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Artificial Bliss 人造的塑料欲望

August 30, 2019 2019年8月30日
Duck (2017) 140 x 160 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《鸭子》(2016) 140 x 160 厘米 / 布面丙烯

Flexible, accessible, and strong, less a necessity than an object of desire, plastic is as seductive as it is destructive. It’s the perfect symbol for the hazards of materialism, and it’s a source of inspiration for Sun Yitian, one of China’s most intriguing artists under 30. Her paintings range from the abstract to the hyper-realistic, and always bring together the tacky, the humorous, and the ironic.


灵活多变、随手可得又坚韧可耐,虽然不是必需品却让人渴望拥有——塑料,令人着迷的同时也具备有害性,这似乎正是物质主义中欲望与危险的出色映证。但同时,塑料也是孙一钿的作品灵感来源之一。她是目前中国三十周岁以下最炙手可热的艺术家之一。她的创作从抽象到超现实,涉及相当广泛,并总能把附庸风雅、幽默讽刺的主题出色的融合在一起。

Right Hand (2017) 53 x 45 cm / Acrylic on board 《右手》(2017) 53 x 45 厘米 / 木板丙烯
Left Hand (2017) 53 x 45 cm / Acrylic on board 《左手》(2017) 53 x 45 厘米 / 木板丙烯

Sun grew up as an only child in Wenzhou, a place where you can find anything you can imagine, from luxury goods to lousy knock-offs. Consumer products gave her lively imagination something to play with, as did busy streets, flashy billboards, and loud TV shows.

Her artistic epiphany came at a young age. “When I was five, I drew a princess on my handbook,” she remembers. “I left a star-shaped space on her skirt and glued the drawing to the window. The sunlight shone through it, causing a shiny effect on the skirt. My classmates thought it was amazing. That’s when I fell into the trap of art.”

At age 15, Sun moved to Beijing to study at the high school affiliated with the Central Academy of Fine Arts. “I felt like a shrimp going into a vast ocean,” she says. “Everyone was into art, literature, philosophy.” It was this environment that prompted her to cast a critical eye at everything around her, and she began to see human creations as low-quality versions of the natural world. In fact, her subject matter can be understood as the intersection of these two lines: the natural and the artificial. She often depicts elements of nature, but in their most artificial form, playing with loud colors and textures.


孙一钿在温州长大,是家中的独生女。在温州,你能找到任何能想象到的事情,从奢侈品到劣质山寨货,各种商品应有尽有。满目琳琅的货架、繁忙的街道、炫亮的广告牌以及嘈杂的电视节目为她带来了鲜活的想象空间。

小时候的她便对艺术开了窍,“五岁的时候,在本子上画了一位公主。” 她回忆道,“我特意在她的裙子上留下了一个星形的空缺,然后把她粘在窗户上。当阳光照射过来,裙子就会熠熠闪亮。当时同学们都觉得这幅画太棒了。从那时起,我就爱上了艺术。”

15 岁时,孙一钿搬到北京,就读于中央美术学院附属高中。“我感觉自己就像一只小虾,突然闯进了广阔的海洋。”她说,“在那里,所有人都很热爱艺术、文学和哲学。”这种环境促使她学会以持批判的态度看待周围的一切。孙一钿开始将人造物视为劣质版本的自然世界。而她的创作对象可以被理解为自然和人造这两个世界的交汇点。她经常以人造物的形式来描绘大自然的元素,用抢眼的色彩和纹理来进行重新演绎。

Let Me Hug You (2015) 133 x 200 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《让我抱抱》(2015) 133 x 200 厘米 / 布面丙烯
Parrot (2017) 200 x 130 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《鹦鹉》(2017) 200 x 130 厘米 / 布面丙烯

In her latest series, A Twinkle, Sun represents a type of man-made reproduction of nature that’s plastic in both the literal and the metaphorical sense: she paints all kinds of blow-up toys, ranging from goofy animals to human figures. Cheap inflatable products like T-rex costumes and flamingo pool floats are often treasured ironically by millennials. Her paintings are a nod both to contemporary attitudes and to older traditions of pop art and photorealism.


在她的最新系列作品《一钿》(A Twinkle)中,孙一钿用人工的手法重新打造了一个从表面到喻意上都是塑料的自然世界。她画了几种充气玩具,包括蠢萌的动物和人物形象。充气玩具其实造价低廉,也没有实际用途,但令人感到讽刺的是,在社交媒体的大环境下,霸王龙和火烈鸟套装常常是千禧一代在互联网上追捧的物件。而这一系列的画作正展现了当今时代的观念,同时致敬流行艺术和照片写实主义的绘法。

Pink Dinosaur with Blue Wing (2016) 230 x 230 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《有蓝色翅膀的粉色恐龙》(2016) 230 x 230 厘米 / 布面丙烯

One of the most remarkable pieces is the large portrait Pink Dinosaur with Blue Wings, which combines colors to striking effect. The pink hue violently dominates the canvas, dissolving from bright ruby to pastel and shaping the object according to light’s reflection. The dinosaur’s nose and horn are simply marked by an abrupt color change to red. Sun gives the animal a perfectly rounded eye, depriving it of any realistic expression.


其中最引人注目的作品之一是巨幅的《有蓝色翅膀的粉色恐龙》,通过色彩打造醒目的视觉效果。强烈的粉红色调占据画布,从明亮的红宝石色逐渐过渡到柔和的粉红色,根据光线反射勾勒出充气玩具的轮廓,用突兀的红色来表现恐龙的鼻子和角的部分。孙一钿给恐龙画了一双圆润的眼睛,避免了任何写实的表达。

Spikes (2018) 230 x 230 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《刺》(2018) 230 x 230 厘米 / 布面丙烯
Spikes (2018) 50 x 50 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《刺》(2018) 50 x 50 厘米 / 布面丙烯
When You Look into My Eyes (2015) / Acrylic on canvas 《When You Look into My Eyes》(2015) / 布面丙烯

Another notable painting is Spikes, a close-up on the spiky parts of two different inflatable toys, one pink and one yellow. What’s fascinating about this piece is the way Sun explores the qualities of the material she’s depicting, giving the viewer a tactile sensation of the opaque, smooth surface of the toy. You almost think you can squeeze it to feel how fully it’s inflated.

In all her pieces, the wrinkles and seams on the plastic surface are visible, as are the little imperfections typical of mass-production. The objects have shiny surfaces and deep shadows behind them, details which add a hyper-realistic touch. Only upon close examination does the viewer realize that they are in fact acrylic paintings. To achieve this result, Sun buys the inflatable toys on Taobao, sets up a proper studio and photographs them from multiple angles. Based on these pictures she starts the long painting process.


另一件瞩目的画作是《尖峰》(Spikes),两款充气玩具分别用粉色和黄色对突出的尖刺进行特写。这件作品令人着迷之处在于孙一钿对所描绘的材料的探索,成功让观众感受到这种不透明、光滑的材料的表面触感,似乎可以用手挤它,来感受其中的充气乐趣。

在所有作品中,塑料表面的皱褶和接缝清晰可见,就连批量生产过程中的那些常见的小缺陷也表现了出来。所有物体都有着亮泽的表面,在背后投下深色的阴影。这些细节增添了超现实感,只有走近仔细察看,观众才可能发现画中的丙烯原料。为了达到这种效果,孙一钿先是从淘宝上购买充气玩具,搭一个合适的摄影棚,再从多个角度拍摄,最后根据照片,开始漫长的绘画过程。

A Tender Panter (2017) 150 x 150 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《不咬人的豹子》(2017) 150 x 150 厘米 / 布面丙烯
Leopard Print (2017) 150 x 150 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《豹纹》(2017) 150 x 150 厘米 / 布面丙烯

The paintings indeed look like works of photorealism, but Sun maintains that they’re merely the product of her detached perspective: “I don’t think my works are in the realm of photo-realism. I just want to observe things objectively and from a higher ground,” she says.

The same series complements these representational works with an array of abstract compositions—geometrical shapes or simple color gradings, studies in the manipulation of light and form. That manipulation is the basis of her technique.


这些作品看上去像是用多种媒介打造的写实绘品,然而孙一钿坚持认为,它们只是她超然而客观的个人视角:“我不认为我的作品属于照片写实主义绘画的范畴。我只是想从更高的角度,客观地观察事物。”

作为这些具象作品的补充,孙一钿在同一系列中又加入了多幅抽象作品。一系列几何形状和单一颜色渐变,对光和形式的操纵研究构成了她创作技巧的根基。

Deep in the Fire (2016) / Acrylic on canvas 《火焰深处》(2016) / 布面丙烯
Interval (2017) 120 x 120 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《隔间》(2016) 120 x 120 厘米 / 布面丙烯
Stripes (2017) 120 x 120 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《条状物》(2016) 120 x 120 厘米 / 布面丙烯

Despite her youth, Sun’s works show a remarkable confidence, and her paintings have been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. A Twinkle was a breakthrough for the artist, as the series connects twentieth-century trends to contemporary cultural contexts. In her precise hands, these cheerfully disposable toys take on a haunting permanence.


