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With Hate, Comes Art 要亚“艺”,不要亚“抑”

September 2, 2021 2021年9月2日
Artwork by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya

Racism is hardly a new phenomenon for the Asian diaspora. Across the globe, Asian communities have long been the subject of xenophobia to varying degrees, but the resulting political rhetoric around COVID-19 has ramped up anti-Asian sentiments to alarming levels.

Since the virus began its spread, reports of racially motivated attacks—both verbal and physical—have jumped. In the U.S., with former president Donald Trump doubling down on his “China-virus” and “Kung-flu” verbiage, racists have felt even more empowered to express their hatred. Violent Asian hate crimes escalated, and it all came to a boil with the tragic shooting in Atlanta, Georgia. The resulting outrage sparked the #StopAsianHate movement, which has found support worldwide.


针对亚裔的种族歧视问题由来已久。一直以来,世界各地的亚裔群体都面临不同程度的种族歧视,然而,在这次疫情期间,一些政治言论更令这种反亚裔情绪升温至令人震惊的程度。

近段时期以来,有关袭击亚裔的报道与日俱增,其中不乏有口头和身体上的攻击。在美国,前总统特朗普的“中国病毒”和“功夫流感” (Kung-flu) 等错误言论,令种族主义者的仇恨情绪持续激增、针对亚裔的暴力犯罪不断升级,最终导致了发生在佐治亚州亚特兰大的枪击事件。一场声势浩大的 #StopAsianHate 运动就此展开,并获得了全球的支持。

Artwork by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
Artwork by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya

Now, a few short months later, #StopAsianHate is fading from the headlines, and it’s clear that the issues it brought to light are no less closer to resolution. To keep the conversation going and these issues at the front of public consciousness, art is showing itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the arsenal.

In the U.S., the posters of Thai illustrator Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya became one of the most well-known projects in support of #StopAsianHate—being featured on subway billboards in New York and even on the cover of Time magazine. But the artworks, which depict portraits of Asian and AAPI women and powerful messages, were conceptualized in August 2020, when she noticed the growing stigma around Asians and the decline in business in Chinatown. As reports of senseless violence against Asians ramped up in the subsequent months, her work seemed to carry more weight.

But the reality is that anti-Asian discrimination isn’t only relegated to the States, and aside from Phingbodhipakkiya, other Asian artists and creative types around the globe have been no less active in the fight for equality. For many, their fight began way before the pandemic and will go on even long after the virus has been curbed.


然而,在短短几个月后的今天,#StopAsianHate 却在新闻头条中销声匿迹,而这项运动所揭露的问题远未得到解决。为了继续发声,引起公众的关注,许多人转向艺术作为工具。

在美国,泰国插画家 Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya 的海报成为支持 #StopAsianHate 运动最著名的艺术作品之一。她的海报出现在纽约的地铁广告牌上,还登上了《时代》杂志封面。其主要描绘了亚洲和亚太裔女性肖像,并附上了强有力的文字表现。这些作品创作于 2020 年 8 月,当时的她注意到社会对亚裔的污名化日益严重,唐人街的生意人去楼空。在接下来的数个月里,针对亚裔的暴力行径,她的作品也在时代背景下显得意义非凡。

实际上,反亚裔歧视运动不仅仅存在于​​美国,除了 Amanda 之外,世界各地的亚裔艺术家和创意人也同样在积极参与其中,争取平权。对许多人来说,他们的抗争早在疫情之前便早早开始,并一如既往地坚持下去。

A screening at an un.thai.tled event

In Berlin, un.thai.tled, a collective founded by a team of Thai creatives looks to curb Asian racism through education. The name alone distills the group’s values into a portmanteau—by spreading knowledge about Thai culture and championing Thai creatives in the local art scene, the team aims to discard the easy labels and stereotypes that have been given by a white-dominated society.

With offline events that showcase the creativity of both Thai and German artists, they’ve brought together a community of Thai and Thai-German creatives who are keen on using art as a facilitator of socio-cultural exchange between the two countries. Since the group was established, their mission and ambitions have grown, and their platform is now used to address racism of all forms, sexism, and other politically charged issues.


在柏林,由泰国创意人建立的团体 un.thai.tled 致力通过宣传教育,消除针对亚裔的种族歧视,团体的名字也诠释了他们的价值观——支持当地艺术圈内的泰国创意人,推广泰国文化,打破白人至上的社会对他们的标签及刻板印象。

通过举办数场线下活动,展示泰、德两国艺术家作品。他们如今已聚集了一群泰国和泰裔德国创意人士,这些人热衷于通过艺术促进两国社会文化交流。团体成立以来,他们的使命和抱负不断发展,他们的平台现在也为解决各种形式的种族主义、性别歧视和政治问题发挥着重要作用。

Handout for an un.thai.tled event
A short-film program titled Journeys of Urban Ghosts hosted by un.thai.tled

Aside from un.thai.tled, Soydivison is another group in Berlin that’s rallying together Asian creatives in the German capital. The team of Indonesian artists, filmmakers, and musicians hosts a myriad of offline events that aim to share knowledge about Indonesian culture. But aside from only art, food has become a key component of storytelling and culture sharing for the group. Empathy Supper is an ongoing series of events organized by Soydivision. Over the communal experience of dinner and performative art, which sees different menus and artists in each edition, guests will walk away with new insight into the Asian archipelago.

Both groups were established long before pandemic, but with COVID-19 worsening anti-Asian discrimination, they’re approaching their work with even more urgency.


另一个柏林团体 Soydivison 则汇聚了德国首都城市的亚裔创意人士。来自印度尼西亚的艺术家、电影制作人和音乐人举办了许多分享印度尼西亚文化的线下活动。而在艺术之外,美食也是该团体讲故事和分享文化的重要组成部分。Empathy Supper 是 Soydivision 当前组织的一系列活动,包括共享晚餐和表演艺术,每一期都呈现了不同的菜单和艺术家,参与者可以从中获得对印度尼西亚这个亚洲岛国的全新认识。

这两个团体早在疫情之前便已成立,但由于新冠肺炎疫情激化了反亚裔仇视情绪,他们目前正在加快开展工作的步伐。

A dinner held by Berlin's soydivision
A dinner held by Berlin's soydivision
A performance at one of soydivision's events

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, Migrant Zine Collective looks to both visual art and literature in combating racism. In direct response to the worsening discrimination against Asians, the indie publishing house worked with Strange Goods to publish Anti-Racist Soup, a zine that doesn’t only examine racism against Asians but delves into xenophobia on a macro level. Through illustrations and think pieces by creatives of color, the publication puts the pressing issue of racism into sharp focus.

Tackling tough conversations is hardly new territory for Migrant Zine Collective, especially when it comes to issues of race and inequality. The activism-minded platform was founded in 2017 by Helen Yeung, a Hong Kong-Chinese writer who’s long been led the vanguard of inclusivity in New Zealand. Since its inception, Yeung has steered the collective with an uncompromising vision of creating a place where people of color can have a voice. Aside from the zines that they’ve published so far, the collective also often works with other activist organizations and art institutes in events that can help give further visibility to Asian culture.


与此同时,在大洋彼岸的新西兰,独立出版社 Migrant Zine Collective 正致力通过视觉艺术和文学打击种族主义。针对日益严重的亚裔歧视,他们与 Strange Goods 合作出版了《Anti-Racist Soup》杂志,声讨针对亚裔的种族主义,从宏观层面深入研究仇外心理,通过非白人创意人士的插图和文字作品,凸显日益迫切的种族主义问题。

处理难题和争端,对于 Migrant Zine Collective 不在话下,尤其是涉及种族和不平等问题。这个积极行动的平台于 2017 年由港籍华人作家 Helen Yeung 创立,长期以来,她一直领导新西兰的包容、平权等运动。自成立以来,Helen 一直以坚定不移地,渴望为有色人种提供一个发声的平台。除了目前出版的杂志外,该团体还经常与其他社会活动组织和艺术机构合作,举办各种有助于进一步推广亚洲文化的活动。

The cover of Migrant Zine Collective's Anti-Racist Soup

In London, a platform making similar strides is Paperboy, an app championing diversity and inclusivity through illustration and design. It was founded by British-born Vietnamese artist Matt Nguyen, who’s experienced discrimination due to his Asian heritage all his life. The noticeable shift in the political climate following the pandemic cemented his resolve to work towards change. On the Paperboy site, he shares various racist encounters that he faced following COVID-19, such as a shop assistant unwilling to serve him due to his race and strangers mock coughing and laughing at him in the street. “The only time we were seeing Southeast Asians in the mainstream was covid news coverage, articles with scary headlines accompanied with stock photos of Asians wearing masks,” he writes. “This repeated visual conditioning, racist rhetoric, and the association of ethnicity with the virus is all toxic. Left unchecked, we risk normalizing this behavior and dehumanizing anyone that looks like me or my family… Ignoring the complex and rich story behind my family’s diaspora and my proud Vietnamese heritage, reduced to little more than a judgment based on my appearance.”

Though he recognized his powers were limited, he believed that Paperboy could unite people through art and design. To that end, Paperboy isn’t only envisioned as a platform for Asian artists. Creatives of all races, backgrounds, gender, and sexual orientations are welcome. In June, Paperboy worked with 19 international illustrators to sell prints in support of Stop Asian Hate. A portion of profits went to the artists themselves, while the rest were donated to Besea.n and Hackney Chinese Community Services


另外,伦敦的 Paperboy 也在作出同样的努力。这是一款通过插图和设计倡导多元化和包容性的应用程序,由出生于英国的越南裔艺术家 Matt Nguyen 开发。从小到大,Matt 都因亚裔身份而饱受歧视。疫情后的政治氛围转变更坚定了他推动改变的决心。在 Paperboy 网站上,他分享了自己在疫情之后的各种种族歧视遭遇,例如,有店员因为他是亚裔而不愿为他服务,大街上的陌生人假装咳嗽来嘲笑他。他写道:“我们唯一看到东南亚裔出现在主流媒体中就是关于新冠肺炎的新闻报道、各种可怕的标题和戴着口罩的亚裔照片。这种反复的视觉暗示、种族主义言论以及将病毒种族化都是很危险的。任其发展,就会令这种行为正常化,物化我和家人等亚裔群体……抹杀掉我和家人作为侨民复杂而丰富的经历,以及我引以为豪的越南血统,简单地以貌取人。”

虽然他承认自己力量有限,但他相信 Paperboy 可以借助艺术和设计将大家团结在一起。为此,Paperboy 不仅有志于成为亚裔艺术家的平台,也欢迎所有种族、背景、性别和性取向的创意人士加入。今年 6 月,Paperboy 和另外 19 位国际插画家合作,出售支持 “停止仇视亚裔” (Stop Asian Hate) 的版画。收入一部分归艺术家本人所有,其余部分则捐赠给 Besea.n 和 Hackney 华人社区服务。

Matt Nguyen, sitting with a print he designed in support of Stop Asian Hate
Illustration by Aga Giecko
Illustration by Amy Phung

But even places in Asia aren’t exempt from the rise in anti-Asian racism. In Hong Kong, for example, South Asian ethnic minorities have become fresh scapegoats for COVID-19. As the virus spread, these migrant workers were seen as unsanitary and falsely accused of being vectors for the virus. The Hong Kong government even singled out migrant workers with certain policies, such as a proposal banning domestic helpers from leaving their employer’s house on their only day off. The caveat is that this lockdown wouldn’t apply on their working days when they were expected to shop for groceries and run other miscellaneous errands.

Other discriminatory mandates that have been implanted in the wake of the pandemic have only encouraged the racism that these foreign workers have long experienced in the region, even before the pandemic.

Xyza Cruz Bacani is a Filipina photographer whose intimately familiar with the plight of domestic helpers in Hong Kong and her photography looks to shine a light on their untold stories. Having worked as a domestic helper for almost a decade herself, she’s seen how migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines have been neglected.

In 2018, she published We Are Like Air, a photo book that examines labor migration in Hong Kong. It includes images of her own mother, who spent most of her life working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. The bilingual publication is an unflinching look at the harsh realities that hide beneath the city’s shiny veneer and what life is truly like for migrant workers. With her work catching the attention of media outlets and art institutions worldwide, she has become a crucial voice for the once-invisible migrants of Hong Kong.


然而,即使是在亚洲,反亚裔的种族主义也有所抬头。例如,在香港,南亚少数民族已沦为新冠肺炎疫情的新替罪羊。人们批评南亚式人不讲卫生,称他们是病毒的传播者。香港政府甚至推出了一些针对外来务工人员的政策,例如提议限制家庭佣工出行,他们每周唯一的休息日也只能在雇主家度过。

疫情之后所实施的其他歧视性规定更是进一步加剧了情形,而事实上,当地外籍工人在疫情前便已经遭受的种族歧视问题。

菲律宾摄影师 Xyza Cruz Bacani 对香港家庭佣工的困境很了解,她也希望能通过自己的摄影作品,揭示他们不为人知的故事。她自己曾做了近十年的家庭佣工,对于印度尼西亚和菲律宾的外籍劳工被社会忽略的问题,她有着切身体会。

2018 年,她出版了一本关于香港外籍劳工的摄影集《We Are Like Air》,其中就包括了她母亲的照片。她的母亲大半辈子都在香港担任家庭佣工。这份双语出版物赤裸裸地揭示了隐藏在这座城市光鲜亮丽外表下的残酷现实,以及外籍劳工的真实生活。她的作品引起了全球媒体和艺术机构的关注,她也因此成为了曾被人们所忽略的香港外籍劳工的重要发声者。

Photography by Xyza Cruz Bacani
Photography by Xyza Cruz Bacani
Photography by Xyza Cruz Bacani
Photography by Xyza Cruz Bacani

Even though the fight against racism and ignorance may often seem like an uphill battle, those dedicated to pushing the conversation are making equality that much closer a reality. Ultimately, the fight extends beyond racism against Asians. The bottom line is that hate has no place in our world—and despite skin color, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation—we all have a whole lot in common.

By wielding art as a universal language, we can hopefully teach, inspire, and raise awareness of these issues. Through these lessons, the hope is for more people to finally recognize our commonalities as human beings. One day, we will be able to triumph over ignorance, and when that day comes, the barriers we’ve constructed between us will inevitably come tumbling down.


与种族主义和无知的斗争注定是一场艰苦的战斗,但仍然有很多人前仆后继地推动对话,争取实现平等。归根到底,这场斗争已超越了针对亚裔的种族歧视。最重要的一点是,我们的世界中不应存在针对肤色、宗教信仰或性取向的仇恨,因为我们其实都一样。

通过以艺术这门世界通用语言,我们希望传播、启发和提高人们对这类问题的认知。通过努力,让更多人认识到我们共同组成为人类的共同体。总有一天,我们必定能战胜无知,当那一天到来时,人们自己建立的隔阂终将会倒塌。

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Contributor:  David Yen
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Olivia Li

A Splash of Energy 爆炸吧!让万物为之转动

August 31, 2021 2021年8月31日

When we think about explosions, we usually think about the aftermath. At the moment of detonation, we see flashes too quick for the eye to render as concrete forms. But from another perspective, explosions can also be a symbol of vitality—an ecstatic birth of life, as is the case with the Big Bang. 

