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Letters to the Future 一封跨越数百年的信

November 23, 2021 2021年11月23日

If you were to write a letter to your great great great grandchildren, what would you write? It’s worth thinking about, considering that the ramifications of our actions today can extend into their lifetimes and even further beyond. Such is the case with our plastic consumption.

Plastic can take hundreds of years to break down, if at all. Vietnamese creative agency Ki Saigon has decided to make this more than a hypothetical question and released a project titled Letters to the Future. They asked dozens of people to write letters to their distant future relatives and printed them in books made from discarded plastics, a material that will still be intact when future generations get around to reading them.

如果要给你的曾曾曾子孙写一封信，你会写什么？对于这个问题，你可得想清楚再回答，因为人类的行为或许已会对未来产生种种蝴蝶效应，单从环境的角度来看，塑料的滥用就会造成不可估量的后果。

即便塑料可以被大自然消化，但完全降解也得要数百年时间。越南创意机构 Ki Saigon 从该环境问题入手，推出了名为 “Letters to the Future” 的创意项目。项目中，他们邀请数十人写信给未来，信的内容被印刻在废弃的塑料制品上面。多年之后，这种材料依然能完好保存，供后代阅读。

Kumkum Fernando, a co-founder of the agency and the creative director for the project, says the idea was sparked when he learned that every piece of plastic made since the material’s invention is still here on Earth. “We mindlessly use plastic in our daily lives and don’t really think how long the bottle or plastic bag that came along with it will last,” he says. The scale of plastic waste is difficult to comprehend. An estimated eight million metric tons of plastic from around the world end up in the oceans each year, a number that keeps rising. Much of this plastic ends up swirling around in one of five floating garbage patches, the biggest of which is three times the size of France. Some studies suggest that 80 percent of plastic pollution in the ocean comes from Asia, although more recent studies point out that a significant amount of that plastic was shipped from the US and the UK. Many Asian countries, including Vietnam, have recently banned the import of plastic waste.

机构的联合创始人兼项目创意总监 Kumkum Fernando 表示，人类自发明塑料以来，所制造的每一块塑料至今仍然存在于地球，这萌生了他想要制作这个项目的冲动。他说：“日常生活中，人类无意识地滥用塑料，从不论其后果。” 现如今，塑料垃圾的规模已经庞大到难以置信的地步。据统计，每年世界各地有约 800 万吨塑料流入海洋，这个数字还在不断攀升。大部分塑料最终会流入全球五个漂浮垃圾集中区域，其中最大的一个垃圾集中区大小是法国面积的三倍。研究表明，海洋中 80% 的塑料污染来自亚洲；而最近又有研究指出，其中大量的塑料是从美国和英国运出。最近，包括越南在内的许多亚洲国家都已禁止了废弃塑料的入境。

To raise awareness about the lifespan of plastic, Ki Saigon went to work on the Letters project. First, they reached out to friends and family, asking them to write the letters. The first entry was penned by Fernando’s mother. “There were some really touching and personal stories and learnings,” he says. “Some people even shared secrets they would never share with anyone and decided to stay anonymous.” The team ended up with letters from 22 countries written in 30 languages, and each letter has an English translation printed alongside it. “Since most of the letters wished for optimism and peace for the generations to come, we came to think of the book as like a prayer.” So the first page of each book starts with the line, “This is a prayer to the future.”

Ki Saigon 的书信项目旨在提高人们对塑料的认知。他们首先邀请了各自的亲朋好友参与到书信项目中，收到的第一封信由 Kumkum 母亲所写。Kumkum 说：“信中有一些非常感人的故事和经历，有的人甚至分享了他们从未透露过的秘密，并以匿名的形式发表。” 最终，团队收到了来自 22 个国家、30 种语言完成的信件，每封信旁边都印有英文翻译。“大多数信件的内容都寄予了希望，祝子孙后代幸福安康、愿世界和平之类的话，像是某种对未来的祈祷。”

后来，“对未来的祈祷”（This is a prayer to the future.）这句话，也因此被印在了信集的首页。

To gather materials for the books, the agency teamed up with local recyclers to collect plastic from the streets of Saigon. They sought out thin sheet plastic like bottles, wrappers, bubble wrap, plastic bags, and thin Styrofoam. Once collected, they washed and ironed it all flat, even melting down some thicker plastics like straws, cups, and bottle caps for certain pages. Each page is unique and has its own texture and color that reveal hints of the original material. Even the stitching for the book is plastic.

在制作过程中，机构与当地回收商合作，在西贡街头收集塑料，主要以轻薄塑料为主，如塑料瓶、塑料包装、气泡塑料膜、塑料袋以及轻薄的塑料泡沫；随后将收集来的塑料清洗并熨烫，一些较厚的塑料（如吸管、杯子和瓶盖）通常需要先融化再进行制作。这些使得信集的每一页都变得独一无二，呈现不尽相同的纹理和颜色，隐约透露出原始材料的出处。一些书本的细节，例如的装订线，也都由塑料材质制成。

Next, illustrator Luong Doo from the Ki Saigon team created designs as a visual break from the dense text, which were spraypainted and stenciled into the book. They then silkscreen printed photos of the letters directly onto the pages. “I felt that was very important for us to preserve,” Fernando says of the authors’ original writing. The handwritten Mandarin, Japanese, Burmese, and much more create additional diversity to the already colorful pages. The team will eventually publish all of the letters with translations on the project’s website.

信中的文字通过喷漆和模具印于书中，再由团队的插画家 Luong Doo 为信集创作视觉；照片及图片则以丝网印刷的方式印在书页上。Kumkum 认为，信件的原稿也非常重要。信中的一笔一画，都带着浓浓的人情味儿；不同语言的手写体也呈现出极为丰富的视觉效果。因此，团队决定在项目网站上发布所有信件并会在之后发布翻译版本。

Ki Saigon also designed an exhibition to showcase the books in person. Additional pieces were made with the same techniques and materials, and the project was reimagined as installation art. For the exhibition, tapestries woven from plastic hang in an all-blue gallery space. Each piece seems to shimmer and glow from light caught in the semi-transparent colors of the salvaged materials. Many of the pieces either depict or resemble fish, and combined with the sea-blue surroundings, it’s an adept reminder of the state of our neglected oceans. The show is currently closed due to COVID, but Ki Saigon has plans of taking the show abroad, with exhibitions planned for China and Malaysia.

除此之外，Ki Saigon 团队还筹办展览来展示信集，并以同样的工艺制作了更多作品。他们还以装置艺术的形式对塑料话题进行了重新构想：在纯蓝色的画廊空间，悬挂采用塑料编织而成的挂毯，这些回收来的塑料透过灯光变得交辉相映。挂毯中多数描绘了鱼的图案，与海蓝色灯光营造的室内环境相得益彰，巧妙地提醒观众关注海洋问题。该展览目前因新冠疫情而停止开放，但 Ki Saigon 准备将展览带到国外，他们计划在中国和马来西亚举办。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Websites: www.kisaigon.com | www.letters-to-the-future.com
Instagram: @ki.saigon

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

网站: www.kisaigon.com | www.letters-to-the-future.com
Instagram: @ki.saigon

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Rebuilding Narratives 亚洲人在巴西的故事

November 18, 2021 2021年11月18日

An illustration by visual and performative artist André Terayama, depicting São Paulo’s "Japantown." 来自插画艺术 André Terayama 的作品，描绘了巴西圣保罗”日本街“的景象

This year, the “Stop Asian Hate” movement began in response to the rising number of hate crimes against Asians triggered by the global pandemic. The movement helped shed light on how xenophobia and racism have always been part of the Asian immigrant experience in the West. The American narrative is predominant, or else the discourse is about what happens in Europe or other Anglo-Saxon countries. But little is ever said about what Asian immigrants and their descendants face in the developing world.

Unbeknownst to most, Brazil is home to many Asian diasporic communities. The largest of all is the Japanese, which, with over two million people, is the biggest ethnic Japanese community outside of Japan. They’re succeeded by the Chinese, with roughly 360,000, and Koreans, with about 50,000. South Asians, even though in a lesser number, have also made their way to Brazil in search of a better life.

To understand the Asian immigrant experience in Brazil and find out what it means to be Asian-Brazilian today, we talked to five artists whose families immigrated to the country from Japan, China, Taiwan, and India. They told us their families’ stories, their struggles growing up in Brazil as Asian descendants, and their experiences with the recent rise in xenophobia. Their narratives converge in many ways and are permeated by a common sentiment of ethnocultural confusion, invariably reflected in their artworks.

今年，针对亚洲仇恨的暴力和犯罪行为与日俱增，“禁止亚裔仇恨”（Stop Asian Hate）运动就此展开。这场运动揭示了西方国家一直以来对亚洲移民的仇外心理和种族歧视等问题。此类事件大多发生在美国，其次则是欧洲和其他白人国家。然而，似乎很少有人谈及亚裔移民在海外发展中国家的境遇。

你可能不知道，南美洲巴西其实也有着体量庞大的亚裔移民社区。其中最多的是日本人，有二百多万人口之多，是世界上除日本本土以外最大的日裔社区；其次是中国和韩国人，分别有将近36万和5万人；以及还有少数南亚人，他们为了更好的生活来到了这里。

为了了解亚裔移民在巴西的经历、了解今天的亚裔巴西人，我们采访了五位艺术家，他们的祖籍分别来自日本、中国大陆、台湾和印度。他们讲述了各自的故事：作为亚裔后代在巴西成长所遇到的困难、以及在最近仇外情绪上涨期间他们的一些经历。他们的故事在许多方面相互交叠，都透露着一种对身份的困惑与迷茫，并都展现在他们的艺术作品当中。

A photo from Viviane Lee's Cosplay of Myself Viviane Lee（Cyshimi）的作品《Cosplay of Myself》

A collage from multimedia artist Singh Bean's EXÓTICA 多媒体艺术家 Singh Bean 的拼贴作品

André Terayama, 31

Through his work, illustrator and performative artist André Terayama explores the conundrum of his Japanese-Brazilian identity. In an ongoing series of black-and-white illustrations, he depicts São Paulo’s central district of Liberdade, locally known as “Japantown.”

Terayama’s great-grandparents immigrated to Brazil in the 1920s and 30s, escaping growing poverty and the rise of fascism in Japan. At the time, Brazil welcomed immigrants to work on coffee plantations. But Brazilian landowners, used to slave labor until then, offered only the harshest conditions. “It was traumatic for them,” Terayama says. “They were sent to a coffee plantation and became bonded laborers. As their debt increased, they had to escape during the night to start a new life all over again.”

Back then, the Brazilian elite deemed Japanese immigrants undesirable. They defended the national “whitening” of the population by promoting European migration instead. Things got worse with the eruption of the Second World War when the Japanese were considered enemies of the nation. “There were racist and pseudo-biological laws against Asians. My family had to distance themselves from their community to avoid being targeted. It was the idea of the yellow peril—one still latent and very close to us today,” Terayama says.

Growing up, Terayama was an easy target for bullies who didn’t shy away from exploiting his looks in every offensive way imaginable for a kid. These were often public displays of humiliation in front of his school teachers—and not condemned by them. “My experience growing up as an Asian-Brazilian was extremely alienating and deprived me of any common sense of identity,” he says.

But he found refuge in Japanese mangas, animes, and live-action series—all broadcasted daily over children’s television programs in the 1990s—and in video games. “All these things were very familiar to me, but simultaneously very distant,” he says, adding that this early exposure to Japanese pop culture provided him with an uncanny feeling of satisfaction.

Later, while studying art at São Paulo State University, Terayama noticed the lack of Asian references and the overbearing bias toward European art, even when the former heavily influenced the latter, which is the case with impressionist paintings. “The juxtaposition between a Monet and a Hiroshige, for instance, rarely takes place,” he notes. “That shows the importance Brazilian scholars give to European culture.”

In the 1980s, with the Japanese economy thriving under American-style capitalism, things changed, and there was a shift in how Brazilian society perceived Japanese-Brazilians. They were suddenly seen as allies of the West, a model minority earning its place in society through hard work and dedication. But this shift is in itself problematic. “It implies an inferior position and the expectation of a particular behavior from Japanese descendants. Their presence is changed to fit a hegemonic and narcissistic view of things,” Terayama explains.

His illustrations of the Liberdade district reveal a juxtaposition of cultures, habits, and symbols. Liberdade is where many Japanese immigrants flocked in the early 1900s looking for affordable rent prices. As a cunning homage, the area is now adorned with traditional Japanese lanterns and even has storefront signs only in Japanese. But the area is also a conspicuous site for Afro-Brazilian history, as it housed an infamous square for the execution of runaway enslaved workers.

Liberdade is also central to other Asian communities in São Paulo. It’s an area where Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean communities also gather for business and cultural festivities. To André, the series of illustrations represents the “coexistence of ghosts that haunt the individual imagination. But also how to imagine a possible future for these issues.”

André Terayama, 31 岁

André Terayama 是名插画师与表演艺术家，希望通过作品探索日裔巴西人的身份谜题。目前，他正在创作一组插画系列，以黑白两色呈现了圣保罗中心的东方街（Liberdade）的景象，这里当地人又称之为“日本城”。

上世纪二十至三十年代，André 的曾祖父母为了逃离日渐贫困的生活和日本法西斯主义的崛起，决定移民巴西。当时，海外移民通畅会到巴西咖啡种植园里工作。但那时候绝大多数巴西地主都以奴役劳工著称，移民伴随的是苛刻的生活条件。André 说：“这对他们来说是很痛苦的经历。他们被送到一个咖啡种植园，成为抵债劳工。随着债务不断加重，他们最后不得不趁夜逃离，以重新开始新的生活。

那段时期，巴西精英阶层并不待见日本移民。相反，他们希望更多欧洲移民的加入，来维护国家“白化政策”的落实。第二次世界大战的爆发令巴西人对日本的看法直线下降，当时的日本人被视为整个巴西的不速之客。“当时还出台了针对亚裔的种族主义和科学种族主义的相关法律条款。我的家人不得不与日裔社区保持距离，以避免成为被攻击的对象。这就是所谓的‘黄祸’，其至今仍然潜伏在我们四周，”André 说道。

从小到大，André 时常被霸凌者盯上，他们用各种糟糕的言语来嘲笑他的长相，堂而皇之地在学校老师眼前羞辱他，却不会受到谴责和追究。他说：“作为一名亚裔巴西人，过去的成长经历让我觉得极度不适，格格不入的处境让我丧失了任何身份认同感。”

日本的漫画、动画和电子游戏产业为他带来了慰藉，九十年代日本动漫曾一度在巴西盛行，一些经典的作品在当地儿童电视节目中频繁播出。他说：“这一切对我来说既熟悉又遥远。”他补充道，儿时接触的日本流行文化带来了前所未有的满足感。

后来，André 在圣保罗州立大学 (São Paulo State University) 攻读艺术专业。他留意到当时巴西人对亚洲艺术的漠视，并一味盲目地崇拜欧洲艺术，即使是亚洲曾对欧洲产生过重要影响的艺术门类，比如印象派绘画，这种现象依然存在。他指出：“比如他们很少会将莫奈和安藤广重的作品相提并论，这正体现了巴西人对欧洲文化的偏向。”

上世纪八十年代年代，随着日本经济在美式资本主义影响下的复苏，情况渐渐发生了扭转。日本经济通过战后努力，在全球占据一席之地，摇身一变成为西方国家的盟友。但 André 认为，这种转变本身便带有一种讽刺。他解释道：“日本的形象之所以被扭转，不过是为了迎合一种霸权式和自恋的观点。劳动者的社会地位依然很低，反而被资本家寄予厚望。”

二十世纪初，许多日本移民为了廉价的租金，涌入东方街。作为一种刻意的致敬，装饰着传统的日本元素，如日式灯笼，还有一些只写着日语的店面招牌。这一切在 André 看来虚伪至极，因为这里坐落了曾经被用来处决逃跑奴隶的广场。而他笔下的东方街，则更接近于现代的样子。

东方街也是圣保罗其他亚裔社区的中心。中国大陆、台湾和韩国群众也会在这里聚集，进行商业和文化活动。对 André 来说，这一系列插图代表了“萦绕在每个亚裔人心中的命运共同体。同时也带有对未来的寄望。”

An illustration by visual and performative artist André Terayama, depicting São Paulo’s "Japantown." 视觉和表演艺术家 André Terayama 的插画作品，描绘了巴西圣保罗”日本街“的景象

Wendy Cao, 26

Textile artist Wendy Cao is the daughter of Chinese parents. Now based in Paris, she originally grew up in São Paulo, where she grew up afflicted by a constant feeling of estrangement. Her work, characterized by Chinese embroidery in contemporary style, derives from her quest to understand her Chinese roots.

Cao’s parents migrated to Brazil to start a new life following the cultural revolution. After they arrived, they found that fitting into Brazilian society and finding work was challenging. “My father often suffered xenophobic attacks when people saw him practicing qi gong,” Cao says. “As my mother studied to get into university, still learning Portuguese, her classmates thought it was ridiculous that a Chinese woman, married and with kids, would aspire to be a doctor.” But Cao says her parents overcame the obstacles in the end: her father became a famous qi gong master and acupuncturist, and her mother graduated from the school of medicine of São Paulo University, considered the best in Latin America.

Growing up, Cao herself faced prejudice for being different. She struggled to fit in by conforming to Western standards as much as she could. “I went through a long process of refusing my background because of all the negative implications. I found myself rejecting Chinese culture—as a result, I also disdained myself,” Cao says. But her efforts were in vain. “Every day, someone makes sure to tell you that you’re Chinese. Growing up as an Asian-Brazilian was to feel Brazilian, but to be constantly reminded that I’m not entitled to such sentiment.”

But eventually, Cao questioned her feelings, and she grew interested in understanding her parents’ lives before moving. In 2019, she spent four months in a rural village near Suzhou, learning Chinese silk embroidery techniques from a group of local artisans at the atelier of Lu Fuying.

