瘦削的叶信泓（阿咧A-Lei）有着逆龄般的童趣，将幽默转化为创作，以双手捏出圆润逗趣的立体怪兽，又以水墨笔法呈现不一样的怪兽，今集《艺城游记》带大家走入这位怪兽之父的秘密基地。
创作路上不免跌宕起伏，对叶信泓（阿咧A-Lei）来说也不例外，相对不少仍在浮游的创作者，他称得上是先苦后甜。毕业于台湾艺术大学的水墨创作组，投身插画行业，绘画与本人外表不相符的少女风图像，生活迫人，笔下少女总带着哀愁。直至29岁首次创作公仔获得2005设计师玩具比赛金奖，命运齿轮开始启动，由纸黏土变陶土，借双手捏出梦想轮廓。
His created monsters are both strange and cute, emitting a kind of playful magic. In recent years, the monsters have even been transformed into bronze sculptures, going from fragile to strong, and their size has expanded exponentially, carrying his hopes for the future. Last year at the Taipei International Art Fair, the monsters were presented in the form of ink paintings, showcasing his highly personal new works.
Yeh Hsin-hung, who gained fame through his monsters, exudes a sense of humor, just like the monsters he creates, always making people laugh. Because he is the monster, and the monster is him, he is like an adult living inside a child’s body, observing the world from an appropriate distance. This is his way of creating and living, just like his pen name “Ah Li,” which is a transliteration from Japanese meaning “that one over there.” It represents a third-person perspective that is detached and on the sidelines, observing the world from a distance and maintaining a somewhat distant relationship with the crowd. Ah Li, who is accustomed to hiding behind his works, is now stepping forward to share with everyone his dream of a monster paradise filled with mist and rain.
“原来可以靠公仔赚钱？”
物换星移，模糊不少事物间的界线，艺术也不再曲高和寡，存在更多可能性，也冲击阿咧的创作观念，令他由插画转战玩具设计，再跨到令他成名的陶艺怪兽系列，这一切若要追根溯源，要回到90年代末香港Figure教父刘建文（Michael Lau）带起的公仔热潮，阿咧笑说：“当时香港流行公仔，令我着迷同时也冲击既有观念，原来可以靠公仔赚钱？那时候香港的Michael Lau在台北举办展览，我讶异艺术与公仔是可以结合？他的12英寸人偶带着独有设计感，40多件排列展出，画面震撼了我，原来可以这样去做你喜欢的事，而且能够赚钱。”脑洞大开之余，更因应当下窘境添增推动力，毕业后的阿咧为生存辗转不同工作，年少气盛，还是想回归最喜欢的创作，辞退正职毛逐自荐报馆，社群年代尚未降临时，传统纸媒是插画家的唯一舞台，也是接触外界的窗口。
水墨创作出身的阿咧，首度以个人名义创作的插画却与水墨沾不上边，而是绘画少女风格，他说：“我不喜欢水墨画，但喜欢水墨线条，如果运用于绘画中很适合以少女来呈现。”纤细少女风没有戏剧性地大放异彩，却换得一口饭，笔下少女也成为台湾作家张曼娟著作封面，“阿咧”笔名也是这段时期得来。即使偶尔得到更多工作机会，也有忠实粉丝替他收藏报纸作品，但单靠插画每月收入不足五千台币，有时候甚至是零。饱受现实摧残，阿咧笔下少女有着化不开的忧愁，身陷现实窘境，香港的公仔热潮正为他打开另一道创作路。一直于平面插画打转的他，是穷也是转机，尝试以最低成本的纸黏土创作立体公仔参加设计师玩具比赛，没有退路反倒迫出前路，首度参赛就夺下金奖的阿咧，从此迈向立体公仔的创作。
“陶土是很有温度、有生命力。”
阿咧, who has won the gold prize twice in designer toy competitions, ultimately did not pursue toy design, but was drawn to ceramics. It wasn’t until he was almost 30 years old that he took a ceramics course at a community college. Among a group of elderly students making cups and plates, he sculpted strange creatures with limbs, transforming them from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, from nothingness to reality. This process drove him crazy for ceramics, making his creative world even broader. He laughed and said, “Ceramics have warmth and vitality, which resonates with my personality. Each type of clay has its own unique charm, especially the glaze colors, which cannot be fully controlled. It is a very expressive medium, and the moment of firing often brings both shock and surprise. That’s also why I didn’t continue with toys. Toys are too neat and lack a sense of life.” Ceramics, on the other hand, possess both certainty and uncertainty, just like destiny.