Filipino-American painter Faye Pamintuan captures this energy through abstract paintings that seethe, swirl, and splash. Although we often associate abstract expressionism with mystery and heavy emotions, the painter shows that this style can create forms that invite viewers to marvel at the choreography of colors, lines, and shapes.

When you look deeper, however, Pamintuan’s works are more than just frenzied forms churning about. She deals with the abstract to better understand the outcome of complex ideas, systems, and structures. Besides being visual spectacles, the paintings are also investigations into the tipping point between order and chaos.

“I’m interested in how things that are structured or mathematical can result in something that’s… quite the opposite of that,” she explains. “I like imagining things exploding and coming together—Big Bang kind of stuff.”


说起爆炸,人们脑海里通常会联想到爆炸后的场景,而爆炸那一刻转瞬即逝,肉眼根本无法捕捉其具体的样子。但换个角度来看,爆炸也​​可以是生命力的象征——生命诞生瞬间的欣喜若狂,正如宇宙起源的大爆炸一样。

菲律宾裔美国画家 Faye Pamintuan 以沸腾、漩涡和飞溅般的笔触诠释爆炸的视觉冲击。虽然人们通常将抽象表现主义与神秘、深沉的情绪相联系,但她的作品表明,抽象风格的绘画也可以呈现出令观众惊叹的色彩、线条和形状编排。

细致观察之下不难发现,Faye 的作品绝非只是混乱的表象。你会发现,抽象的笔触是为了更好地让观众理解事物复杂的构想、体系的方式。除了惊艳的视觉效果,这些画作也是对秩序与混乱之间临界点的探索。

“我喜欢探究结构化或数学化事物的反面,我喜欢想象事物如何爆炸,然后又相互结合在一起,比如宇宙大爆炸。”她解释道。

The Origins

The Filipino painter spent her childhood in the Philippines but moved to Texas, United States as a teenager. She recalls that—prior to discovering her interest in art—she wanted to be a marine biologist. After taking some art classes and deciding that she wanted to go to art school, her parents suggested she move back to the Philippines to study in Manila.

Upon moving back to the Philippines, she initially majored in information design at Ateneo de Manila University. But after looking through several senior thesis shows during her freshman year, she realized that it wasn’t for her. “Design’s awesome, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to learn,” she explains. “But I really wanted to paint.”

When she discovered that her passions lay in the fine arts, Pamintuan transferred to the University of the Philippines to pursue a bachleor’s degree in painting. It was during her junior year there when she discovered the potential of abstract forms. “I think I’ve always been drawn to that kind of artwork; I just never realized it,” she recalls.


苗头

 

这位菲律宾画家童年在菲律宾生活,十几岁时移居美国德克萨斯州。她回忆说,在对艺术产生兴趣之前,她曾梦想成为一名海洋生物学家。直到后来参加了一些艺术课程后,她才决定去艺术学校进修,而她的父母则建议她回菲律宾马尼拉读书。

回到菲律宾后,她先在马尼拉雅典耀大学主修信息设计。大一那会儿,她看了好几场学长学姐的毕业展,意识到这个专业并不适合自己,她说:“设计专业很好,也是我一直想学的东西。但我更想画画。”

在认识到自己更热衷于绘画后,Faye 转学到菲律宾大学攻读绘画专业。大三阶段,她发现了抽象形式的魅力。“我可能一直都很喜欢这种风格的艺术作品,可能我自己以前从没意识到这一点。”她回忆道。

Storytelling Through Form

If Pamintuan was to be honest, however, she’s actually hesitant to truly call her works “abstract expressionist” in respect to the history of that art movement. Abstract expressionist art emerged as a combination of nihilism and emotional intensity, she recalls, whereas her works are never fully about her inner world. However, they’re also not quite detached from it either. Pamintuan’s art deals primarily with interaction and movement; they’re not just entities that stand purely alone. This dynamic interactivity is not only limited to forms and colors in her paintings. It also extends to the interaction between the viewer and the artist.

As her art has evolved, Pamintuan is now interested in weaving stories, which she achieves with the way her colors and shapes interact with one another. Without concrete forms, viewers are urged to compose their own understanding of the tale. This is usually why titles her artworks with verbs or actionable sequences, such as Birth on the Rocks (2018), Breathe (2020), and That Which Fought (2021). These titles serve to narrate the energy she envisions and aid the viewer in constructing their own story.

“The forms interact with each other, so there’s a story, but you have to fill in the blank,” she explains. “I give you the setting, I give you the action verb, but you come up with the rest.”

Besides acting as guides, these titles also coax the viewers to investigate the art deeper. Pamintuan believes that artworks—really good ones—should meet viewers halfway.

“When someone says, ‘I could do that,’ I would get annoyed before,” she recalls. “But now I use it as a way to enter a conversation with them. I ask, ‘Oh what would you have done?’ I want to invite them in.”


以形式讲述故事

 

Faye 坦言,按传统历史中的抽象表现主义而言,她的作品其实并算不上真正的抽象表现主义。抽象表现主义艺术是虚无主义与情感强度的结合,而她的作品却很大程度上与内心世界无关。Faye 的作品主要在于互动和动态,每一幅作品并不只是纯粹的独立个体。这种动态的互动并不局限于她作品中的形式和颜色,还延伸到观众和艺术家之间的互动。

在不断创作过程中,Faye 逐渐倾向于用色彩和形状的互动来讲故事。由于画面中没有任何具体形态,促使观众去对画中的故事进行自己的解读。正因如此,她的作品标题通常都是一些动词或表达动作的短语,例如《Birth on the Rocks》(在岩石上诞生)(2018)、《Breathe》(呼吸) (2020) 和《That Which Fought》(战斗)(2021)。这些标题有助传达她所构想的创作方式,也能帮助观众形成自己的理解。

“各种形态之间相互影响,讲述着一个故事,但你必须填补其中的空白,”她解释道,“我设置好背景,给出主题动词,剩下的就由你自己来补充。”这些标题除了提供线索,也吸引着观众去更深入地研究每一幅作品。在 Faye 看来,好的艺术作品应该与观众相向而行。

她表示:“以前总听到有人说,‘这我也能画’,我会很生气,但现在我会把它当作机会,去跟他们对话,去问他们,‘那你会怎么画?’,邀请他们加入这个作品中。”

Influences From the Greats

Pamintuan expresses that she draws inspiration from plenty of sources. When asked who her local influences are, she names Eva Yu, Ambi Abanio, and Clarence Chun as some of her inspirations from the Philippines. 

On a broader scale, Pamintuan credits Cy Twombly and Mark Rothko for changing her perspective on the possibilities of art-making. She initially did not think much of their works, but her first visits to the Rothko chapel and Cy Twombly Gallery changed that. “It’s like a feeling and an emotion that you can’t pinpoint into words,” she recalls. “Everyone says it’s a different experience, but those works definitely changed how I looked at art.”

She mentions other international artists as well, but Jorinde Voigt comes out on top as the most influential in her practice. “When you look at her artwork, it looks very abstract. But when you look at her process, it’s [almost] like she’s writing musical scores,” she says about the German painter. “There’s some kind of structure and mathematical aspect to her work, which I was really drawn to.”


潜移“墨”化

 

Faye 表示自己从很多艺术家身上汲取灵感,其中菲律宾本地艺术家就有 Eva YuAmbi AbanioClarence Chun本地之外,Faye 表示美国艺术家赛·托姆布雷 (Cy Twombly) 和抽象派画家马克·罗斯科 (Mark Rothko) 改变了自己对艺术创作可能性的看法。起初,她并未特别在意这两位艺术家的作品,直到她拜访了罗斯科教堂 (The Rothko Chapel) 和 Cy Twombly 画廊。“那是一种无法用语言表达的感觉和情绪,”她回忆道,“每个人对艺术的理解大有不同,他们的作品就彻底改变了我对艺术的看法。”

她也提到了其他国际艺术家,其中德国艺术家朱莉德·福格特 (Jorinde Voigt) 对她的创作影响最大。“她的作品看上去非常抽象。但是,当你看到她的创作过程,你会觉得她[仿佛]是在谱写乐谱。她的作品里有着一种结构和数学化的元素,非常吸引我。”

Artistic Process

When it comes to her own artistic practice, Pamintuan almost seems to inverse Voigt’s process. The German painter would start with orderliness, while Pamintuan mentions that she suspends rationality and thinking at first. She usually begins by simply splattering or pouring paint around different canvases. Although she’s at her most dynamic during this first stage, she also notes that starting is always the hardest part for her. Her primary concern during the first few phases is to “get something on the canvas.”

Pamintuan also mentions that she starts on multiple paintings all in one go. She doesn’t focus on finishing one artwork at a time; there are usually canvases of different sizes all laid out for her to try different color schemes with. “Everything is sort of birthing from this chaos,” she explains. “That’s why it feels like outbursts: I’ll be working for how many hours straight just painting, painting, and painting. And then I’ll stop for a week or a couple of days.”


阑珊深处

 

谈及自己的艺术创作过程, Faye 与朱莉德几乎是完全相反的。朱莉德通常从有序开始,而 Faye 表示自己从一开始就会先将理性和思考搁置一边,先是在不同的画布上随意地泼溅颜料。虽然第一步是她最有活力的阶段,但同时对她来说也是最困难的部分。在创作的初期,她的重点在于“在画布上有所得”。

Faye 还表示自己会一口气同时创作多幅画。她并不是一次专注地完成一件作品,而是同时摆放不同尺寸的画布,用来尝试不同的配色方案。“一切都是从这种混乱中诞生的,”她解释道,“所以看上去像大爆炸一样。我常常会连续创作几个小时,不断地画,然后停下休息几天或一个礼拜。”

Pausing after this surge of spontaneity might seem like a lazy method to go about one’s craft, but Pamintuan proves otherwise, as it’s during this second stage when Pamintuan gathers a clearer picture of what these paintings are becoming. “This is going to sound weird, but I’m basically asking the painting to tell me what it wants to be,” she says. When she already knows how a painting is going to turn out in the end, she says that’s when she dislikes how it comes out.

When it comes to her mediums of choice, she usually starts with acrylic as a base during the first stage. After enough time has passed for her to come back to these canvases, she’ll go back with oil to bring out certain forms and colors. Whereas acrylic urges her to hurry up and “catch up” with it, oil allows her to become more deliberate with her movements. She loves that oil allows her time for both quietude and playfulness—both of which are equally integral to her artistic process.

Although Pamintuan has been using acrylic and oil the most lately, she’s also grown fond of the challenge of watercolor. She likes the fact that she has no full control over this medium, and she’s only able to suggest where watercolor should go across the paper.

Aside from watercolor, she’s also begun to appreciate the delicacy and resistance of paper. Unlike canvas, she explains, paper records every scratch, dent, or fold that an artist exerts on it. “You can’t hide from paper,” she explains. “It’s harder to hard things on paper because everything is always recorded.”


在爆发式的即兴创作之后选择休息,听上去似乎是过于随意的创作方式,但 Faye 并非如此,因为在第二阶段,Faye 会好好整理这些画作,在脑海形成更清晰的认识。“虽然听起来很奇怪,但我其实是想让这幅画告诉我它想成为什么,”她解释道,所以她往往不太满意那些自己早已知晓最终成品效果的作品。

关于创作媒介,她表示自己在创作第一阶段通常用丙烯酸颜料打底,再回来继续创作时,会使用油画颜料来呈现特定的形态和色彩。丙烯酸颜料敦促着她尽的张扬与写意,而油画颜料则让她细致琢磨。她喜欢油画颜料让自己有时间去沉淀和探索——这两者都是她艺术创作过程中不可或缺的。

虽然一直沿用丙烯酸和油画颜料的搭配,但 Faye 最近越来越喜欢用水彩创作,因为水彩是她无法全然掌控的媒介,她喜欢这种未知的感觉,一切听从水彩在画纸上的走向。

除了水彩,她也着手于研究木浆纸材质。她解释说,与画布不同,木浆纸会记录下艺术家所施加的每一个刮痕、凹痕或折痕。“你无法在纸张上做任何掩饰,这太难了,因为每一个细节都会被记录下来。”她解释道。

Student of Everything

Pamintuan has no qualms about admitting what she does or doesn’t know. In fact, she thrives on discovery and learning. She beams with enthusiasm about everything that’s inspired her—from great artists to even the 99% Invisible podcast on Spotify. This hunger for exploration, it seems, is also one of the reasons why she’s an artist. 

“I’m that person who wants to do everything, but I can’t,” she says. “Art lets me do that whenever I’m interested or curious about a certain topic.”

It’s this openness that allows her to bring everything she’s inspired by into her artworks. Instead of situating herself as an all-knowing instructor, Pamintuan embraces the role of a multidisciplinary student who has much to learn.

So, besides taking cues from other artists, it seems fitting that Pamintuan also finds inspiration from the sciences—specifically from the Big Bang Theory and physics in general. She gushes about NASA’s high-resolution Hubble Telescope photos of stars, galaxies, and other wondrous clusters found in outer space. The similarity between outer-space photography and her works is striking; she points out that this interest in cosmic imagery does come out rather apparently in her art.

“I like to figure out systems, theories, and structures visually,” she explains. “I like knowing these rules and how things would theoretically work, then I bring them on into my interpretation of what it would look like if we were to actually see this in person.”

This interest in systems may seem like a far cry from the spontaneous and energetic quality that her works manifest, but it’s also a philosophy that influences the pattern of her artworks.  Her paintings, she explains, mimic that tipping point between potential and kinetic energy.

“The paintings I want [to make] are the points wherein potential becomes kinetic—it’s like that split second,” she says. ”That’s why I’m interested in the Big Bang—that moment before it all exploded. The forms coming together before it goes into complete chaos.”