Cao’s experience in China was a huge culture shock, but it also was an invaluable opportunity for her to connect with her cultural roots. “I felt emotional when I saw a group of people practicing tai chi in China,” she remembers. “And I cried for having denied my origins for so many years. It was a mixture of sadness and happiness. I knew that, from that moment on, I was more connected to my roots.”

Still, Cao’s sentiment of non-belonging continued in China, where she was always seen as a foreigner due to the way she dressed and acted. She then realized that being Asian-Brazilian is to have a split identity. “For years, I felt as if in a limbo, a person without a collective background, without identity,” she says. “Nowadays, with the surge of the decolonizing ideas, I’m trying to find where I belong without necessarily belonging.”

Wendy Cao, 26 岁

纺织艺术家 Wendy Cao 的父母来自中国。Wendy 现居巴黎，但打小在圣保罗长大，在那里她一直因为局外人的感觉而备受折磨。她的作品以当代中式刺绣为特色，这源于她对故乡根源的探索。

Wendy 的父母在文化大革命后移居巴西，开始了新的生活。抵达巴西后，他们发现想要融入巴西社会是一件非常困难的事。Wendy 说：“我父亲因为练气功，经常遭到仇外者的攻击。母亲努力考上大学，学习葡萄牙语，她的同学都认为，一个结了婚有了孩子的中国女人竟然想成为一名医生，实在是荒唐至极。”但 Wendy 的父母最终克服了生活中的苦难：父亲成为了著名的气功大师和针灸师，而她的母亲也从圣保罗大学医学院顺利毕业，那里是拉丁美洲最顶尖的医学院。

成长过程中，Wendy 自己也因为肤色的与众不同而遭受偏见。她曾努力按照西方社会的标准来融入社会。“因为受到身边负面的影响，我有很长一段时间很抗拒自己的文化背景，抵触中国文化，也因为这个原因，我曾一度很讨厌自己。”但她的努力都是徒劳。“每天都有人在提醒你，你是中国人。作为一名巴西的亚裔，我好像没有资格融入进当地社会。”

后来，Wendy 开始反思自己之前的想法，并开始想要去了解更多父母年轻时在中国的生活。2019 年，她回国到苏州生活了四个月，在卢福英工作室跟当地一群工匠学习中国丝绸刺绣工艺。

Wendy 在中国的经历是一次巨大的文化冲击，同时也是一次宝贵的机会，让她与自己的文化根源维系起来。她回忆道：“我看到很多人在公园打太极拳，当时激动坏了。我哭了，因为这么多年来我一直在否认自己的出身。脸上都是难过又幸福的泪水。我知道，从那一刻起，我与自己的根更紧密了。”

尽管如此，Wendy 在中国也有局外人的感觉。因为她的穿着和行为方式，人们总是把她视为外国人。后来她意识到，作为生活在海外的亚裔，就意味着始终是身份分裂的状态。她说：“多年来，我总觉自己被孤立，没有集体背景，也没有身份认同。如今，随着去殖民化思想的兴起，我试图寻找自己的归属，但不执着于融入。”

An embroidered piece by Wendy Cao Wendy Cao 的刺绣作品

Singh Bean, 27

Multimedia artist and music producer Singh Bean is of Lebanese-Syrian and Indian descent. Her collage art offers a glimpse into both her subconscious and her experiences as a South Asian-Brazilian woman.

Singh’s great-grandparents on both sides were the ones who immigrated to Brazil. On her father’s side, they came from the Middle East, escaping the recurrent political turmoils in the region. On her mother’s side, her great-grandfather, a Sikh, left India during the Indian independence movement after being arrested alongside Gandhi for resisting British colonial rules. Once in Brazil, he chose not to display his cultural habits and rituals or even wear his turban in public. Since there was nowhere for Sikhs to assemble or worship, he saved his faith for the safety of his home.

When comparing the immigrant experience on both sides of her family, Singh thinks her father’s side might have had it easier. For one, Syrian and Lebanese immigrants went in large numbers to Brazil, even outnumbering the Japanese. But above all, there’s also the fact that these immigrants are often perceived as white. “There is white ‘passability’ for Arabs here,” she says, adding that many prominent Brazilian politicians who are of Arabic descent, including former presidents, are seen as “white” by the public at large. “On my mother’s side, because the Indian diaspora was not large, people didn’t understand my great-grandfather. Because his skin was dark, they considered him a “black person.”

As for her own experiences, “what affected me the most was being fetishized by men,” she says. This was what led her to create EXÓTICA, a collage series juxtaposing photos of herself and her family with screenshots from text messages she received from men. “They would call me ‘exotic’ or ‘mysterious,’ or else they would say something about my skin or ancestry. People still have this impression that the orient is something mystical and they take it to a sexual level—the Kama Sutra, right?” Interestingly, while working in this series, Singh began to question how much she also fetishizes herself. “Sometimes, in the quest for an identity, this happens,” she says.

Nowadays, one thing is clear: she doesn’t want to be labeled. Singh doesn’t mind being referred to as an Asian-Brazilian artist, but this should not be what validates her work. “We see a white artist only as an artist. He can talk about whatever he wants because he has space. A non-white artist is like a quota—they have to talk about their hurdles.”

Above all, Singh wants the freedom to express whatever she wants with her work, including trivial and ordinary feelings. “I am much more than just my ancestry. We’re all different human beings,” she says.

Singh Bean, 27 岁

多媒体艺术家、音乐制作人 Singh Bean 是黎巴嫩、叙利亚和印度三国混血。她所创作的拼贴艺术不但呈现出自己的潜意识世界，更展现了作为一名南亚裔女性在巴西生活的经历。

Singh 一家人来到巴西已有很长的时间。父亲辈当初为了逃离中东地代起伏的政治动荡来到巴西；母亲的曾祖父则是一名锡克教徒，在印度独立运动期间离开了印度，在那之前他曾因为与甘地并肩反抗英国殖民统治而被捕。到了巴西后，母亲的曾祖父选择隐藏自己的文化、宗教习俗。由于没有锡克教徒场所，他为了家人的安全而隐藏了自己的信仰。

对比父母双方家庭的移民经历，Singh 认为父亲一家要更顺水推舟。当时叙利亚和黎巴嫩移民大量涌入巴西，这些移民普遍被视为白人。“阿拉伯人常常被当作白人对待，”她说道，并表示包括前总统在内的许多著名阿拉伯裔巴西政治家在公众眼中都是“白人”。“而在我母亲这边，因为印度移民很少见，人们都觉得我的曾祖父很奇怪。因为他皮肤黝黑，人们把他视作为‘黑人’”。

谈及她自身的经历，她说：“对我造成负面影响最大的是当地男性的有色眼镜。”这促使她创作了《EXÓTICA》拼贴作品系列，将她和家人的照片与她收到的男性短信截图放在一起。“他们说我‘有异国情调’或‘很神秘’，或是调侃我的肤色和血统。人们仍然觉得东方是某种神秘国度，并且把它往性的层面上去联想，比如那部《卡马经（Kama Sutra）》。”（《卡马经》被视为印度的“爱经”，后成为房中术的代名词。）Singh 在创作该系列的期间，开始意识到自己对根源文化的迷恋。

Singh 并不介意被称为亚裔巴西艺术家，但这不应该成为描述或评价其作品的因素。“我们在谈论白人艺术家时只会把他们看作艺术家。他想说什么都可以，因为他有这样的自由。而非白人艺术家就像是被限制住了，观众想看到的是这些艺术家谈论自己面临的困境。”现在的她不想被贴上任何标签。

对 Singh 来说，最重要的是在自己的作品中拥有表达的自由，包括表达琐碎的问题或平凡中的感受。她说：“我并非由我的血统来定义。我们都是不同的个体”。

A collage from multimedia artist Singh Bean's EXÓTICA 多媒体艺术家 Singh Bean 的拼贴艺术作品《EXÓTICA》

Caroline Ricca Lee, 31

Artist, curator, and researcher Caroline Ricca Lee, who goes by the pronoun “they,” investigates topics like Asian identities from Latin America, decolonial feminism, and the social construct of gender. Lee is particularly vocal about their ideas, taking part in multiple talks and debates. In 2017, they founded the first Asian feminist collective in Brazil, Lótus.

Like Terayama, their mother’s family migrated from Japan to work on coffee plantations. Their father’s family left China in the 1960s, migrating through Macao. “That’s how they discovered ‘this place called Brazil,’ which also shared the Portuguese colonial root,” Lee says.

Lee thinks it’s worth mentioning that the Chinese immigrants who arrived in Brazil from the mid-1800s onwards were seen as precarious workers, allowed only meager compensations for extenuating working hours. They alert that such stereotypical and orientalist views lingered until today. “The homogenization of all Asian ethnicities is a discriminatory construct that operates within a colonial and imperialist worldview. It stereotypes and suppresses different cultures, denying them the right to an identity,” they say.

In Brazil, such views now meet the cacophonous discourse of far-right President Bolsonaro, who proclaims himself a fierce anti-communist. “The anti-communist rhetoric—in other words, the racist, misogynist, and xenophobic rhetoric—has taken hold in our society too, and there has been an increase in physical violence against Asian-Brazilian communities, especially when they are Chinese.”

However, as an activist, Lee believes they also have to fight intolerance and racism surging within Asian communities and stop the myth of the “model minority” from being mistaken for something positive, as it sometimes is. Regarding the latter, besides denoting an inferior position to East Asians, as noted by Terayama, Lee reminds us that the term is inherently oppressive towards black, mixed race, and indigenous people. It positions Asians as a more desirable contingent by the white population, who are indisputably at the top of the social hierarchy.

To Lee, the acceptance of such a label by Asian descendants grants them class privileges, underlining their part in structural racism. In any case, this privilege is nothing but an illusion. As Lee explains, “recently, we can see how we quickly went from being a model minority to becoming the ‘Chinese virus.’ After all, the coronavirus has been racialized. In the end, the condition of East Asians remains fluctuating according to the wishes of the white supremacy.”

Lee firmly believes, “It is perfectly feasible that a new generation attempts to deconstruct the stereotypes placed on Asian narratives. A new formulation from our perspective is the revolution of our times,” she says.

Caroline Ricca Lee, 31 岁

Caroline Ricca Lee 是非二元性别者（因此以 TA 称呼），拥有艺术家、策展人和研究员的多重职业身份。TA 喜欢研究拉美亚裔身份认同、去殖民化女权主义和性别的社会建构等问题。平时热衷于表达自己的想法，曾参加很多会谈和辩论。2017年，TA 在巴西成立了亚洲第一个女权主义团体 Lótus。

和 André 一样，TA 的母亲也是从日本移民到巴西，进入咖啡种植园工作。父亲一家则是在上世纪六十年代离开中国，经由澳门移民到巴西。Caroline 说：“巴西本就是一个多民族国度，那里曾被葡萄牙殖民。”

Caroline 认为值得一提的是，十九世纪中期的中国移民曾被巴西人视为是危险人物，他们只能找到工时尚可、薪酬微薄的工作。守旧的刻板印象和东方主义观点直到今天仍然存在。TA说：“在殖民主义和帝国主义的世界观中，普遍存在将所有亚洲种族同质化的行为，这本身带有歧视性。它会形成刻板印象，压制不同文化，剥夺不同个体的差异性。”

巴西极右翼总统博尔索纳罗 (Bolsonaro) 也经常发表此类观点的言论。这名总统自称是一名激进的反共产主义者。“反共产主义言论，即种族主义、厌女和仇外言论，已在当地社会中扎根。随之而来的，是针对亚裔巴西人暴力事件的攀升，华裔更是首当其冲的受害者。”

作为一名活动人士，Caroline 认为巴西当局者必须应对愈演愈烈的种族主义，并希望能打破“模范少数族裔”（Model Minority）这种善意的幌子。Caroline 表示，“模范少数族裔” 这个词本身就是对黑人、混血儿和原住民的压迫。它把亚洲人定义为在白人群体中更受欢迎的群体，而白人又理所当然地处于社会等级的顶端。

在 Caroline 看来，亚裔后代接受这样的标签能获得阶级特权，也突显出他们在结构性种族主义中的角色。但无论如何，这种特权只是一种幻觉。正如 Caroline 所说：“从最近就能看到，所谓的模范少数族裔也能在一夜间变成人们攻击的对象。新冠肺炎在他们口中成为‘中国病毒’，人们甚至荒谬到把流感种族化。归根到底，东亚人的境遇仍然完全取决于白人至上主义的想法。”

Caroline 坚信：“新一代移民完全有能力努力打破社会对亚裔的刻板印象。从我们视角作出的全新表述方式是我们这个时代的革命。”

Caroline Ricca Lee photographed by Vivi Bacco for Marie Claire x Chanel Beauty Caroline Ricca Lee，摄影来自 Vivi Bacco

Close-up of Caroline Ricca Lee's Those Who Came Before Me Caroline Ricca Lee 作品《Those Who Came Before Me》

Close-up of Caroline Ricca Lee's Ghosts Limbs Caroline Ricca Lee 作品《Ghosts Limbs》

Cyshimi, 23

Viviane Lee, known as Cyshimi—a moniker combining “cyber” and “sashimi”—is also of Chinese descent and prefers the pronoun “they.” Their art reflects the cyber-realm and is permeated by ideas of identity, ancestry, and the body as a social entity.

Cyshimi’s father is from Taiwan; their mother was born in Mozambique, a country that shares the same colonial roots as Brazil and Macao. She’s ethnically Chinese, and because she already spoke Portuguese, she chose to immigrate to Brazil. “My mother would sometimes say she was well-received in Brazil. Other times, she would say people were suspicious of her, and she often had to omit where she was really from, and say instead she was from Taiwan, or merely Asian.” But Cyshimi knows their mother is from a generation that handled xenophobia and racism differently, never giving much importance to such matters.

As for their own experience, they’re pretty straightforward. “Growing up as a non-white child in Brazil makes you notice you’re different from a very young age. We feel alienated and suffer from self-hatred without really understanding who we are. Most of my traumas happened during my childhood or teen years. These are the years when you think it’s all your fault and that you’re alone in it,” they say.

Cyshimi found in Asian activism and art a way to let go of their silent traumas. In the 360-degree video performance Cosplay of Myself, they have a conversation about how their appearance continually defines them in the eyes of society. The piece was part of an immersive installation resembling a bedroom where visitors could lie on a bed and wear a VR headset to watch the video.

The idea of racial deconstruct is central to Cyshimi’s art. “Being an Asian-Brazilian artist is to take part in a de-colonial, non-normative, and non-hegemonic fight.” Like Lee, Cyshimi sees a need to break from the stereotypes and the “fictional identity created by the other,” that defines Asian-Brazilians. “We need to rework what we are beyond these issues,” she says. “Around the world, many people are rebuilding the narrative. In a way, we’re all connected.”

Cyshimi, 23 岁

Viviane Lee 又名“Cyshimi”——由英语的 Cyber（网络）和 Sashimi（生鱼片）组成的合成词。Viviane 也有中国血统，同样更倾向于 “TA” 这个非二元性别称呼。TA 的作品主要反映当下的网络世界，当中渗透着关于身份认同、血统和身体作为社会实体（即把身体作为分配工作的要素）等观点。

父亲来自台湾，母亲出生于莫桑比克，这个国家与巴西和澳门一样有过被殖民的历史。她在种族上属于华人，因为会说葡萄牙语，所以选择移民巴西。“我母亲有时会说，她在巴西很受欢迎。即使这样，人们对她的出身感到很困惑，于是她经常不得不直接跳过关于家乡的话题。”但 Cyshimi 知道，母亲那一代人对于仇外和种族歧视的处理与现在并不相同，他们那一代人更麻木不仁。

谈及自己的经历，TA 直言不讳。“作为在巴西长大的非白人小孩，我们从小就知道自己与众不同，也会因此感到格格不入，自我憎恨，却从未真正了解自己到底是谁。我大部分痛苦的经历都发生在童年或青少年时期。小时候，你往往都会认为这全都是你的错，”TA 说道。

Cyshimi 在亚裔社会活动和艺术中找到了一种疗愈创伤的方式。在沉浸式视频表演《Cosplay of Myself》中，TA 与观众进行了一场对谈，讨论了自己如何因为外表不断被社会定义的过程。该表演属于一个沉浸式展览的一部分，在类似于卧室的环境中，观众可以躺在床上，戴上 VR 耳机观看视频。

种族解构的理念是 Cyshimi 作品的核心。“作为一名亚裔巴西艺术家，就意味着投入了一场去殖民化、去规范和去霸权的斗争。”和 Caroline 一样，Cyshimi 也认为必须打破关于亚裔巴西人的刻板印象和 “由他人创造的虚构身份”。她说：“我们必须抛开这些枷锁，自信地重新书写他们对我们的印象。在世界各地，许多人都在重新讲述自己的故事，我们都站在同一战线上。”

A photo from Viviane Lee's Cosplay of Myself Viviane Lee（Cyshimi）的作品《Cosplay of Myself》

Besides Brazil, Asian immigrants have also landed in countries like Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, and Peru, to name a few. There, too, their stories are marked by racism and xenophobia. It’s only by listening to their voices and the voices of their descendants that we can have a fuller understanding of Asian diasporas in the West and of how much their experiences converge, how much they differ, and how they might contribute to rebuilding the narrative.

除巴西外，在墨西哥、古巴、委内瑞拉和秘鲁等国家也有许多亚洲移民，他们的故事也同样掺杂着种族歧视、仇外心理的心酸。只有倾听他们及他们后代的声音，我们才能更全面地了解西方国家中亚裔侨民的境遇，了解他们之间经历的共性和不同之处，以及他们如何以全新的姿态在西方人面前重“树”自我。

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Instagram:
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Contributors: Tomas Pinheiro, Lucas Tinoco
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

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Instagram:
@andreterayama
@weendycao
@singhbean
@rycca.lee
@cyshimi

供稿人: Tomas Pinheiro, Lucas Tinoco
英译中: Olivia Li

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The Lama Thanka Painting School 唐卡大师的修行

November 16, 2021 2021年11月16日

Life History of Buddha (2021) by Khamsang Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Khamsang 喇嘛，《佛陀的一生》(2021)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Staring into a Newari Paubha Thangka painting can feel like gazing into another dimension. The traditional Nepalese style of Tibetan painting is full of endless details, spiraling forms, ethereal colors, and otherworldly figures and objects. Various Buddhist deities slide across the surface, wave in effortless dance, and stare back deeply into viewers’ eyes. Swirling line work creates portals that guide you into their worlds while rippling flames flutter hypnotically in concentric forms. Scene of lore and sacred objects dot the landscape in purposeful patterns. If it feels like they’re intentionally meant to draw you out of the physical world, that’s by design, since they’re frequently used specifically for meditation.

