹底的自我和自我的解脫。正是在這種解脫的意義上《奇淫合歡散》及《開不到荼靡-以蘇孟鴻為名》的身體，已然不在僅屬於藝術家而是從屬於一個外於個人身體的「無狀態的心靈狀態和渾然一體的自我」，正是這個身體屬性的轉變讓觀者透過作品而超脫成為可能，而蘇孟鴻的淫褻身影亦不再是拉岡（Lacan）那被閹割而射精無能的慾望主體。
暖景溶溶、遍芳菲 蝶戲蜂遊、春色已歸來
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
- Oscar Wilde
一件藝術作品即是一個獨特氣質的獨特凝練
- 奧斯卡‧王爾德
2008年韓國駐村結束後，蘇孟鴻開啟了另一系列的新作，在作品中觀者可以看見《開到荼靡》系列的豔麗花影以一種圓轉而流變的姿態進行表現，藝術家無疑地回到了其熟悉的題材與媒介中，誠如上文中所引用的王爾德的語句，作品必定要存在著創作者其獨特氣質的凝練。藝術依據王爾德的說法乃是這世界已知最為強烈、純粹的個人主義，那些屬於浮華的、淫靡的卻又讓觀者逸脫當下躍入空幻的作品，即是蘇孟鴻個人濃烈的氣質凝練。
在這些淫靡幻影中的隱語，蘇孟鴻操弄、轉寫的不僅是藝術史與當代的美學策略，這些流光片羽般的幻象（mirage）中存在著藝術家靈魂裡的真實（truth）。作品拜物、惡德般的表型下，蘇孟鴻以隱語持續地覆頌著超脫即體的官能歡愉（jouissance），引領觀者在消費視界那倏乎的閃現間（ray）朝向彼方。藝術家以逆反的姿態、其獨特氣質所凝練出淫靡的影像裡帶著個人真摯的藝術虔誠。
Exhibition 相關展覽
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2007Unreachable Blooming
IT Park, Taipei, Taiwan 開不到荼蘼 伊通公園，台北，台灣 |
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2003Kai Dao Tu Mi
Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan 開到荼靡 台北當代藝術館，台北，台灣 |