融会贯通

 

Faye 承认自己知识的有限。而发现和学习,往往让她有更蓬勃的创作活力。从艺术大师到 Spotify 上的 99% Invisible 播客,她热衷于探索所有激发她灵感的事物。这种对探索的渴望似乎也是她成为艺术家的原因之一。“我是那种什么都想做的人,但这是不可能的,”她说,“所以当我对某个主题感兴趣或好奇时,就可以藉借艺术来实现。”

正是这种开放的态度让她能够将一切灵感启发带入自己的作品中。Faye 并没有将自己视为无所不知的老师,而是一个求学若渴的跨学科学生。除了从其他艺术家那里汲取灵感,Faye 还从科学中获取启发,特别是大爆炸理论和物理学。她滔滔不绝地谈论着美国宇航局哈勃望远镜拍摄的恒星、星系和外太空星团的高清照片。她的作品与太空摄影照片有一种相似之处,也明显地透露出她对宇宙影像的兴趣。

“我喜欢从视觉上了解系统、理论和结构,”她解释道,“我喜欢了解这些规则以及事物运作的理论,然后将这些见解用我自己的方式演绎出来,变成肉眼可见的视觉作品。”

这种对系统的兴趣似乎与她作品中那股即兴与活力相去甚远,但却对她作品的图案有着重要的影响。她解释说,自己的画作所呈现的是势能和动能之间的临界点。“我想要捕捉住势能转化为动能的临界点,那短暂的一瞬间。这也是宇宙大爆炸吸引我的地方,在大爆炸发生前的那一瞬间,一切变得混乱不堪之前,各种形态凝聚的瞬间。”她说道。

Act of Return

Pamintuan may always be on the lookout for new discoveries but, for now, her next goal is actually to return to her roots. She aims to gear her art practice towards the concept of diaspora. She has always felt that—as a second-generation immigrant—she was neither fully Filipino nor American. That’s why, besides learning about the sciences, Pamintuan is also keen on taking a course on anthropology to understand her Filipino roots better.

“I want to go deeper into identity, diaspora, the Filipino community outside of the Philippines, especially with the whole Asian-American hate,” she says. “I want to research more to be a part of that conversation so that I actually have good input.”

In working towards this,  she plans on revisiting her senior thesis—an installation titled Re-routing Roots (2018) that was partly exhibited and partly performative. Specifically, it was a series of watercolor paintings she tore up as an act of rebellion against those cornering Pamintuan with labels. Now, she wants to come back and re-draw each of the ripped paintings. Through this return, she wishes to resolve her mixed feelings about her identity.


回归

 

Faye 一直不断追求新的发现,但她目前的下一个目标却是回归本源,围绕“流散”这一概念进行创作。作为第二代移民,她一直觉得自己的身份在菲律宾和美国之间游荡。出于这个原因,除了科学,Faye 还喜欢学习人类学课程,以更好地了解自己的本源。

她说:“我想更深入地了解身份认同、流散以及菲律宾国土以外的菲律宾社区,尤其是现在亚裔美国人所遭受的仇恨问题。我想让我的研究,成为对话,在这方面发挥积极的作用。”

为此,她计划重新回顾自己的毕业作品——名为《Re-routing Roots》(2018) 的艺术装置,由展览和表演两部分组成。在这个作品里,她撕毁了一系列的水彩画,以此抗议那些自我的标签。而现在,她想重新绘画每一幅被撕裂的画作,通过这种方式的回归,消除自己内心矛盾的身份认同。

As a homage to the artistic scene in Manila and its influence on her practice, resolving her identity confusion is also another means to better contribute to the Filipino community. “I talk a lot about my work and myself,” she adds. “But I don’t want to lose the fact that your community and the people around you inform a lot of those pieces as well.”

Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean she’s abandoning her metaphysical approach to art. In some way, these thoughts and sentiments she harbors towards identity and community are already present in her oeuvre.

“As someone who’s always been moving, I’ve never had my own grounding. I’m always in two or three places,” she adds. “That’s why I relate so much to that movement. I think that’s why I like the cosmic threshold aspect because I feel like that’s me.”

For now, Pamintuan is dedicated to becoming even more involved in the Manila art scene; she loves igniting discussions and conversations about what other projects other artists are working on. She explains that it’s these small interactions that influence her art—and everything else.

“You see [the little things happen] later down the line and you’re like, ‘I”m glad this worked out.’ But you didn’t see the backend stuff that had to happen for this one thing to work out,” she ends. “I think that’s why my works are so flowy. Everything influences the other.”


对 Faye 来说,消除身份认同问题其实也是在回应马尼拉当地艺术对自己的影响。因此,她渴望为菲律宾社区做出自己的贡献。“我经常谈论自己的作品和我自己,但有另一点不应该被遗忘,那就是你的社区和你身边的人也对这些作品同样有很重要的影响。”她补充道。

尽管如此,这并不意味着她要放弃自己原本抽象的艺术创作理念,在某种程度上,她对于身份认同和社区的想法和情感早已体现在她的作品中。“作为一个漂泊不定的人,我从来没有定下来过,总是往返于两三个地方之间,”她补充道,“这就是为什么我对作品中的流动性,以及不同元素之间的联系如此感兴趣,我想这也是我喜欢浩瀚宇宙的原因,因为我生存于此,和它有着共通性,并都渴望融会贯通。”

“当事物发生强大的转变,你也许会惊叹,但你也许没有看到,促成这事物的扭转,必须在背后发生很多。这也是我的作品充满流动感的原因,因为世间万物总是相互影响。”

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Website: www.fayepamintuan.com
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: @pamintuanfye

 

Contributor: Ann Domingo
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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网站: www.fayepamintuan.com
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供稿人: Ann Domingo
英译中: Olivia Li

Beyond the Mask 谁曾想到脸基尼的发明者竟然是她

August 26, 2021 2021年8月26日

 

🎧   Listen to this article in Chinese.

Produced in collaboration with BADOU (八斗) — a new app curating premium journalism and storytelling from around the world and narrating it with professional Mandarin Chinese voice actors.

 


 

Stepping off the elevator, a handwritten sign with a crudely drawn arrow reads, “Swimsuits, diving suits: pickup area.” A long dark corridor leads us to unit 501, an office space that feels more like a stockroom; it’s cluttered with all sorts of swimwear, boxes, and clothes racks. The Qingdao sea is barely visible through the large window, a slit of water squeezed between buildings on the gray, wintry morning.

We’re greeted by Zhang Shifan and Liu Keliang, a neighborly couple in their seventies and the owners of swimwear brand Sturgeon Dragon. Zhang wears a nondescript sweater and has her hair tied back in a bun. Liu wears a dark brown leather jacket and Nike shoes. He’s the one who began explaining the story of their business when we were barely past the door.


 

🎧  此文音频与 八斗(BADOU)合作。

八斗, 一款精选国内外优质媒体及作家的纪实文章与故事,并由专业的讲演人用中文为你娓娓道来的APP。

 


 

刚踏出电梯,一个标记着箭头的手绘牌子映入眼帘,上面写道:“游泳衣、潜水服存取处”。穿过黑暗的狭长走廊来到 501 室,这里是一间酷似仓库的办公区域:堆满了各式各样的泳装、包装盒和衣架。透过这间屋子的窗户向外望去,依稀能看见青岛边上的黄海,大海在灰蒙蒙的冬日早晨,如同天边的细长水线,穿流于建筑物的缝隙。

迎接我们的是张式范和刘克亮,这对面容亲切的夫妇已有七十多岁,也是“鲟龙”泳装品牌的老板。张式范穿着一件普通的毛衣,头发向后扎成一个发髻;刘克亮则穿着深棕色皮夹克和耐克鞋。刚一进门,刘克亮就开始给我们讲述他们的创业故事。

Seventeen years ago, his wife Zhang invented the facekini, a Lycra swimming mask that starts at the collarbone and covers the entire head, available in several colors and patterns. Because of its unconventional design, Zhang’s invention gained international notoriety, being featured in publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Vogue. Over the years, the facekini became a global curiosity, a fashion statement, and the source of much controversy.

Despite the common belief that it’s a sun-protective mask, the facekini originated from another practical need at the beaches of Qingdao: protection from jellyfish stings. Many species of jellyfish bloom on the Yellow Sea coast, where Qingdao is located, sometimes weighing more than 100 kilograms and ranging up to two meters. As they commonly reach shallow shore waters, they pose a threat to beachgoers.


十七年前,他的妻子张式范在国内开创了“脸基尼”,这是一种有着各种颜色和图案的游泳头套,采用莱卡面料制成,从锁骨开始将用户的整个头部全部包裹住。这种不同寻常的头套引起了世界各地人们的好奇,并相继被《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》和《时尚》等杂志报道。多年来,“脸基尼”成为了火遍全球的新奇玩物,一股另类的时尚潮流,但同时也没少招来争议。

虽然现在人们普遍视其为防晒头套,但“脸基尼”的诞生其实源于人们在青岛海滩的另一种需求:防止海蜇蛰伤。青岛所在的黄海沿岸生活着大量海蜇,有的巨型海蜇甚至重达100多公斤,长达两米。这些海蜇经常在浅岸水域出没,对海滩的游客造成很大的威胁。

When Zhang was six years old, she witnessed how dangerous these animals can be. Her family lived on a military base and once hosted an army nurse. One day, while training out at sea, the nurse was severely stung by a jellyfish. She was wearing a swimsuit with long sleeves, so her arms and most of her body were protected, but her face and hands swelled up with large red patches.

To this day, Zhang clearly remembers the night that followed the incident. “We took her home for my grandmother to treat her, but she was suffering through the night!” With the cries of the nurse echoing through the night, Zhang couldn’t sleep. “I just remember thinking if only her clothes covered a bit more, she wouldn’t be suffering that much.”


张式范六岁的时候,就曾亲眼见识过这种动物的凶险。当时她随家人住在军事基地,曾接待过一名军队护士。一天,出海训练时,这名护士被一只海蜇蛰伤,伤势严重,由于穿的是长袖泳衣,所以她的手臂和大部分身体都没事,但露出的脸和手却出现了一大片红肿。

直到今天,张式范还清楚记得当晚的情形。“我们带她回家,我奶奶帮她处理了伤口,但她还是整夜痛苦不堪!”张式范一整夜听着护士痛苦的呻吟,难以入睡,“我当时就在想,要是她的泳衣能多盖住一点,她就不会受那么多折磨了。”

Going to the beach was not a big part of Chinese culture until the Europeans arrived. For a brief period, Qingdao fell in the hands of German colonizers as the capital of the Kiautschou Bay concession, and in the early 1900s, they introduced activities such as diving and promenading to the city. Still, the local population rarely took part in them.

Living by the sea, Zhang saw the evolution of beach culture in China. In her childhood, going to the beach revolved around activities such as picnicking or fishing. Swimming was only an afterthought. Beachwear was also uninspiring and conservative at the time. “It was horrible! It was all made of cotton, and the stretching was not good,” she recalls. “After a little while, clothes would look baggy and loose. Colors faded fast, and they would form lint balls.”

Things changed little until the late 1980s when Lycra fabric finally arrived in Qingdao. “Lycra is far more structural. It shapes the body nicely and pushes the breasts up, putting them in the right place,” Zhang says, gesturing with her hands with a spark in the eye. With the introduction of the material, vivid colors and patterns brightened the beaches of Qingdao, making beach culture more commercial and even sensual, opening up the expanding niche of leisurewear.

Around the year 2000, Liu owned a manufacturing company supplying swimwear to brands across the world. He was also an inventor, designing machines for high-resistance training, such as underwater treadmills and bicycles. Once, he was even commissioned to design an underwater bicycle for athletes training for the Tour de France.


其实在过去,当地人并不热衷到海边玩,直到后来德国殖民者占领了以青岛为中心的胶州湾租界,并在1900 年代初在当地引入潜水和海边散步等活动。居民们才渐渐参与到这些海边活动中来。

在海边长大的张式范亲眼目睹了中国海滩文化的演变。童年时,人们去海滩主要是为了野餐或钓鱼,很少人是为了游泳而去海边,当时的沙滩装也很普通和保守。“那时候的沙滩装不堪入目!都是全棉做的,弹力也不好,”她回忆道,“还没穿多久,整件衣服就会松松垮垮,还经常容易掉色、起毛球。”

直到 1980 年代后期,莱卡面料进口青岛,类似的状况才有所改观。“莱卡更具结构感,可以很好地贴合身形并达到提胸的效果,将胸部托高到合适的位置,”张式范边说边用手比划,眼睛仿佛闪烁着火花。这种新面料的出现也让青岛的海滩装有了更多鲜艳的尝试,提升了海滩文化的商业性和魅力,也开辟出休闲沙滩装的小众市场。

大约在 2000 年,刘克亮开了一家制造公司,专门为世界各地的品牌供应泳衣。与此同时,他还是一位发明家,曾设计用于高阻力训练的机器,例如水下跑步机和自行车。有一次,他甚至受委托为环法自行车赛的运动员训练设计了一款水下自行车。

One of Liu’s American buyers, a 73-year-old woman who was the president of a swimwear brand, once visited his manufacturing facilities in China. Zhang, fifty at the time and retired from her accounting job, was fascinated by her, and by the fact that she was running her own successful business on the other side of the world. She suddenly realized that she could do the same. So, with deadstock fabric from Liu’s factory and studying his product catalogs, Zhang began designing her own line of swimwear. She quickly opened a brick-and-mortar shop by the beachfront to cater to the local market. Still, sales were slow at first, and she realized she needed something different to attract new customers.

Zhang noticed that many people who came into her shop shared a common fear. “They were afraid of swimming because of jellyfish! Many of them would even wear long Johns to go into the water. Sometimes they would wear their pajamas. It all looked awful, and uncomfortable to swim.”

Zhang’s first hit was a Lycra wetsuit covering most of the body, exposing only the feet, hands, and head. She and Liu had the idea of printing her telephone number on the back of the wetsuit. The design was dull, unflattering by most people’s standards, but it was surprisingly effective marketing for their business. Zhang’s first customers were like walking—and swimming—advertisements. Her phone never stopped ringing. Her first batch flew off the shelves, and they put her swimwear shop on the map.

Business was going well, and Zhang was happy. But one day, a woman in her forties made a remarkable observation. “You’re doing something right. But only halfway,” she said. Then the woman pointed at her own head. “Our heads are still exposed!” Zhang’s mind went back to the incident with the nurse, and it all clicked.


刘克亮有一位买家来自美国,是一位 73 岁的泳装品牌女总裁,她曾经来中国参观他的工厂。当时 50 岁的张式范刚从会计工作中退休,在与这位事业有成的女总裁接触后深受启发,她突然意识到,自己也可以像对方一样拥有属于自己的品牌。于是,张式范找来刘克亮工厂的滞销面料,研究产品目录,并很快投入到自己的泳装系列设计。随后,她在海滨开了一家实体店,主要卖给当地的顾客。一开始销量并不好,于是她开始思索有新意的电子来吸引新顾客。

张式范注意到,进店的许多顾客都有同样的烦恼——“他们都因为海蜇而惧怕游泳!许多人甚至会穿着秋裤下水,有的人就穿着睡衣,这样不仅不好看,游泳的时候也特别不舒服。”

张式范的第一件作品是一件覆盖大部分身体的莱卡潜水衣,只露出手、脚和头部。她和刘克亮在潜水服背面印上自己的电话号码。这个设计对大多数人来说过于乏味也并不好看,但对他们的业务来说却是一次成功的营销。张式范的第一批顾客成为了他们四处走动和在水里游动的“活招牌”。她的电话响个不停。第一批产品很快就卖光了,她的泳装店也因此在当地小有名气。

店里生意蒸蒸日上,张式范很是开心。直到有一天,一位 40 多岁的女顾客一语中的:“你的泳装设计不错,但还差一点,”她边说着边指了指自己的脑袋,“因为我们的头还露在外面呢!”这句话让张式范想到了童年时期护士受伤的那件事,她由此又灵机一动。

In 2004, the facekini was born. It was an extra layer of protection for the most important part of the human body: the head. Zhang studied ski masks and diving masks to develop a concept of a Lycra headgear that was suitable for swimming, and she spent years perfecting it. Today, different generations of facekini prototypes are neatly displayed in a corner of Zhang and Liu’s office.