Things ferment and present different postures over the years. Ah Lie’s ink method has transitioned from traditional handmade paper to clay, revealing another tone. His monsters do not shine, but rather appear weathered, as if covered in wind and frost. This comes from his foundation in ink techniques. He shares, “I use ink brushstrokes to glaze, and also use sponges and knives to scrape, as if painting on a three-dimensional canvas. Sometimes I stack multiple layers of glaze colors and then scrape off the surface, presenting a kind of translucent visual effect. For example, with white, I don’t use just one shade of white, but layer two or three shades of white. So I like to use different glaze colors to let it naturally produce changes.” The same glaze put into the kiln produces different colors at different temperatures, making the stacking process more challenging. But Ah Lie doesn’t like mainstream spray guns or dip glazes because the brightness and completeness make him feel like a product, lacking the tension of life. Through intricate processing, he presents the outer texture of his monsters, revealing vitality and carrying the warmth of ink.
“Style may be influenced by the accumulation of life.”
对于陶艺创作，阿咧幽默地说：“过程感觉自己是厨师在做料理，擀土条像面条，切土像切吐司，压成薄片则像水饺皮，将这些食材渐渐堆叠成一道料理。”以生活化地比喻创作过程，因为阿咧的创作灵感以至怪兽的诞生，也是来自他对生活的感悟，他分享说：“风格可能跟生活的累积有影响，我也是渐渐地找到喜欢的元素，就是有趣却又带点丑的方向。怪兽是每一种人的内在呈现，你可以说它是人变成的，或者说它是从外星或宇宙来的，并没有绝对的答案。我喜欢创作怪兽，不管怪兽做什么，手脚多长，比例多不合理，都是合理的，因为它就是怪兽，它拥有绝对的自由。”细看他的怪兽，都有种看似熟悉又陌生的感觉，例如看似是猫、菱角，一种来自日常生活里的事物，经阿咧的创意转化成与既定概念不同的形态与神情，这些怪兽都是“动态”，以生物的姿态呈现，既会躺着也会发呆，让人看着有种会心微笑的魔力。
怪兽不仅仅是从日常生活中观察演变，也承载着阿咧的情绪，他想了想说：“我觉得怪兽有部分是在说社会上一些没被接纳、很边缘的人，就如我，当初因为不会电脑绘图一直找不到工作，所以我就是一只不被社会注意，很可怜蜷缩于角落的怪兽；又譬如我很想出国旅游，却没有钱，所以我做一只有翅膀的怪兽，可以自由地飞。”怪兽既是阿咧眼中在演释不同角色的人，同时反映他当下心情与欲望，最终让他被富邦艺术基金会看到，邀请他举办展览，这位一直躲在暗处的怪兽，终于走在镁光灯前。
说到引发广大民众注意的怪兽，要提到2021年在屏东车城「看海美术馆」个展『春江兽月夜』，当时阿咧创作的其中一只怪兽「春江」变成大型吹气版，爬在美术馆屋顶，有趣而震感的画面令人留下深刻印象。巨型怪兽也膨胀了阿咧对创作「体积」的追求，他的陶艺作品越做越大型，后来直接跨界到铜雕，他笑说：“从前创作追求温饱，当实现了，欲望会更强更大，我现在希望更多人看到我的作品，我希望建立一座美术馆。而铜坚硬的材质，更符合我想在”自然风景中有怪兽”的追求，可以将作品存放在户外更大的空间，也不用受限于窑的尺寸。”
对展示生命力的追求落在铜雕方面，只是改用不同的技巧，阿咧解释：“铜跟陶一样有无法预测的特性，铜需要以化学药剂去腐蚀，再等待几天甚至几周时间才看见效果，还会氧化，之后才能上蜡隔离水和空气定色。”铜雕动辄上百公斤的重量及尺寸，需要出动梯级，而且腐蚀过程具有高危险性，也要用上明火高温烤制，过程相对陶土来得辛苦，却教阿咧甘之如飴。
一种怪兽的水墨感！
On the one hand, he is obsessed with harder and larger bronze sculptures, and on the other hand, he returns to the quiet creation of ink paintings. When he picks up the brush again, he realizes a change in his mindset. Perhaps he doesn’t dislike ink paintings, but rather dislikes being bound by the rigid educational system in the past. He recalls the feeling of re-engaging in ink painting: “It took me a lot of time to try ink painting again. I express it in a monster-like way now. Without a teacher negating my creations, I return to ink painting. I am free. I can constantly find the elements I like in it, a monster’s ink feeling.” The shackles are broken, and Ah Lie can freely splash ink, placing the monsters in his mind into different ink paintings. He laughs and says that the inspiration for ink painting is very spontaneous, presenting different characteristics of monsters based on the current brush quality and ink state.