当你凝视尼瓦尔唐卡画（Newari Paubha Thangka）时，你将跌入另一个维度的世界。它是尼泊尔传统藏地绘画，拥有着繁复的构图以及层峦叠嶂式的丰富细节，超凡的色彩、人物与事物，尽显绘画的极致。佛陀与神灵处于画面焦点，他们随着笔触的走向翩翩起舞、或神态郑重地注视着观众的双眼。颜料与线条，在你眼前开辟一道时空的大门，在层层闪耀的烈火和云彩中，带你遁入一片秘境。那些传说中各式各样的神圣之物，以某种约定俗成的方式缜密排列。所有这些元素同时出现在一幅画内，就算你是无神论者，也会被眼前的力量所震撼，这股力量是神秘的，好像能带人们通往另一个世界。而这却是尼瓦尔唐卡画的创作本意，它们专为佛教徒的冥想而诞生。

Yamanataka (2020) by Bir Bahadur Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Bir Bahadur 喇嘛，《大威德明王》 (2020)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Six-Armed Mahakala (2017) by Gunamaya Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Gunamaya 喇嘛，《六臂黑玛哈嘎拉》(2017)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

These religious Paubha paintings were once central to Buddhist life of the Newari peoples in the tiny, mountainous country in between China and India, and they have origins that stretch back to cave paintings along the silk road. In modern times, they’ve fallen somewhat out of favor, with a shrinking number of practitioners skilled in their detailed ways. To ensure that the artwork continues on into the future, master artist Ram Bahadur Lama started the Lama Thanka Painting School in 1972. His goal is to teach new students the ways of thangka painting and bring it into the fold of contemporary, global society. The name Lama translates literally to guru and is given to spiritual masters who guide followers on the path to enlightenment.

Ram Bahadur, who is now 53 years old, grew up in the Ramechhap area of Nepal at a time when thangka artists were still commonly associated with life inside temple walls. “It was passed down in my family from father to son, generation after generation,” he says. “I started to learn when I was 14 years old because I was fascinated with our Himalayan traditions of doing art. It became my aim to follow the culture and preserve it, and I attained the title of master at 36.”

尼瓦尔唐卡画又名帕巴（Paubha）画，曾是尼泊尔尼瓦尔人（Newari）在进行佛教修行时运用的主要艺术形式。其最早可追溯至十一世纪，丝绸之路上所建造的佛教洞穴。时至今日，这种艺术形式已经逐渐被大部分现代人忽视，资历深厚的创作者可谓少之甚少。为了避免艺术的失传，著名的唐卡大师 Ram Bahadur Lama 于 1972 年创办了 Lama Thanka 绘画学校（Lama 意为“上师”，中文称作是喇嘛，是对佛教僧侣的尊称，往往是由他们指引信徒领悟心性和法身），旨在延续这项传统画法，并推向世界各地。现在，这所学校还开设了 Instagram 帐户，用来分享唐卡大师们的佳作。

现年 53 岁的 Ram Bahadur 自小在尼泊尔的 Ramechhap 地区长大，在那个年代，唐卡画师仍普遍与寺庙紧密联系在一起。谈及自己从事这门艺术的经过，他说道：“在我的家族中，每位父亲负责把这种艺术传授给儿子，一直这样世代延承。我从 14 岁开始学画，当时我对喜马拉雅地区的艺术传统很是着迷。传承和保护这种文化成了我的使命，后来我在 36 岁时获得了大师的称号。”

Mantra Mandala (2017) by Champa Lama / Natural pigments and golden colors on canvas Champa 喇嘛，《曼陀罗》(2017)，由天然和金色染料在画布上绘制完成

Ratnasambhava Buddha (2018) by Bishnu Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Bishnu 喇嘛，《五方佛》(2018)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Vajrayogini (2020) by Rajendra Lama / Natural pigments on canvas Rajendra 喇嘛，《金刚亥母》(2020)，由天然燃料在画布上绘制完成

Kalachakra Mandala (2021) by Champa Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Champa 喇嘛，《时轮金刚坛城》(2021)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

The school is located in Bhaktapur Durbar Square, a few kilometers east of Kathmandu, where its main founding artists had already settled before it opened. The area is full of ancient architecture and temples surrounded by narrow streets. The school is made up of two buildings, the main one featuring the gallery, where they collect and display the paintings of their artists. The master artists paint there as well. (Their Instagram is dedicated to paintings by the school’s masters.) The second building is a short walk away, where students are taught in one on one classes. They started with seven or eight founders in the 70s, and four students have since become masters.

学校位于加德满都以东 13 公里的巴克塔普尔杜巴广场（Bhaktapur Durbar Square），那里的狭窄街道纵横交错，古老建筑和寺庙随处可见。学校由两栋建筑构成，主楼包括一个画廊，用来展示学生和老师的作品，也是唐卡大师作画的地方；第二栋房子和主楼相隔很近，画师在那里进行一对一授课。学校从 70 年代的 7、8 位创始人开始，直到今日，一共仅有 4 名学生曾获得过大师的称号。

Amitayush Mandala (2021) by Rajendra Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Rajendra 喇嘛，《阿弥陀佛曼荼罗》(2021)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Yamantaka (2018) by Artha Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Artha 喇嘛，《大威德金刚》(2018)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Green Tara (2012) by Raju Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Raju Lama，《多罗菩萨》(2012)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

To become a master takes many years of training in the Tantric discipline and they’re mostly monks or lamas familiar with visualization and meditation. It used to be only Buddhist monks that became masters, although now a student only needs to be skilled enough and trained properly but knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism is still essential. Art councils currently award the title.

The painting school strictly follows the traditional procedures of thangka painting, but they encourage contemporary interpretations and teach various styles from Nepalese to Tibetan and Japanese thangka. The paintings either depict sacred portraits of deities or mandalas of Tibetan and Sanskrit text. The deities pose with specific mudras, or gestures, and their associated attributes for the purpose of worship. For example, the Medicine Buddha “protects all living beings from mental and physical sickness, helping to eradicate the three poisons of attachment, hatred, and ignorance.” The mandala thangkas spell out the mantras, or prayers, of individual deities.

成为唐卡大师需要多年的密宗修行。在过去，只有僧侣或喇嘛才有可能获得大师的称号。但现在，学生只要拥有炉火纯青的绘画技法就有可能成为大师，当然，对于藏传佛教的了解也必不可少。目前，大师的头衔都由当地的艺术协会授予。

学校严格遵循了传统的唐卡绘画工序，同时鼓励当代形式的创新，西藏、日本等不同流派的唐卡艺术也在授课范围以内。通常，画作所描绘的都是神像、藏传佛教的曼陀罗艺术和梵文经文上的内容。画中的神像呈特定手印或手势，伴随数不胜数的宗教元素。不同的佛陀配套相对应的宗教元素，比如，药师佛身旁写着“保护一切众生免于身心疾病，破除贪、瞋、痴三毒”的字样；曼陀罗唐卡画中的每一位神灵身旁的经文和祷语都不一样。

Wheel of Life (2015) by Tai Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Tai 喇嘛，《生命之轮》(2015)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Black and Gold Medicine Buddha (2019) by Bir Bhadur Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Bir Bhadur 喇嘛，《黑金药师佛》(2019)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Life of Buddha (2015) by Palden Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Palden 喇嘛，《佛祖的一生》(2015)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Medicine Buddha (2019) by Rajendra Lama / Natural pigments and gold powder Rajendra 喇嘛，《药师佛》(2019)，由天然颜料和金色粉末绘制完成

The paint used in thangkas are mineral pigments, organic dyes, and gold leaf; they’re painted on linen, silk, and cotton canvases coated with chalk and glue gesso; and they range in size from 25 cm to 22 ft. The larger paintings can take three months to a year to complete and are used for multiple purposes. For one, they can aid the recently dead during transmigration, helping to offer positive karma on their way to reincarnation. They’re also used in single-point meditation, helping to focus solely upon the object of meditation, often the deity depicted in thangka. And of course, they’re used as decoration too. Today, many sacred Tibetan thangka paintings can be found in different museums and most Tibetan homes hang them.

绘制唐卡所用到的原料有矿物颜料、有机染料和金箔，通常在涂有白垩粉和胶浆的亚麻、丝绸和棉画布上进行创作。画幅从 25 厘米到 6 米不等。一般，大型画作可能需要三个月到一年的时间完成。画的用途很广，一方面可以为亡者的轮回转世带来积极的作用；另一方面，有助于佛教徒的专注和冥想，帮助冥想者专注于唐卡画中的神像；最后一种用途是作为装饰。现如今，有许多博物馆都藏有唐卡画，其也常常悬挂在藏族家庭。

Vajaradhara Refugee Tree (2018) by Kunchhang Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Kunchhang 喇嘛，《金刚避难树》(2018)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Manjushri Bodhisattva (2018) by Bir Bahadur Lama / Natural pigments and 24-karat gold on canvas Bir Bahadur 喇嘛，《文殊菩萨》(2018)，由天然颜料和24克拉纯金在画布上绘制完成

Although it’s mainly Nepalese students, there are a lot of foreign artists as well. But they only accept students who pass an artistic aptitude test. The school additionally makes an effort to encourage younger students and women to train, who are not traditionally well represented in the culture. Their first female master joined in the early 90s and they’ve trained over 80 women.

The center also hopes that students will take the form in new directions. “We respect one’s vision, it makes a painting unique,” says Manish Lama, the school’s manager. “There are strict standards for a deity’s body postures, facial expressions, and gestures because they carry important symbolism. But beyond that, we encourage students to be creative and independent.”

学校的大多数学生都是土生土长的尼泊尔人，但偶尔也会有外国艺术家慕名前来。对于学校而言，他们并不关心学生的国籍；学生能否顺利达到绘画能力标准，是他们最关心的。历史上，女性唐卡画师很少见，但学校正努力鼓励更多女性学习这门艺术。从学校走出的第一位女唐卡大师是在九十年代初，至今也已培训出 80 多名女性唐卡画师。

除此之外，学校还希望学生能在绘画唐卡画时有所创新。学校负责人 Manish Lama 表示：“我们尊重每个人的想法，这也是每一幅画的特别之处。除了传统佛像中既定的姿势和外观，我们鼓励学生发挥自主创意。”

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Website: www.thangkanepal.com
Instagram: @lama_thanka

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Website: www.thangkanepal.com
Instagram: @lama_thanka

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Unambiguous Demeanors 人不应刻意隐藏负面情绪

November 11, 2021 2021年11月11日

Though they’re smeared in clown make-up, the ceramic figures of sculptor Chao Harn Kae are far from jovial. Instead, they gaze on with indifference, glance around in suspicion, or carry blank stares. Even characters with their lips upturned don’t seem truly happy—their expressions seem closer to conniving smirks or mocking snickers.

A constant aura of anxiety simmers in the Malaysian artist’s works, and it’s all by design. As he sees it, negativity shouldn’t be ignored, but confronted. “The sadness and melancholy that manifest in my works reflect my mental state at the time of creation,” he explains. “But it’s not all doom and gloom. In times of despair, it’s important to find joy.”

马来西亚艺术家曹涵凱的陶塑角色看起来并不怎么开心。他们妆扮成小丑模样，却神情漠然，双眼空洞无神，疑虑地环顾四周，甚至连嘴唇上扬时也带给观众一种似笑非笑或是充满嘲讽的感受。

这种压抑和焦虑的氛围是曹涵凱作品中一贯的调性，是他有意而为。他认为，人本不应该刻意隐藏自身的消极情绪。“忧郁是我在创作过程中的状态，但并不完全是我想表达的内容。悲伤中寻找快乐的过程是比较重要的”，他说道。

But joy can be deceiving, especially in modern times, where our technologically inundated lives have conditioned us to put on a happy facade for our social feeds. The clown characters that Chao features so prominently in his work are a statement on this facet of existence. With their white face paint, they speak to the masks that people are now so accustomed to wearing in their day-to-day lives. “My art explores whether or not these facades people put up are required,” he says with a pause. “Or perhaps these facades aren’t facades at all, but who we actually are,” he says.

有时，表面的快乐带有一定的欺骗性，尤其在现代社会。科技泛滥的生活让人们在社交媒体上越来越浮于表面和一时。曹涵凱在作品中的小丑元素正是对此类现状的回应。这些惨白色的面孔，是人们在生活中习惯性伪装的假面具。“我想要探讨的是，人究竟是要戴面具而活、还是面具才是真正的自己？”他说道。

Chao’s clown-faced humanoids also have an uncanny resemblance to animals at times, often appearing with horns, snouts, or the ears of various wildlife. These features are also meditations on human behavior. “I grew up in the countryside, and my father was a farmer, so animals were a big part of my childhood,” he explains. “Moving to the city as an adult, I noticed that urbanites sometimes don’t even feel as ‘human’ as animals. These works examine whether humans have a tendency to conduct themselves like animals or whether animals have a tendency to conduct themselves like humans.”

这些人形陶塑偶尔也会出现动物的特征，譬如长着犄角、或是某种动物的鼻子与耳朵。这些特征探讨的则是人类行为的另一面。曹涵凱解释道：“我从小在马来西亚郊区长大，父亲是农夫，因此身边有很多动物倍伴一起成长。长大后在城市生活，我发觉城市人不如动物有人性。所以我想在作品中探讨人性中有动物的灵性，还是动物中有人性的关糸。”

Aside from the clown faces and animal features, another recurring motif of Chao’s work is the presence of human hands. In one sculpture, an otherwise realistic hand traverses into the realm of the fantastical as five faces surface from atop the fingerprints—each digit appears to be engaged in a heated conversation, with the middle finger looking dumbfounded as the rest get their say in.

In No War Please!, Chao created a red-nosed figure with a pair of human hands acting as its horns; they’re held up in surrender as if being held at gunpoint. Beneath, the character looks terrified. In other pieces, lone human hands convey similar despair. Some reach up towards something unseen, almost as if they belonged to a drowning victim desperate for a gasp of breath.

Even without other contextual cues, Chao’s disembodied hands are incredibly expressive, conveying emotions that can be understood universally. “Hands are one of my favorite subjects; I even consider them a second face of sorts,” he says. “They’re complicated but delicate and have the ability to capture emotion—it’s perhaps even more expressive than speech.”

曹涵凱作品中另一个反复出现的元素，是人手。在一件雕塑作品中，五个指尖分别浮现出五张面孔，十分魔幻。各个手指头之间似乎在激烈争辩什么，有的手指目睹这场争论，露出不以为然的表情。在作品《No War Please!（请不要开战）》中，曹涵凱所塑造的红鼻子角色头上长出了一对人手状的犄角，正以投降姿势高高举起，仿佛正面临某种威胁，流露出惊恐的神色。

即使没有其他语境线索，曹涵凱的这些手也有着极强的表现张力，传达出直白、易见的情绪。他说：“手是我最喜欢的创作元素之一，甚至可以比喻为第二张脸。手是非常复杂的结构，又是非常细致丰富的，我认为手可以表达内心变化的感受，是比言语还丰富的体系。”

Whether it be through gesticulation or demeanors, Chao has a clear talent for sculpting realistic emotions. He chalks it up to a willingness to stay in touch with his inner self, which has taught him the importance of seeing through a lens of compassion and empathy. “When I create, I tap into my turbulent emotions, study them, and then through clay, I give them a tangible form; it’s cathartic in a way,” he says. “Everyone experiences negative emotions, but it’s crucial to face them. I consider myself as an optimist who isn’t afraid of confronting cynicism.”

从各种手势到神态不难看出，曹涵凱偏爱在雕塑中呈现真实情感。他将其归功于自己以同理心看待世界的能力，以及对过去经验的借鉴。他说道：“每个人都有负面情绪，勇于面对是人生的学问。创作时我会发觉内心的起伏，平静观察；引出内心的情绪表达在泥塑中，而得到内心疗愈。我就是个勇于面对负面情绪的乐观者。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram: @chao_hk
Behance: ~/chaoharnkae

Contributor: David Yen
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Instagram: @chao_hk
Behance: ~/chaoharnkae

供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Olivia Li

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The Flip Side of Happiness 赤裸恐慌

November 9, 2021 2021年11月9日

Monsters Bleeding Society 《流血恶魔团》

Happiness comes in many forms. In art, it may be visualized as pops of vivid colors or as warmly lit scenes conjured from an artist’s fondest memories. But in Gian Miroe’s work, none of that exists. In one painting, a three-eyed alligator is shown devouring the head of a topless man; he lies motionless on tiled floors, while a barely visible knife lays next to him. Titled Monsters Bleeding Society, this single painting encompasses the body of work the Filipino painter dabbles in: the flip side of happiness.

幸福的形式是多样的，它可以是鲜艳明快的颜色，或是唤醒美好记忆的温暖画面。但在菲律宾画家 Gian Miroe 的作品中，突如其来的却是幸福的对立面，甚至令人惶恐不安。在他的一幅作品中，人形三眼短吻鳄正在吞食一名男子的头部，男子上身赤裸，平躺在瓷砖地板上，一把匕首横在旁边。这幅名为《Monsters Bleeding Society（流血恶魔团）》的作品，足以映证 Gian 作品主题：幸福的背面。

Is That the Safest Place to Hide? 《你躲在这儿真的安全吗？》

Whenever It Feels Right 《感觉对的时刻》

Growing up, Miroe has always had a penchant for art. During university, he majored in advertising at Technological University of the Philippines, but in his junior year, he decided he wanted to pursue art as a career instead and joined an art club, leaving advertising as a back-up plan. When his art club hosted an open-theme competition for students, he was encouraged by other club members to join. Miroe was convinced to sign up, and his painting featuring a woman with ram horns won him a cash prize and painting supplies.