These two designs are clearly the most cherished in the couple’s collection. They’ve even worked to create unique prints commissioned from local artists. Like the bodysuit, the facekini was first produced in plain colors, but over time they began including human features, such as eyebrows and hair. More intricate patterns also began appearing, many of which pay tribute to Chinese folklore and traditions, such as Peking Opera masks. An all-time favorite is a theme that takes inspiration from Uygur dancing costumes, featuring dangling gemstones as printed headpieces. It fills Zhang with pride. There’s also a collection themed after endangered animals that combines the facekini and bodysuit in one single piece.

The functional design of the facekini also evolved with time. Each summer, Zhang improved the product based on her observations and the feedback she received from her now loyal customers. For instance, the first generation only had four holes; two for the eyes, one for the nose, and one for the mouth. But then she added extra holes, including one to stick a ponytail out and two for the ears to fasten goggles and hold sunglasses.

When a huge public swimming pool opened in Qingdao, Zhang saw the demand for facekinis increase exponentially. It was only then that she realized that her invention had a multifunctional purpose. “People also like it because it protects them from the harmful rays of the sun. It’s just like wearing a hat—but this one doesn’t blow off in the wind.”


2004 年,“脸基尼”诞生,这款头罩专为保护人体最重要的部位——头部而设计。张式范在研究了滑雪面罩和潜水面罩之后,推出一款适合游泳的莱卡头罩,并花了几年功夫去完善设计。今天,在张式范和刘克亮办公室的一角,可以看到一排“脸基尼”的迭代设计。

其中有两款设计在这对夫妇眼中如视珍宝,他们甚至委托当地艺术家创作了独特的印花。与紧身泳衣一样,脸基尼最初只有单色设计,后来,他们又增加了人脸的五官特征设计,例如眉毛和头发。紧接着,又出现了更为复杂的图案,不乏以中国民间传说和传统文化为灵感设计的图案,例如京剧脸谱。最受居民喜爱的设计主题是以维吾尔族舞蹈服装为灵感的设计,以悬挂的宝石作为印花头饰,这是张式范引以为豪的作品;另外还有一个以濒危动物为主题的系列,包括全身一套的脸基尼和紧身泳衣,组成动物的图样。

脸基尼的功能性设计也在不断演变。每年夏天,张式范都会根据自己的观察和顾客的反馈来改进产品。比如第一代的脸基尼只有四个孔;两个是眼睛,一个是鼻子,一个是嘴巴。后来她又加多了几个孔,一个用于拿出马尾辫,两个是耳朵,以方便佩戴护目镜和太阳眼镜。

当青岛一个大型公共浴场开业时,张式范的脸基尼销量迅速上涨,那时她才意识到,她所发明的这个头套还有更多的用途。“很多人喜欢戴它是因为它能防晒,就像戴帽子一样,不同的是,它不会像帽子被风吹掉。”

Unlike Western countries, suntanning is a developing practice in China, one that’s only recently gained momentum with the establishment of Hainan as a holiday destination and interest in surf culture. While more and more young Chinese aspire for bronzed skin as a symbol of a healthy and free-spirited life, it’s a distinctly different ideal of beauty for most of the population in China. Traditionally, not just in China, but in East Asia at large, pale skin is associated with a higher social status, while tanned skin associates an individual with working in the field, under the sun. Hence, mainly for women, white skin is still very much idealized as a standard of beauty.

Most of Zhang’s customers are middle-aged women living in the coastal cities of China who are keen on keeping their skin porcelain-white. It’s not unusual to see them at the beach with umbrellas, shawls, and hats—or in face-covering and head-to-toe designs that evoke imagery of Leigh Bowery—to protect from the sun. They’ve been flaunting their style on the beaches of Qingdao for several years with their facekinis, but they only caught media attention in 2012, when photos of the attire went viral. Shortly after, The New York Times published a front-page story about the surging trend in Qingdao, but the article didn’t mention Zhang, Liu, or their invention.


不同于西方国家,日光浴在中国并不流行,直到近年来,随着海南成为热门度假胜地以及冲浪文化的兴起,才慢慢有更多人喜欢上日光浴。虽然有越来越多中国年轻人将古铜色肌肤视为健康、自由生活的象征,但大多数中国人还是“以白为美”。不仅是在中国,其实在整个东亚地区,人们往往会将白皙的肤色与较高的社会地位联系起来,而黝黑的肤色则通常与日晒雨淋的户外工作联系,因此,“以白为美”仍然是主流的审美标准,尤其是对女性来说。

张式范的顾客大多是生活在中国沿海城市的中年女性,她们热衷于美白肌肤。在海滩上,她们总是想方设法来防晒——撑着遮阳伞,戴上披肩和帽子,或者穿上从头裹到脚的服装,看上去颇有先锋艺术家 Leigh Bowery(雷夫·波维瑞)的风格。其实,她们在青岛海滩上戴脸基尼已经有好几年,但直到 2012 年,当她们这身造型的照片在网上疯传时才引起媒体的关注。很快,《纽约时报》就在头版刊登了关于这股青岛另类潮流的报道,但整篇文章并未提及张式范、刘克亮和他们的发明。

Photographer: Peng Yangjun 摄影师:Peng Yangjun

In 2014, there was a furor in the fashion world when Carine Roitfeld, the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, ran a piece featuring models wearing designer swimsuits and facekinis in her own biannual magazine, the CR Fashion Book. The piece shocked most fashionistas, for they thought Roitfeld was endorsing the Chinese trend. If only they had actually read the editorial, they would have known that her intention was to highlight the opposing ideals of beauty and the contrast between East and West regarding tanning practices—raising no judgments. “In Asia […] a tan does not signify a chic trip to Capri, but it could mean hours of hard labor spent out in the harsh sun,” she wrote.

By then, countless international magazines had already reached out to Zhang and Liu for interviews. Zhang, however, was always hesitant in drawing too much attention to herself. She refused all interview requests until a close friend told her she had to take credit for her invention. She finally gave her first interview to a German magazine. Liu still has their cold email in his mailbox, which he shows to us on a dated desktop computer.


2014 年,当时巴黎版《Vogue》杂志前主编 Carine Roitfeld 在自己的半年刊杂志《CR Fashion Book》上刊登了一篇文章,发布了模特穿着设计师泳衣和脸基尼的照片。这篇文章一经发表,就在时尚界掀起轩然大波。许多时尚界人士大为震惊,因为他们认为 Carine 是在支持这股中国潮流。但如果他们真的认真读完这篇文章,他们就会知道,Carine 的意图只是强调不同的审美以及东西方对于“美丽肤色”的见仁见智。“在亚洲,人们看到深肤色并不会联想到一趟远赴卡普里岛的时髦旅行,只会联想烈日下艰苦劳作的人民,”她在文中这样写道。

从那时起,许多国际杂志开始联系张式范和刘克亮进行采访。然而,张式范一直都不喜欢成为被关注的焦点,于是她拒绝了所有采访请求,直到一位好友劝她通过采访申明自己作为发明者的立场,于是,她终于接受了一家德国杂志的采访。刘克亮的邮箱里至今仍然保存着对方发来的邀请邮件,他打开一台陈旧的台式电脑,向我们展示了这些电子邮件。

Photographer: Peng Yangjun 摄影师:Peng Yangjun
Photographer: Peng Yangjun 摄影师:Peng Yangjun
Photographer: Peng Yangjun 摄影师:Peng Yangjun
Photographer: Peng Yangjun 摄影师:Peng Yangjun

Ever since, they’ve given interviews to more magazines than they can remember. Zhang shows us the clippings of many articles about the facekini. As we flip through them, we see pieces in Japanese, Russian, Arabic, English, and what seem to be Swedish at a quick glance. It was the media that gave the facekini its famous name. Before, the product was simply called “face protector,” but the public fell for the buzzword in China and abroad. Nowadays, the term even appears in online dictionaries as a countable noun.

However, many of these publications didn’t feature Zhang’s facekinis. They featured copies with different patterns and structural designs. In fact, an American business executive copycatted the facekini and trademarked the name in the United States in 2013, right after it went viral. He was even interviewed by Inc. magazine. All this prompted Zhang and Liu to protect their concept legally, but there’s little they can do in international waters.

Also, as the facekini became a media phenomenon, mockery set the tone. The new product and Chinese beach culture at large came under the scrutiny of tendentious journalists. The facekini was a “terrifying trend,” a “Halloween prop,” a “hip of horror.” Some said that “bandit masks invaded the beach” and that the facekini was “fashion’s worst trip to the beach yet.”

Zhang remained oblivious to it all until the day she learned that a photograph of a Qingdao beachgoer wearing one of her designs appeared as part of a selection of shocking photos in an American magazine. Right next to it, a picture of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “Of course, I had heard occasional comments about the way the facekini looked. And there were some isolated incidents of children getting frightened at the beach. But I always worked on my designs to keep them away from any negative associations, and I always thought of the facekini as something good, made to protect people. It was disturbing to me to see it related to something so negative.”

China also joined the international frenzy. Chinese netizens went wild with comparisons between the facekini and the burkini, especially when the latter was banned in some resort towns in the French riviera in 2016. Jokingly or not, there were calls for a ban of facekini on the basis that it could help the ill-intentioned conceal their identities.

Zhang found the accusations and comparisons preposterous. She says there’s nothing intrinsically evil about her invention. As with many other things, it’s how people use it that determines whether it’s harmful or not. She also says that the facekini is not religious nor mandatory. “You wear it if you want, and for whatever reason you want.” Still, she had to stay away from the internet for quite some time to avoid getting upset.

Despite the widespread obsession with the facekini, face-covering masks are nothing new. Balaclavas, for instance, were already worn by police, the Pussy Riot members, Mexican wrestlers, and fetishists alike. In parts of Southeast Asia, construction workers and motor cyclists commonly wear full-head accessories to shield themselves from the scorching sun. Still, Zhang was the one to re-imagine the accessory as a wearable device away from the purpose of concealing one’s identity and to make it both protective and fashionable.

Not to say that the international exposure did not benefit her business. She now exports facekinis to Japan, Australia, the United States, and England. She sells it to almost all Chinese provinces, including places far away from the coast, because some customers also like to wear facekinis to go jogging or trekking. Her company with Liu, Sturgeon Dragon, has about ten employees spanning product development, customer service, and logistics. Zhang is the inventor and lead designer, while Liu is more focused on the business, marketing, and public relations side. They’ve worked together for over twenty years, seventeen of those perfecting the facekini, a product that represents at least ninety percent of their business revenue.


从那以后,他们又陆续接受了许多杂志的采访。张式范向我们展示了这些关于脸基尼的文章剪报,里面有日语、俄语、阿拉伯语、英语还有像瑞典语的报道,“脸基尼”(facekini)这个名字也是媒体所起的,在这之前,他们只是简单称之为“护脸泳装”。现在,“脸基尼”(facekini)已经成为国内外的流行语,甚至被收编到在线词典中。

然而,这些报道里所出现的照片大多都不是张式范设计的脸基尼,而是不同图案和结构设计的仿制品。脸基尼火了之后,2013 年,一位美国企业家抄袭了脸基尼,并在美国注册了商标,甚至因此接受了《Inc.》杂志的采访。这一切也促使张式范和刘克亮用法律手段来保护自己的设计,但对于海外的仿制者,两位老夫妻也望尘莫及。

基尼在备受媒体关注的同时,也不乏嘲笑的声音。这种新奇的设计和中国的海滩文化受到了一些带偏见的记者的攻击,称脸基尼是“可怕的潮流”、“万圣节道具”和“恐怖时尚”,还有人说这是“强盗面具入侵了海滩”,脸基尼是“迄今为止最糟糕的沙滩设计”等等。

对于这些评论,张式范原本一无所知,直到有一天,她看到一本美国杂志评选的令人震惊的照片系列中,有一张人们头戴脸基尼出现在青岛海滩的照片,而在这张照片的旁边是一张拍摄于 9/11 恐怖袭击的照片。“我当然也会听到别人对脸基尼的评价,偶尔也听说过有孩子在海滩上看到脸基尼受到了惊吓。但我一直在努力改进我的设计,尽量让它们看起来没有什么负面联想,我一直觉得脸基尼是一个有益的设计,用来保护人们,所以看到有人将它和其他负面的东西联系起来,实在让我感觉很难过。”

在中国,关于脸基尼的争议也不少,一些中国网民也将脸基尼和穆斯林泳衣“布基尼”(burkini) 相提并论,而在 2016 年,法国里维埃拉一些度假小镇禁止了在海滩穿布基尼。于是,有人半开玩笑地呼吁禁止配戴脸基尼,理由是怕有不怀好意的人藉此隐藏身份。

张式范认为这些指责和比较荒谬至极。她表示,她在发明脸基尼时并没有任何不好的意图,和许多事物一样,事物的好坏取决于人们如何使用它。她还表示,脸基尼跟宗教无关,也没有任何强制性。“你想怎么穿就怎么穿。”虽说如此,为了不被网上的评论影响心情,她还是选择了暂时远离互联网一段时间。

尽管脸基尼掀起了一股潮流,但其实这种头套并非什么新鲜事物,例如警察、俄罗斯乐队 Pussy Riot、墨西哥摔跤手和恋物癖者都喜欢佩戴的巴拉克拉法帽(Balaclavas);在东南亚部分地区,建筑工人和摩托车手也常常会戴头套来遮挡烈日。而张式范则将这种原本用于掩藏身份的配件重新设计成可穿戴性的配饰,使其既具有保护作用又富有时尚感。

当然,在国际社会获得的曝光度对她的业务也并非毫无好处。她的脸基尼现在除了出口到日本、澳大利亚、美国和英国,也销往中国几乎所有省份,包括远离海岸的地方,因为有些顾客也喜欢穿着脸基尼慢跑或徒步。她和刘克亮创立的鲟龙品牌现在大约有 10 名员工,分别负责产品开发、客户服务和物流方面的工作。张式范是发明者和首席设计师,而刘克亮更专注于商业、营销和公关方面的工作。两人已经一起工作了 20 多年,其中 17 年都在不断改进脸基尼的设计,这款产品至少占了他们业务收入的 90%。

Still, the facekini is far from being a major Chinese fashion trend. It doesn’t appear in the covers of fashion magazines, local celebrities do not wear it, and it was never really voguish, despite being featured in Vogue. It’s merely a very successful niche product with a defined and captive audience, born from the entrepreneurial spirit of a woman who, in her golden years and with the support of her husband, followed a dream.

