与伟大无关 系列之——自我修复
策展人：张冰
展览总监：金汐
参展艺术家 ： 胡子 ，李超 ， 翟倞
开幕式: 2014.07.12, 15:00—18:00
展览时间：2014.07.12 — 08.30
主办方：江苏凤凰艺都发展有限公司
承办方：凤凰艺都上海红坊空间
凤凰艺都上海空间
上海市长宁区淮海西路570号G102
这是一个伟大的时代？而我们将注定与伟大无关。我们的生命不断被荷尔蒙、社会价值和身份政治碎化、扭转与挤压。我们在现实里学习虚妄，在虚妄里虚拟真实。我们不断成熟而且更加世故，我们不断进步并最终与梦想背道而驰。我们无法伟大，我们是否就可以渺小？
绘画无疑是年轻艺术家李超、胡子和翟倞在所处时代选择的一种存在方式，一种在本我与客体逐渐分离过程中自我建构的方式，一种面对现实世界下意识精神的自我放逐与自我修复方式。
观看李超的作品，如同推开一扇门，进入李超的私人梦境。灰色暗调的虚构场景，荒诞无逻辑的情节，非叙事性的片段，不仅仅是对现实与镜像双重世界简单的叠加与重组，更像是在真实处境的身后，建构的一个私密空间 。 胡子的作品具有明显的个人印迹： 下意识的女性主义色彩，对青春与荷尔蒙时期致幻剂的迷恋。放大的肖像与剪切的身体局部如同被拉近焦距的摄影作品，让我想起Georgia O’Keeffe年轻时代在纽约，有意识的引导观众的视线落在自己设定的画面焦点。比较翟倞的油画，我更喜欢他的纸上小品。一如呼吸与饮食，它是艺术家的自言自语，是艺术家的生活日常。《写给未知朋友的信》 是翟倞为这次展览特别创作。远在纽约的艺术家与一位未知的不曾谋面甚至臆想的朋友以手写书信和绘画的传统方式沟通。艺术家说：那种未知感，可能喜欢，可能厌恶，这让我着迷。
李超、胡子和翟倞，作为同一个时代的同一代艺术家，他们的作品是个性化的，他们作品在内在诉求上又有类似之处。他们的作品 与伟大无关，与社会背景与政治抗争无关，与全球化的国际审美无关；他们的作品，与细腻绵密的个人情绪与心理相关，与精神和身体在生长过程中的紧张焦灼和自我修复相关。
Is this a significant era? If it is, we seem doomed to have no relationship with significance. Life is constantly fragmented, twisted and squeezed by hormones, social value and identity politics. We learn delusion from reality and simulate reality within delusion. We become increasingly mature and sophisticated. We keep progressing and eventually draw ourselves further apart from our original dream. We cannot be significant. But can we then be insignificant?
Young artists Li Chao, Hu Zi and Zhai Liang chose painting as a way of living, of self-construction dichotomizing the “ego” and “object”, and of self-improvement and spiritual self-exile when confronting the “real” world.
Looking at Li Chao’s work is like opening up a gate to enter his private dreamland. Greyish dark shades, virtual scenes, absurd scenarios and non-narrative fragments transmit the impression that this is far more than just a simple overlapping of the real world and a mirrored image. It seems he’s managed to build a private space behind the reality. Hu Zi’s work features distinct personal traces: a subconscious revelation of feminism and an obsession with the prime of youth and hallucinations caused by hormones. Enlarged portraits and amputated body parts make viewers feel as if they are examining close-ups, reminiscent of Georgia O’Keeffe’s early works, which intentionally guided the viewer’s eyesight to fall upon her preset focal points. Compared to Zhai Liang’s oil painting, his small-sized paintings on paper convey a more intimate feeling, as if the artist was talking to himself through those works. They become an integral part of his life, as ordinary and indispensable as breathing and eating. Letters to An Unknown Friend are created specially for this exhibition by Zhai Liang. Based in New York, the artist chose to communicate with a friend whom he never met and was probably made up through traditional ways such as correspondence and painting. According to the artist: “The sense of being “unknown” may lead to affection or disgust. Either way it’s intriguing.”
Personal as they are, works by these artists of same generation, Li Chao, Hu Zi and Zhai Liang, also show something in common in terms of inner appeal. Their work has nothing to do with significance, social background, political struggles and globalized aesthetics. Instead, they are fully invested in subtle emotions and feelings, as well as the anxiety and self-improvement experienced by our mind and body.