尽管年纪尚轻,但孙一钿的作品展现出非凡的自信力,频繁并广泛地在国内外进行展出。《一钿》是她的一次突破:整个系列将二十世纪的艺术元素与当代文化背景联系了起来。在她精准的画笔下,这些有趣的 “一次性” 玩具令人过目难忘。

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Contributor: Tomás Pinheiro
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
Images Courtesy of Bank Gallery / Mab Society


喜欢我们的故事?欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博微信

 

 

供稿人: Tomás Pinheiro
英译中: Olivia Li
图片由 Bank 画廊与 Mab Society 提供

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The Universality of Art 拆不掉的墙

August 23, 2019 2019年8月23日

All around the world, French artist Julien Malland, who goes by the artistic name Seth Globepainter, brings dull and neglected walls to life by painting them with magnificent murals. He often portrays children, their faces turned away or covered in rainbows, as if they’re about to cross into a fantastic new world. Seth’s colorful street art shows a nostalgia for childhood and a sensitivity to context, and frequently involves the participation of nearby residents.

Born in 1974 in Paris, Seth first started tagging in the 1980s, and by the mid-1990s he was an active member of France’s graffiti circles. He went on to travel the world and discovered that through painting he could connect with people from different cultures. His travels led him to host eight episodes of the documentary series Les Nouveaux Explorateurs, in which he introduced different countries through graffiti.


在世界各地,法国艺术家 Julien Malland(又名 Seth Globepainter)以令人震撼的壁画,让那些沉闷、被荒废的墙壁重现活力。他的作品描绘的大多是小孩,他们扭过头或将脸埋在彩虹中,仿佛即将跨入一个梦幻的新世界。Seth 丰富多彩的街头艺术展示了对童年的怀念和环境敏感性,还常常会包括附近居民的参与。

Seth 于 1974 年在巴黎出生,从 80 年代开始创作涂鸦签名 tag,到了 90 年代中期,他已经成为法国一名活跃的涂鸦艺术家。之后 Seth 的足迹遍布世界,在旅途中,他发现画画可以让自己和来自不同文化背景的人相交流。有了这些旅行经历,他被邀请主持一个 8 集的系列纪录片《Les Nouveaux Explorateurs》(《新探索者》),通过涂鸦介绍不同的国家。

Seth has been coming to China for a long time, and his other nickname, Mr. Qi, is a translation of sorts of his artistic name. (In French, ‘Seth’ is a homonym for sept, or seven, which in Mandarin is qi.) When he first visited the country, he encountered a new and unique reaction to his work. “China doesn’t have a street-art culture like other Asian places, such as Japan or Thailand,” he explains. “Chinese people have a totally fresh curiosity when it comes to this form of expression, and that’s what’s motivated me to continue working in the country.”


Seth 来中国已经有很长一段时间,他的另一个外号“柒先生”是他艺名的中文翻译。法语里,“Seth”与“sept”谐音,意为 7,中文为“柒 。当他第一次到访中国时,他发现当地人对自己的作品有一种截然不同的独特反应。“中国不像日本、泰国和其他亚洲地区那样有着街头艺术文化。”他解释说,“中国人对于这种艺术表达(涂鸦)有新鲜感和好奇心,这也促使了我继续在中国创作。”

In Shanghai alone, he’s created over 20 murals in public areas. Most of these he painted in old shikumen, the city’s traditional lane houses, many of which have been torn down to make way for high rises. Seth often paints amid the rubble, after the evacuation but before complete demolition, portraying characters from the lanes’ former bustling life. “I like to walk in these old parts of the city. That’s where I can find the last vestiges of old China, the one that has always fascinated me. My paintings are a way to debate the rapid transformation of the country.”


单是在上海,他就创作了 20 多幅墙绘,大多数都画在上海的传统弄堂建筑老石库门上,其中许多已被拆除,给高楼大厦让位。Seth 常常在居民迁出后,大楼被完全拆掉之前的瓦砾中创作,刻画出弄堂居民之前熙熙攘攘的生活。“我喜欢在上海的老城区逛,在那里,我可以找到始终让我着迷的、旧中国的痕迹。我的作品其实是对中国快速转型的讨论。”

In 2018, he spent two months in the city for a residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). On a half-destroyed portico on Kangding Road, Seth painted two kids in the red scarves worn by all primary school students in China. It’s a simple but meaningful element that every Chinese person immediately recognizes and remembers. One block away, he painted another mural with a more melancholic air: a girl holding a tiny house in her arms. Her eyes are shut and she has a mournful expression as if trying to hold on to the home that she had to abandon.


2018 年,他作为上海当代艺术博物馆(MoCA)的驻地艺术家,曾在这座城市生活过两个月的时间。在康定路一座半毁的门廊上,Seth 画了两个戴着红领巾的小学生。在中国,所有小学生都会佩戴红领巾,这是一个简单而有意义的元素,每个中国人都能马上认出并记住。而在一个街区之外,他又画了一幅风格更为忧郁的壁画:一个小女孩手中抱着一幢小房子。她闭上了眼睛,透露出一种悲伤的表情,仿佛在试图抓住她不得不放弃的家。

All of Seth’s works in these old neighborhoods were eventually covered or destroyed by the authorities. Yet he isn’t distressed about this fact: “I’m very interested in the fate of my paintings. If they are destroyed by the authorities or preserved by the communities, that says a lot about the places where they were made.”


Seth 在这些旧街区的作品最终都被当局覆盖掉或拆毁。然而,他并不心疼:“我很关心我的画的命运,不论是被当局销毁或被当地社区保留下来,这都能让人对当地有所了解。”

In Fengjing, a historic town near Shanghai, Seth’s works are still standing. They play with the architectural traits of the buildings and local history: a triangular roof forms a bamboo hat, representing rural culture; a window gives shape to another beloved home and, while held tight by a girl, it represents youth migration to urban centers. This series shows how Seth establishes an intense dialogue with the local population, which is for him the purpose of creating in public spaces: “Painting is a pretext. What counts is the exchange between the inhabitants and the artist,” he says. In Fengjing, Seth enlisted a local calligrapher to help him with the quotations from ancient philosophical texts that he incorporated into some of the murals.


在上海附近历史悠久的枫泾古镇,Seth 的作品存留至今。这些作品充分利用了当地建筑的特征和当地历史:一个三角形的屋顶形成一个斗笠,代表当地的乡村文化;一扇窗户构成了新家的轮廓,被一个女孩紧紧抓住,象征青年人迁移到城市中心。这个系列展示了 Seth与当地居民所建立的深层对话,这正是他在公共空间创作的目的:“绘画只是一个借口。重要的是居民和艺术家之间的交流。”他说。在枫泾,Seth 招募了一位当地书法家,帮他将中国古代哲学文献中的引文,加入到一些壁画中。

One of Seth’s more fascinating projects in China is Back to School. In order to bring art to the lives of kids from poor villages all over the country, he selected ten of the best street artists in the world—all of whom already had a connection with the theme of childhood—to create large murals in schools. This colossal project, which he carried out with the Shanghai-based curator Cao Bin, involved finding schools, understanding different communities, working with the authorities, and transporting the heavy equipment necessary to paint the huge walls.


Seth 在中国最引人入胜的项目之一是《Back to School》(回到学校)。为了让艺术走进中国各地贫困村庄的孩子的生活,他找了世界上十位最优秀的街头艺术家,他们的作品都与童年主题有关,然后邀请他们到学校里创作大型壁画。他与上海策展人曹彬一起开展了这个庞大的项目,包括寻找学校、了解不同的社区、与当局合作,以及运送在大幅墙壁上创作所必要的重型设备。

In a village near Mount Siguniang in Sichuan, Seth himself painted a mural five stories high depicting a local girl in the process of drawing a sketch that was given to him by the children of the school. He concentrated on the patterns and details of her traditional Sichuan costume, an elaborate painting work that wittily contrasts with the other childlike elements of the original sketch.


在四川四姑娘山附近一个村庄,Seth 自己在一幅五层楼高的墙壁上创作了一幅壁画,描绘了一个当地女孩画画的情景,而那副画中画则正是当时学校的孩子送给 Seth 的。他细致描画出女孩身上的传统四川服装的图案和细节,与原来那幅充满孩童风格的简单草图形成有趣的对比。

Each artist established a relationship with the local community and integrated their experiences to the murals. Not just the children but also their parents interacted with the artists, sharing music, food, and other aspects of their culture. “The presence of the artist was equally important for the grown-up population,” Seth notes. “They revisited their traditional roots. I believe they knew they’d live with the mural for a long time, so it was important to create a strong bond with its creator.”