As we end our conversation, Liu puts on a facekini mask themed after the legendary Monkey King. We ask him if it’s comfortable to wear, but instead of answering, he stages a dramatic performance of a Peking opera, right there for us, singing and gesturing vigorously. Zhang finds it all hilarious. As we prepare our camera and pull out our phones to capture the moment, she rushes across the room to be next to him, bearing a radiant smile. Beyond the mask, this bond is the formula of their success.


尽管如此,脸基尼在中国还远未称得上是主流的时尚文化,从未登过时尚杂志封面,也没有本地名人戴过,更从未被归类为时尚,虽然它确实被《Vogue》杂志刊登过。脸基尼只能算是一个成功的小众产品,有明确的受众群体,源于一位有着创业精神和勇于追求梦想的女性,和她身后那位不断给予支持的丈夫。

采访结束时,刘克亮戴上了孙悟空脸基尼。我们问他戴起来舒不舒服,他没有回答,而是当场给我们活灵活现地表演了一段京剧,张式范在一旁边看边笑。当我们拿起相机和手机,准备捕捉这一刻时,她跑到了他身边,脸上洋溢着灿烂的笑容。在那脸基尼头套之下,两人的亲密情感或许正是他们成功的秘诀。

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Contributors: Tomas Pinheiro, Daecan Tee
Photographer: Mae Szeto
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
Additional Images Courtesy of Peng Yangjun


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供稿人: Tomas Pinheiro, Daecan Tee
摄影师: Mae Szeto
英译中: Olivia Li
附加图片由 Peng Yangjun 提供

Red Lotus 欲望,没有性别之分

August 24, 2021 2021年8月24日

In Buddhism and Hinduism, the lotus flower is a symbol of purity. The flower is of particular significance in Thailand, a country where both religions thrive. But in the works of Thai artist Kamonlak Sukchai, the lotus is twisted into an object of ambiguity. Her latest multimedia project, Red Lotus, offers forth a surreal story of a virgin who eats a forbidden fruit. Like the best folklores, the narrative captures the imagination.

“Long ago, in a distant village, there was once a beautiful girl. The girl, born in the sacred waters of the Ganges River, had an air of allure that drove the men wild. The king sent her away, exiling her into the forest where she’d live with twelve ascetic monks who watched over the Ganges River. She had her first period while living in the forest and found herself craving a taste of a forbidden fruit. While the monks were busy at a ceremony, she climbed the holy tree to pluck the fruit. While scaling the branches, her period blood drips down on a sorcerer passing by, which strips him of his powers. He demands the girl to give her virginity in exchange. She agrees.

Not long after, the King held a baptism in the woods. As part of the ritual, the banished girl was expected to bathe herself in the waters. But the moment she stepped into the river, the water was dyed a crimson red, signifying her loss of purity. The village people were furious. They screamed and cursed at her, believing that only by punishing her will they be forgiven by the gods. They cut off her breasts and brutalized her genitalia. Before dying from her wounds, the girl prays to Indra, the king of gods in Hinduism, wishing to be reincarnated as a lotus flower in her next life so that she can finally be pure.”


出淤泥而不染的莲花在佛教和印度教中意味着纯洁,这使得它在这两大宗教占据主导地位的泰国有着特殊的符号意义。而在泰国艺术家 Kamonlak Sukchai 的作品《红莲》(Red Lotus)里,莲花的意义变得暧昧不明起来。

《红莲》讲述了一个圣洁少女偷食禁果的故事,和所有民间传说一样,它有着一个经典开头:

很久很久以前,在一个遥远的村庄,有一个美丽的少女。诞生在圣河的少女身上散发异香,令所有男子为之疯狂,国王因此下令将她放逐到森林深处,和隐士与十二名苦行妇一起守护圣池。很快,少女来了月经,她变得无法抑制想要偷尝林中圣果的欲望。趁着人们举行神圣仪式,她偷偷爬上神树,这时她的经血滴落在了一名路过的巫师身上,他因此丧失了全部的法力。他要求少女献出纯洁之身来弥补,少女答应了。

一天,国王决定在森林里举办一场盛大的圣洗仪式,作为仪式的一部分,少女要在圣池里沐浴。就在她走进圣池的一瞬间,池水突然变成了红色,变得不再纯洁。人们愤怒了,他们谴责她、惩罚她,为了寻求天神的谅解,他们切下她的双乳,扯下她的阴部。临死之时,少女向天帝因陀罗许下了最后一个愿望,她想来世转生成一朵莲花,从此只以纯洁的样貌存在。

This bizarre story, an amalgamation and reimagining of several Hindi folklores, was designed to be chock full of cliches. The symbols that appear in the series don’t depart from their traditional meaning. The lotus represents purity, red represents degeneracy, the gods as supreme rulers, and desire as punishable evils. As if these overused tropes weren’t enough, Sukchai dressed in the models in traditional Thai costumes. Bumping up the saturation to exaggerated levels in post-production, he looks to evoke the heightened colors of Thai temple designs.

But Red Lotus isn’t a celebration of divinity nor is it a homage to Thai folklore.

Growing up, Sukchai realized how much family, school, and society influenced her thoughts. People in Thailand have freedom of religion, but Buddhism remains the most popular. Statues of Phra Phrom, Indra, and Trimurti are commonplace across Thailand. Animism, the belief that objects and animals have spirits, is also popular in the country. The disparate religious beliefs that co-exist in Thailand are reflected in the country’s folklores, which in turn have shaped the cultural identity of the country.


Kamonlak 将她熟悉的民间故事和意象拼合起来,形成了一个充满陈词滥调的自创故事。故事里的每一个元素都恰到好处地映射了它们在民间故事里的经典角色:莲花代表纯洁,红色代表污浊,天神是至高无上的,而欲望是邪恶的,要被放逐和惩罚。好像唯恐这种陈词滥调还不够明显似的,Kamonlak 在影像语言里大量引用了泰国传统的民俗故事插图和影视剧的服装、布景以及高饱和配色。这种浓艳的颜色同样遍布泰国(尤其是内陆地区)街头的大小寺庙和神龛。

但 Kamonlak 的《红莲》不是要再一次重申信仰的力量。它不是对民间故事的简单复制,而是艺术家将她从小到大在家庭、学校和社会耳濡目染的民俗文化的糅合。泰国是一个宗教信仰自由的国家,虽然大多数民众信仰佛教,但泰国街头香火旺盛的四面佛、因陀罗和三相神又都是源自婆罗门教。除此之外,泰国民间还信奉万物有灵论,认为天地万物都有鬼神。各种信仰相互融合、吸纳,彼此之间的共生关系和权力关系又体现在用于教化民众、建构族群文化认同的民间故事上。

Sukchai is particularly interested in the way folktales blur the line between truth and fiction, the ways they shape people’s perceptions as they’re retold and passed down. Born in Ratchaburi, Thailand to a conservative household, her parents and schooling constantly taught her to be a “good woman.” The notion of “good” remains incredibly ambiguous to her, and she notes that notions of goodness in the country have been shaped by these folklores. The ethic and moral codes that people have built into the narratives felt at odds with her own thoughts and the world as she understood it.


民间故事如何模糊真实和虚构的界限?又是如何在一次又一次的并接和重述中改变我们的观点?Kamonlak 对这类话题的研究饶有兴致。1994年,她出生于泰国叻丕府一个保守家庭,父母为她取名“Kamonlak”,意为“莲花”。从小在家庭和学校接受的教育,包括父母和老师讲给她的民间故事,都告诉她要成为一名“好女人”。但这个概念对她来说太虚浮了,成人世界在民间故事里置入的意义,和她自己渐渐感受到的世界和身体显得格格不入。

To better understand the current state of Thai society, Sukchai started studying the history of these folklores. The incongruous nature of her own beliefs and societal expectations is perhaps related to the contradictions of the stories themselves. Sex, for example, was a sacred ritual in animism, but with the introduction of Hinduism and Buddhism, it became taboo. Carnal desire became a mental hurdle that needed to be overcome.

Red Lotus revels in the absurdity of it all. To display the incongruity between these outdated fables and modern ideas, she sought to make the project feel as artificial as possible. If you examine these images closely, faint traces of moirés can be seen and even reflections. These unpolished qualities were intended—after adding the collage elements on her prints, she scans them and photographs them from the screen as the final touch. These subtle digital textures are a commentary on the way folktales are passed down from generation to generation, changing ever so slightly with each retelling.


为了更透彻地理解现在,她开始研究这些关于过去的传说,她发现自己感受到的不协调,某种程度上是源于这些故事本身不同意识形态的拉锯:以性举例,它在原始的万物有灵论里本是一种神圣的仪式,随着印度教和佛教的传入,性变成了禁忌,肉欲变成了需要克服的障碍。艺术家名字里的“莲花”也是,在佛教和婆罗门教里是无欲无求的极乐世界的符号,但在很多泰国文学作品里,莲花却象征着女性的私处,充满着情色意味。

在《红莲》里,Kamonlak 尽情强调种种陈词滥调,好让观看者发现其中的荒诞之处,以及过时的寓言和现代观念的不协调——换句话说,就是“越假越好”。她在作品中大量使用拼贴,指涉民间故事本身的拼贴属性。如果仔细看,会发现照片上有细密的纹理,甚至有几张还有明显的反光光斑(她管它们叫“噪点”),这是因为,Kamonlak 在 完成拼贴后,会再次拍摄屏幕上的照片,作为完成作品的最后一道工序。民间故事对社会潜移默化的形塑,在这些数字化的纹理下隐隐若现。

In Thai folklore, sex equates to temptation, and women—often the subject of temptation—are then punished for breaking taboo. Sukchai’s folklore retelling looks to subvert the stigmatized perception of femininity with a woman as the protagonist. In her story, she doesn’t look to shame desire, but celebrate it. The female protagonist’s predicament and outcome reflects Thai society’s attitude towards sex today. Sukchai doesn’t consider her work as feminist art, as she isn’t interested in being defined by the social constructs of gender norms. To her, the topic of desire and temptation isn’t bound by gender.


在民间故事里,性往往伴随着引诱,而女性往往承担了无法抗拒诱惑、冒犯禁忌后遭到惩罚的角色。Kamonlak 在她用摄影图像构建的新民间故事里,通过极力渲染少女的身体感受、在传统礼俗中被污名化的月经和代表月经的红色,试图扭转被污名化的女性形象,歌颂最原始的动物欲望。少女所遭受的放逐和惩罚也是身体和欲望在社会中的命运,连同少女最后的愿望都变得暧昧起来。但 Kamonlak 不认为自己是一名女性主义艺术家,她更希望自己不被社会建构的性别概念定义,正如她在作品里探讨的原始欲望,并没有性别之分。

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Contributor: Lu Yufan


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供稿人: Lu Yufan

Split Personality 这就是我,不一样的颜色

August 19, 2021 2021年8月19日
Liberté de Blastard

Humans are multidimensional creatures. Our identities, roles, and emotional states are never static. A myriad of factors influence which facet of ourselves we decide to show to the world at any given time. The different sides of our individuality are a topic of interest for Thai artist Rook Floro. Through sculptures, installation art, and performance art, he’s brought four of his alter egos to life in unnerving fashion—an ominous shadow, a crow-beaked wraith, a rainbow-colored shapeshifter, and a man melting into goops of red and blue. “These are manifestations of my individuality, and when something is based in my life, it usually comes out unsettling,” he laughs. “It wasn’t on purpose, more like a subconscious thing.”


人类是多维度物种。我们的身份、角色和情绪状态往往不会一成不变。不同时刻,会有各种各样的因素影响着我们将以何种面目公示于众。对于泰国艺术家 Rook Floro 而言,人类个性的不同剖面始终是他创作中乐此不疲的主题。通过一系列雕塑、装置和行为艺术,他以令人惴惴不安的外在表达方式,演绎出四种不同的人格——阴郁的流影、沉默的鸦头孤魂、糜彩的变形者,以及一个正在融化成红蓝色粘液的男人。“这些分别体现了我个性的不同侧面,这种以自我生活为原型的作品,通常都比较令人不安,”他笑着说道,“但这不是刻意而为的,所创作的一切都由我潜意识操控。”

Shadow
Shadow

The first of his alter egos to come into existence was Flux, a manifestation of his pride and subconscious desire for perfection. The character, a dense mass of swarming darkness, was introduced through a triptych of sculptures and performances.

In Shadow, Floro combines performance art with sculptural art in a compelling work that meditates on Carl Jung’s theory about a person’s id—repressed ideas and hidden desires that the conscious mind isn’t always aware of, which in Floro’s case is the pressure from family, society, and the media. A performer, dressed in a black bodysuit, sits in the gallery space, and Flux stands before him, a menacing shadow figure. There is a sense of hierarchy, with the seated man appearing clearly subservient to Flux.

In Shell, Flux kneels in despair, appearing to melt into the floor. Gaping cuts running down his spine and legs reveal the figure to be a hollow cocoon. With this piece, Floro comments on the ease with which we can lose a piece of ourselves whenever we try to become something we’re not. Those too far gone may end up a shell of their former selves.


第一个自我取名为“Flux”,象征着他的骄傲与潜意识中的完美主义。这个自我由一团密集的黑影构成,通过三组不同的雕塑和形态展示而出。

在《Shadow》中,Rook 结合行为与雕塑艺术,探讨了心理学家卡尔·荣格(Carl Jung)关于人之本我(ID)的理论,即现实中,人们从未意识过的那些被压抑的想法和潜藏的欲望。对于他来说,这种压力的来源主要是家庭、社会和媒体。身着黑色紧身衣的表演者坐在画廊里,而 Flux 就站在他面前,压迫感十足,好像坐着的人必须要服从 Flux 才行。

而在作品《Shell》中,Flux 则绝望地下跪,身体正不断嵌入地板。沿着他的脊椎和腿上裂开的伤口暴露出他空洞的本质。对于这件作品,Rook 解释说,当我们试图成为自己所不是的人时,就会失去一部分的自我,此时相对于 “旧我”,就只剩下一躯空壳。

Shell
Shell
Shell

For Shift, the finale of the series, Flux ascends into its final form. Dressed in a tailored suit, he sits on an obsidian throne and looks down at the lesser beings beneath him, but he realizes that he longs for who he was in the past, despite the feelings of inferiority that haunted him. He descends from the throne, removes the suit, and returns to his original self. The desire for perfection doesn’t subside forever though, and the cycle will inevitably begin again. The three-part series speaks to Floro’s endless struggle, a constant tug-of-war between staying true to himself and achieving success.