He also caught the attention of Filipino artist Lynyrd Paras, who attended the competition as an audience member. They talked after the competition, finding they had a lot in common, and Paras took in Miroe as an apprentice from 2013 to 2017. During his apprenticeship, Miroe began to transition from brighter tones to darker, subdued shades, which he saw as more fitting to capture the sinful pleasures of mankind—a topic he was fascinated by.

从小到大，Gian 一直钟情于艺术。虽然他曾在菲律宾科技大学主修广告专业，但他毅然坚持追求艺术事业，并在大三时加入了学校的艺术社团，后来广告则成为了他的备选课程。他所在的艺术社团举办了一场面向学生的开放主题比赛，在社团成员的鼓励下，Gian 报名参加了这场比赛。他的参赛作品是一个长着羊角的女人，这幅绘画作品为他赢得了奖金和一些美术用品。

那一次，他还引起了菲律宾艺术家 Lynyrd Paras 的注意。比赛结束后，两人在聊天中发现彼此有很多共同点，后来 2013年到 2017 年期间，Lynyrd 还把 Gian 收为门徒。在这段学徒生涯中，Gian 的创作开始从明亮色调转为灰暗、阴郁的色调。他认为这种色调更适合呈现人类罪恶的快感 —— 这是他作品中一直探讨的主题。

So Many Teeth Made for Lies Work 《满齿谎言》

Sentimental Value 《情深难却》

With these moody palettes, the themes that Miroe painted also began to shift as he began examining the dark side of humanity. In So Many Teeth Made for Lies Work, mouths bearing gritted teeth or with stuck-out tongues have entirely replaced the facial features of a female figure. Instead of eyes, a nose, ears, or collar bones, everything is just teeth and tongues. “It’s about people who preach and teach, but don’t walk the talk and just spew out lies,” he explains. “Every time they open their mouth, you can expect that they’ll speak ill of something or someone. People like this exist and what’s worse is that we’re surrounded by them.”

Apart from scathing commentary, Miroe also touches on difficult emotions, such as is the case with Sentimental Value. A woman in frame is chewing on a skeletal arm while kneeling on the tiled floor. As she looks up to the viewer, blood drips from her mouth and onto her body. Her almond eyes glisten from unshed tears and eye bags make her look exhausted. “We know people who have lost a valuable thing, person, or event in their life, but here, it depicts how we cling to that loss, so much that we try to imagine as if they were still here,” he explains. “Even if they came back, we would never receive its entirety, but just a part of it: perhaps a memory, a longing, or a quarter of what it had been.”

随后，Gian 的作品随色调发生了扭转，他开始更多地去审视人性的黑暗面。在《So Many Teeth Made for Lies Work（满齿谎言）》中，女性的面部特征完全被牙齿和舌头代替。他解释说：“这是在指那些一味说教的人，他们的言行不一，满口谎言。每次他们一张嘴，你就能知道他们又要说某人或某件事的坏话。这样的人不仅存在，更糟糕的是，他们就在我们身边。”

除了表达尖锐的论调，Gian 试着通过作品探讨复杂的情感问题，譬如他的《Sentimental Value（情深难却）》。一名女子跪在瓷砖地板上，啃着骨瘦如柴的手臂。她抬头凝视着观众，四周鲜血四溅。女子双眼中泛着泪光，一脸憔悴。对于作品，Gian 解释说：“有些人曾在生活中失去重要的人或事物，但这幅画所描述的是人们对于这种失去的执着，以至于试图想象它／他们尚在身边。即使失而复得，我们也不可能得到完整的全部，顶多是其中的一部分：可能是一段回忆、一种渴望，或者是曾经的残肢断臂。”

Feel Me, Fill Me 《感受我，填满我》

In Feel Me, Fill Me, neatly arranged polka dots painted in colorful pastels fill a white background; in the foreground, a woman with desaturated skin gazes at the viewer with fatigue. The bottom half of her face is unpainted, replaced with uneven smudges of red, orange, pink, white, cream, brown, blue, black, yellow, and green. It’s almost as if the lower part of the canvas itself was used as the palette on which he mixed his colors. “It’s a depiction of how people are never content,” Miroe says. “In this painting, the woman keeps looking for something more, even though she already has everything she wished for, to the point that she has become so worn out and neglects other things in her life.”

在《Feel Me, Fill Me（感受我，填满我）》中，罕见的浅彩色圆点图案铺成画面的背景；一个面色惨淡的女人空洞地望向前方，她的下半张脸没有上色，取而代之的是混乱的十种色彩，像是画家的调色板。Gian 解释说：“这幅画要表达的是人性的贪得无厌。画中的女人一直在寻找更多的东西，即使她早已拥有了想要的一切，直至她变得疲惫不堪，也因此忽略了生活中更丰富的色彩。”

I'm Pretty Sure I'll Never Hurt You 《我保证以后不会再伤害你》

A Prayer For Your Brighter Tomorrow 《美好明天的祈祷者》

First impressions and outer appearances are a core theme throughout Miroe’s art. “Most of the time, people base their judgment not on personality, but on people’s looks. It’s only when we get to know these people that we can conclude whether our first impressions are spot on or they just distort our perception. Whatever the situation may be, everyone has their ugly side. While in some people you can see it right off the bat, others may take a while before they reveal that side of them and you can see who they are.”

His paintings are often titled as questions, such as Is That a Safe Place to Hide? and What’s Your Purpose? These titles allude to the underlying themes of each piece, which are based on his observations of a reality that’s far from rosy. As such, negativity runs rampant in his work. All seven cardinal sins have also appeared within his work, though this isn’t a theme that he’s consciously looking to broach. It just so happens that these different forms of immortality all shape his understanding of the world, a drastic change from his younger years when he held a happy-go-lucky outlook.

强烈的第一印象和外表是贯穿 Gian 作品的特点。“大多时候，人们总以外貌而不是个性来评判他人。只有当我们了解了对方，才能确定自己的第一印象是不是对的，还是说我们被第一印象影响了自己的看法。无论哪种情况，每个人都有自己丑陋的一面。只不过有的人你一眼就能看出来，而有的人可能需要一段时间才会展现出自己的另一面，这时你才能看清他们真实的面貌。”

相比于晦涩的画面，Gian 的作品标题却都十分直白。其暗示了每幅作品的潜在主题，而这些主题往往都基于他所观察的现实。也正因如此，各种负面情绪从作品中滋生出来，这其中就包括了人性阴暗的七宗罪；不过，他并没有刻意探讨人类的罪行，只是这些不同形式的“罪”碰巧构成了他对世界的看法，而这种看法与他年少时的无忧无虑形成了天壤之别。

So Many Eyes Made for Blind Work 《盲目》

As he got older, he began paying attention to what was happening right before his eyes: crime, poverty, and one’s disillusion over what happiness means. “My paintings aim to expose the pain behind happiness, which is a never-ending process. This is why I’ve told myself that art is dangerous,” he says. For Miroe, it seems impossible to feel and be happy at all times. Through his body of work, he shows how happiness can be a form of escapism, but this can also disconnect people from reality, which may cause more harm than help. On the other hand, when art isn’t afraid of pointing out the wounds and hurts of reality, it can help viewers reflect and pluck up the courage to overcome the pain and disappointments they may encounter in life.

年纪越大，Gian 越开始关注自己眼前的一切：犯罪、贫穷和幻灭。“我的作品旨在揭示幸福背后的痛苦，那是一个永无止境的过程。这也是为什么我总跟自己讲，艺术很危险，”他说道。对于 Gian 来说，无时无刻的快乐是不切实际的。他通过自己的作品，证明了快乐可能是一种逃避现实的方式，这也会导致人们脱离现实，最后不但帮不了人们，甚至会适得其反。另一方面，当艺术不再害怕揭露现实的伤疤，反而可以帮助观众反思并鼓起勇气克服生活中的痛苦与失望。

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Contributor: Matthew Burgos
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

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Instagram: @gianmiroe

供稿人: Matthew Burgos
英译中: Olivia Li

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Between Dimensions 当幻想成为他宣泄的方式

November 4, 2021 2021年11月4日

Self-direction (2020) Oil on canvas / 200 x 310cm 《自我趋向》(2020) 布面油画 / 200 x 300 厘米

The book Red Sorghum earned Chinese author Mo Yan the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. In the novel, folk tales, history, and contemporary ideas are merged together in a “hallucinatory realism” that captures the imagination of readers. It was novels such as this and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez that drove the unprecedented popularity of the literary genre magic realism in 1980s China. It is a genre that has allowed Chinese artists and writers to find new potential for their craft.

Shang Chengxiang creates magic-realistic paintings that take audiences on journeys through unparalleled wonders. With his works, he looks to visualize the hidden truths and desires of the unconscious mind. These sentiments can be manifested in dreams, a place where we all are able to assess what is happening in the deepest recesses of our subconscious. For Shang Chengxiang, dreams are a prism through which he conjures his fantastical.

Much of Shang’s work feels as if they’re produced through his stream of unconsciousness, with motifs and themes culled directly from the depths of a fantasy world. “In dreams, there are always unstable, vague emotions that you can’t identify for sure,” says Shang. “And those emotions are exactly what I look for.”

中国著名作家莫言于 1986 年出版的《红高粱家族》是一部融合了民间故事、历史和当代理念的 “幻觉现实主义”小说。其和加布里埃尔·加西亚·马尔克斯 (Gabriel García Márquez) 的《百年孤独》共同推动了魔幻现实主义在 80 年代中国的空前盛行，也正是这些文学体裁，让中国艺术家和作者挖掘出全新的创作潜力。

商成祥所创作的魔幻现实主义画作带领观众穿越奇观境地。他通过自己的作品，将人潜意识中隐藏的幻象描绘出来，其所带来的情往往只发生在梦中。通过梦境，人们能够了解自己潜意识的最深处。对商成祥来说，梦境是一面棱镜，折射着自己平日的幻想。

商成祥的大部分作品仿佛是在无意识的状态下创作完成，充满各种从幻想世界深处搜罗而来的元素和主题。他说：“梦是一种感知潜意识的方法，但梦境大多是你捉摸不定的会有一种隐约的模糊的情绪。我正是要通过创作抓住这种情绪。”

Borderless No. 5 (2021) Graphite on paper / 60 x 60cm 《无界 No. 5》 (2021) 纸上石墨 / 60 x 60 厘米

Untitled (2021) Graphite on paper / 60 x 60cm 未命名 (2020) 纸上石墨 / 60 x 60 厘米

Many of Shang’s works more resemble photos than paintings, peppered with lifelike details. For example Immortality, which portrays a giant beating heart entombed within an underground vault. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for an unspoken love or it could be a story of having to conceal one’s feelings deep inside as a means of protecting themselves or a significant other. Maybe it’s simply rhetorical; Shang is always somewhat reluctant to reveal his full thoughts behind each artwork, leaving room for diverse interpretations and re-imaginations.

Born and raised in Shenyang, Shang witnessed the city fall from grace as a place of significance in China–it was a city synonymous with heavy industry and is now China’s rustbelt. This change in the city reflects the broken dreams of many of the inhabitants as their lives became more difficult. It also offers an explanation of Shang’s path towards magical realism; as his hopes and dreams for the city diminished so he began to tap into fantasies to express his frustrations.

他的许多作品逼真得更像是照片而非绘画，栩栩生动又充满细节。例如在《不朽》中所描绘的那颗藏于地下金库中的巨型心脏。这幅作品可比作一颗暗恋的心，也可能是在讲述一个为了保护自己或爱人而将感情埋藏于内心深处的故事；或可以被理解为单纯的强烈视觉表现。商成祥似乎不太愿意透露每件作品背后的全部想法，为观众留出更多解读和重新想象的空间。

商成祥从小在沈阳出生和长大，亲眼目睹这座中国北方城市从举足轻重的工业重镇到如今的没落景象。而城市的变迁也折射出当地居民梦想的瓦解，以及日益艰难的生活，渐渐影响了商成祥踏上魔幻现实主义的创作道路。幻想，成为他宣泄的方式。

Immortality (2018) Oil on canvas / 47.5 x 68.5cm 《不朽》(2018) 布面油画 / 47.5 x 68.5 厘米

Borderless No. 1 (2020) Oil on canvas / 200 x 300cm 《无界 No. 1》(2020) 布面油画 / 200 x 300 厘米

Shang’s paintings also evoke a sense of awe. His compositions have a realistic foundation in which he inserts surreal objects such as the giant globe-like disco balls in Borderless No. 1. Two figures with their backs to us sit atop some stairs that lead to these disco balls. Their legs dangle off the edge like children on a tall chair. But clearly, these are adults, their gender unclear from our vantage point as they sit with backs to the viewer and peer directly into the glimmering spheres.

His artwork focuses on underlying human emotions, leaving his audience with an elusive ambiguity. “My work contains lots of emotions,” says Shang. “I love to set up the suspense in my work which enables people to think.” Like all great art, his works ask viewers to reflect on the meaning of this to us as individuals and what it may represent to the artist himself; does it even matter what he intended it to mean if it makes us think about the world in a new light?

商成祥的画作能带给观众敬畏之感。他的作品以现实主义为基础，在此之上加入超现实主义的元素，例如《无界系列No. 1》中的巨大迪斯科球，画面中两个成年人坐在通往这些迪斯科球的楼梯上，双腿在边缘晃荡；他们背对着观众而坐，凝视着眼前巨大的发光球体。

商成祥的作品专注于探讨人类内心深处潜藏的情感，带给观众一种难以捉摸的模糊性。他说：“在我的作品中蕴含着很多的情绪。我喜欢制造这种悬而未决的氛围。”

和其他出色的艺术作品一样，商成祥的画作能勾起观众对自我和艺术家本人的思考；不过，如果一幅作品能让我们以新的眼光看待这个世界，原本的创作意图或仅供参考。

Multiple Dimensions (2020) Oil on canvas / 133 x 170cm 《多维世界》(2020) 布面油画 / 133 x 170 厘米

Divine Trace (2020) Oil on canvas / 160 x 160cm 《神迹》(2020) 布面油画 / 160 x 160 厘米

Self-direction No. 7 (2021) Oil on canvas / 180 x 200cm 《自我趋向》(2021) 布面油画 / 180 x 200 厘米

There are many recurring motifs in Shang’s work, such as the ocean and bodies of water. Water, and the sea specifically, he believes, evokes a sense of the unknown. Multiple Dimensions is characteristic of Shang’s use of the ocean as a metaphysical space of mystery. In the painting, a black hole-like void emerges from the sea, bursting through the surface pursued by a wondrous psychedelic color field. Juxtaposed against this fantasy-like imagery is the photorealistic quality of the water—a Shang signature throughout his oeuvre—the detail in the splashing water convincing the viewer that this scene is credible.

Then there are motifs of space and the cosmos, another recurring theme throughout his oeuvre. In Thoughtsn, viewers are presented with a swirling galaxy floating in the corridor of an apartment building. The door of a room is open with the spiral galaxy–reminiscent of Andromeda–seeming to emerge from it. The juxtaposition of this nebula in a confined space alludes to the endless possibilities of the cosmic dreams of unconsciousness.

商成祥的作品中有许多反复出现的元素，例如大海和水体。在他看来，水——尤其是大海——能唤起某种强烈的未知感。《多维世界》很好地体现了商成祥如何将海洋打造成神秘的形而上空间。画中，黑洞般的抽象物质从大海中涌现，裹挟多重迷幻性色彩。与这种虚幻相对应的，是商成祥作品的标志性特点——如照片般写真的海水，令整个场景逼近现实。

除此之外，空间和宇宙也是他经常在作品中运用的元素。在《第N次思考》中，璀璨星系漂浮于公寓的走廊。房门敞开，星系从房间里缓缓而来。星云与封闭空间的并列，暗示着个体意识中潜藏着无限的可能。

Thoughtsn (2021) Oil on canvas / 145 x 200cm 《第N次思考》(2021) 布面油画 / 145 x 200 厘米

The diversity of the mediums he uses is another distinct feature of Shang’s work. “I like oil because I am used to painting thick and heavy then leaving tiny marks with a fine brush,” he explains. “In this way, my art feels freer.” In his most recent paintings, however, he has begun experimenting with other mediums.

We No. 1 uses acrylic paint and takes viewers below the ocean surface. Beneath waves, two reef sharks swim above a house covered in snow. Inside the window, two backlit figures stand with their backs to each other. Despite the subtlety of the body language, the standoff between the sharks aptly captures the tension between the pair within the cabin.

Shang uses watercolor on paper in The Way You Look No. 2, again featuring an ocean beast this time a humpback whale. Another anonymous female figure is involved; she is standing on a piece of dead sea coral reaching out and gently touching the whale. The sense between human and creature is peaceful and loving with an underlying sadness, the type of dream where you awake and almost want to cry but don’t know why.

另一个商成祥的创作特点是多样的创作媒介。他说：“油画材料目前是我比较喜欢的。我惯用厚重的颜料，令细节的描绘获得自由的发挥空间。”在自己最近的画作中，他又开始尝试其他全新的媒介。

《我们No.1》采用丙烯颜料创作。在海浪之下，埋藏着冰雪覆盖的小木屋，鲨鱼游离在其两端。透过窗户，两个人微弱的人影背朝着背。鲨鱼之间的对峙恰如其分地捕捉出木屋内两人之间的紧张气氛。而最近，他还尝试运用水彩。

We No. 3 (2021) Acrylic on canvas / 60 x 80cm 《我们 No. 3》(2021) 布面丙烯 / 60 x 80 厘米

We No. 2 (2021) Acrylic on canvas / 60 x 80cm 《我们 No. 2》(2021) 布面丙烯 / 60 x 80 厘米

We No. 1 (2021) Acrylic on canvas / 50 x 60cm 《我们 No. 1》(2021) 布面丙烯 / 50 x 60 厘米

Shang Chengxiang’s latest works focus on the concept of space and time, with circular and spiral movements, and human thoughts and emotions held within this framework. Although seemingly ambiguous, his art draws viewers in and leaves them contemplating on the line between fantasy and reality. That is the beauty of his art: it is witty and thought-provoking yet also simply beautiful to look at.