每位艺术家都会与当地社区建立一定的关系,将自己的经历融入壁画的创作中。不只是孩子,小孩父母也会与艺术家有所互动:分享音乐、食物和他们其他方面的文化。“艺术家的存在对于成年人来说同样重要。”Seth 说,“这会让他们重新审视自己的传统根源。他们知道自己会与这些壁画一起生活很长一段时间,所以很有必要和壁画的创作者形成一个稳固的连接。”

Seth doesn’t spell things out for the viewer. His art is more intelligent than obvious, more suggestive than provocative. He evokes tradition while tactfully alluding to social and political issues, sparking a range of reactions among locals. No matter where he paints, he attributes the ownership and responsibility for his works to the local population. “I leave my work to those who live around it,” he says. “It all belongs to them.”


Seth 不会将作品的内涵直接挑明给观众。他的作品充满智慧,却不是一目了然;更多的是暗示,而非不言而喻。他引用传统,又巧妙地影射社会和政治问题,激起当地观众的反应。无论在哪里画画,他都将他的作品的所有权和责任交托给了当地居民。“我将自己的作品留给附近生活的居民,作品的一切都属于他们。”Seth 说。

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Website: seth.fr
Instagram: @seth_globepainter

 

Contributor: Tomas Pinheiro
Translation: Olivia Li
Images Courtesy of Julien Malland


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网站: seth.fr
Instagram: @seth_globepainter

 

供稿人: Tomas Pinheiro
英译中: Olivia Li
图片由f Julien Malland 提供

Bare Masculinity 袒露男性气质

August 12, 2019 2019年8月12日

The light filters softly in through the window on the figure of a young man. Face half-covered, with a calm and slightly defiant expression, he looks as though he knows something he doesn’t want to reveal. The photo is part of Comfort Boy Zoom, a series of portraits of men in varying states of undress taken by Yan Yufeng. Asked why so much of his work features semi-naked men, he laughs. “That’s a misunderstanding,” he says. “That’s just one of my projects. Maybe everyone remembers it because it’s been going on for a while now.” It’s memorable not for the suggestive subject matter, but for the way the portraits blend confidence and vulnerability, withholding and revealing in equal measure. “The subject is an exploration of masculinity,” Yan explains. “And the models decide whether or not they wear clothes.”


光线透过窗户,投落在一名年轻男孩身上。半遮掩的脸上,表情平静又略带挑衅,像是藏着一个不想透露的秘密。这张照片来自严玉峰的摄影系列《Comfort Boy Zoom》,其中有许多男性私房照。谈到为什么他的大部分作品都是半裸男人时,他笑着说:“我觉得这是个误解。这只是我的其中一个拍摄项目,可能因为这个项目延续时间比较长,所以大家比较记得。”这个系列之所以令人难忘,不仅在于当中的性暗示主题,更因为这些肖像作品那种兼备自信和脆弱的矛盾性,以及在表象之下有所隐藏的神秘感。“模特穿不穿衣服都是由他们自己决定的,这个主题主要还是对男性气质的探讨。”严他解释道。

Yan grew up in Chengdu and studied printmaking in college in Milan. He began taking photos only a few years ago, in 2015, as part of a school project. He found he had a knack for it, and before long he’d turned his hobby into a profession. Now he lives in Shanghai and shoots for fashion brands such as Angel Chen, Ponder.er, and Untitlab, and magazines such as ELLE Men. When he’s not taking pictures for clients, he works on building his portfolio.

And whatever he says, that portfolio is dominated by half-naked men. They recline on couches, lie draped over chairs, stand baring all—though in many of the photos, the sensitive areas have discreetly been blurred out. Often a rectangle of sunlight falls across a chest, a geometrical counterpoint to the human subject. Yan’s genius lies in his knack for using light to give his photographs an unexpected depth.


严玉峰自小在成都长大,大学时去了米兰就读版画专业。直到 2015 年,因为学校的一个项目,他才开始涉足摄影。很快他就发现自己在摄影方面颇具天赋,这个爱好就变成了职业。现在,他居住在上海,为 Angel Chen、Ponder.er 和 Untitlab 等时尚品牌拍摄,还有 ELLE Men 之类的杂志。不用给客户拍照时,他就会进行个人创作。

虽然他表示自己不只是拍摄半裸的男性,但作品确实大都是这个题材。这些男人或靠着沙发、倚着椅子,或赤裸地站着,不过敏感位置都已被他模糊处理掉。在他的照片中,常常会有一抹方形的阳光落在模特胸前,与他们的身体形成具有几何感的对比。严玉峰的摄影,其过人之处就在于利用光线让照片呈现意想不到的深度。

For Ponder.er 《Ponder.er》合作拍摄
For Dear Boy Magazine 《Dear Boy Magazine》合作拍摄

A portrait of the photographer Liu Shuwei, taken at his Shanghai home, is set against the fading rays of a late afternoon sun. Another, more immediate light illuminates Liu from the front, and almost seems to radiate out from his body. The fine balance between these sources of light is what gives the portrait its electric energy.


他给摄影师刘树伟在上海家中拍摄的照片里,渐隐的夕阳映衬着他的身影。与此同时,另一个更直接的光源从正面照亮他的面孔,看上去就像有光线从他的身体辐射出来。不同光源之间的出色平衡使他的肖像作品充满扣人心弦的力量。

Even more dramatic lighting is at play in Yan’s black-and-white self-portraits, floating against a black backdrop and edited to leave only isolated strips of bare skin. The result is a series of almost geometric compositions—monochrome arrangements where the human figure has been sublimated into an abstract shape.


而在他自己的黑白自拍中,他又运用了更具戏剧性的布光:设景的黑色幕布再加之后期编辑,最后只留下了几片裸露的肌肤。最终,呈现出一系列几何风格的构图——通过单色构图,将人的形体升华为抽象的形状。

Given his close attention to form, it’s surprising that Yan says he’s led largely by instinct. “What I think about most [when shooting] is whether I like the photo or not,” he says. “Whether it’s a travel photo, a still life, or a portrait, if it ultimately carries out its mission, it’s a good shot.”


严玉峰的照片虽然看上去形式感很重,但令人惊讶的是,他说他拍照主要还是出于直觉。“我考虑最多的还是这张照片最后我自己喜不喜欢吧,我觉得一张好的照片,这个‘好’的定义每一个人都不太相同,不管是旅游照还是静物,人物的拍摄,照片最后完成了它本来的使命了,就是一张好照片。”他解释道。

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Website: yanyufon.com
Instagram: @yanyufon

 

Contributor: Allen Young
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


喜欢我们的故事?欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博微信

 

网站: yanyufon.com
Instagram: @yanyufon

 

供稿人: Allen Young
英译中: Olivia Li

 

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Queer Notions 用纷繁画面,打破陈旧观念

August 7, 2019 2019年8月7日
Familial《Familial》

Surrealist images dealing with real-world issues. Joyous pictures confronting difficult subjects. Photographs resembling digital collages. Leonard Suryajaya‘s artwork is a study in self-love buffeted by confusion and conflict. His photos are full of intricate details and mesmerizing subject matter. These large format film photographs are drenched in colorful costumes and linens, arrays of fluttering paper cut-outs, powerful locations, and a heavy dose of humor. They balance opposing elements to create tension and mystery. And there are clearly stories within all the symbolism and otherworldliness, which compels viewers to decode the images, making his work almost participatory.

Suryajaya, who currently lives and works in Chicago, was raised in Indonesia, where he was a minority three times over, in race, sexual preference, and religion. He grew up ethnically Chinese in a majority Malay population, queer in a conservative town, and Buddhist at Christian schools in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. Although things have improved for Chinese Indonesians since he was a child, when 1,000 Chinese were killed in riots in 1998, discrimination there remains. And despite going to a school surrounded by kids of his own ethnicity, he was still taunted by his classmates, who called him and his family “false idols.” Recently, his home country has been retreating into conservatism in terms of religion, sexuality, and morea fact that has made him feel increasingly distant from home.