“Flux”系列的最后部分《Shift》,Flux 升华成最终的形态。他穿上高级西装,坐在黑曜石王位上,俯视身下的低等生物,偶然间意识过去的自己,自卑感又萦绕在心头。他从王位上走下,脱下西装,回归原本的自我。然而,这种对完美的渴望不会就此消退,一切将不可避免地周而复始。整个作品由三部分组成,讲述了 Rook 自己无休止的挣扎,是一场在忠于自我和追求成功之间持续往复的拉锯战。

Shift
Shift
Shift

The second character Floro introduced was Corvus, a crow that symbolizes the artist’s consuming anxieties. Corvus was originally conceived via a set of illustrations that depicted it as an imaginary friend who showed up whenever his anxieties flared up as a kid. But as he got older and his anxieties worsened, he realized he was actually transforming into Corvus.


Rook 的第二个系列起名为“Corvus”,是一只象征他内心严重焦虑的乌鸦。Corvus 最初为一组插图,在这些插图中,每当小时候的 Rook 爆发焦虑时,Corvus 就会作为假想中的朋友出现。然而,他长大后,这种焦虑日益加剧,他意识到,自己实际上正变成 Corvus。

Flight
Flight

Flight and Attack are perhaps some of Floro’s most grotesque sculptures to date. The former captures the artist’s vulnerability and despondency in full. The beak-faced Corvus hides beneath a table, seemingly terrified of the world. Above him, a raven is perched on the tabletop, indifferent to his distress. In the latter, Corvus’s anxieties have reached a breaking point. With hands clasped around his own neck, Corvus is on his knees, expelling an explosive stream of vomit from his open beak. On his head, the crow that was originally on the tabletop has its talons and beak dug deep into his scalp. This piece examines the aggressive tendencies Floro realized he turned to whenever bouts of anxieties became too much, which resulted in him lashing out at friends and family. These works are his apology to those who’s he’s hurt as Corvus. “Art is the only tool that allows me to truly understand myself and resolve all my issues by expressing it outwards,” he says. “Creating art is my own personal therapy and getting to know yourself is the best way to get rid of your demons.”


《Flight》(飞行)和《Attack》(攻击)也许是 Rook 迄今为止最怪诞的雕塑作品之一。《Flight》呈现了 Rook 的脆弱和沮丧。面带鸟嘴的 Corvus 躲在桌下,对世界饱含恐惧。在他的上方,一只乌鸦栖息在桌面上,对他的痛苦漠不关心。在《Attack》中,Corvus 的焦虑已濒临崩溃的地步,他双手环颈,跪在地上,鸟嘴里涌出一股呕吐物。原本栖息在桌面上的乌鸦来到他头上,把爪子和鸟嘴深深地插入他的头皮。Rook 意识到,每当焦虑变得失控时,他就会变得具有攻击性,而朋友和家人则成为他攻击的对象。他希望藉着这些作品,向那些他在变成 Corvus 后曾伤害过的人道歉。他表示:“艺术是唯一能让我真正了解自己的工具,我可以通过表达来解决问题。创作艺术是我自己的一种治疗,了解自己是摆脱心魔的最好办法。”

Attack
Attack

Blastard, his third and most beloved character, is the embodiment of Floro’s extroversion, lust, and happiness. It’s a character that draws heavily on the philosophy of libertinism, an extreme form of hedonism that puts pleasures above all else. This is the most colorful of his characters, appearing as writhing strands of reds, blues, greens, and yellows. In Liberte de Blastard, Floro performs as the manic shapeshifter, adding to his colorful strands by dripping colored epoxy on himself with hot-glue guns. Globs of half-melted glue drip from his body as he moves in drunken ecstasy. “He’s the alter ego I would like to be most of the time, but he comes and goes very quickly,” he says. “I always change back to my introverted self, Corvus, who is in control most of the time.”


他的第三个系列是“Blastard”,也是最受观众欢迎的角色,是 Rook 外向、欲望和幸福的化身。这个角色大量借鉴了自由主义哲学,是将快乐置于一切之上的极端享乐主义。这是他塑造的最丰富的角色,由红色、蓝色、绿色和黄色的扭曲线条组成。在《Liberte de Blastard》中,Rook 扮演着狂躁的变形人,用热胶枪将彩色胶水滴在自己身上,增加更多彩的线条。他迈着醉酒般的步态,半融化的胶水在他的身体上滴落。“大部分时间,这是我想要成为的自我,但它来得快,也去得快。我总会变回 Corvus,那个内向的自我,它才是大部分时间的掌控者。”

Liberté de Blastard
Liberté de Blastard
Liberté de Blastard

In Justine, a piece inspired by French author Marquis de Sade’s eponymous novel, Floro explores matters of sex and lust. Through an assemblage of colored wires, hot glue, and adhesives, he sculpts a woman’s torso in the likeness of Blastard himself. Devoid of limbs and any recognizable facial features, the sculpture feels incomplete, almost as if it’s a fantasy woman that Blastard has hazily conjured up in his mind.


《Justine》是 Rook 以法国作家 Marquis de Sade 的同名小说为灵感创作的作品,探讨了性和欲望的问题。他用彩色电线、热熔胶和粘合剂,按着 Blastard 的形象,制作了一位女性上半身。这个不完整的雕塑没有四肢,更没有任何可辨认的面部特征,仿佛是 Blastard 于脑海中幻想的某个女人。

Justine
Justine
Justine

The Blastard character even extends beyond performances and sculptures. In the exhibition A Creature Apart, Floro examines the overlap between Blastard and Corvus, which saw the debut of abstract paintings and polyurethane installations that protrude and melt in uncanny ways. The foam installations seem tumorous in nature, taking over random pillars in the gallery and even swallowing up one of the paintings. “I was trying to emulate the scene in Akira where the protagonist lost control of his power and explodes into a gigantic pile of flesh,” he explains. “That scene always reminds me of self-change that happens uncontrollably, which is something I can relate to.”


Blastard 这个角色还被运用到了表演和雕塑作品之外。在“A Creature Apart”展览中,Rook 审视了 Blastard 和 Corvus 两个角色之间的重叠之处,从而创作第一批的抽象绘画,并以近乎奇特的方式(伸展和融化的聚氨酯泡沫)完成了装置艺术。这个泡沫装置艺术如同肿瘤一般,侵占画廊中的柱子,甚至将其中的艺术品吞没。他解释道:“我想模仿《阿基拉》(Akira)中主角力量失控,导致整个人爆炸的场景。那个场景总是让我想起无法控制的自我转变,这是我很有共鸣的事情。”

Exhibition view of A Creature Apart
Exhibition view of A Creature Apart
Exhibition view of A Creature Apart
Exhibition view of A Creature Apart

Floro’s latest persona, Alpha/Omega, is a human form that’s melting into red-and-blue globs. A puddle of swirling liquid seems to have pooled beneath the half-liquefied figure. In the exhibition, The One Between Fire and Water, canvases that seem to have been painted with Alpha/Omega’s liquid remains accompany the grotesque sculpture. Floro describes the project as his most intimate artwork to date, one that examines the core of who he is as an individual.


Rook 的最新角色 “Alpha/Omega” 是一个正在融化成红蓝色液态的人形。半液化的身影之下,形成了一滩漩涡般的液体。在《The One Between Fire and Water(水火之间)》展览中,除了怪诞的雕塑作品之外,现场的绘画作品仿佛都由 Alpha/Omega 融化的液体绘制完成。Rook 表示,这个项目是他迄今为止最私密的艺术作品,深入探讨了他个人的内心。

Exhibition view of Alpha/Omega: The One Between Fire and Water
Exhibition view of Alpha/Omega: The One Between Fire and Water
Exhibition view of Alpha/Omega: The One Between Fire and Water
Exhibition view of Alpha/Omega: The One Between Fire and Water

Growing up with a Filipino father and a Thai mother, Floro often felt caught between two cultures. Even though he spent most of his life in Thailand, Filipino culture remains an intrinsic part of his identity. With this character, he takes a step closer to better understanding himself and embracing this duality. “When I decided to involve my parents in the project, I learned a lot about more about my dual identities,” he says. “It’s only the beginning though, I’ll dig deeper with Alpha/Omega and find more answers as I haven’t quite found equilibrium yet. It’s something that I’ll spend my life doing.”


Rook 的父亲是菲律宾人,母亲是泰国人,在成长过程中,他总是感觉困在两种文化之间。尽管大部分时间都是在泰国生活,但菲律宾文化仍然是他身份中不可或缺的一部分。他通过自己创作的角色,更好地了解自己并拥抱这种二元身份。这或许解释了为什么角色 Alpha/Omega 由两种颜色构成。他表示:“创作过程中也邀请了我的父母参加,那段时期我对我自己的二元身份有了更多的了解。不过这只是一个开始。我会通过 Alpha/Omega 更深入地去探索,为更多我未能和解的问题寻找答案,这将是我穷尽一生去做的事。”

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Contributor:  David Yen
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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Website: www.rookfloro.com
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供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Olivia Li

Ink, Paint, & Flesh 纹身,用笔还是用针?

August 17, 2021 2021年8月17日

The style of Filipino artist Ruben Miralles is distinctly guided by his years of experience in the world of tattoos. But his aesthetic themes transfer well into the realm of fine art, as evidenced by a recent series of large-scale ink paintings. Japanese elements appear throughout, such as kaeru frogs and koi fish; traditional tattoo stalwarts like moths and ornate roses; illustrative flourishes of wisping wind and fluid clouds. These are all foundations of his work, which is a mashup of familiar references in neo-traditional, blackwork tattoo culture, all imbued with his personal touch. Everything is drawn with a sense of motion: insect wings flutter, flower petals drift in the wind, abstract shapes swirl and undulate, and his lines are bold like the impact of a rubber stamp.


菲律宾艺术家 Ruben Miralles 的绘画风格深受他多年纹身经验的指引,他能将自己那套纹身美学出色地移植在绘画领域。最近,他的一系列大型水墨画便是最佳的例证。从青蛙和锦鲤等日本元素、飞蛾和玫瑰等传统纹身图案,到逸风与流云的意象,这些元素共同构成了他绘画的基调。这种创作方式与传统纹身风格如出一辙,同时,Ruben 又能将动感的笔触融入其中:昆虫翅膀的颤动效果、随风飘扬的花瓣、抽象的形状旋转起伏,大胆粗野的线条如同刻章的纹路。

Miralles, who goes by the alias Oben, was interested in art as a kid, but he never thought about turning it into a career. Growing up in a low-income neighborhood in Taguig City, his parents hoped he would find a stable job in a more traditional industry. He’d been drawing as far back as he can remember and even had artsy side hustles throughout high school like drawing henna tattoos, which were trendy at the time. “My sister met some people working in booths selling henna tattoos along Roxas Boulevard back when it was still a popular area,” he recalls. “She brought a portfolio home for me to look at and I took it from there.”


Ruben 化名 Oben 进行创作,虽然自小就对艺术很感兴趣,但他从未想过有朝一日以此作为职业。他出生于达义市一个低收入社区,父母一直希望他能在传统行业找一份稳定的工作。他从小就开始画画,甚至在高中期间做了一些艺术相关的兼职,比如做纹身师,当时专心扎刻的是红极一时的海娜纹身。“我姐姐认识了一些在罗哈斯大道(Roxas Boulevard)摆摊画海娜纹身的人,这种纹身在当时相当火,”他回忆道,“她带了一些图片回家给我看,从那会儿开始接触纹身创作。”

Tattoos were an important part of some traditional Filipino cultures, but Western colonizers stigmatized them for centuries. And it took a while for contemporary tattoos to be embraced in the Philippines, largely because getting the necessary equipment was challenging. “In the ’90s it was really difficult to get decent needles, so artists would make their own,” Miralles says. “Now you can just click a button and get whatever you need in the mail.” There were still some subtle biases around tattoos as recently as a decade ago—if you were heavily inked in Manila, you may have trouble hailing a taxi late at night. But with the adaptation of the internet starting in the mid-2000s, the art form became more broadly accepted.


对于一些传统菲律宾地区来说,纹身有着重要的意义,但在近几个世纪以来,纹身一直遭到西方殖民者的污名化。近现代纹身在菲律宾的普及十分缓慢,其主要原因是当时基础的纹身设备很难获得。“在 90 年代,要找到合适的纹身针都很难,于是纹身师只好自己制作。而现在,你只要上网订购,就能买到几乎所有东西,”Ruben 说道。哪怕是在 10 年前,人们对纹身仍然存在一些微妙的偏见——在马尼拉,如果你满身纹身,要想在深夜叫到出租车时几乎不可能。随着 2005 年左右网络日益普及,纹身这种艺术形式才被越来越多人接受。

Miralles enrolled in college in 2008 with the goal of landing an office job, but was soon forced to drop out when his uncle ran out of money to help with tuition. It was then that Miralles turned his undivided attention to tattooing. He’d already been getting commissions for drawing realistic portraits, and after putting in significant time, effort, and a lengthy apprenticeship, he slowly found clients for tattoo work as well.

“I experimented a lot before landing on my current style,” he explains. “I really explore something fully before going for it. My mentality about drawing is that I try to achieve whatever the hardest aspect is. For example, I’d say realistic drawings are most difficult, so I focused on that first. After I’m happy with what I’ve tried to master, then I’ll break out of it and do something new, mixing together all the fundamentals I’ve learned to make my own version. I’m still learning and there are a lot of different categories of tattoos that are not easy.”


2008 年,Ruben 从高中毕业后进入大学,当时的他并没打算要将纹身作为自己的职业。他纯粹是想在大学期间找一份兼职,毕业后再好好找一份白领工作。但后来他叔叔的破产导致没办法再资助他的学费,于是 Ruben 才决定把纹身当成更认真的工作看待。后来经过大量的学习和练习纹身后,开始有客户找他纹身。

“在我找到自己现在的风格之前,我做了很多尝试,”他解释道,“我喜欢在开始之前先充分探索。对于绘画,我的想法是要先努力掌握最困难的部分。例如,我觉得写实绘画最难,那我就会先专攻这一块,直到我达到自己满意的水平后,再去尝试突破和创新,结合我所掌握的基础,转变成自己独特的风格。我还在不断学习,纹身也很多不同种类,有很多都充满了挑战性。”

While tattoos are now generally accepted in the Philippines, there are still gaps in knowledge, which can make it difficult to build a stable clientele. “When you’re pushing a specific style, you might only have specific clients,” Miralles says. “Most people bring an idea of what they want, like a picture of a loved one.” Although he has a steady customer base at his boutique reservation-only shop, it’s nothing like working in a street shop, where he could get up to nine walk-ins in a day. “At first it was really hard to get clients with my illustrative blackwork style, but eventually it grew. There’s still a lot of room for growth here.” He says that he put in a lot of work building a portfolio in the beginning, even doing free work just to have convincing examples for potential clients.