His latest exhibition, Sunshine on Another Afternoon, is Shang’s third solo show at ART LABOR Gallery. This show delves deeper into his surrealist practice, including 19 new works, and brings the audience ever closer to the artist’s quest to uncover the mysteries of the universe.

商成祥的最新作品着眼于空间和时间的概念，描绘了各种圆形和螺旋状的动态，以及在此范畴内的各种思想和情感。虽然作品的含义看似摸不着头脑，但依然引人入胜，引发着观众思考幻想与现实之间的界限。这正是他作品的魅力：智慧诙谐、发人深省，又极具美感。

商成祥的最新展览取名为《另一个下午的阳光》，这是他在 ART LABOR 画廊举办的第三次个展。这场展览深入探讨了他的超现实主义风格，一共包括 19 幅新作，观众得以进一步走近这位艺术家，探索自我与幻想之间的关联。

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Contributor: Misha Maruma
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

供稿人: Misha Maruma
英译中: Olivia Li

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Jellyfish Kisses 长达七日的通话

November 2, 2021 2021年11月2日

The therapeutic value of art is perhaps one of its most meaningful qualities. For Anton Belardo, it’s clear this aspect matters most. The Filipino artist creates installations geared toward helping others work through their problems, and more recently, it’s become a way for her to heal herself as well. “A lot of my work revolves around mental health because it’s still a very taboo topic here in the Philippines; it’s just shoved aside,” she says. And the stats back her up: There are only 600 psychiatrists in the entire country. How could they possibly service a population of 111 million people?

艺术最大的价值之一在于治愈心灵，这也是菲律宾艺术家 Anton Belardo（又名 Jellyfish Kisses）在创作中最关注的点。她希望通过自己的艺术装置，帮助人们走出困境。最近，这些艺术装置也成为她治愈自己的方式。她表示：“我的很多作品都围绕心理健康的问题展开，如今在菲律宾，人们对心理问题还是闭口不谈，还容易被所忽视。”这样的说法有据可查：在菲律宾全国 1.11 亿人口中，只有 600 人是心理医生。

On the second floor of Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery in Makati, someone’s bedroom seems to have replaced the exhibition space. This is the latest project by Belardo, working under the pseudonym Jellyfish Kisses. Titled Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, the exhibition features a canopy bed at its center. Scattered around the room and hanging on its walls are stuffed dolls, pillows, and balloons, all basking in the colorful glow of LED lights. A series of paintings wrap around the rest of the space. The dolls have a creepy but playful vibe—they’re demons and specters, but all plush and pastel. The paintings tell the story of a romantic encounter that eventually collapses, an incident that helped spark the whole installation.

在位于马卡蒂的 Vinyl on Vinyl 画廊二楼，不大的布展空间被装饰成卧室。这是 Anton的最新项目，名为《明天你是否依然爱我》（Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow）。帐篷床被支棱在展厅中央，四周和墙壁堆放着各种毛绒玩偶、枕头和气球，浸泡在五彩缤纷的 LED 灯光中，一些手绘的符号和表情填充于墙壁空白的地方。装置中出现的玩偶怪诞风趣——虽是恶魔和幽灵的化身，却都是毛绒材质，看起来并不具有攻击性。Anton 在作品中的绘画讲述了一场逐渐走向崩塌的爱情，成为整个艺术装置的创作主线。

The Philippines has undergone multiple rounds of strict lockdowns and an 18-month-long curfew in an attempt to keep COVID under control. Stuck at home during the first lockdown, Belardo started spiraling emotionally. “This new show is about the breakdown I had last year, which happened at the same time my romantic relationship was collapsing,” she explains. “I had isolated myself from everyone and went into my own bubble, which is represented by the bed in the installation. I became obsessed with certain memories in an attempt to console myself, portrayed in the paintings. Usually my shows are about helping other people heal, but this time I was inspired to focus on myself for the first time. The show is an expression of what happened to me but also a way for me to let go of everything.”

为了控制疫情，菲律宾实施了多轮严格的封锁和长达 18 个月的宵禁。在第一次封锁期间，被困于家中的 Anton 陷入了负面情绪的漩涡。她解释道：“此次展览讲述的是我去年的崩溃经历，那时候我刚刚失恋不久。我屏蔽掉所有人，困在自己的世界里。装置中的床便代表了自我的世界。我沉迷于某些记忆，试图来安慰自己，这些回忆也被我描绘成画。以往我的展览都是关于帮助别人获得治愈，但这一次、也是第一次，我将创作的重心投射在自己身上。展览讲述了发生在我身上的故事，同时也是帮助我放下一切的方式。”

Walking around the compound where the gallery is located, more evidence of the pandemic’s effects are visible in the form of shuttered storefronts. Even Black Market and XXXX, the progressive nightclubs that acted as anchor tenants for the area and popularized its transition into a mini creative district, have been closed down for the past year and a half. XXXX is closed permanently and the future of Black Market is uncertain. When they were still open, Belardo was a frequent patron and could be found partying late into the night. At XXXX, she even created an installation for the Elephant party, an LGBT and fetish club night. She also DJed that event, playing whatever struck her mood, ranging from industrial techno to disco and electro pop.

画廊所在的街区是由废弃仓库改造而成，现在受疫情影响，这里变得门庭冷落，就连之前最热门的夜店 Black Market 和 XXXX 也宣告永久性停摆。以前，Anton 是夜店的常客，常常在这附近玩到通宵达旦。她还曾在 XXXX 举办 LGBT 和恋物癖之夜 “Elephant”，创作艺术装置，并担任 DJ，从工业电子音乐、迪斯科到电子流行音乐，根据心情播放各种自己喜欢的音乐。

Belardo—who is a non-binary artist and identifies as both he and she, leaning slightly towards she—says life in Manila has changed since she was a kid. Her family was always very supportive of her decisions, but life outside the home was difficult growing up. “I’d be discriminated against a lot, like establishments wouldn’t let me enter because of the way I dressed,” she says. “When you’re young and being verbally abused or threatened while just walking down the street, it can affect you really badly.” But in recent years, people in the Philippines have grown more accepting, and she credits representation in mainstream media for helping with that. Shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race had a noticeably positive affect on her life. “People just started assuming I was a drag queen, even though I’m not really into that,” she shrugs. “Visibility in popular media really helps. Now it’s much easier, I’m so happy for the new generation here because they can really express themselves.”

作为一名非二元艺术家，可以以“他” 或 “她” 来称呼 Anton，但她更倾向于“她”。Anton 认为，现在马尼拉已经跟她小时候大相径庭。虽然家人一向很支持她，但在家庭之外，她的生活并不容易。 “我经常受到各种歧视，比如某些场所会因为我的着装而拒绝让我入内。年少的时候，来自路人的辱骂或威胁都对我造成严重的伤害。” 但近年来，菲律宾变得越来越包容，这得归功于 LGBTQ+ 群体在主流媒体上曝光度的增加。像《RuPaul’s Drag Race》（鲁保罗变装皇后秀）这样的节目为她的生活带来了很多的积极方面。“人们开始把我当作是变装皇后，虽然我其实对这方面没什么兴趣，”她耸了耸肩说道，“大众媒体的曝光确实有所帮助，现在的环境变得包容多了，我为这里的年轻一代感到高兴，因为他们可以更加真实地表达自己。”

Although Belardo’s fashion style matches the aesthetics of her art, her wardrobe choices aren’t performative, it’s just how she dresses on a regular day. “I was always bullied as a kid and admired the people who would dress flamboyantly and gave no fucks,” she says. “Now I get messages saying it’s nice to see someone bold and brave, and that it gives them confidence to be themselves. It makes me happy.”

Her fashion sense is nothing new. She got her start in the creative world working as a runway stylist, which she did for seven years. “My training was to make everything from scratch,” she says. “My boss didn’t use ready-made stuff, he’d just give me materials and I’d go crazy with them.” But it eventually didn’t feel satisfying enough, so she decided to make the leap into the art world where her ideas could take shape any way she saw fit.

与变装皇后不同的是，Anton 的着装风格并不具有表演性，单纯是她日常的穿搭偏好。她说道：“我小时候经常被人欺负，那时候我很羡慕那些不在乎别人眼光，穿着夸张大胆的人。而现在的我也会收到别人的留言，他们说很开心看到我这样大胆勇敢，这也让他们更有信心做自己。这让我感到特别开心。”

Anton 起初是以时尚造型师的身份进入创意行业，而且一做就做了七年。“我学会了从零开始制作所有东西，”她说，“当时的老板不喜欢现成的创意，所以都让我用手头的材料尽情发挥。”但她并不满足于此，并最终决定进军艺术世界，随心所欲地表达自己的想法。

Her first show, The Diary of Jellyfish Kisses: Chapter 1 – Bed Stains, which was also held at Vinyl on Vinyl, was another bedroom—she took the furnishings of her literal bedroom from home and reconstructed it inside the gallery. She associates the bedroom with intimacy, and through this recreation, she gave viewers a candid glimpse into her psyche. It was an interactive show, and viewers were invited to scribble their secrets onto a note and leave them on the bed. Having art be participatory has always been important to her.

“My shows can actually get really rowdy, even in the galleries,” Belardo laughs. At one karaoke-themed show, the crowd really got into the singing. A couple times, she says, it was so hectic that their sound system got unplugged, and they had to figure out what went wrong before the party could continue.

她的第一场展览《The Diary of Jellyfish Kisses: Chapter 1 – Bed Stains》（水母吻恋记：第一章，床上污渍）同样在 Vinyl on Vinyl 举办，现场也是一间卧室——她从家里搬来家具，再在画廊内重建。她将卧室视为亲密空间，通过重建自己的卧室，让观众瞥见真实的她。那是一个互动展，观众可以将自己的秘密写在纸条，然后留在床上。互动性的艺术对 Anton 来说很重要。“我的展览常常会变得嘈杂，即使是在画廊里也是这样，”Anton 笑着说道。在一场卡拉 OK 主题的展览中，观众还直接唱起歌来。她说，有好几次实在太吵了，他们的音响系统甚至被人拔掉，他们花了好些时间确定问题才得以继续派对。

In recent years, she’s become much more introspective. Her first show inspired by the pandemic was a video recording of her Zoom chats with strangers. “It was based on a previous show of mine, where audience members would sit with me in a dollhouse installation for a few minutes to discuss their problems,” she says. “I repurposed that as an online video chat for another show in Korea.” She says that mental health there seems similarly taboo and people who opened up to her said they’d never spoken about their issues before. During that first hard lockdown when Belardo was spiraling, one of her friends ended up using the idea back on her in private as a form of therapy. “We would call everyday, sometimes we wouldn’t hang up. Our longest call was almost a week.” Luckily she climbed out of that hole, took those depths of despair, and turned them into artwork.

近年来，Anton 时常自我反省。她受疫情启发的第一场展览，内容是她与陌生人在 Zoom 聊天的视频录像。她说：“其实是受到之前我的一个展览的启发。那次观众和我一起坐在玩具屋的艺术装置内，促膝谈论着我们在各自生活中遇到的问题。我重新利用这个概念，以在线视频聊天的形式完成了这次展览。” 此次展览在韩国举办，Anton 表示，韩国人的心理问题同样带有禁忌色彩，向她敞开心扉的人都承认自己以前从未与他人倾诉过这些问题。Anton 在第一次封锁期间遭遇情绪低落时，她的一位好友就用畅所欲言的方式陪她度过难关。“我们每天都会通话，有时甚至会一直不挂断电话。最长的一次通话甚至达到了一个星期。”幸运的是，她最终走出了这个情绪困境，并把曾经的绝望遭遇转化成艺术作品。

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Instagram: @jellyfishkisses

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Jilson Tiu
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Instagram: @jellyfishkisses

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Jilson Tiu
英译中: Olivia Li

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The Coldest Place on Earth 极寒以北

October 28, 2021 2021年10月28日

From Alexey Vasilyev's series My Dear Yakutia Alexey Vasilyev《My Dear Yakutia》

Alexey Vasilyev jokes that living in Yakutia is akin to a curse.

“I thought that maybe all bad photographers end up here when they die,” quips Vasilyev, a renowned Yakutian photographer who’s created a monumental body of work documenting life in the region, a part of Russia’s Siberian Arctic.

Also known as the Sakha Republic, Yakutia is perhaps best known for its frigid climate and vast tundras. Nearly one million people live spread out across the region’s three million square kilometers (one-fifth of Russia’s total territory)—a place equal in size to India, which is home to 1.3 billion. Its capital city Yakutsk is the world’s coldest, where winter temperatures frequently plunge to -40 degrees celsius. In Yakutsk, the buildings stand on stilts to ensure that permafrost, the layers of frozen soil that runs 450 feet deep, don’t melt. Winter fog blooms are also common: the extreme seasonal cold traps hot air from humans, homes, and cars that leave the city streets looking like scenes out of Silent Hill.

Yet Yakutia’s rich cultural legacy, complex history, and intertwined identities reveal a part of the world that’s much more than frozen land.

Alexey Vasilyev 开玩笑说，在雅库特生活就像被诅咒了一样。

“也许所有糟糕的摄影师死后都会来到这里，” 他打趣道。Alexey 在雅库特当地算是位著名的摄影师，他拍摄的大量作品，记录着这个俄罗斯西伯利亚北极圈地区的生活。

雅库特也被称为萨哈共和国，那里极度严寒，拥有广阔的苔原，占地约 300 万平方公里（是俄罗斯国土总面积的五分之一），生活着近 100 万人口；与印度的国土面积旗鼓相当，后者却拥有 13 亿人口。首都雅库茨克是世界上最冷的城市，冬季气温时常在零下 40 摄氏度。在雅库茨克，建筑都要建在高处，以避免 450 英尺深的永冻层融化。与此同时，冬季的大雾天气也时有发生：人类、住宅和汽车产生的热空气困于极端的季节性寒流中，令整座城市看起来就像是《寂静岭》(Silent Hill) 中的场景。

然而，雅库特绝非只是一片遥远的冰雪世界，这里还蕴藏着丰富的文化遗产、错综复杂的历史以及多元的身份。

From Alexey Vasilyev's series My Dear Yakutia Alexey Vasilyev《My Dear Yakutia》

Epic tales date the Sakha people’s history back to the 10th century, though not much is known about their early history. Yakuts’ modern story begins in the 17th century, in parallel with Imperial Russia’s eastward expansion. By this time, the semi-nomadic Yakuts were already a hybrid community. As Sakha tribes moved throughout northeastern Siberia, they mixed with indigenous groups like the reindeer-herding Evenk, while other evidence points to ancestral ties stemming from Turkic-speaking tribes of the Altai Mountains and Mongol groups in Central Asia.

雅库特人的历史最早可以追溯到 10 世纪，但人们对他们早期的历史知之甚少。雅库特人的现代史开始于 17 世纪，当时正值俄罗斯帝国向东扩张，半游牧的雅库特人已经形成混居的社区：萨哈部落在穿越西伯利亚东北部时，与驯鹿牧民鄂温克人 (Evenk) 等土著群体混居；还有其他证据表明，他们与中亚突厥语系的阿尔泰山部落和蒙古部落也有血缘关系。

From Alexey Vasilyev's series My Dear Yakutia Alexey Vasilyev《My Dear Yakutia》

The Sakha Republic now occupies a distinct, and extraordinary, place in Russia—where indigenous Siberian traditions, Asian heritage, and links with Russia and the global Arctic, collide.

The chance to safeguard Yakutia’s story through photography, and to tell this story to a global audience, is what drives Vasilyev’s dedication to photography. Nearly ten years ago, equipped with only his iPhone, Vasilyev first began shooting daily life in Yakutsk as a way to stave off boredom—and manage an on-and-off battle with alcohol. “In my case, alcohol and creativity aren’t compatible,” he says.

如今，雅库特地处俄罗斯一片非凡的区域。在这里，西伯利亚土著传统、与亚洲的血缘联系以及与俄罗斯和全球北极社区的联系全部交融于一体。

通过影像来保护雅库特的历史，并向全球观众讲述它的故事，是促使 Alexey 投身摄影的原因。大概在十年前，Alexey 正处于断断续续的戒酒努力中，因为无聊，他第一次拿起自己的 iPhone 手机开始拍摄雅库茨克的日常生活。“对我来说，酒精和创意是互不相容的，”他说道。

From Alexey Vasilyev's series My Dear Yakutia Alexey Vasilyev《My Dear Yakutia》

Vasilyev’s commitment to his craft paid off. Global publications like TIME and National Geographic have showcased Vasilyev’s works. And this year, Vasilyev’s Sakhawood series documenting Yakutia’s grassroots film industry won him first place in the category of “Contemporary Issues: Stories” from the World Press Photo—one of the most prestigious prizes in global photojournalism.

“I now understand that I’m not only photographing for myself, but for others,” Vasilyev says. “I’ve begun to believe that I am… a chronicler of Yakutia. I hope my art can help answer the question for Yakuts—who are we and what place do we occupy in the world?”

这些年来，Alexey 对于摄影的投入得到了回报，他的作品被刊登在《时代》和《国家地理》等全球出版物上。今年，Vasilyev 记录雅库特草根电影产业的纪实摄影系列《Sakhawood》为他赢得了著名世界新闻摄影比赛(WPP)“当代热点类：图片故事”的第一名。

Alexey 说：“现在我明白了，我不仅仅是在为自己拍照，也是在为别人拍照。我开始相信，我就是雅库特的记录者。我希望自己的作品能够回答雅库特人心中的疑问：我们是谁？我们在世界处于什么样的位置？”

From Alexey Vasilyev's series My Dear Yakutia Alexey Vasilyev《My Dear Yakutia》

Between Europe and Asia

As a Eurasian nation, Russia’s yearning to be viewed as a “civilized” western nation, largely began with Peter the Great’s westernizing reforms during his reign from 1682 to 1725. But that didn’t stop Imperial Russia’s eastward turn in a bid for more land, resources and power.

