臺灣錄像藝術發展迄今逾三十多年,從錄像行為表演、錄像雕塑、錄像裝置,到單頻道錄像等形態,別具特色。袁廣鳴與王俊傑乃是當中的先驅者,創作至今仍不輟。這兩位藝術家迥異於同代創作者的作品表徵,在於其錄像藝術的電影性十分突出,獨樹一幟。
基本上,在超過三十年的創作生涯中,關於袁廣鳴與王俊傑錄像藝術的電影性特質,可分別藉由三個時期作為關鍵代表:一,由1980年代至1980末期,深受電影啟蒙的兩位青年藝術家,透過蒙太奇與撿拾影像和西方藝術論題對話,並與解嚴前後的重要社會與歷史事件展開激辯。二,由1980年代末期至1990年代中後期,袁廣鳴與王俊傑的錄像藝術與實驗電影產生連結,締造跨域影像現象,且在挑戰主流電影與藝術電影價值與語法之際,創造一種介於錄像藝術與實驗電影的另翼影像。三,由1990年代末期迄今,兩位藝術家強調融浸式的錄像藝術,展現自身與世界之間,觸及觀視、記憶、家園、危機、身體、死亡,乃至跨文化與跨藝術等論題的深刻思辨。
三十多年來的三個時期,袁廣鳴與王俊傑錄像藝術實踐在歷史、媒介與美學等面向上,體現從錄像性、另翼性到電影性的發展進程,進一步深化當代錄像藝術作為表現雜匯與跨域、重新定位與構型等表徵的影像藝術。
Since the emergence of video art in Taiwan in the 1980s, a wide spectrum of artworks in the forms of video performance, video sculpture, video installation and single-channel video has been produced. Goang-Ming Yuan and Wang Jun-Jieh are among the first generation of Taiwanese artists to embrace this new medium, and within the span of three decades, they have distinguished themselves as leading video artists best known for artworks infused with a distinctive cinematic quality.
The prolific careers of Yuan and Wang are understand as passing through three key stages: 1. In the early to mid-1980s, the two young artists inspired by cinema used found footage and montage technique to create artworks responding to Western art themes and addressing socially/historically significant issues in Taiwan during the lifting of martial law in Taiwan. 2. From the end of the 1980s to mid-1990s, Yuan and Wang turned away from conventional video art and drew on the influences of experimental films to make images that transcended disciplinary boundaries. The resulting ‘alternative images’, a cross between video art and experimental films, defied the notions of mainstream films and art house films. 3. Since the 1990s, they have focused on making immersive video art whose narratives reference personal reflections and global concerns on memory, family, perspective, disaster, body, death or even trans-cultural and trans-art experiences.