超现实主义的影像,寓意现实世界的种种问题;滑稽风趣的画面,碰撞出复杂的主题。Leonard Suryajaya 的作品看上去像数字拼贴而成的照片,探讨了夹杂着混乱与冲突的自我怜爱。在他的照片里,充满了错综陈杂的细节和引人入胜的主题。那些大格式的胶底照片被五颜六色的服饰和亚麻布填满,在漫天飞舞的剪纸,以及充满视觉冲击力的布景背后,透露出一股浓浓的幽默感。平衡与对立的元素,营造出紧张和神秘的气氛。显然,所有这些象征主义和精神内涵都在明确地讲述着每一个故事,迫使观众对画面进行解码,也因而使得他的作品具有很强的代入感。

Suryajaya 目前在芝加哥工作和生活,而在他的出生地印度尼西亚,无论从种族、性取向还是宗教,他都可以算得上是 “少数派”。拥有华人血统的他,在一个主要由马来人构成的保守小镇中长大,作为佛教徒,他曾就读于一所基督教学校,而马来西亚却又是一个以穆斯林为主导的国家。在他小时候,印尼华人备受歧视,在1998 年曾有 1000 名华人在骚乱中丧生。现在,虽然情况已经有所改善了,但当地对华人的歧视依然存留。尽管他是在华人学校上学,还是会常常被嘲笑为 “false idol” (虚假的偶像)。近年来,印尼在宗教性取向、和其他方面开始再度退回到保守主义,这让他感到自己与这个国家越来越疏远。

Salem《Salem》
Mom and All of the Jewelries She Bought Herself with Her Own Money《Mom and All of the Jewelries She Bought Herself with Her Own Money》

Only when Suryajaya moved to California in 2006 to study art did he begin to feel free enough to explore his identity. And although in the US he was able to open up, it wasn’t the escape he imagined. “Xenophobia, discrimination, and attitudes of social/cultural superiority are present everywhere,” he says. “To say I was surprised is an understatement.” He directly tackles this difficult terrain in his work, especially the ongoing False Idol series, which he describes as “a body of work tracing my immigration process through my same-sex marriage. The permanent residence application takes about four to five years, so I plan on concluding the series when I find out if I get to stay in America or not.”


直到 2006 年,Suryajaya 搬到加利福尼亚修读艺术专业,他才得以真正自由地探索自己的身份。虽然在美国他能够更加开放,但他并未获得想象中的解放。“无论在哪里,都充满着各种仇外心理、歧视和社会/文化优越感。”他说,“这是我完全始料不及的。”他将这些复杂的问题直接诉诸于作品中,特别是他正在创作的《False Idol》系列。他将这个系列描述为 “记录我通过同性婚姻移民整个过程的作品。申请永久居留大约要四到五年,所以我打算在确定自己能否留在美国之前完结这个系列。

Kinfolk Lipsync《Kinfolk Lipsync》
Candyman《Candyman》

He didn’t hit his stride until he came out to his family eight years after arriving in the US. “For my growth as a human being and an artist, being able to admit to my mother that I was queer was really what I needed,” Suryajaya explains. “Since then, I’ve become more adventurous, celebratory, conflicting, and layered in my visual language, as opposed to trying to make things simpler by sweeping them under the rug.” His husband is one of the most frequently recurring models in his work, which also includes family, friends, colleagues, and lovers.


在美国的第八个年头,他向家人出柜,此后,他的创作获得了真正的释放。Suryajaya 解释说:“无论是作为一个人,或是作为艺术家,想要真正成长,我就必需向我的母亲承认同性恋的身份。从那时起,我的视觉语言就变得更大胆,风格更活泼,也有更多碰撞和层次,而不再是一味对所有事情避而不谈。” 除了他的丈夫,家人、朋友、同事和前任也常常作为模特出现在他的作品里。

Good Neighbors《Good Neighbors》
Two Bodies《Two Bodies》

One piece, Good Neighbors, finds him posing with another artist in comical polka-dot face paint as part of a response to racist incidents he encountered among his colleagues and followers. In his characteristic way, Suryajaya uses levity to engage viewers on a volatile subject: “A simple way to describe that piece is that I’m saying, ‘Hi guys, we come in peace, bearing flowers despite looking funny.’”


在他的作品《Good Neighbors》(好邻居)中,他与另一位面上画着滑稽波点的艺术家合影,以此回应他在同事和粉丝中遇到过的种族歧视事件。Suryajaya 以他独特的方式,通过搞怪,让观众探讨一个短暂的主题:“简单来说,那幅作品其实就我在说,‘嗨,虽然我们看起来很搞笑,但我们是为和平而来,还带着花呢。’”

Welcome Room (Florida)《Welcome Room (Florida)》
Homeland Security《Homeland Security》
Breakfast《Breakfast》

Other pieces depict women of various ages and ethnicities from his hometown in Medan, Indonesia, including his family members, wearing different costumes and staged in ritualistic poses. “The goal here was to show how the ideals of femininity can vary, particularly within Indonesia. Acknowledging that women are as powerful as men, if not more powerful, is important to me. I respect women, and try to acknowledge that I have more privilege as a male-bodied person.”


在其他作品中,他在家乡棉兰(Medan)拍摄了各种年龄和种族的女性,包括了他的家人。她们穿着不同的服饰,摆着充满宗教意味的姿势。“这些作品的目的是为了展示不同气质的女性,特别是在印度尼西亚。承认女性跟男性一样强大,抑或甚至更强大,对我来说很重要。我尊重女性,但也不得不承认,作为男性,我确实比她们享受到了更多特权。”

Feminine Conference《Feminine Conference》
Deafening Silence《Deafening Silence》
Arisan《Arisan》

But for all his social commentary and visual vocabulary rooted in Indonesian cultural signifiers, all Suryajaya really asks is that viewers abandon any preconceptions and be honest with themselves. You don’t need to understand it all to identify with it. “All I remember from my time in Indonesia is wanting to run away,” he says. “It would be close-minded to think I could only be understood by my culture specifically because my experiences have shown me that my cultures rejected me. The whole point is to pick up on what interests you initially and then spend time deciphering and seeing different narratives and possibilities. The aim for me is to be able to connect as humans.”


但是,尽管他所有的社会观点和视觉语言都植根于印尼文化符号,但 Suryajaya 希望观众能摒弃所有成见,并诚实地解读。你并不需要熟悉这些文化才能理解他的作品。 “我在印度尼西亚的时候,一心只想要逃跑。”他说,“如果以为只有懂印尼文化才能理解我的作品,那是一种狭隘的想法。因为经历让我明白,我被自己的文化拒绝。重要的是,了解最初吸引你的点,然后花时间去解读,洞察不同的叙述和可能性。我的目标,是希望被作为一个人来解读。”

Cracker Oath《Cracker Oath》
Musing《Musing》

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Website: leonardsuryajaya.com
Instagram: @leonardsuryajaya

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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网站: leonardsuryajaya.com
Instagram: @leonardsuryajaya

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Muscle Boys 谁的青春期不像“匹诺曹”?

July 26, 2019 2019年7月26日
The Real Boy 7 (2014) 80 x 100 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 7》(2014) 80 x 100 厘米 / 布面油画

When she first began painting, Shang Liang created carefully arranged, realistic depictions of everyday scenes in a mild color palette. Fifteen years later, her works have different air: one of abnormal power and force. She paints muscular characters that seem to burst out of the frame of her large canvases. They can be human or inhuman, but they all possess the same larger-than-life muscles. 

Born in 1981 in Beijing, Shang was raised in a military community in the same city. She attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), where she studied oil painting under Liu Xiaodong, one of China’s greatest painters. Several years later, searching for new means of expression, she returned to CAFA for a master’s degree in experimental art, and there she developed a distinctive, slightly surreal style.


刚开始画画时,商亮喜欢用柔淡的色调,描绘各种精心设计、写实风格的日常场景。15 年后,她的作品呈现出截然不同的风格:充满怪异力量感的画面。她笔下肌肉发达的角色像是要从画中冲出来一样。这些角色既有人类也有非人类,但无一例外,都拥有夸张的发达肌肉。

商亮 1981 年出生于北京,从小在当地一个军区大院长大。后来入读了中央美术学院,师从中国著名画家刘小东学习油画。几年后,为了寻找新的表达方式,她又回到中央美术学院,修读实验艺术硕士学位,并在那里形成自己独特的、偏超现实主义的绘画风格。

The Real Boy 25 (2016) 158 x 129 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 25》(2016) 158 x 129 厘米 / 布面油画
The Real Boy 21 (2016) 166 x 129.5 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 21》(2016) 158 x 129 厘米 / 布面油画

This distinctive style began to appear when she became interested in the subject of adolescence: “I think there is obscurity about this period in life,” she explains, “teenagers have confused emotions and uncertainty about what they will become. It’s a period of intense transformation and development, both in the body and the mind.” More than anything else, adolescence is an important moment for developing a moral sense. Teenagers are complicated beings, innocent and still quite vulnerable to the influences around them.