Most of Russia’s Asia colonization took place in the 17th century—including the empire’s conquest of the Sakha people and the annexation of territories from a weakened Qing China. In 1632, Russians and Yakuts made their first contact when bands of Cossack soldiers loyal to the Tsarist empire built forts in the Lena Valley, in what was the Yakuts’ heartland. One of these Cossack forts eventually became the settlement of Yakutsk. Imperial Russia then annexed the region.

The empire imposed yasak—a Mongol-Turkic word used to denote a tax established by law (the Mongol empire’s emperor Genghis Khan called his laws the “yasak of Genghis Khan”)—on indigenous peoples in Yakutia like the Yakuts, Evenki, and Chukchi. These groups paid tribute to Tsarist Russia in fur—of sables, foxes, and more, which helped prop up their fur trade.

界于欧亚之间

作为一个欧亚国家，俄罗斯渴望成为西方“文明”国家之列，这种渴望很大程度上始于彼得大帝 (Peter the Great) 在 1682 年至 1725 年统治期间发起的西化改革。但这并没有阻止俄罗斯帝国为了争夺更多土地、资源和权力而向东扩张。

俄罗斯在亚洲的殖民活动大多发生在 17 世纪，包括征服雅库特人以及从没落的清帝国手中吞并领土。1632 年，忠于沙俄的哥萨克士兵在雅库特中心地带的勒拿山谷 (Lena Valley) 修建堡垒，这是俄国人和雅库特人的第一次接触。其中的哥萨克堡垒后来成为了雅库茨克据点，之后又被沙俄吞并。

沙俄对雅库特人、鄂温克人和楚科奇人等雅库特的土著人民征收“yasak”，即蒙古突厥语中的法定税收（蒙古皇帝成吉思汗称他所制定的法律为“成吉思汗的 yasak”），这些部落向沙俄进贡貂皮、狐狸皮等，这进一步促进了他们的毛皮贸易。

From Alexey Vasilyev’s ongoing series Ysyakh Alexey Vasilyev《Ysakh》

Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s most loved writers, summed up the country’s long-standing identity crisis in the late 19th century: “Russia is not only in Europe, but also in Asia. The Russian is not only a European, but also an Asiatic” given that two-thirds of the country is geographically in Asia.

The writer proclaimed: “In Europe, we were slaves. But in Asia, we shall be masters. Our civilizing mission in Asia will bribe our spirit and carry us there… a new Russia would be created, which would in time regenerate and resurrect the old one.”

When the Sakha Republic became an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union in 1922, the region was already indelibly intertwined with Russian social, cultural, and religious norms.

Sakha’s incorporation and assimilation into Russia is something Yakuts accept “as history—as a given. It’s something we can’t change now,” says Vasilyev. The photographer identifies as an Asian and a Yakut in Yakutia—a place which is an indelible part of Russia, he explains. “Growing up in the 1990s, I only learned Russian. My main language—in which I think, read, understand, speak and love—is Russian. But now, I believe it’s very important to know our national language, too.”

俄罗斯著名作家之一陀思妥耶夫斯基 (Fyodor Dostoevsky) 在 19 世纪末曾指出这个国家长期存在的身份危机：“俄罗斯不仅在欧洲，也在亚洲。俄罗斯人不仅是欧洲人，也是亚洲的一部分”，甚至有三分之二的土地都位于亚洲。

他写道：“在欧洲，我们曾经是奴隶。但在亚洲，我们将成为主人。我们在亚洲的文明使命将激励着我们前进……一个新的俄罗斯将诞生，假以时日，它将能让旧的俄罗斯重生和复兴。”

1922 年，当雅库特共和国成为苏联的自治共和国时，这个地区已经与俄罗斯的社会、文化和宗教规范不可分割地交织在一起。

雅库特人接受了自己的一部分被俄罗斯同化，正如 Alexey 所说“这是历史必然。是我们现在无法改变的事实。”他自视为亚洲人和雅库特人，而雅库特却又是俄罗斯不可或缺的一部分。“我成长于上世纪九十年代，打小只学过俄语。一直以来，我所运用的语言，我的思考方式、阅读、理解、交流工具，自始至终都是俄语。但现在我渐渐明白，了解属于雅库特人自己的语言，是生活中十分重要的事。”

From Alexey Vasilyev’s ongoing series Ysyakh Alexey Vasilyev《Ysakh》

Sakha spirit

Yakutia’s deep entanglement with Russia is undeniable. Yet, rituals and beliefs unique to Sakha culture have not only survived, but have experienced a newfound renaissance in recent years.

Vasilyev captures the Sakha spirit through his photo series Ysyakh—a tribute to Yakutia’s New Year, the region’s most-loved holiday. During the summer solstice in June, Yakuts come together to thank the Sakha deities for the upcoming year through food, dance, sport, and other festivities. Ysyakh, which originated around 2,000 years ago, is a blend of shamanic, indigenous, and Mongolian traditions. It’s a fundamental part of Yakutia’s cultural heritage and “important part of our national identity — a moment when we become an organic whole,” Vasilyev wrote in The Guardian.

During Ysyakh, the white shaman—whom Yakuts believe to have a close connection with the spiritual realm—leads festival processions, performing blessings, ceremonial dances, and singing prayers. The white shaman gives the traditional offerings of pancakes and kumi (fermented horse milk) to the gods. The central role of kumi may have been passed down from Mongolian traditions; in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for instance, the fermented milk was also used in new year rituals to ensure the health of the herds and Genghis Khan.

Finally, at dawn, Yakuts turn toward the sky to catch the first summer rays with their outstretched palms; and pray for happiness and fortune.

That such traditions take place in Yakutia today is almost miraculous. Orthodox priests undertook efforts to Christianize the Sakha people during the Imperial era, with mixed results. In the Soviet era, Yakutia became a hotspot for gulags—Soviet concentration camps—due to the region’s natural resource abundance alongside its geographic isolation. Soviet authorities also sought to starve indigenous traditions, and the Ysyakh holiday was secularized and Sovietized. Communicating with Sakha spirits was forbidden; instead, people were encouraged to give thanks and offerings to portraits of Stalin, instead.

萨哈神灵

毋庸置疑，雅库特与俄罗斯之间有着千丝万缕的联系。然而，萨哈文化所独有的仪式和信仰不仅得以流传下来，并在最近几年经历了新一轮的复兴。

Alexey 在自己的摄影系列《Ysyakh》（恩萨赫节）中便展示了萨哈文化。恩萨赫节（Ysyakh）是雅库特人的传统新年，是当地人最喜欢的节日。在 6 月的夏至期间，雅库特人聚集在一起，通过食物、舞蹈、运动和其他庆祝活动，为即将到来的一年感谢萨哈神灵。恩萨赫节起源于大约 2000 年前，是萨满教、土著文化和蒙古传统交融的成果。Alexey 在《卫报》的文章中表示，这是雅库特文化传承的重要部分，也是“我们民族身份的重要组成部分，是我们凝聚在一起的时刻”。

节日期间，身穿白衣的萨满祭司带着大伙儿们游行、祈祷，舞蹈和歌唱。雅库特人认为，萨满祭司是和灵界有着密切联系的人。白衣萨满祭司将传统煎饼和“kumi”（酸马奶）等祭品供奉给神。以酸马奶作为重要祭品可能是受蒙古传统的影响，在 13 和 14 世纪，酸奶也被用于新年仪式，以祈祷保佑畜群和成吉思汗健康。

黎明时分，雅库特人一齐望向天空，伸出手掌，捕捉夏天的第一缕阳光，祈祷幸福和好运。

时至今日，仍然能在雅库特看到这样的传统仪式实属罕见。沙俄时代，东正教牧师致力将雅库特人基督教化，结果好坏参半。在苏联时代，因为雅库特当地的富饶的自然资源和地理上的孤立，古拉格（苏联劳动改造营）在这里安营扎寨。苏联当局还试图淡化土著传统，将恩萨赫节日世俗化、苏维埃化。禁止人们与萨哈神灵交流；同时鼓励人们对斯大林画像的感恩与崇拜。

From Alexey Vasilyev’s ongoing series Ysyakh Alexey Vasilyev《Ysakh》

By the late 1980’s, Yakutia’s intellectual and artistic communities instigated a revival of Sakha heritage, which paved the way for Ysyakh to find its way back to its true meaning. In 1992, the first administration of the New Republic of Sakha, a non-Soviet government, designated Ysyakh a formal state holiday.

In Vasilyev’s documentation of the festival, Yakutia is transformed into an ethereal place, far from its somber moments of history, or winter reality of dense fog and whistling snow. “[Our] brand is usually winter, but I wanted to show summer,” he says. Vasilyev also acknowledges that there are “dark sides of our life [in Yakutia], but I don’t want to show it.” The photographer references the alcohol addiction in the region and in Russia, at large: “It seems to me that in our country, alcohol doesn’t let people relax and have fun, but leads to overconsumption and aggression. [But] I can’t solve these problems with photography but only hurt someone’s feelings. Sure, I want to show truths that may be harsh, but at the same time leave room for inspiration and some kind of light sadness.”

His take on Ysyakh is akin to a soft, pastel dream sequence in which cream-colored horses roam green steppes under powder-blue skies; where families, dressed in their best, reunite under the summer sun to pray to the gods.

Yakut and Russian women are clad in floor-length, floral khaladaai dresses; while young girls wear bastinga headdresses and are decked out in ornamental silver jewelry laughing over ice cream and waiting for their turn to dance. Others wear white robes and matching headscarves while burning incense to purify the grounds of negative energy.

到 20 世纪 80 年代末，雅库特知识分子和艺术团体发起了复兴萨哈传统的运动，实现了恢复恩萨赫节的真正意义。1992 年，非苏维埃政府的萨哈新共和国第一届政府将恩萨赫节定为正式的国家节日。

在 Alexey 关于这个节日的纪实摄影作品中，雅库特变成一片空灵之地，毫无灰暗历史的痕迹，也没有冬日浓雾和呼啸。他解释说：“严寒的冬季是这里的特色，而我希望展示的却是夏季。”与此同时，他承认：“（雅库特的）生活也有自己的黑暗一面，但我不愿展示。”这位摄影师所指的是该地区和俄罗斯普遍存在的酗酒问题，“在我看来，在我们国家，酒精并不能让人们放松和消遣，反而会导致人们酗酒成风，变得有攻击性。摄影无法解决这些问题，只会伤害一些人的感情。当然，我也希望捕捉事实，但同时我更想带给人们鼓舞的情绪，凝结在其中的伤感让观众慢慢体会。”

他所拍摄的恩萨赫节是柔美且梦幻的景象——淡蓝色的晴空之下，奶白色的马匹徜徉在绿油的草原之上；人们盛装打扮，和家人沐浴阳光，他们欢聚，彼此祝福。

雅库特和俄罗斯妇女穿着拖地的碎花 khaladaai 长裙；年轻的女孩戴着 bastinga 头饰和华丽的银首饰，一边说笑，一边享用手中的冰淇淋，她们正在等待即将上台的跳舞表演。还有的人穿着白袍和白色的头巾，他们烧香礼拜，祈祷尘世间的负面能够得到净化。

From Alexey Vasilyev’s ongoing series Ysyakh Alexey Vasilyev《Ysakh》

Reverent Nature

When Vasilyev’s grandmother was dying of cancer, he cooked pancakes—a traditional Sakha and Russian food—for the first time in his life. The pancakes were an offering for Yakutia’s nature gods. “I went to the river and started asking for spirits. I didn’t even know which ones to ask for… but I asked them to somehow alleviate her suffering.”

For Sakha people, nature is animate and teeming with powerful spirits who play a potent force in human life. The nature spirits are worthy of awe, reverence, and even fear. “We live in harsh natural conditions and are used to relying on ourselves,” says Vasilyev. “But before any important, or even insignificant event, in our lives, we have to appease the fire, earth, and water spirits. Sometimes we appease them so that we get lucky.”

Yakutia’s local film industry, known as “Sakhawood,” deftly captures Sakha’s natural mysticism tied up with modern life. Sakhawood sprung up in the early 1990s as a way for Yakuts to reclaim their narrative. “Our culture was destroyed [after] 70 years of Soviet rule. Shamanism, our traditional faith, and other customs were banned. But now we’re bringing them back,” said Aleksei Romanov, a renowned Yakut director who founded Sakhafilm, Yakutia’s premier film studio, in 1992.

敬畏自然

那年 Alexey 祖母因癌症病危时，他生平第一次做了煎饼——这是一种传统的雅库特食物。人们认为，煎饼是献给雅库特大自然神灵的祭品。“我在河边祈求神灵，祈求他们能减轻祖母的痛楚。”

对雅库特人来说，大自然充满生机，住着各路能通广大的神灵，他们在人类栖息的世界里担任重要的职责。因此，大自然是值得尊敬、崇拜，甚至是敬畏的。Vasilyev 说：“雅库特人生活环境恶劣，早已习惯自食其力。但在我们生命中，无论如何，都必须要告慰火、土、水之灵。人们相信这样做能为自己带来好运。”

雅库特当地的电影产业被称为“Sakhawood”，这个词巧妙地结合了萨哈的自然神秘主义与现代生活。Sakhawood 兴起于 20 世纪 90 年代初，是了解雅库特故事的绝佳途径。雅库特著名导演 Aleksei Romanov 说：“苏联统治的 70 年后，我们的文化遭到了严重打击。传统和信仰被抛弃。现在，我们要把过去重新拾起。”1992 年，Aleksei 成立了雅库特第一家电影制片厂萨哈电影 (Sakhafilm)。

From Alexey Vasilyev's series Sakhawood Alexey Vasilyev《Sakhawood》

And Sakhawood films have begun to garner international acclaim, with its movies shown at film festivals from Seoul to Frankfurt. For the past few years, Vasilyev became a fly-on-the-wall at Sakhawood productions. His eponymous photo series documents this burgeoning local film industry as they recreate Yakutia’s modern-day human dramas intertwined with the fantastical and mystical revered in traditional Sakha culture.

In one of the most-recognized works from Vasilyev’s ‘Sakhawood,’ two young twin brothers Semyon and Stepan, stand in a dim forest clearing covered with leaves dressed in a furry, Ewok-like costume for their film debut. The twins were cast in the role of ‘dulgancha,’ the mythical swamp creature of Yakutia’s imagination in a scene from The Old Beyberikeen and the Five Cows, a hit 2019 film based on a classic Sakha fairytale.

Another of Vasilyev’s shots from the film shows the leading character — clad in a fur vest and armed with a homemade dagger — battling an abaasy, the Sakha spirit of the underworld, outside of an earthly, misty forest. Traditional Sakha lore says that three realms exist: the heavens, the middle world populated with humans, and a lower realm where evil spirits reside.

In the folktale about the old beyberikeen’(the old lady), her wish for a daughter is granted when a beautiful, young girl blossoms out of a fast-growing sprout she plucked from her garden. But the girl eventually falls prey to the devil’s daughter, who “tore off all the girl’s skin and put it on her face.” The prince, who was to wed the old lady’s daughter, eventually has to battle evil forces to revive his true bride and restore harmony to the land.

“If you look at Sakhawood, you can feel our reverence for nature. You can see the relationship between the power of nature, its mystical aspects, and its role in human life,” says Vasilyev.

这些年来，Sakhawood 电影逐渐开始获得国际上的关注，在首尔和法兰克福等电影节纷纷亮相。Alexey 是 Sakhawood 电影制作行业的一位冷静观察者，他创作了同名摄影系列，记录了当地蓬勃发展的电影产业，交织着奇异和神秘的传统萨哈文化片段。

《Sakhawood》系列有一张很特别的照片：年轻的双胞胎兄弟 Semyon 和 Stepan 伫立在满是落叶的森林空地上，穿着毛茸的伊沃克（Ewok，《星球大战》中长毛皮的智慧两足动物）式服装。他们正在饰演的是电影《老贝伊伯利克恩和五头牛》（The Old Beyberikeen and the Five Cows）中的雅库特神秘沼泽生物。这部上映于 2019 年的电影根据萨哈经典童话改编，在当地大热。

在关于这部电影的另一幅照片中，主角身披毛皮背心，手持自制匕首，在迷雾笼罩的森林外与来自地下世界的萨哈神灵“abaasy”决一死战。据传说，萨哈存在三个世界，分别是天堂、人类居住的中间世界和恶灵居住的地界。

在关于“beyberikeen”（意为老太太）的民间故事中，这位老太太想要一个女儿的愿望得到了实现——她在花园拔下快速生长的嫩芽，化作可爱的姑娘。不过，女孩最终沦为魔鬼的牺牲品，魔鬼“剥下女孩的皮肤，横挂在自己脸上”。原本要娶女孩为妻的王子，不得不与邪恶势力斗争，以复活他真正的新娘，并恢复世间的安宁。

“观看 Sakhawood 电影时，你可以感受到我们对大自然的那份敬畏、能感受大自然的力量、自然与人之间的关系、以及它神秘的一面。”

From Alexey Vasilyev's series Sakhawood Alexey Vasilyev《Sakhawood》

Myths and rituals are prominent in today’s Yakutia, but they exist alongside modern life and within Russian cultural institutions, as well. In Black Snow (also known as Khara Khaar), a film by renowned Yakutian director Stepan Burnashev, Vasilyev captures three actors playing truck drivers, smoking, and looking over their script in a dilapidated Russian log cabin. The film is a drama about the mundanity and petty human longings— for money, ego—that take place in Sakha, like everywhere else in the world. It won Best Feature at the Window to Europe Film Festival last year.

For his behind-the-scenes shots, Sakhawood won a top prize at the World Photo Press 2021 Photo Contest.

While Vasilyev doesn’t dwell on his successes, he acknowledges that with growing recognition comes a greater sense of responsibility.