虽然现在的菲律宾社会对纹身的接受程度更高,但人们对纹身的认识仍然存在差距,因此很难建立稳定的客源。“当你强调一种特定风格时,也就只能吸引到特定的客户,大多数人来纹身时都已经有了自己的想法,比如要纹亲人的照片等等。”Ruben 说道。他现在的纹身店已经得到一帮固定的客源,但仍然无法和在街头摆摊时相提并论。在街边摆摊时,他一天最多可以有 9 个客户。他表示:“起初我的黑工纹身(blackwork style)作品风格很难吸引到客户,后面才有了越来越多的客户。其实增长空间还是很大的。”刚开始时,他很努力去丰富自己的作品,甚至提供免费纹身,目的就是为了吸引潜在客户。

Recently, he’s started experimenting with ink paintings on watercolor paper. It’s still based on his blackwork tattoos, but these new works also include greys made by diluting ink and thinner lines drawn with a pen. It’s a clear effort to evolve artistically, part of his constant yearning to build on and grow from everything he’s learned along the way. While it’s very similar to his body art, on paper he has much more creative leeway and time to finetune details. “With tattoos, you often need to simplify a drawing to make it work,” Miralles says. “I usually tell my clients that I don’t refine my designs on paper, especially if it’s custom. I add most of the details to the skin. And if it’s large-scale, it could take months to finish.” But with paintings he can take his time; as long as he spends a couple of hours a day working on one, he’ll always be able to finish it. Miralles says that he was inspired to explore painting due to other tattoo artists online, and he says some local tattoo artists have taken his lead and tried the same. “That’s the prize right there. To inspire others. To elevate the culture.” 


最近,他开始尝试用水彩纸创作水墨画。虽然这些新的作品仍然立足于他的黑工纹身作品,但多了一些由稀释墨水形成的灰色晕和钢笔细线。这是他在艺术创作上的努力突破,也是他一贯在创作上所追求的精益求精。虽然这与纹身很相似,但在纸上创作时,他可以有更多的创作余地,也有更多的时间来调整细节。Ruben 表示:“纹身的时候,往往需要简化设计图才行。我常常跟我的客户说,我不会在纸上去对我的设计精雕细琢,特别是对于定制的作品。我会直接在皮肤上添加细节。如果是大尺寸的纹身,可能需要几个月才能完成。”但画画的时候,他可以按照自己节奏慢慢来;只要每天花几个小时画一画,总有画完的一天。Ruben 表示自己开始画画也是受到网上其他纹身艺术家的启发。随后在他的影响下,当地一些纹身艺术家也开始尝试画画,“这就是一种收获。去激励他人,推动这种艺术的发展。”

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Instagram: @obenism

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

No Anomalies 如同名画般美丽

August 10, 2021 2021年8月10日
Bela

Anomaly means a deviation from the norm—oddity, peculiarity, abnormality. In Ayla Reyes’s undergraduate thesis, she spins the term into a portmanteau: anong mali, translating to “what’s wrong” in Tagalog, is an intentional wordplay. With this project, she questions whether physical differences truly detract from a person’s beauty, and her photos look to redefine the skewed standards of beauty pushed by the mainstream. The series recreates classic artworks using models with physical disabilities and attributes. Through these images, she looks to spotlight diversity and promote inclusivity in Filipino society.


“异常(Anomaly)”一词意味偏离常态,即古怪、奇特和不同寻常。Ayla Reyes 在自己的本科论文里,将这个词变成一个新的拼缀词“anong mali”,在他加禄语中意为“出了什么问题”,这是她刻意而为的文字游戏。在她的摄影系列中,Ayla探讨了这样一个问题:身体的异常是否有损一个人的美?通过这个系列,她希望能改变主流所推崇的审美标准。该系列邀请了多位残障人士重新演绎古典艺术作品,以展示美的多元化,同时尝试倡导着包容的核心。

Bela
Bela

Reyes majored in advertising arts for her bachelor’s degree. Her studies focused on the creative and conceptual side of advertising, and for her undergraduate thesis, she opted to put together a photography exhibition. “While brainstorming the concept, I saw that classic art usually depicted the same kind of people: fair-skinned, full-bodied, the same kind of Eurocentric features,” she says. “These art pieces were considered the ideal beauty standard for centuries, and eventually evolved to modern mainstream media as time went by. To this day, popular media still glorifies these features, and that did not sit right with me.”


Ayla 本科主修广告艺术,学习广告创意和概念。大学临毕业前,她选择举办一场摄影展。她说:“在进行概念构想的时候,我突然发现,大部分古典艺术作品所呈现的都是同一类人:皮肤白皙、身材丰满、拥有欧洲人的五官特征。几百年来,人们视这些艺术作品为理想的审美标准,并一直影响到现代。时至今日,大众媒体仍然以这些特征为美,但我觉得这是不对的。” 很快,她决定向这种传统审美发起挑战。

Hannah
Hannah
Hannah

She’s taken note of the underrepresentation of thousands of body types, skin types, disabilities, and different kinds of attributes, realizing that having an “ideal” standard hardly makes sense. “Living in the Philippines where colorism and other exclusive perspectives on beauty and perfection are rampant, pursuing this type of subject matter felt like an important task for me to do my part in shutting down these harmful ideas and celebrate a more diverse take on beauty,” Reyes explains. “With all this in mind, I thought it would make a strong statement to juxtapose classic art with persons with physical disabilities and differences by having them reinterpret the art.”


她发现世界上还有很多不同身材、肤色、身体残障和不同特征的人群被人们所忽略,这种“理想化”的审美标准也十分荒谬。她表示:“在菲律宾,肤色歧视很普遍,人们关于美和完美的观点非常狭隘,所以,探讨这类话题对我来说有很重要的意义,我想帮助消除这些错误的想法,鼓励更多元化的审美。所以,我想让身体有残缺的模特来重新演绎那些古典艺术作品,然后将其与原作并列在一起,这样会更有说服力。”

Trina
Olivia
Aubrey
Hannah

Reyes held a casting call for her “muses,” a term she’s employed for the models of this project. She feels that the term is especially apt, considering that they’ve shown her what beauty means. She’d found some of her muses through her friends, while she met the rest online by joining different groups on social media. She wanted to represent as many kinds of bodily features as possible. Various skin conditions, limb deficiencies, and other disabilities are all celebrated in the project. “After finding them, I got to know them and their stories before I decided which artwork would best suit them according to their personal experiences,” she says. “Given that none of them were professional models, most were understandably shy at first since they’ve never done anything like this before, but I made sure to be transparent with every plan I had; anything that anybody was uncomfortable with was immediately scrapped.”


首先是招募模特,Ayla 将这个项目里的模特称为“缪斯”,她觉得这个词特别贴切,因为这些模特对她来说,恰恰能诠释美的含义。一部分缪斯来自她的朋友介绍,还有她通过不同社交媒体小组结识。“我会去了解每个人和他们的故事,然后根据他们的个人经历,决定对应的艺术品,”她说道,“由于他们都不是专业模特,所以大多数人一开始都很害羞,毕竟他们以前从未接触过类似的事情,但我会跟他们详细说明我的拍摄计划,如果有任何让他们感到不舒服的情况,我都会立即停止。”

Sarah

The 11 individuals she chose were all paired with iconic artworks. In Reyes’s remakes, she drew parallels between the models’ personal experiences and personalities with the corresponding artwork.

Hiking is one of Rose’s favorite activities. She’s already climbed some of the biggest mountains in the Philippines including Mt. Daraitan, Mt. Apo, and the Sleeping Beauty Mountain in Kalinga where she got a hand-poked arm tattoo from Apo Whang Od. Her love for mountaineering never dwindled even after she lost her left arm in a bus accident a few years ago. With her grit, determination, and passion for hiking, Reyes believed she was best represented by Aphrodite, the goddess of love, fertility, war, and the sea, which appears in Venus de Milo by Alexandros of Antioch.


她所选出的十一组模特,分别对应一幅古典艺术名作。每一位模特的经历和个性,都与对应的艺术作品。Rose 热爱徒步,曾攀登过菲律宾一些最宏伟的山峰,包括大拉滕山(Mt. Daraitan)、阿波山(Mt.Apo)和卡林巴省的睡美人山(Sleeping Beauty Mountain),她手臂上的纹身正是在卡林巴期间找纹身艺术大师 Apo Whang Od 手工敲刺的。几年前,她在一次公共汽车事故中失去了左臂,但她对登山的热爱却从未消褪。Ayla 认为她身上那种毅力、决心和对徒步的热爱,最适合演绎亚历山德罗斯(Antioch)的《断臂的维纳斯》(Venus de Milo),扮演作为爱神、生育女神、战争女神和海神的阿芙罗狄蒂。

Rose
Rose
Rose

Julius has an orthopedic disability on both legs, leaving his stature to be significantly smaller than people his age. He was a target of bullying throughout most of his high school years. He told Reyes that one of his favorite things to do was make handcrafted scrapbooks for his friends. “What was most intriguing but heartwarming to me was that he was capable of being this sweet and loving despite knowing the feeling of being hurt,” he says. “He is personally one of the sweetest and kindest people I have ever met, which made me want to celebrate it,” says Reyes. To salute his thoughtfulness, she reimagined him as Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker.


Julius 双腿患疾,因此个子比同龄人要小得多。整个高中时期,他饱受霸凌。他告诉 Ayla,自己最大的爱好之一就是给他的朋友制作手工剪贴簿。Ayla 说:“最让我感到暖心和感动的是,虽然他受到那么多的伤害,却仍然如此善良和充满爱心。他是我见过最善良、最有爱的人之一,我把这一点表现出来。”对应他温柔体贴的个性,她选择让 Julius 演绎了奥古斯特·罗丹(Auguste Rodin) 的《思想者》(The Thinker)。

Julius
Julius
Julius

Suffering from cerebral palsy, Markus is an outspoken advocate for disability rights. He’s given countless talks and seminars promoting inclusivity, works as a training officer for the Leonard Cheshire Philippines Disability Foundation, and is a Youth Council Member at UNICEF Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities. To honor his fight, Reyes depicts Markus as a warrior for the disability community equipping him with a sword and helmet in her reimagining of David by Donatello.

“Rather than exactly recreating the art pieces, I opted to integrate the muses’ personalities and stories into the artworks as a symbol of their inner beauty. I wanted to show everyone that there’s more to them than their appearances and disabilities, and that these don’t define who they are as people,” Reyes explains.


Markus 患有脑瘫,是一位积极的残疾人权利倡导者,多次参与促进包容性的演讲和研讨会,同时担任菲律宾伦纳德柴郡残疾基金会的培训官,还是联合国儿童基金会全球残疾儿童伙伴关系的青年委员会成员。为了致敬他所作出的贡献,Ayla 让 Markus 演绎了多纳泰罗的《大卫》, 让他双手执剑,戴上头盔,化身成捍卫残疾人社区的战士。

“我没有完全照搬原作,而是将每位缪斯的个性和故事融入照片中,以展示他们各自的内在美。我想表达出,在每个人的外貌和身体残疾之外,还有很多值得了解的故事,我们不应该以貌来评判他人。”Ayla 解释道。

Markus
Markus
Markus

Reyes’s father encouraged her to pursue photography throughout her school life. Although she’s not actively pursuing photography as a career, she’s kept it in her creative arsenal as she considers herself more of a multimedia artist than solely a photographer. What matters most to her is that she finds a way to fight for what’s right and what she believes in and feels that art can cater to her needs. “Art is a great way to make a statement and to really reach audiences in a way words can’t. The same goes for my photography—I love capturing people and their emotions. It’s important to me that my images tell a story.”


读书期间,Ayla 的父亲就一直鼓励她去摄影。虽然她并不打算将摄影作为职业,但她会继续把摄影作为自己的创作工具,因为在她看来,自己是一名多媒体艺术家,而不仅仅是一名摄影师。对她来说,最重要的是找到合适的方式,捍卫正确的事情和自己的信仰,而艺术可以做到这一点。“艺术是绝佳的发声方式,能够以语言无法传达的方式来与观众沟通。我的摄影也是如此,我喜欢捕捉人物和他们的情绪。对我来说,一张照片的故事性很重要。”

Nestor
Nestor
Nestor

Reyes hopes that the project can encourage open-mindedness towards all forms of beauty.  Since uploading the project, she’s raked in over 38,000 likes and 28,000 shares on Facebook. When asked if she’s planning to continue the series, she shares that she’d love to. “I know there’s a lot more people in the world that I wasn’t able to represent, so I’d love to celebrate diversity even further with more people. I’ve had people reach out to me too about their own experiences with their physical disabilities and features, telling me they’d love to know what artwork I would assign to them. Any opportunity to create more art like this would be an honor.”


Ayla 希望这个摄影项目能够鼓励人们包容不同形式的美。自从她上传这些作品以来,她在 Facebook 上已经获得超过 38,000 个赞和 28,000 次分享。当被问及她是否打算继续创作该系列时,Ayla 表示乐意至极。“我知道自己目前作品所呈现的人群还很有限,世界上还有很多不同形式的美,所以我也想继续拍摄更多元化的人群。也有很多人主动联系我,跟我分享了他们因为身体障碍所遭遇的经历,也很想知道我会给他们分配哪一件古典艺术作品。对我来说,有机会去创造更多这样的艺术作品是一种荣幸。”

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Behance: ~/aylareyes

 

Contributor: Matthew Burgos
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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Behance: ~/aylareyes

 

供稿人: Matthew Burgos
英译中: Olivia Li

Ornithology 大火中,唯有”叶“莺飞过

August 5, 2021 2021年8月5日
Kingfisher

Thick smoke blankets the skies and an acrid smell hangs in the air. Indonesia is on fire, again.

Every year, the archipelago country’s forests are set blaze on a massive scale. Toxic haze from the fires spreads across the entirety of Southeast Asia. These illegal, manmade fires are the cheapest way to raze land, and for many agricultural businesses in the region, such as oil palm companies, profit comes above all else—even life.


天空被浓烟笼罩,弥漫着刺鼻的气味,印度尼西亚又一次发生森林火灾了。

这个岛国每年都会发生森林大火,冒出的有毒烟雾迷漫至整个东南亚地区。关于这些大火的真相,其实是有人为了以低成本夷平土地而非法纵火,并从中谋取利益。因为对于当地许多农业企业(譬如油棕公司)来说,利润往往高于一切——甚至是生命。

Detail of Kingfisher
Detail of Kingfisher

The fine particulate matters of the resulting haze can cause a number of health problems for humans, both short-term and long-term. When the burnings start, the Pollutant Standards Index, used in Singapore to measure levels of pollutants in the air, can reach over 300 PSI—the most hazardous levels on the scale. In these conditions, respiratory illnesses can be exacerbated or new conditions may arise. In 2015, epidemiologists estimates that the smog from Indonesia’s destructive fires may have caused tens of thousands of deaths.

But aside from humans, even more affected are the wildlife that inhabit the woodlands. They’re the victims that Singaporean photographer Jeremy Wong has decided to focus on. “First fires destroy natural habitats,” he says. “Many native birds have been killed or are on the verge of extinction. To bring this issue to focus, I worked with a group of creatives to execute the concept. This project is a campaign to raise awareness and protect the birds affected by these fires.”