这种独特的风格起源于她对青春期这个主题的兴趣:“我认为人在这个时期是模糊的。”她解释说,“对于自己将会变成什么样,青少年会觉得困惑和不确定。无论是身体还是心灵,这都是一个经历激烈变化和发展的时期。”更重要的是,青春期是形成个人道德观念的重要阶段。处于这个时期的少男少女是非常复杂的,他们既单纯烂漫,对周遭影响又相当敏感。

The Real Boy 19 (2016) 100 x 80 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 19》(2016) 100 x 80 厘米 / 布面油画
The Real Boy 6 (2016) 100 x 80 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 6》(2016) 100 x 80 厘米 / 布面油画
The Real Boy 1 (2016) 80 x 60 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 1》(2012) 80 x 60 厘米 / 布面油画
The Real Boy 20 (2016) 100 x 80 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 20》(2016) 100 x 80 厘米 / 布面油画



In 2012, Shang began to work on The Real Boy series, portraying slender teenage boys with hypertrophic abdominals, chests, and arms. Some are flexing their muscles so hard that veins pop out on their skin. Their faces still reveal tenderness and immaturity, but their expressions and body language suggest a longing to become powerful, muscle-bound men. 

Some paintings in this series feature boys with long, pointy noses, a clear reference to Carlo Collodi’s classic children’s tale Pinocchio. Like the puppet who dreamed of becoming a real boy, the characters in these paintings have to prove themselves mature without straying from the path of honesty and morality. This series dramatizes the challenges and conflicting impulses of adolescence. 


2012 年,商亮开始创作《正道仔》系列,描绘一些有着大腹肌、粗壮胸部和手臂的十几岁少年。其中一些男孩用力展示自己的肌肉,以致于手臂上青筋爆突。他们的面孔仍然显露出温柔和稚嫩,但他们的表情和肢体语言却流露出成为肌肉结实的男人的渴望。

在此系列的一些画作中,有些男孩有着又长又尖的鼻子,这显然是在借鉴 Carlo Collodi 的经典儿童故事《木偶奇遇记》中的匹诺曹。就像梦想成为真正男孩的木偶人一样,这些画中的男孩必须在遵守诚实和道德的原则上,证明自己是成熟的男人。这个系列戏剧化地展示了青春期的各种挑战和矛盾的冲动。

The Real Boy 14 (2015) 80 x 100 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 14》(2015) 80 x 100 厘米 / 布面油画
The Real Boy 21 (2015) 40 x 40 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 21》(2015) 40 x 40 厘米 / 布面油画
The Real Boy 18 (2015) 40 x 40 cm / Oil on canvas 《正道仔 no. 18》(2015) 40 x 40 厘米 / 布面油画

Shang’s following series, Good Hunter, developed naturally from The Real Boy: it’s as if the same characters had grown both in physical form and in confidence. The new characters seem to have exaggerated internal strength, with bodies developed into cartoonish muscular form. Their faces, however, retain the same boyish expressions or have no expression at all. The oversized canvases, bigger than a human body, suggest an intimidating superhuman strength. Standing before these characters, the viewer may feel small, or even oppressed. The exaggerated manliness combined with a complete absence of women seems to be an allusion to patriarchal systems built on oppression and misogyny.


接下来的延伸系列,商亮创作了《好猎手》:画里的人们仿佛还是同一个身份角色,但在身体上发育了,也变得更自信。这些新的少年形象似乎在夸大自己内在的力量,身体有着卡通般的夸张肌肉。然而,他们的面孔却保留着同样的孩子气,或索性面无表情。超大尺寸的画布,比真人更大,代表一种超乎常人的力量。站在这些男孩形象面前,观众可能感觉自己很渺小,甚至充满压迫感。这种夸张的男子气概、女性形象的完全缺席,似乎是对建立在压迫和厌女的基础上、父权制的暗示。

The Good Hunter 11 (2015) 100 x 100 cm / Oil on canvas 《好猎手 no. 11》(2015) 100 x 100 厘米 / 布面油画

In Boxing Man, her latest series, Shang departs completely from realistic human anatomy, and a new character emerges: one with a boxing glove in the place of the head and no sexual organs.  None of her characters ever really have an adult face, and here they are frightening and inhuman creatures. As she explains: “It’s not human. It’s a new species. You can guess how it senses the world, what it feels, and what it thinks.” With the metaphor of strength and power becoming a head on their own, Boxing Man appears as the culmination of all underlying issues found in her previous series: the struggle for the ultimate strength, the torture of moral dilemmas, and the blind pursuit of power. 


在她最新系列作品《拳击人》中,商亮完全脱离真实人体的描绘,创作出全新的角色:一个以拳套代替头部且没有性器官的角色。在她笔下,没有一个角色是成年人的面孔,相反,它们都是一些可怕和非人形的生物。对此,她解释道:“这不是人类,而是一种新物种。你可以去想象它是如何感知这个世界的,以及它的感受和它的思考方式。”在《拳击人》中,这些角色的头部被用来象征力量和权力,因此,整个系列似乎是对她之前所有作品的潜在主题的总结:奋斗以求的终极力量、囿于道德困境的折磨,和对权力的盲目追求。

Boxing Man 7 (2018) / Oil on canvas 《拳击人 no. 7》(2018) / 布面油画
Boxing Man 8 (2018) / Oil on canvas 《拳击人 no. 8》(2018) / 布面油画

As references for her characters, Shang looks to bodybuilding and fighting TV shows. She also refers to classical sculptures by Michelangelo. To achieve a certain luminosity, she places different layers of paint one over the other. Red, dark-red, and brown are predominant colors, evoking oxygenated and deoxygenated blood and bruises. Her brushstrokes have a notable strength, which comes, no doubt, from her practice of Chinese calligraphy. There are also elements of taiji embedded in the movements and curves of the characters.

Although she has unconsciously absorbed traditional Chinese elements, Shang’s underlying subject matter is not specific to any country or culture. Her work can be seen as a critical commentary on traditional ideas of masculinity. It is fascinating that this appraisal comes from a female artist. If boys face excruciating difficulties when expected to assume the role of a man, what do girls feel when they, too, are expected to succeed?

 

Selected works from Good Hunter and Boxing Man are on display in a solo show at MadeIn Gallery until the first of September. 

 

Address:

MadeIn Gallery
Longteng Avenue, lane 2879, no. 106
Xuhui district, Shanghai
www.madeingallery.com


为了角色的创作,商亮观看了各种健美和格斗类电视节目,并参考了米开朗基罗的古典雕塑作品。为了打造光亮感,她将不同的颜料层层叠涂。以红色、深红色和棕色为主的色调,令人联想到各种氧合血、脱氧血和瘀伤。得益于曾习过中国书法,商亮的笔触十分有力。角色的动作和曲线,也融合了太极拳的元素。

虽然她在创作中无意识地糅合了中国传统元素,但商亮的作品主题并无针对任何一个国家或文化。她的作品可以看作是对男性气质的传统观念的批判。让人深思的是,这种评价来自一位女艺术家。如果男孩被要求扮演男人的角色时,就会面临极度的困难,那么当女孩们被指望着人生有成的时候,她们又会作何感想呢?

 

来自《好猎手》和《拳击人》系列的精选作品日前正在上海没顶画廊举办的个展中展出,展览将于 9 月 1 日闭幕。

 

地址:

没顶画廊
上海市徐汇区
龙腾大道2879号106室
www.madeingallery.com

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Website: shangliang.co

 

Contributor: Tomás Pinheiro
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


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网站: shangliang.co

 

供稿人: Tomás Pinheiro
英译中: Olivia Li

Untitlab Hits Its Stride 一双踏遍各种场合的鞋

July 12, 2019 2019年7月12日

Peng Xin, who goes by the name of Sans, is lanky and tall, with boyish looks and an irrepressible energy. At just 25, he’s just launched one of China’s newest and most peculiar high-fashion brands, untitlab, along with his friends Justin Zen and Tian Cai.  They’ve set themselves an ambitious challenge: to create shoes that bridge formal and sportswear.

Untitlab just debuted its spring/summer 2020 collection in Florence at Pitti Uomo, the semiannual menswear show that introduces new designs to industry buyers. This year’s guest of honor was China, and untitlab was one of just 10 Chinese brands selected to present their collection.