“Life is [the same] as it was five years ago. A typical day could mean intensive shooting or a whole day spent watching documentaries. I’m still a simple person with all my weaknesses. I meet with my small circle of friends. We go to the movies, read the news and surf social networks. I have a girlfriend and I enjoy my time with her,” he says.

And last year—the first year of the pandemic—the renowned photographer even worked as a courier as businesses were disrupted worldwide. “I delivered goods, came home, and watched TV. The pandemic was shit! I practically didn’t shoot anything and had to earn money another way.”

Sometimes Vasilyev wonders if any catastrophic events were to happen in Yakutia, would “anyone find out about it — or even care? If Yakutian culture were to disappear altogether, would it somehow affect the world?” The fact that his images are lauded worldwide means that “the more people know about Yakutia, the louder our voice will be in the world,” Vasilyev says.

神话和宗教仪式在今天的雅库特中依然重要，它们与现代生活共存。由雅库特著名导演 Stepan Burnashev 执导的电影《黑雪》（Khara Khaar），讲述了当代雅库特人于世俗间的渺小渴望——金钱和自我，这个当代社会不变的话题。电影最终在去年的欧洲之窗电影节 (Window to Europe Film Festival) 上，获得了最佳剧情片大奖。同时，作为电影的幕后摄影师，《Sakhawood》获得了 2021 年世界新闻摄影比赛第一名。

在巨大的成功面前，Alexey 却十分清醒。他坦承，随着越来越多人认识他，而他肩负的责任也变得越来越大。“我现在的生活和五年前没什么不一样。每天还是在密集地拍摄或者花一整天的时间看纪录片。我仍然是一个简单的人，也有着各种的缺点。我有我的小圈子，也会和几位朋友见见面，一起去看电影、聊聊身边琐事。我有女朋友了，我很享受和她在一起的时光。”

在去年，也就是疫情爆发的第一年，这位著名的摄影师甚至还当过一阵子快递员。“疫情太糟糕了，我每天除了送货，然后就是回家看电视！因为当时全球经济几乎停摆，我没有拍过任何东西，只能通过另一种方式养活自己。”

疫情期间， Alexey 会想，假如某一天，雅库特突然遭遇灾难性事件，“会有人发现吗？甚至会有人关心吗？如果雅库特文化彻底消失，会对世界有任何的影响吗？”Alexey 表示，自己的作品能在世界各地受到肯定，这意味着“人们对雅库特是感兴趣的，只要一直把摄影坚持下去，我们在世界上的声音就会越大。”

From Alexey Vasilyev's series Sakhawood Alexey Vasilyev《Sakhawood》

My Dear Yakutia

Today, a reckoning is taking place in Yakutia. “There’s a feeling that we are Yakuts and we must preserve and respect our culture,” Vasilyev says. “This feeling is growing. It’s manifesting itself in national politics and in popular culture, like music and film. Our younger generations are starting to feel a stronger attachment to this identity and care more about this culture.”

Before he began photographing on his own, Vasilyev was a photographer for local paper Youth of the North, where he often took portraits of children in the city. For nearly a decade, he attended kids checkers’ tournaments, ballet performances, and wrestling matches; Yakutian and Russian kids coexisted alongside both Yakut and Russian culture and institutions.

But he began to notice what he describes as Russia’s ‘national chauvinism.’ “Living in Russia, we feel like strangers. I want to show that not only [Slavic] Russians live in Russia,” explaining that it seems as though the country is indifferent to the 120 different ethnic groups in Russia.

亲爱的雅库特

今天的雅库特正在进行一场觉醒。Alexey 说：“整个社会开始凝聚起来，我们是雅库特人，我们必须保护和尊重我们的文化。这种氛围越来越强烈。这体现在国家政治和流行文化中，比如音乐和电影。我们年轻一代开始对这种身份产生更强烈的依恋，更关心传统。”

在 Alexey 成为一名独立摄影师之前，曾是当地报纸《北方青年》(Youth of the North) 的一名儿童摄影师。在近十年的时间里，他参加了各种儿童跳棋比赛、芭蕾舞表演和摔跤比赛；亲眼目睹了这些孩子在雅库特和俄罗斯共存的文化体制中成长。

他开始留意到俄罗斯社会有一种“民族沙文主义”。“生活在俄罗斯，我们感觉像局外人。真正的斯拉夫人 (Slavic) 并不认为雅库特属于他们。”Alexey 觉得，俄罗斯似乎对生活在这里的 120 个不同民族漠不关心。

From Alexey Vasilyev's series Sakhawood Alexey Vasilyev《Sakhawood》

Thus, the photographer’s current, yet-to-be-released project is an even deeper look at the region. Vasilyev’s new focus is on Sakha’s various indigenous peoples of the north—“Evenks, Yukagirs, Chukchi and Dolgans. I want to make a project about their lives. We’ve lived with them for almost several centuries.” While Yakuts are the majority in Sakha yet a minority in Russia; the smaller indigenous groups which make up less than 1% of the population in the region, are mixed and contributed much. Northern Yakuts for instance, adopted the practice of reindeer breeding from Evenk groups.

And beyond the cultural reckoning, another one is taking place related to Sakha’s natural environment. Yakutia, like other parts of Siberia, are bearing the brunt of climate change. This summer—Yakutia’s hottest and driest on record—93 active wildfires have burned through 1.1 million hectares of land, making Sakha the worst wildfire-affected region of Russia. Vasilyev’s recent works show forest officers and volunteer firefighters battling raging blazes and thick smoke across the region’s charred forests. “We must protect our nature. Our permafrost is melting; people are suffering; and Siberia has been burning for many years. But nobody cares about this catastrophe,” he says.

Through his art, Vasilyev ultimately wants the world “to know about us… and to see that we’re all interconnected.”

于是，在他目前尚未发布的新项目中，他对这个地区进行了更深入的观察，这一次，他的关注点是萨哈北部的各种土著民族，“比如鄂温克人、Yukagirs、楚科奇人和 Dolgans，我们和他们一起生活了近几个世纪。所以我想拍摄一个关于他们的系列。”虽然雅库特人在当地占多数，但放在整个俄罗斯，却依然只是少数民族；而占该地区人口不到 1% 少数土著群体相互之间交融很深，且对社会也有着很大的贡献。例如，北方雅库特人就曾学习鄂温克部落繁育驯鹿的做法。

除了文化上的觉醒，萨哈的自然环境也在经历变化。雅库特和西伯利亚的其他地区一样，首当其冲地受到气候变化的影响。今年夏天，雅库特经历了有记录以来最热、最干燥的天气，93 场野火烧毁了 110 万公顷的土地，使雅库特成为俄罗斯受灾影响最严重的地区。Alexey 最近的作品展示了森林工作人员和志愿消防员在当地森林中与熊熊大火斗争的画面。他说：“我们必须保护大自然。永冻层正在融化，人类正在自食其果；现在，每年西伯利亚都有大火，但似乎没人在乎这场灾难。” Alexey 希望通过自己的作品，让人们了解这个世界上最寒冷的国度，以及万物之间的联系。

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Website: www.alexey-vasilyev.com
Instagram: @lekon_v

Contributor: Yvonne Lau
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

网站: www.alexey-vasilyev.com
Instagram: @lekon_v

供稿人: Yvonne Lau
中译英: Olivia Li

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Eyes of the People 变革时代下的创作

October 26, 2021 2021年10月26日

Family Dinner After Democracy (2020) Embroidered painting / 270 x 307cm 《民主时代的家庭晚宴》(2020) / 270 x 307 厘米

To Eko Nugroho, one of the most acclaimed artists of Indonesia’s reformasi era, art is an inseparable product of an artist’s environment. Having lived through a major financial crisis, mass protests, the fall of a regime, and the democratization of Indonesia, his artistic output has been largely shaped by these experiences. “If the artist lives amidst a very political situation, there are high chances he or she will create works that are very political,” he says. Nugroho’s creativity has flourished as his country transformed.

Spanning paintings, murals, sculptures, installations, embroidery art, and animation, his multidisciplinary work weaves together a plethora of references and traditional Indonesian crafts. His colorful compositions directly reflect his environment, but these reimagined realities are dreamlike, illogical, and even bizarre.

Eko Nugroho 是印尼“改革”（Reformasi）时代最负盛名的艺术家之一。他认为，每位艺术家的作品与他们所处的环境密不可分。他曾亲身经历过金融海啸、大型民众抗议、政权垮台和印尼民主化进程，这些经历都对他的艺术作品有着深远的影响，正如他说所：“如果艺术家生活在一个充满政治色彩的环境中，他们的作品很有可能与此息息相关。”在社会的水深火热之中，Eko 艺术创想却悄然苏醒。

他的作品跨越多重领域，从绘画、壁画、雕塑、艺术装置、刺绣艺术到动画作品，贯穿大量元素，包括了像传统印尼手工艺等等。丰富庞杂的构图折射出他所处的环境，这些重构后的现实如梦似幻，不合逻辑，甚至实属离奇。

Carnival Trap #2 (2018) Upcycled plastics, acrylic resin, and wire / Image Courtesy of Heri Pemad Art Management 《陷阱狂欢 #2》(2018) / 图片由 Heri Pemad ArtManagement 提供

Bouquet of Love (2017) Plastic waste painted with duco, iron / 1000 x 700cm 《爱的花束》(2017) / 1000 x 700 厘米

A great example is a large piece made of embroidery and painting titled Family Dinner After Democracy. It features references to both Suharto’s regime, in the form of a soldier watching through binoculars, and to the new democratic system in Indonesia, with a man playing on an arcade machine. Even if the latter cannot see because his eyesight is blocked, the message “dead-end democracy” shows up on his screen. The remainder of the piece is dominated by an utterly chaotic scene overtaken by outlandish anthropomorphic beings.

Another example is Carnival Trap #2. It includes a large protest banner made with the word “Demokrasi.” The banner is made of bamboo scaffolds and supported by military boots on both sides. Behind it, there’s a post with a lightbox saying “colossal trap.” And in front of everything, there’s a four-legged humanoid covered in natural patterns. The juxtaposition of the military with democracy is recurrent in Nugroho’s work, and so is a sense of disillusionment with both.

他的大型刺绣和绘画作品《Family Dinner After Democracy》（民主时代的家庭晚宴）便映证了上述所说。画中举着望远镜的士兵代表苏哈托政权，手持街机游戏机的男子则象征了印尼新民主制度。玩游戏机的男子被面罩蒙住双眼，街机屏幕上赫然显现一行文字——“绝望的民主”（dead-end democracy）。剩下的画面一片混乱，充斥着各种古怪的类人型生物。

另一处映证在作品《Carnival Trap #2》（陷阱狂欢#2）中体现，其中包括了“Demokrasi”字样的抗议横幅。其用竹竿撑起，分别插入一只军靴中。横幅后面是一个带有灯箱的柱子，上面写着“巨大的陷阱”（colossal trap）。民主与军队元素经常在 Eko 的作品中并列出现，带来一种魔幻与绝望的压迫感，以及引人深思的谎言意味。

Global Radiation #2 (2021) Acrylic on canvas / 200 x 150cm / Photo by Regina Dewi 《全球辐射 #2》(2021) / 200 x 150 厘米 / 摄影师: Regina Dewi

Global Radiation #1 (2021) Acrylic on canvas / 200 x 150cm / Photo by Regina Dewi 《全球辐射 #1》(2021) / 200 x 150 厘米 / 摄影师: Regina Dewi

Global Radiation #4 (2021) Acrylic on canvas / 200 x 150cm / Photo by Regina Dewi 《全球辐射 #4》(2021) / 200 x 150 厘米 / 摄影师: Regina Dewi

Global Radiation #3 (2021) Acrylic on canvas / 200 x 150cm / Photo by Regina Dewi 《全球辐射 #3》(2021) / 200 x 150 厘米 / 摄影师: Regina Dewi

As for the surreal characters with whom he populates his universe, they seem to wander about in dazed confusion. Sometimes they look like mutants; sometimes, they take a more human form. But one thing most of them have in common: they’re almost entirely covered in patchworks of different textures and patterns. Nugroho tends to leave their eyes exposed, allowing them to look back at viewers with piercing gazes. “The eyes in my work represent an intelligent generation, one with vast knowledge, who can see many things,” he explains. “But one that also forgets to listen, to speak kindly, to speak efficiently.”

作品中的角色往往带有超现实主义色彩，他们漫无目的地在画布上徘徊。一些还能依稀看出人的基本轮廓、另一些角色的外表则变得不可名状。Eko 在创作中会刻意露出角色的眼睛，锐利目光，透露着轻蔑和冷漠。他解释说：“在我的作品中，眼睛代表了’聪明人‘，他们知识渊博，见多识广，却总是自大妄为，常常忽略他人的心声，忘记要友善、高效地沟通、忘记聆听他人的感受。”

Nowhere is My Destination Fiberglass, embroidered painting, plastic flowe,plastic chain, and buffalo skin / 88 x 78 x 182cm 《我漫无目的》88 x 78 x 182 厘米

Future Fungus #1 (2018-2020) Wired upcycled plastic, fiberglass, acrylic / 98 x 96 x 216cm 《未来菌菇 #1》(2018-2020) / 98 x 96 x 216 厘米

Born in 1977 in Yogyakarta, Nugroho grew up under the military rule of President Suharto. It was a period of modernization and growth in which Indonesia saw rapid industrialization and unprecedented wealth. These were also dictatorial times, with little to no room for socio-political commentary, especially in the art world.

But, when he entered the Indonesian Institute of the Arts to study for a bachelor’s degree in painting, Indonesia was in turmoil. It was 1997, and Suharto’s promise of prosperity had hit a wall with the Asian financial crisis. Poverty, unemployment, and inflation severely battered the country, and a wave of protests erupted, particularly amidst student groups. It all led to the fall of the regime the following year.

With the political liberalization that ensued in the Reformasi era, artists began addressing topical issues that they weren’t free to broach before. Many artists at the time also began being influenced by lowbrow pop culture, adopted new media formats, and often added a defiant, humorous tone to their works.

Eko 于 1977 年出生于日惹，在苏哈托的军事统治下长大。当时正值印尼现代化和快速增长的时期，国家的工业和财富正在快速积累。但同时，这又是独裁的时代，社会政治评论的空间几乎被彻底扼杀，尤其是在艺术界。

当 Eko 进入印尼艺术学院攻读绘画学位时，印尼社会陷入动荡。那是 1997 年，苏哈托的经济繁荣计划因亚洲金融危机而落空。贫困、失业和通货膨胀严重打击着整个国家，抗议浪潮由此展开，最终导致该政权于次年垮台。

随着改革时代的到来，艺术家终于得以对禁忌话题敞开心扉，他们中一些人受到来自上世纪七十年代低俗艺术（Lowbrow Art，受地下朋克摇滚影响，代表着二十世纪七十年代后期在美国洛杉矶出现的地下视觉艺术运动，代表着民粹主义的艺术运动。大多数低俗艺术为绘画、玩具和雕塑，以幽默的方式表达着政治态度。）的影响，表达出一种挑衅、幽默的态度。

Tolerance Seeker (The Dance Corp Series) (2016) Fiberglass painted with acrylic, manual embroidery, teak radio, praying mat, shawl, praying cap / 162 x 62 x 31cm 《探索宽容的人》(2016) / 162 x 62 x 31 厘米

The World in Phobia (The Dance Corp Series) (2016) Fiberglass painted with acrylic, manual embroidery, batik bolster, batik table mat,short pants, belt / 173 x 62 x 31cm 《当世界陷入恐慌》(2016) / 173 x 62 x 31 厘米

Protester With New Issue (2016) Fiberglass painted with acrylic, cardboard, saroong, zinc, vinyl, sandals / 137 x 72 x 63cm 《新话题抗议者》(2016) / 137 x 72 x 63 厘米

Nausea (2016) Fiberglass painted with acrylic, plastic beads, teak radio, shawl, buffalo skin, cardboard, wood 《极端的憎恶》(2016)

Nugroho mentions many influences for himself, from the music of legendary local pop band Koes Plus to the art of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. “This era of pop art provided a sense of energy to my works,” he says. “That’s why I began painting in bright colors, something I still do today.” He realized the significance of color early on, seeing it as a device capable of setting the mood and evoking emotions in his audience. “Colors are the agents for feelings and atmosphere. More literally: red can stand for anger, blue for solitude, serenity, or coldness, and yellow can represent joy.”

The ways he wields patterns are similarly intended to conjure certain emotions or imagery. Often, they’re also nods to Mother Nature or traditional Indonesian crafts—whether it be textures inspired by local flora and fauna or motifs found in batik. “I’m interested in how dense, ordered visuals can fill the surfaces of my work,” he says. “If they don’t appear in the main objects, they’re likely to appear in the background.”

Eko 表示自己的创作受过许多影响，包括本地传奇乐队 Koes Plus、安迪·沃霍尔 (Andy Warhol) 和凯斯·哈林 (Keith Haring) 的作品。他说：“波普年代的作品常常令我振奋，这也是我喜欢鲜艳色彩的原因。”早在他创作之初，便意识到了色彩的重要性，将其视为营造氛围、激发情感的工具。“色彩是营造感受和氛围的道具，具体而言，红色是愤怒，蓝色是孤独，而黄色则代表快乐等等。”

同样，他对图案的运用也是为了唤起观众特定的情感或意象，其中绝大多数时候是为了致敬大自然和传统印尼手工艺，包括以本地动植物为灵感设计的纹理以及蜡染图案。他说：“我喜欢用密集、乱中有序的视觉元素来填满画面。这些元素要么覆盖于画面主角之上，要么作为背景出现。”

Build Hopes with Tenderness, as with Hardness (2019) Embroidered painting / 315 x 284cm 《温柔和拳头都可以建立希望》(2019) / 315 x 284 厘米

Other forms of Indonesian art can also be seen in Nugroho’s work. Local costumes and masks inspire the attires worn by his characters, and the wayang, a Javanese shadow puppetry practice, has also appeared in his oeuvre. Nugroho likes to think of these traditions as a permeating tool that brings together the country’s culturally diverse population. He also appreciates that many of these traditions are still around and part of daily life, despite being ancient.