对于有着整齐僻好的阿咧，陶瓷与水墨创作最大分别是日与夜，阿咧不疾不徐道：“开始水墨画创作前，需要将周围打理得相当干净，地板、桌面、垫布等，将纸放上桌后，开始磨墨，一边磨一边摸索心里画面，在白色的空间里寻找和怪兽相遇的路。水墨创作是一场从无到有，再到无的心灵之旅，创作过程必须相当安静，所以多半在深夜。”富有仪式感及规律性的步骤，本质与传统水墨画相若，先沉淀当下，回归本我，他补充说：“画是安静的媒材，默默接受给予它的添加物，过程是舒服还带点慵懒。”
“保持初心是在创作之路上最困难的一件事！”
Only half a day of interviewing and getting along, you can feel the childlike innocence in front of you, just like his works, which have a kind of magical happiness. This is also the core message of his works and the creative idea, which is happiness. He said with a smile, “You must be happy first in order to infect the works and make them energetic and healthy.” He recalled that the girl image he painted when he first started was unhappy because he was under a negative energy of life at that time. Unhealthy works cannot attract more people’s likes, and he doesn’t like works with a gloomy face. He jokingly said that the four major survival standards are sunshine, air, water, and humor. This humor is also his creative engine. He thought for a moment and said, “The most difficult thing on the creative road is to maintain a childlike heart, that is, to maintain the purest starting point. The prerequisite for creation is honesty. You must be honest with yourself. This work is something you truly like and want to complete from the bottom of your heart, rather than just thinking about how much money this work can sell for. Many creations nowadays are too hollow, and too many people are copying Yoshitomo Nara. It’s okay to start with imitation, but don’t end up losing yourself.”
Born in Kaohsiung, grew up in Taipei, studied in Keelung, served in Kinmen, and now living in Xindian, until now in Taoyuan, Ah Lie has always been in a state of movement. Each city has nurtured his creativity in different ways, especially Keelung. Keelung, where it rains three-quarters of the year, combined with the mysterious fog, has become the ideal location for his “Monster Art Museum”. Because Ah Lie’s dream is to build a “Monster Art Museum” in a place with fog and rain, besides Keelung, it also stems from his imagination. He jokingly said, “I think fog gives people a mysterious and terrifying feeling, and it also attracts your curiosity. It’s just the perfect atmosphere for monsters! When I first came to see this studio, it was around December, and I encountered fog that was one floor high. It was this fog that made me decide to choose this place. This place cannot be accurately displayed even on Google Maps. I call this place my secret monster base.” It is fortunate to visit this “secret monster base”, and it can only be said that it is really far away from the city, very suitable for hiding monsters. The surrounding mountain scenery and the fog that moves like clouds have also become the scenery in his ink paintings, quietly discovering the traces of monsters in the valleys.
提及最有影响或最具意义的城市，却是当兵时期待过的金门，他说：“金门于我有一种疏离感，却是这辈子最自由的时间。那时候在金门当电影放映员，每天没有烦恼，不用担心生计，只是不能回台湾本岛，所以每天都很悠闲地尽情画画。往后其他城市的移动，就是让我看到不一样有趣的风景，是一种比较开心、探险的感觉。”往后会否继续移动是一个未知，但起码刻下的阿咧，继续以双手来实现他心中的怪兽乐园。
制片人：孔美美
采访与文本：潘凯瑞
摄影师：魏
视频编辑：谭凯森与孔阿尔文
设计：孔阿尔文