那个瘦瘦高高的、充满活力、脸上略带稚气的男生名叫彭鑫,亦称 Sans,是设计师。Sans 今年只有 25 岁,已经跟他的朋友田才与曾治翔创办了 untitlab,这是中国最清新、最独特的时尚品牌之一。他们给自己设定了一个艰巨的挑战:设计出正装和运动服都合适的鞋履。

最近 untitlab SS 2020 的鞋履系列亮相在佛罗伦萨的 Pitti Uomo 男装展,这场一年两度的盛会给业内买手推介着各大设计品牌的最新款,今年中国是特邀嘉宾国,十个品牌入选代表中国,而 untitlab 是其中之一。

Photographer: Yan Yufeng 摄影师:Yan Yufeng

Untitlab’s shoes are nothing if not eye-catching. With glossy black tops, neon highlights, puffy tongues, and oversized military soles, they look like a cross between oxfords, trainers, and combat boots. You may not need to go straight from an urbex outing to a rooftop cocktail party, but in these shoes you certainly could: they split the difference between the active and the elegant. Or rather, they’re the kind of statement piece that belongs to the more eccentric and rarefied realm of high fashion, where categories like “formal” or “athletic” are beside the point. If you’re wearing untitlabs, you don’t want to fit in.

That unclassifiable quality is reflected in the brand’s peculiar name, which itself is a mashup. Combining “untitled,” and “laboratory,” it aims to evoke a spirit of experimentation. “We want to cast off the constraints of function and contour,” says Sans. “We invite the wearer to play an active role, to create personal scenarios for use.”

Untitlab is also committed to making their company eco-friendly. Their shoes are 100% vegan, and what looks like patent leather is actually synthetic. Sans spends a lot of time on the road, meeting with factory managers and learning about different materials. In both design and production, he’s obsessed with making everything perfect.


untitlab 的产品非常显眼,黑色的漆面、鲜艳的提亮、蓬松的鞋舌、加大码的军事鞋底,有点像牛津鞋、运动鞋与战斗靴的组合体。穿着这款鞋子,就算要从城市探险直接跳脱到豪华的露台鸡尾酒会这种状况也完全不是问题:鞋子介于优雅和粗犷之间,或者更准确地说,这种个性标志属于更高的时尚领域,而“正装”、“运动”等类别完全不适用。可以想见,穿 untitlab 鞋子的一定不是随波逐流的那种人。

品牌的名字是混合词,反映了产品这种难以归类的本质。由 “untitled”(未命名)和 “laboratory”(实验室)这两个英文单词组成的品牌名,旨在勾起人们的试验精神。“我们希望打破功能与造型的束缚。”Sans 说,“是一个主动参与和自发建立个人使用场景的邀请。”

untitlab 还致力于环保,鞋子不含动物制品,那个像漆皮的面料实际上是人造皮。Sans 经常出差跟工厂老板会面,以加深对布料的了解。不管是设计还是制造,他都要达到完美的标准。

Sans studied product design and art, first at Jiangnan University—where he met co-founders Zen and Tian—and later at Birmingham City University in the UK. After graduating, he moved to Paris to spend ten months interning at Rombaut, a small shoe designer whose sensibility he shared. “I did two seasons of design for Rombaut, and also worked with brands like Sandro Paris and Hugo Boss,” he says. “There’s one style of Hugo Boss shoes where I saw through the whole process, from concept to product release.” Yet the individual designs were only part of the experience. “The city and the work were culturally enriching and broadened my horizons. That’s what really what mattered.”

In 2018, Sans moved back to China to work with fashion label Angel Chen, one of China’s leading young designers, known for her idiosyncratic style. But after two seaons he and his friends decided to strike out on their own and found a brand. “We realized that in China niche shoes were basically a wide-open sea—no brand had yet appeared that could command consumers’ attention,” says Zen. “So we thought, what if we could  create that brand and meet that demand? When the time was right, we all left our jobs to found untitlab.”


Sans 的专业是艺术和产品设计,在江南大学的时候结识了曾治翔和田才,后来转学到英国伯明翰城市大学(Birmingham City University)读完本科。毕业后搬到了巴黎,在 Rombaut 这家审美观点跟他一致的鞋履品牌实习了十个月。他说,“我负责了两季 Rombaut 的设计之外,也参与了 Sandro Paris、Hugo Boss 这些品牌的服务,有一款 Hugo Boss 的鞋我完成了概念到成品发布的整个过程。”尽管如此,对他来说这些作品只是那年感受的一小部分。“城市和工作本身带给我的文化渲染、眼界的开拓才是最重要的。”

2018 年,Sans 回到中国跟已崭露头角的设计师 Angel Chen 合作,她的独特风格很吸引他。两季后,他和朋友决定自己闯一闯,创办自己的品牌。“我们发现在国内小众男鞋品牌几乎是一片自由的蓝海,在这个领域还没有一个能够占领消费者心智的品牌出现。”曾治翔说,“那么我们就考虑,是不是可以成立一个这样的品牌去连接这个供需两端。于是时机成熟后,我们就都从各自公司独立出来创办了 untitlab。”

Not even a “wide-open sea” guarantees clear sailing, but so far Sans, Zen, and Tian have had the wind at their backs. Less than a year after starting out, they’re already doing a brisk business online and in select stores around China. “We’re in the initial stages of setting up collaborative relationships with a few buyers, and soon you’ll be able to buy our shoes in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. We’re also optimizing our online shop experience,” says Zen. They’re quickly carving a place for themselves in the Chinese fashion world, as their invitation to Pitti Uomo attests.

Still, for now they’re staying small: the entire company consists of the three founders and three interns. More would be hard to manage, they say, because when the inevitable disagreements arise, it’s important to be able to resolve them quickly and on friendly terms. Besides, for the moment, they’re serving a niche market. “Currently 80% of those wearing our shoes are men,” says Sans. “They’re very independent-minded about style in fashion and accessories.”


虽然“自由蓝海”不算无往不利,但目前为止一切都还顺风顺水。Sans、曾治翔与田才是 2019 1月1日才正式创立的公司,现在线上零售店与线下实体店的生意却很是兴隆。曾治翔说,“我们有与几家买手店已经初步建立合作关系,接下来在香港、北京、广州、上海都能够买到我们的鞋子,同时我们也在优化线上小程序商店的体验。”

尽管如此,公司暂时还是很小,包括三位创始人和三名实习生。但他们表示,人太多的话管理就变复杂了,人少比较容易找到和气的方法来解决不可避免的分歧,这很重要。并且,现在的受众群还不算大。Sans 说,“目前穿我们的鞋子的消费者 80% 是男士,他们对穿衣及搭配的风格很有自己的想法。”

From the untitlab A/W 2019 lookbook untitlab 2019 秋冬产品型录
From the untitlab A/W 2019 lookbook untitlab 2019 秋冬产品型录
From the untitlab S/S 2020 lookbook untitlab 2020 春夏产品型录
From the untitlab S/S 2020 lookbook untitlab 2020 春夏产品型录

Small doesn’t mean unambitious, and untitlab has big plans for the future. First they want to build a community of devoted customers and expand their operations. Eventually they hope to do research and develop their own sustainable materials. “We plan to set up our own materials production facility, maybe by starting out with a small-scale workshop,” explains Zen. “We want to use materials made in China that are artisanal, innovative, and sustainable.”

Asked about the company’s long-term aspirations, Sans isn’t shy. Their goals are: “within five years, to be the footwear brand with the most creative allure in China,” he says. “Within 10 years, to be a nationally influential brand, driving the development of the sustainable fashion industry. Within 20 years, to be a cultural brand with social influence internationally, driving innovation and progress in the global sustainable fashion supply chain.”

That’s a tall order for a brand whose shoes are, for the moment, far from mainstream tastes. But the three founders have talent to match their ambition, and after coming so far in such a short time, who knows how far they’ll go? Untitlab is one to watch.


小公司也有大抱负,untitlab 对未来有着宏大的理想。首先他们想建立 untitlab 的客户群并扩展生意,过了几年还希望能够研发可持续性的布料。“我们也有计划打造自己的面料工厂,可能先从小规模的作坊开始。” 曾治翔说,“希望我们的面料都能使用中国原创的、具有工匠精神的、创新且可持续性的面料。”

至于公司的长远愿景,Sans 相当大胆:“未来五年成为中国最具创意号召力的鞋履品牌;未来十年成为中国具有影响力的时尚品牌,带动中国可持续时尚产业的发展;未来二十年成为国际具有社会影响力的文化品牌,带动国际可持续时尚产业链的创新与进步。”

对这样的小众品牌而言,实现远大的愿景并非易事。但这三位创始人既有才华也有抱负,短时间内又成长得异常迅速,将来还会走多远,谁也无法预料。至少可以说,untitlab 这个充满创新的品牌非常值得关注。

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Website
: www.untitlab.com 
Instagram
: @untitlab
Facebook: ~/untitlab
Weibo: ~/untitlab
WeChat: untitlab_official


Contributor: Allen Young
Photographer: David Yen
Additional Images Courtesy of untitlab


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网站: www.untitlab.com
Instagram
: @untitlab
Facebook: ~/untitlab
微博: ~/untitlab
微信: untitlab_official


供稿人: Allen Young
摄影师: David Yen
附加图片由 untitlab 提供

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Flowers in the Mirror 我、花朵和镜子的关系

July 5, 2019 2019年7月5日

Liu Ziqian’s simple, elegant, slightly surreal photographs are no ordinary self-portraits. They show more of her long limbs than of her face, and they often center on fruits, mirrors, or flowers. Yet she remains the subject, not only in a physical but in an emotional sense: her photographs began as a way to explore herself and cope with loneliness in the wake of a breakup. 