大火产生的雾霾颗粒物会对人体造成许多短期和长期的健康问题。每次出现大火时,空气中污染物指数可以达到 300 PSI 以上,属于最高的危险水平,由此造成的后果,是呼吸疾病加剧,甚至可能会出现一系列并发症。2015 年,流行病学家估计,印度尼西亚毁灭性的火灾产生的烟雾已造成数万人死亡。

然而,与人类相比,受影响更大的是在林地生活的野生动物,它们也是新加坡摄影师 Jeremy Wong 所关注的受害群体。Jeremy 表示:“大火摧毁了它们的家园,现在已有许多本土鸟类死亡或濒临灭绝。为了让更多人关注这个问题,我与创意人士就此事实进行了创作的构思。该项目旨在提高人们的意识并保护受大火影响的鸟类等野生动物。”

Detail of Hornbill
Owl
Hornbill
Detail of Owl

His photography series, Ornithology, features portraits of different birds that once called these burnt forests home, but these images probably don’t come in the way you might expect—no actual birds appear in his photos. Rather than touting a telephoto lens and waiting around for hours on end like typical bird photographers, Wong takes a different approach in creating his images. His portraits are created with leaves collected from Indonesia’s forests, which are assembled into the likeness of the indigenous bird species most affected by the fires. Working as a five-man team, the collected leaves were dyed in different shades of black and dried with an airgun, a process that made some of the leaves take on new shapes that could be used in different parts of the artwork. For example, curled leaves formed beaks and talons on certain pieces.


他的摄影系列《Ornithology》(鸟类学)以曾在森林中栖息的鸟类为主题,但出人意料的是,他的作品未现真实的鸟类。他并没有像别的摄影师那样举着长焦镜头,等待好几个小时来拍摄,而是以印度尼西亚森林里收集的树叶,拼凑出受大火影响的鸟类肖像。他和其他 4 名团队成员,将收集来的叶子染成深浅不一的黑色,然后用气枪吹干。整个过程中,叶子会呈现出不同的形状,并成为艺术品的一部分,例如,卷曲的叶子就可以用来作为鸟嘴和爪子。

Eagle
Detail of Eagle
Detail of Eagle

Wong has created portraits of a hornbill, a kingfisher, an owl, an eagle, and a parrot. For each of the five birds, Wong goes as far as to set certain parts of the leaf assemblages on fire—the smoldering leaves a not-so-subtle critique on the harm we’re causing to these animals and the uncaring ways that humans are encroaching on the natural world. After the pieces are photographed, they’re discarded with a controlled burn. The ephemeral nature of these pieces is in itself a commentary on the fragility of nature, and how if people don’t start caring more about the environment, the natural world that we take for granted—like these bird portraits—may one day cease to exist.

Jeremy Wong’s works are now exclusively available at VAN DARYL Gallery. Click here to learn more.


Jeremy 的作品有犀鸟、翠鸟、猫头鹰、鹰和鹦鹉。每完成一种鸟类的作品时,他甚至会将部分叶子点燃,直白地控诉人类对这些动物造成的伤害,以及人类在侵占自然界时的冷血。拍摄完后,他们就会小心地将这些这些叶子燃烧丢弃。而作品本身的短暂性也呼应着自然脆弱的一面。如果人们继续漠视环境,把大自然视为理所当然,终有一天,大自然也会像这些鸟类肖像一样,消失殆尽。

Jeremy Wong 的作品现已于 VAN DARYL 画廊独家发售。点击此处了解更多。

Parrot
Detail of Parrot
Detail of Parrot

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Contributor:  David Yen
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Olivia Li

Aerosol Meditations 阿弥“涂”佛

July 29, 2021 2021年7月29日

Novelty is undeniably important in art. The never-ending pursuit of the new—new styles, new mediums, new thoughts—is one of the main reasons art stays exciting. But using these new ideas to pull traditional culture into modern times can help us stay connected with the past. Taiwanese artist Yi-Shang Zhao’s work is a prime example of this, blending contemporary graffiti and modern graphic design with ancient Chinese techniques and traditional religious art.


毋庸置疑,新鲜感对于艺术创作来说至关重要。人们总在不断追求创新——新风格、新媒介、新思想,这也是艺术总是令人期待的原因之一。但同时,运用新鲜的方式将传统与现代相结合,有助我们与过去衔接。台湾艺术家 Blackzao 的作品正是一个绝佳的范例,他正将现代的涂鸦和平面设计与古老的中国工艺下的传统宗教艺术融会贯通。

Zhao, who uses the alias Blackzao, works across multiple mediums. He spray paints on walls and canvas, creates graphic design and digital illustration, paints with acrylics and brushes, and assembles intricate collages. Within these disparate mediums, he pushes his style in different directions. At first, it may seem scattered, but there’s a method to the madness. Across his wide-ranging works, consistent interests and themes emerge. The same psychedelic colors, mountainous landscapes, prolific text, and Buddhist icons appear repeatedly. 


Blackzao 的跨媒介创作包括用喷漆在墙壁和画布上绘画、平面设计和数字插图技艺、以及丙烯颜料和画笔,甚至偶尔还会运用到拼贴画的创作手法。这些不同媒介,促使他的作品朝着更多元的方向发展。这些不同领域的创作看似分散,实际上却是“形散而神不散”。迷幻的色彩、山野景观、丰富的文字和佛教元素,贯穿在他的每一幅作品中。

For the burgeoning artist, it all started with graffiti. As a teen in Taichung, Zhao became enamored with the spray can after being exposed to skateboarding and hip-hop culture. Back then, all of his work was written in English, with an aesthetic thoroughly influenced by American wildstyle and old-school graffiti. But his interest in graf led to a broader engagement with letterform.

“In the beginning, I wrote in a traditional graffiti lettering style, but I added the stylistic strokes and structures of Chinese characters to my English letters,” Zhao says. Learning graphic design and digital art in university furthered his knowledge of fonts and scripts, which he happily added to his arsenal of lettering styles. Calligraphy and type-driven art became a consistent feature of his work.


他的艺术生涯起步于涂鸦创作。少年时期,在台中生活的 Blackzao 在接触滑板和嘻哈文化后,就迷上了涂鸦喷漆。那时,他的所有作品都是以英语字体创作,其美学风格也完全是受美国野性涂鸦(Wildstyle) 和 old-school 风格的影响。但他对涂鸦的兴趣逐渐让他发掘了更广泛的字体创作形式。

“一开始,我创作的是传统风格的涂鸦字体,但我在英文字体上加入了汉字的笔画和结构,”Blackzao 解释道。他在大学进修了平面设计和数字艺术,同时进一步巩固了他对传统字体书法的理解,并将所学的知识运用到字体创作中。书法和字体艺术从此以后也成为了他作品的一贯特色。

When it comes to calligraphy, Zhao now mainly writes in Chinese, although he originally started by writing in English here too. “It’s different from graffiti,” he explains. “There are too many details in Chinese characters to use in graffiti, but I’m working on making it happen.” His calligraphy often concerns Buddhist mantras and sometimes it’s just random words that stem from his love for text. A lack of legibility can be equally compelling to him. “I’ve studied some religious art and ancient Taoism calligraphy. It can be very similar to graffiti: sometimes you can read it, but other times it just looks like symbols. I find it interesting on many levels.”


现在,Blackzao 主要以中文来创作。“书法与涂鸦不同。汉字的细节太多,比较难用于涂鸦中,不过我现在在努力尝试将其成为现实。”他解释道。他的书法作品通常与佛教经文有关,有时则是他随意写下的只言片语。无法辨别的字体对他来说尤其有趣。“我研究过一些宗教艺术和古代道教书法,感觉和涂鸦非常相似:有时上面的文字清晰可辨,有时却像图画符号一样,我觉得这样的字体在很多层面上都更为有趣。”

Zhao is adamant about uncovering ways to combine the past with the future, the East with the West. (It may have been inevitable that he would find the connection, given that one of his family members is a master of religious art.) “I love using colors I see in Taiwanese streets, whether that’s bold and bright LED lights, or traditional colors like those found in local temples, which are also fluorescent. The stage art for temple puppet shows have very strong and psychedelic colors, and I grew up with that, so it’s very special to me.” He also paints works inspired by traditional East Asian calligraphy landscapes, whether as the focus of a black and white mural, or hidden within a burner, masquerading as a design within the letters’ fill.

Even though he’s continually expanding his visual language, Zhao has remained faithful to his graffiti roots. He still paints throw-ups on interesting structures and conceptual pieces on textured walls: “Taichung is a very chill city, there are a lot of places you can paint in the daytime,” he says. “We also have some very positive writers here.”


Blackzao执迷于融合过去与未来,结合东方与西方。(这或许与他一位家人是宗教艺术学者有关。)“我喜欢用我在台湾街头看到的色彩来创作,无论是大胆华丽的 LED 灯,或是寺庙里那些更传统的荧光颜色。寺庙木偶戏的舞台艺术充满各种强烈的迷幻色彩,我从小在这些色彩的熏陶下长大,所以对我来说有着特别的意义。”另外,传统山水画也对他的创作有所启发,并被他巧妙地运用于黑白壁画、精制壁画(Burner)以及字体填充中。

尽管 Blackzao 不断扩充自己的视觉语言,但他从未放弃过涂鸦。时至今日,他仍然很喜欢到特别的建筑上快速涂鸦(Throw-ups),在充满纹理感的墙壁上创作概念性的作品,但现在的作品会比他年少时的涂鸦要复杂得多:“台中是一座慢节奏的城市,白天也可以到很多地方涂鸦。这里有很多特够劲儿的涂鸦艺术家。”

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Instagram: @blackzaoart

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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Instagram: @blackzaoart

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

Seoul Renegade 她的视觉秩序: 离经叛道

July 27, 2021 2021年7月27日

There’s a restless energy that pulsates from the work of Korean photographer Jung Ye-Jin. Whether it be the trails of streaking light slicing across her compositions, the stacked exposures and crystal prisms refracting human faces into dizzying formations, or the uncomfortably up-close portraits of individuals staring into the camera—her images all demand a valuable commodity: the viewers’ undivided attention.


躁动不安,大概可以用来形容韩国摄影师丁藝振( Jung Ye-Jin) 的作品。无论是切割画面的光束轨迹、层叠的多重曝光、用棱镜将人脸折射成令人眼花缭乱的形态,再到直视镜头的人物近距离特写,她的照片有着一种独特的吸引力,令人难以移开目光。

Jung has little regard for the conventional rules of photography, that much is clear. Even on Instagram, rather than a meticulously curated feed of beautiful, planned images, her feed is a hectic scramble of jarring reds, abstract textures, and flash-lit patches of bare skin. But this indifference to perfection is precisely what makes her work so interesting, even to Korean celebrities such as Gikwang, Hyolyn, and Sunmi, who’ve all appeared under her lens.


丁藝振对传统的摄影规则从不关心,即便在她自己的 Instagram 账号上,她也从不对图片进行用心的排版和布局,相反,她让整个页面充斥刺目、混乱的红色、以及抽象纹理和闪光灯下的裸露肌肤。而这种不追求完美的风格反倒让她的作品变得更为有趣,更吸引了一众韩星成为她镜头下的模特,这其中就包括了李起光、孝琳和宣美等公众人物。

Whether on a subconscious level or not, Jung distills the imperfections and impulsive exuberance of youthhood in her work. Flaws are embraced, celebrated even, and it’s these flaws that infuse her images with such a human quality. There’s a sense of authenticity to all of her shots. From poses to lighting, everything feels like it was decided only moments before the shutter was pressed. It’s raw, unpremeditated, and candidly evocative.


不知是否有意而为,她的作品总算不上完美,却带有一股强烈的青春气场冲破观众眼球。照片的瑕疵被公示于众,甚至被大张旗鼓地宣扬起来,而这些都让她的照片显得更具有人情味儿。同时,照片以生猛的真实感示人,从人物的姿势到灯光,一切都仿佛是按下快门前的瞬间即兴完成。这些摄影作品不加修饰,随性而为,坦率得令人回味无穷。

Jung’s photos most often feature friends, and they’re often scantily clad or entirely without clothing. In one shot, a nude girl stands knee-deep in a pond. Behind her, expansive darkness seems to stretch ad infinitum. She glances back at the camera, as if inviting the viewer to enter the void with her. In another image, a milky liquid dripping across entangled, tough-to-identify body parts feels borderline obscene—though there’s nothing indecent appearing in the frame. Her art is designed to be suggestive and ambiguous, keeping audiences guessing as to what’s happening just outside their field of vision.


很多照片的主角都是丁藝振的朋友,他们通常衣不蔽体或完全赤裸。一个全身赤裸的女孩站在半尺高的池塘里,在她身后是无限延伸的黑暗;女孩回头看了一眼镜头,仿佛在邀请观众和她一起遁入虚无。在另一张照片中,乳白色的液体滴落在纠缠不清、难以辨认的人体部位上,整个画面没有任何不雅的元素,却像是在情色的边缘疯狂试探。她的摄影作品总是模棱两可、且充满暗示性,吸引着观众去联想镜头之外所发生的故事。

On some of her images, Jung does apply post-production, but not in the conventional sense—none of it is done digitally. She might embroider patterns atop a film print, drop them into a filled tub of water, or simply slice them up and overlay them atop of each—shooting a new photo of the results. No matter the technique, working hands-on with the image remains an important part of her creative process. She believes that, in the digital-media deluge of our tech age, the tactility of an image is too often overlooked.


通常,丁藝振也会对一些照片进行后期处理,只不过这些后期都没在电脑上进行。她会先在胶片上镶嵌各种花纹和图案,再把它们洗成照片;或者将照片剪出镂空的图案,再相互交叠,然后将其重新拍摄成一张新照片。无论是哪一种方式,对她而言,重点在于亲手去做。她认为,在数字媒体泛滥的科技时代,人们常常会忽略真实照片的触感。

A renegade through and through, Jung is someone who lives and makes art by her own rules and whims. In her work, there is no right and wrong. Nailing the focus and compositional guidelines are afterthoughts at best. What matters the most is the vibe that she wants to freeze-frame in a particular moment. While this results in a body of work that seems fragmented at first glance, the visual mayhem is deliberately executed. In Jung’s case, there isa clear method to the madness.


对于传统摄影而言,她是一个彻头彻尾的离经叛道者,只按照自己的规则和奇思异想“出牌”。在她的作品中,没有对与错,对焦和构图充其量是她顺带会考虑一下的问题。她最关心的是按下快门那一瞬间的气氛。虽然乍一看,她的作品似乎零散破碎,但这种混乱的视觉却是刻意而为。对于丁藝振的作品,这种表面的疯狂却恰恰构成了她的视觉秩序。

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Instagram: @yejin_jung0415

 

Contributor:  David Yen
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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Instagram: @yejin_jung0415

 

供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Olivia Li