A non-Indonesian art form that became a vital part of Nugroho’s practice is street art, which he began dabbling in during his university years. “What interested me the most [about street art] was the interaction with people passing in front of the wall I was painting,” he says. “These interactions may happen as questions, flattery, anger, and even support since they would give me things like food and drinks. I became interested in how art can connect many distinct elements when it is open to the public.”

Ever since he began making public art, Nugroho was captivated by the effects of community engagement. He expanded the mediums he’d work in and often sought to have an open dialogue with his audience and collaborators. Even when presented in gallery spaces, his work still carries traces of street-art influence. Oftentimes, his gallery showings will involve murals painted directly on the walls. Although, ironically, his gallery murals have a shorter lifespan than his street murals, being that they’re erased as soon as the show ends. This ephemerality amuses him. “I like to work amidst this tension. Between life and death, presence and absence, existence and non-existence,” he says.

Eko 的作品中还会运用到其他形式的印尼艺术。画中角色的服饰灵感来源于当地传统服装和面具设计，印尼传统皮影戏“哇扬戏”（Wayang）也是他的创作灵感之一。Eko 喜欢以这些传统文化作为道具，渴望通过作品表达凝聚多元社会的心愿。令他感到欣慰的是，这些传统虽然历史悠久，但仍然流传至今，并成为人们日常生活中的一部分。

街头艺术，也是 Eko 作品中常见的艺术形式。他早在大学期间便开始接触街头艺术。他认为：“街头艺术最吸引我的是在创作时与路人的互动。这些互动可能是一句提问，可能是赞许或挑斗，甚至是生活中常见的要素，比如一些食物和饮料等。这激发了我的好奇心，尝试在创作中连接众多不同的元素，并与过路人产生互动。”

由于街头艺术与社区联系紧密，渐渐地，Eko 将创作投入到了社区当中。他进一步丰富了自己的创作媒介，并经常去寻求与观众的开放式对话。即使是放在画廊展览的作品，他的作品仍然带有街头艺术影响的痕迹。很多时候，他会直接在展区墙上创作壁画，以此来作为展览作品。不过，展览上的壁画往往比街头壁画寿命更短，展览一旦结束，它们就会被抹去。但 Eko 很喜欢这种短暂的形式。他解释道：“我喜欢这种紧迫感，把生与死、在场与缺席、存在与不存在之间的关系一笔带过。”

Under the Shining Wire (2019) Embroidered painting / 280 x 153cm 《钢丝栏网的背后》(2019) / 280 x 153 厘米

Another Coalition #2 (2019) Embroidered painting / 271 x 156cm 《另一种连结 #2》(2019) / 271 x 156 厘米

To Nugroho, selecting the medium that he’ll create with is the last step in his decision-making process. What starts with a concept in his mind is first realized as a sketch, and only after does the medium he’ll work in come to him. It’s a process that’s rooted in instinct. “The only requirement is that the medium is something close to me, near my environment,” he adds. “I like media that’s easy to find and manipulate.”

For a recent series of embroidery paintings, Nugroho invited a community of embroiderers to complete the artworks by adding a layer of woven yarn on top of his painted canvases. In the hands of the embroiderers, his works transformed entirely, being imbued with unique textures and a unique tactility.

对于 Eko 来说，选择创作媒介是他整个创作过程中的最后一步。创作概念会先被他在脑海中处理成概念草图，然后跟着感觉决定创作媒介，这也是一个追随本能的过程。“唯一的要求是必须是我熟悉的媒介，与我的环境相关的媒介。我喜欢信手拈来的创作媒介，这会让我的创作一气呵成，”他补充道。

在最近的一系列刺绣画中，Eko 邀请了多位刺绣艺术家参与，在他画好的画布上编织一层纱线。在刺绣师的手下，他的作品焕然一新，呈现出独特的纹理和质感。

Plastic Democracy #1 (2017) Mural on wall / Image Courtesy of A3 / Photo by Bernd Borchardt 《塑料民主 #1》(2019) / 图片由 A3 提供 / 摄影师: Bernd Borchardt

He also works with waste collectors near his studio to create sculptures with found objects, mainly plastic. “I’m returning waste to the artistic spaces—where it’s also produced—as art pieces,” he says. “Besides the beauty of the artwork itself, there’s also the process and the meaning behind the medium.” Nugroho’s sculptures bring to life his manifestations of chaos. They’re often human-like but wear the strangest attires made of many elements, all charged with symbolism, and carry protest signs with slogans such as “tolerance” and “stop legalize stupidity,” for instance. Because they’re made in human size, it feels as if they’ve crossed over into our dimension—or perhaps they never left it.

Nugroho hopes his upcycling works can serve as a message about sustainability to the community at large. Much of his art revolves around affecting his community in positive ways. For example, the embroiderers he worked with are artisans who’ve fallen on hard times in recent years. But with Nugroho’s assistance, they’re finding additional means of income, and not only that, their handmade crafts are finding new life in a contemporary format. Nugroho also opened DGTMB, a shop to sell prints and designs by local creatives in Yogyakarta, and founded the Eko Nugroho Art Class, a personal development project that teaches students to solve problems, overcome limitations, and find solutions in the most varied areas of life thinking creativity through art.

“Communication is my main strength and interest. I like to produce art as a team,” Nugroho says. He particularly enjoys working with people who do not have a background in art. Still, these collaborators are often experts in their fields, which creates a leveled relationship based on mutual learning.

除此之外，他还和工作室附近的废品回收员合作，拿拾来的废品（主要是塑料品）来制作雕塑。他说：“我想把艺术中产生的废料，再度回收到艺术本身，为作品额外增添一层意义。”

Eko 的雕塑生动地具象了他对混乱的理解。这些人形雕塑披上各式各样的元素、高举着“宽容”和“停止将愚蠢合法化”的言论告示，其背后的象征总比表面上看起来更多。雕塑都按照真人大小创作，现场观看，它们像是造访现实的异度来客——又或许它们一直都存在于这个世界，未曾离开过。

Eko 希望通过这些升级回收的作品，向人们传达可持续发展的信息。他的大部分作品都旨在以积极的方式影响他所在的社区。例如，此前他合作过的刺绣工匠们，都是近年来陷入职业困境的人群。在 Eko 的帮助下，这些刺绣工匠不仅获得了额外的收入，也让自己的手艺以现代的形式，重新焕发新生。除此之外，Eko 还开设了 DGTMB，这是一家专门售卖日惹本地创意人士的印刷作品和设计的商店、以及 Eko Nugroho 艺术班，一个个人发展项目，旨在指导学生解决问题、克服障碍，通过艺术的创意思考，从生活的不同领域寻找解决问题的方案。

We Are Among Us (2019) Acrylic on canvas / 200 x 200cm 《你我之间》(2019) / 200 x 200 厘米

Value Value Value (2017) Acrylic on canvas / 200 x 151cm 《价值、价值、价值》(2017) / 200 x 151 厘米

Throw Away Peace in the Garden (2018) Embroidered painting / 267 x 158cm 《田园间丢弃的和平》(2018) / 267 x 158 厘米

Unity in Hiding #1 (2018) Acrylic on canvas / 200 x 200cm 《一起躲着 #1》(2018) / 200 x 200 厘米

Yogyakarta, or Jogja, as locals affectionately call it, is arguably the cultural center of Indonesia. The city is still the capital of a special region with a ruling sultanate, and it’s the cradle for many of the traditions Nugroho plants in his art. He considers himself lucky to live there and soak in the uniquely creative environment the city offers. “Jogja is an unlimited art laboratory,” he says. “Besides hosting various art platforms, communities, and alternative spaces, Jogja is also a place for discussions and debate. This is what keeps me here.” He also points out that people in Yogyakarta are more receptive to the disruptive nature of art than any other place in the country.

In such an environment, Nugroho can observe the interplay of tradition and modernity as the whole country morphs in front of his eyes. His observations are directly fed into his art. “It’s evident that the artist is inspired, touched, or regulated by the surrounding situations,” he says. “I believe that art serves as an archive of history. Artworks can contain records about a country’s trajectory.”

With each new artwork, Nugroho is filing an entry into his history book. Current issues are ardently recorded, such as the challenges Indonesia has been facing since it became a democracy and, of course, the global pandemic. One of his most recent exhibitions, Destroyed in Peace, recently shown at the Jogja National Museum, featured paintings of characters in face masks and hazmat suits and a sculpture formed by several skulls to symbolize the death toll of Covid-19. The absurdity in his world is not too different from the absurdity in our world. In both, we find war, conflict, division, and death. But, in his world, as in ours, there’s hope. It lies in the watchful eyes of the people.

日惹又被当地人亲切地称为“Jogja”，这里可以说是印尼的文化中心。这座城市仍然是日惹苏丹国这个特区的首府，也是 Eko 在艺术创作中借鉴的众多传统的发源地。他觉得自己很幸运，能在这座城市生活，沉浸于这座城市独特的创意环境之中。他说：“日惹是一个无限的艺术实验室。这里除了有各种艺术平台、社区和非主流空间，也充满了对话和讨论。这也是我一直留在这里的原因。”他还指出，和印尼其他地方的人相比，日惹人对于颠覆性的艺术更包容。

在这样的环境下，Eko 得以亲眼见证这个国家的变迁，观察着传统与现代的交错，而这些观察也被他直接加入自己的艺术创作中。他说：“毋庸置疑，艺术家都会受到周围环境的启发、触动或影响。我觉得艺术就是记录历史的档案。艺术作品可以记录一个国家的历史轨迹。”

每一件新的作品都是 Eko 的个人艺术史册中的新篇章，是当前社会在他眼中的方方面面的体现，例如印尼自成为民主国家以来所面临的挑战，以及当前影响全球的新冠疫情。他最近的一个展览《Destroyed in Peace》（和平摧毁）最近在日惹国家博物馆展出，其中包括戴着面具和防护服的人物肖像画，以及象征死亡人数的骷髅雕塑。现实世界的荒谬，其实并不亚于他的作品。这两个世界同样充满战争、冲突、分裂和死亡。但同样，无论是在他的画中，或是现实世界里，希望依然存在，它就存在于人们警惕的注视中。

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Website: ekonugroho.or.id
Instagram: @ekonugroho_studio

Contributors: Tomas Pinheiro, Lucas Tinoco
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

网站: ekonugroho.or.id
Instagram: @ekonugroho_studio

供稿人: Tomas Pinheiro, Lucas Tinoco
英译中: Olivia Li

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Laughing Matter 笑一笑，没什么大不了

October 19, 2021 2021年10月19日

The pandemic has affected everyone to varying degrees, and people have found different ways to cope. One method is the ability to find humor even in dark times. The oil paintings of Filipino artist Mark Martinez do precisely that. While his artwork has long dwelled on less than glamorous settings, they’ve always contained a healthy dose of levity. His recent work surrounding the lockdowns, virus outbreaks, and economic crises in the Philippines is no exception.

我们每个人对待事情的态度不尽相同。即便在至暗时刻，也有人喜欢以轻松幽默的方式来对待。菲律宾艺术家 Mark Martinez 在疫情期间与油画作伴。他的作品主题向来严肃，但不乏几分诙谐与幽默，他最近以菲律宾封城、疫情爆发和经济危机为主题创作的一系列作品就是很好的例证。

Martinez’s COVID series builds on his usual cast of characters, which places classical European motifs into everyday Filipino scenes populated by regular people and familiar signage. Only now, his characters are fully dressed in PPE, and many scenes take place in uncomfortable hospitals and virus testing centers. Typical forms of pandemic theater, such as infrared thermometers, also make regular appearances. “Despite the fact that history’s repeating itself, I think this pandemic has brought out the best and worst of us, and definitely tested our faith,” he says

Mark 喜欢绘画肖像，COVID 系列同样围绕人物展开；与此同时，在菲律宾日常场景中穿插各种经典欧洲艺术元素，是他一贯的创作方式。只不过这一次，角色们都身穿个人防护服，场景也大部分发生在医院和病毒检测中心，这些在深沉的色调下令人惴惴不安。仔细观看，红外线温度计等医疗常见的物品屡见不鲜。他说到：“虽然历史不断重演，但我觉得这场疫情暴露出了人们最好和最坏的一面，时刻考验着我们的信仰。”

He’s from Bulucan, a province just north of Metro Manila, and got an early start with art. By the fourth grade, he was already drawing editorial cartoons. “That’s been a huge influence on my work, to this day,” Martinez says. He continued cartooning through high school, and eventually enrolled in a fine-arts program at university. His graduation and success as an artist are something of a victory for his family, since he had two uncles who both enrolled in art school but had to drop out in order to support their families.

Martinez settled on his current style while still in college. “I joined painting competitions using old photos as references, eventually including old and classical paintings,” he recalls. “I combined them with objects or everyday scenes that I witnessed around me. I wanted to make a new story out of them that my fellow Filipinos could relate to.”

Mark 来自马尼拉大都会以北的布卢坎省，很早就接触艺术，才十几岁，便开始尝试“社论漫画”（Editorial Cartoons）。他表示：“直到今天，这对我的创作仍然有着深远的影响。”高中期间，他继续创作漫画，后来大学又入读了美术专业。对他的家人来说，他能够顺利毕业并成为一名艺术家就是一种胜利，因为他的两个叔叔都曾入读艺术学校，但为了养家糊口不得不退学。

他如今的创作风格，早在大学时期便扎下了根基。“我参加绘画比赛，以旧照片为素材，揉进一些经典画作元素，将这些与日常所见的事件或场景相结合，从中讲述全新的故事，一些菲律宾人能产生共鸣的故事，”他回忆道。

The cast of characters in his work is consistent, ranging from cherubic angels and Biblical figures to fast-food workers, street vendors, and jeepney drivers. These characters are depicted while making inuman, singing karaoke, or getting sloppy at a restobar—once-typical forms of social gatherings that are regularly off-limits due to the pandemic. Familiar Filipino iconography in the form of ubiquitous corporate logos are splashed across his work as regularly as they’re seen in every corner of the country. Martinez says he has neutral feelings towards these logos—they simply exist. But he says the fact that Western classical art is more recognizable than the work of local artists bothers him: “Most Filipinos find foreign stuff more appealing or interesting, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a human being, a shoe, or a song. This may be hard to accept, but it’s the reality nowadays.” Repurposing classical paintings is quite common in the Philippines, with several artists, including Martinez, using Girl With A Pearl Earring specifically.

他作品里的角色阵容很一致，基本上都是小天使、圣经角色，以及快餐店工人、街头小贩和吉普尼司机，他们一边喝酒，一边唱卡拉 OK 或在餐吧里买醉——这些曾经常见社交聚会场景，如今却由于疫情而被禁止。画面中还常常出现各种熟悉的菲律宾元素——随处可见的公司标志和招牌。Mark 对这些标志持中立态度，但令他介怀的是，在当地，西方古典艺术往往比本地的艺术家作品更具有辨识度：“大多数菲律宾人都觉得洋人的东西更有吸引力或有趣，不管是人、鞋子或是音乐。这总令人很反感，但这就是事实。”对于菲律宾的艺术家来说，这种在作品中融入西方古典画作元素的创作方式十分常见，而包括 Mark 在内的好几位艺术家对此情有独钟。但其背后的寓意绝非肤浅，往往具有深刻含义。

Despite the pandemic, life goes on, even if it’s drastically different in some ways. Many of the scenes and people Martinez has been known to paint still appear, just now weighed down under new burdens. “I want to show how important our frontliners are; to show appreciation for their daily sacrifices just to serve their fellow countrymen no matter how dangerous it is for themselves and their families,” he says of his newer works. This includes minimum wage workers delivering and serving fast food and street food, not just health workers. “These workers were overlooked at the beginning of the pandemic. That’s why I dress them in PPEs, to emphasize that they are indeed frontline workers. As time went on, people here have definitely started to appreciate them more.” His paintings of the Jolly Bee and Colonel Sanders covered in face masks while being scanned for fever are for the same purpose, as a way to highlight the fast-food workers who’ve lost their jobs or have to risk their safety to keep working. He often adds angels to these paintings as an offering of protection of sorts.

疫情尚未结束，但生活仍要继续，即使在某些方面可能已不同往日。Mark 常画的那些场景和人物依旧生生不息，只是它们被疫情压得喘不过气来。提及新作，他说：“我想把作品献给前线的医护人员，感谢他们的付出，以及每天为广大群众所作出的牺牲。”不只是前线的医护人员，也包括拿着微薄的工资，运送和提供快餐和街头食物的工人。“疫情期间，这些群体一直被人们所忽略，我在画中给他们穿戴防护装备，强调他们也是前线的一份子。不过，现在有越来越多的人意识到了他们的付出与贡献。”同样，他画的快乐蜂（菲律宾的餐饮品牌）和肯德基爷爷佩戴口罩接受测温，这是为了突出那些失去工作或不得不冒着风险继续工作的快餐店员。他还融入了天使，寓意着呵护与保佑。

One common object in the new series is a face mask with the lower half of boxer Manny Pacquiao’s face printed on it. “These masks were a funny Filipino trend even before the pandemic,” he laughs. “Even if we’re having a hard time dealing with this pandemic, we still have enough humor to make each other laugh and feel a bit lighter. There’s too much sorrow and despair these days, so I’m proud if my work can put a smile on someone’s face, even if it’s only for a brief second.”

有一个特别的口罩贯穿了整个系列，这个口罩上印有菲律宾拳击运动员曼尼·帕奎奥下半边脸。他笑着说：“早在疫情之前，这些有趣的口罩就已在菲律宾流行开来。即使在这次疫情中遭受困难，但我们仍然保持幽默，让彼此开怀大笑，放松一下心情。这些日子里充满了太多悲伤和绝望，如果我的作品能让别人会心一笑，哪怕只是一瞬间，我也会感到特别骄傲。”

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Instagram: @mrk.mrtnz

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Instagram: @mrk.mrtnz

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

界于欧亚之间

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You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

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