Out of all the creative outlets that she could have pursued, Liu decided on photography because she found that it was the most therapeutic. Soul-searching came in the click of a shutter. Photography also served as a visual diary, where different moments of her appearance are recorded in pictures.

“What I love most about photography is that it can be a very quiet and profound companion for me,” she says. “It helps me not just to record different moments, but also to convey my inner voice. In the process of photography, I can find answers to many internal questions.” 


刘子千镜头下简约、优雅、略显超现实的照片,其实并非一般的肖像照——它们更多的是展示她修长的四肢,而不是脸,也常常以水果、镜子或花朵为中心。然而,她自己仍是主题——不仅是身体,在情感上,她的照片也开启了一种方法,去探索自己、去应付分手后的孤独。

在她本可选择的所有创意媒介中,刘子千决定走上摄影这条路,是因为她发现摄影最为治愈。只消轻轻一按快门,灵魂展露无疑。那些照片也可以作为她的视觉日记,在那里,不同时刻她的形象被记录在照片上。

我最喜欢摄影的一点是,它可以成为我一个非常安静且深刻的伴侣,她说,“它不但能帮我记录不同的时刻,而且还替我传达了我的心声。在拍摄的过程中,它亦帮助我找到了许多内部问题的答案。

Liu’s series of portraits may be serene, but they are far from dull. “I hope to give the audience a small world that’s calm but not flat,” she says about her works. Though each portrait has a demure and delicate quality, she still aims to subtly channel women’s inner strength. At times Liu finds herself plagued by restlessness and bouts of insecurity. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, though, she takes control of these feelings, composing photographs whose meticulous balance seems to convey an emotional state.


刘子千一系列的肖像照也许显得很淡然,但她们并不单调。“我希望给观众一个平静但不平淡的小世界。”她这样评价自己的作品。尽管每张照片都流露出端庄细腻之感,但她仍然试图巧妙地引导女性内在的力量。刘子千时不时会发现自己为焦躁和不安感所困扰,她不再顾影自怜,而是去控制这些情感,通过拍摄照片,以微妙的平衡去传达了一种情感状态。

Forget about avant-garde theatrics and elaborate props—Liu uses simple, everyday objects. Round mirrors, fruits and flowers, even eggs serve as her co-stars in the portraits. They help shape the two main themes of her works. First, a balance between human beings and nature. Liu believes that humans are part of the natural world, as we live in the same space and breathe the same air. “I try to find a state of harmony between humans and nature in my works, one that is full of peace and emotion.” 

The second theme centers on perspective. As we get overly familiar with the simple objects we use everyday, we no longer really see them in a unique light. Liu encourages the viewer to look at familiar things from different angles by changing the appearance of her props, such as using sliced lemons instead of the whole fruit. “This is not only about things,” she clarifies, pointing to a larger meaning. “It’s also about understanding others and our hearts.” 


忘掉那些浮夸的动作和复杂的道具吧,刘子千的照片里用的是再普通不过的日用品——圆镜、水果和鲜花,甚至鸡蛋也可以入镜。它们帮助塑造了她作品的两大主题。第一,是人与自然的平衡。刘子千认为人是自然界的一部分,因为我们生活在同一个空间里,呼吸着同样的空气。“我试图在我的作品中找到一种人与自然和谐的状态,一种充满和平与情感的状态。”

第二个主题,是以独特的视角为中心。当我们对每天使用的物什过于熟悉的时候,也就不再会以独特的视角来看待它们。刘子千鼓励观众从不同角度观察熟悉的事物,改变它们的外观,比如用柠檬片代替整颗柠檬。“这不仅仅关于小物价本身,”她正言道,指出了一个更大的含义,“这也关乎理解他人和我们的心之所想。”

Minimalism is one of the most popular styles of photography on Instagram, perhaps because viewers seek peace in an otherwise chaotic world. Almost without meaning to, Liu has beautifully harnessed this aesthetic in her photos. “I do not have a very clear expectation of style. Everything is completely based on feelings and is always in the state of semi-fumbling, semi-learning. But I want to keep it minimalist. Minimalism is a reminder for me to stay pure inside and try not to be too distracted by the noise.” 

She discovered her style through constant arrangement and experimentation while shooting and processing her photos. She aims to find the combination that makes her feel most comfortable and “quiet.” Avoiding repetition, or trying to maintain her style while still pushing boundaries, sometimes proves to be a challenge, but she presses on. “I want to think more and observe more to get more inspiration,” she says. 


也许是因为观众想在这个混乱的世界里寻求安宁,让极简主义变成 Instagram 上最流行的摄影风格之一。刘子千在她的照片中完美地利用了这种美学:几乎全无刻意。“我对风格没有很明确的期望。一切都完全建立在感情的基础上,总是处于半摸索、半学习的状态。但我想保持它极简主义。极简主义提醒我要保持内心的澄澈,不要被噪音干扰。”

刘子千是在拍摄和处理照片时,通过不断的排列和实验发现了自己的风格。她的目标是找到让她感觉最舒服和“安静”的组合。有时候在持续突破界限的路上,需要避免重复、保持个人风格,会被列为一种挑战,但刘子千很坚持。“我想多思考,多观察,以获得更多的灵感。”她说。

Speaking of inspiration, Liu finds her muse in her own growth. “Sometimes I look at my earlier pictures on Instagram. The pictures were obviously not mature, but I can see my growth process over time. So I wonder how far I’ll go in photography, and whether this curiosity about the unknown and the visible will inspire me to become a photographer.”

Liu’s success is also a testimonial to the power of social media. Despite taking photos for only two years, and having held only two public exhibitions, she reaches an international audience, with close to 100,000 followers. 

“I had never really thought about this before, but I really appreciate the viewers liking my work. All I can do now is try to respond to all the people who have left comments and move on to shoot more works. I have no future plans at the moment—I’ll let things take their course.” 


说到灵感,刘子千发现这来自于她自己的成长。“有时我在 Instagram 上看我以前的照片,那时拍得显然还不成熟,但日积月累,我可以看到我的成长过程。所以我想知道我在摄影方面能走多远,这种对未知和可见事物的好奇心是否会激励我成为一名摄影师。”

刘子千的成功也证明了社交媒体的力量。尽管她只拍了两年,只举办了两次公共展览,但她的全球粉丝人数却接近 10 万人。“我以前从来没有认真想过这个问题,但是我真的很感激观众喜欢我的作品。我现在能做的就是对所有留下评论的人做出回应,然后继续拍摄更多的作品。目前我还没有未来的计划——听其自然吧。”

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Instagram: @ziqianqian

 

Contributor: Joanna Lee
Chinese Translation: Chen Yuan


喜欢我们的故事?欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博微信

 

Instagram: @ziqianqian

 

供稿人: Joanna Lee
英译中: Chen Yuan

Finding Comfort in Discomfort 人之为人的必经之路

June 28, 2019 2019年6月28日

In 2016, in Berlin, Heji Shin was hanging out anywhere pregnant women might go: prenatal yoga classes, hospitals, and birth houses. The German-Korean photographer would introduce herself to the women and ask if she could capture the most vulnerable moments of their lives: giving birth. She wasn’t successful.

But she found a solution to what felt like an impossible challenge: midwives, who over the course of a pregnancy become very close to the expectant mothers they work with.“I even had midwives calling me and saying, I have a birth—a woman agreed while she was in labor,” she recalls. “And I was like, we haven’t even met before!”


2016 年的柏林,韩裔德国摄影师 Heji Shin 的身影总是出没在孕妇出现的地方:产前瑜伽课、医院和产房。她向孕妇介绍自己,然后问她们自己能不能用相机拍摄下她们生命中最脆弱的时刻:分娩的过程。她被一一拒绝了。

这是一个看似不可能实现的事情,但她最终找到了解决办法:助产士。在孕妇怀孕期间,助产士往往会成为准妈妈非常亲密的人。曾经有助产士打电话给我说,我这边有位妈妈在分娩时同意拍摄了。当时我就想,我们之前甚至都没见过面!她回忆道。

Through the help of midwives, Shin was able to photograph 14 births during 2016 and 2017. She wanted to challenge the public’s perception of birth and babies. “Birth is a very violent and brutal process, and it’s very much excluded from public life, just as death is,” she says.

Through her lens, newborns are anything but cute. They look suffocated while being squeezed by their mothers’ vulvas, their oval-shaped heads covered with blood and their faces purple and black. “When you see a picture of birth, it shows a very harmonious and beautiful process,” she says, “which is not what the reality is.”


在助产士的帮助下,Heji 2016 2017 年期间一共拍摄了 14 次的分娩。通过这些照片,她希望挑战公众对出生和婴儿的看法。出生是一个非常暴力和残酷的过程,而这个过程几乎是被排除在公众视野之外。她说,就像死亡一样。”  

在她拍摄的照片中,新生儿一点也不可爱。当他们被母亲的阴道挤压着出来的时候,看起来就像窒息了一般,椭圆形的头部布满血丝,脸上一片紫色和黑色。Heji 说:你所看到在大多数新生婴儿照片,基本上都是非常和谐和美好的画面。但这不是事实的情况。” 

Born in Seoul in 1976, brought to Germany at two, and now based in the U.S., Shin doesn’t completely identify as German, Korean, or American. “It’s an advantage to have different cultural influences in your upbringing,” she says, “my Korean family on one side, Germany on the other side. It is an advantage to be different.”

While studying in Hamburg, Shin started working as a commissioned photographer for magazines and cosmetic companies. She knew early on that her approach didn’t align well with commercial photography. “At some point, you have to decide whether you should reorientate yourself or reconcile yourself to what you want to do. I just reorientated myself, and it was a very natural thing for me to go into art photography.”

Now she works on both commercial and art projects. Many of them feature individuals’ most private and intimate moments. How does she feel when she’s shooting? “I don’t always feel very comfortable,” she admits. “But the idea is to leave my comfort zone.”


Heji 1976 年出生于首尔,两岁时被带到德国生活,现定居美国。Heji 并不完全认为自己是德国人、韩国人或美国人在成长过程中能够体验不同的文化,这是好事。她说,一边是我的韩国家庭,另一边是我的德国家庭。有这样不同的生活经历是一种优势。

在汉堡读书的时期,Shin 开始担任杂志和化妆品公司的摄影师。她很快就意识到,自己的创作方式与商业摄影并不一致。某些时候,你必须要决定到底是要重新定位自己,还是要让自己适应想要做的事情。我选择了重新定位自己,对我来说,进入艺术摄影是很自然的事情。

现在她的创作兼备了商业和艺术项目。其中许多题材都是个人比较私密和亲密的时刻。当她拍摄时,她会有什么感觉?“我有时候也会觉得不太舒服。”她说,“但我的想法是走出我的舒适区。”

With complete creative freedom for the Eckhaus Latta’s Spring ’17 campaign, she wanted to combine the idea of fashion advertising with porn, she said. The eight real couples featured in the campaign are half-dressed in the season’s clothes and lost in each other’s eyes as they engage in explicit sexual acts. It struck her a logical step for her after she provided photography for a German sex education book for teens. 

Several media outlets called the shoot the most provocative fashion campaign of 2017. Although the overall images are suggestive, the couples’ intimate parts are pixelated. “The images display less what of viewers think they’re looking at,” she says. To her, that’s the most interesting aspect of it. 


在她为 Eckhaus Latta 2017 春夏系列拍摄的一组广告片中,她有了将时尚广告与色情片相结合的想法。在该系列的广告片中,八对现实生活中的情侣穿着当季新款服装,半裸着身体,在镜头前沉迷于两人的性爱中。此次的摄影灵感正是源于她之前为青少年拍摄的一本畅销的性爱教科书。

一些媒体将这组广告大片称为 2017 年最具挑衅性的时尚广告。虽然整组照片充满大胆的性爱,但情侣的隐私部位都加了马赛克。“这些照片原来的画面其实并没有观众想像的那么大胆。”她说,而这也是这组照片的有趣之处。

Shin is also drawn to the idea of depicting gay culture as a female artist, and she explored her fascination in Men Photographing Men, a series of pornographic gay photos shot in the very gallery where they were exhibited. “The viewer becomes the witness, but in an alternate time,” Shin explains. “The mere idea of witnessing what happened is stimulating.” These photos lack the pixelated blurring of the previous series.

Featuring handsome men she found through Craigslist and model agencies, Men Photographing Men is a humorous approach to the policing and surveillance of masculinity. One photo depicts a naked man lying on a black sofa, sword in one hand, his own erect penis in the other. Another photo captures the intense gaze between two men in police uniforms, one leaning on the other’s shoulders.


作为一名女性艺术家,Heji 也对描绘同性恋文化特别感兴趣,并创作了《Men Photographing Men》(男人拍摄男人)来展现这种迷恋。这是一系列同性恋的情色照片,拍摄地正是这些照片所展出的画廊。观众变成证人,只是在不同的时空中。 Heji 说,目睹正在发生的事情,单是这种想法就令人兴奋。整个系列的照片都没有在网络上发表过。

她通过 Craigslist 和模特经纪公司来找英俊的男模特来拍摄《Men Photographing Men,以一种幽默的方式来展现社会对男性气质的监督和审视。在一张照片中,一个裸体男子躺在黑色沙发上,一只手拿着剑,另一只手则握着自己勃起的阴茎。另一张照片则是两名身穿警服的男子,热烈地注视对方,其中一人靠在另一人的肩膀上。  

“Art is not only about pure creativity alone, or manifesting your and other people’s beliefs,” Shin says, “it’s about experimenting and challenging common ideas, your own ideas.”


“艺术不仅仅是纯粹的创意,或是表达你和他人的信仰。” Heji 说,“艺术也需要试验和挑战一些人们习以为常的想法以及你自己的想法。”

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Website: hejishin.com
Instagram: @hejishin

 

Contributor: Jiang Yaling
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
Images Courtesy of Heji Shin, Reena Spaulings Fine Art (New York), and Galerie Buchholz (Berlin)

 


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网站: hejishin.com
Instagram: @hejishin

 

供稿人: Jiang Yaling
英译中: Olivia Li
图片由 Heji Shin、纽约 Reena Spaulings 美术馆和柏林 Buchholz 画廊提供

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Oral Fixation 一根线上的他和他

June 24, 2019 2019年6月24日

 

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“Why do you never kiss me?” Mark (played by Xiao Ke) asks his boyfriend Li Ting (Etsen Chen) in Fan Popo’s short film Floss, which will be screened at the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. “I just did,” Li Ting replies impassively. “No, I mean French kissing.” By now, viewers have learned that Li Ting has a strange secret: he’s obsessed with teeth, his own as well as his partner’s, but above all by the delicate threads used to clean them, even sneaking off to rummage through the trash to recover a string of floss used by Mark. What follows suggests that his interest goes beyond oral hygiene to something much deeper.

Fan, a Chinese filmmaker, is probably best known for his wholesome documentaries Mama Rainbow (2012) and Papa Rainbow (2016), both of which explore the journeys of parents coming to accept their children’s sexual and gender identities in a society where family and face remain paramount. Fan is hardly new to fiction, and his 2019 piece The Drum Tower, about the budding connection between an introverted student and a transgender shopkeeper in Beijing, was recently screened in Taipei as part of a queer shorts series. Yet Floss is light years away from his earlier documentary works in form and subject matter. In contrast to his earlier themes of coming out and eventual parental acceptance, Floss explores the abject objects of our desire and the often-unacknowledged loneliness of love.


“为什么都不亲我?”Mark(由肖可演)问他的男朋友李廷(陈彥廷饰)。这是范坡坡的短片《线》中的一幕,该片刚刚在旧金山国际 LGBTQ + 电影节上映。“我亲了呀。” 李廷无动于衷地回答道。“没碰到舌头你都算?”看到这里,观众已经知道李廷有一个奇怪的秘密:他对牙齿有恋物癖,无论是他自己的牙齿或是爱人的牙齿,尤其是用来清洁牙齿的细腻牙线,他甚至会偷偷在垃圾里翻找出 Mark 用过的牙线。接下来的画面让人发现,他对牙线的迷恋早已超越口腔卫生,而是一种更深层次的迷恋。

中国电影制片人范坡坡最为人熟知的作品是他的纪录片系列《彩虹伴我心》(2012)和《彩虹老爸》(2016),这两部影片探讨了在一个以家庭和面子为重的社会,父母逐渐接受孩子的性取向和性别认同的故事。而剧情片这一体裁对范坡坡来说也并不陌生,在 2019 年的作品《鼓楼》中,他讲述了北京一个内向的学生与跨性别店员相识的故事,并于最近在台北酷儿电影节短片单元放映。然而,无论是题材还是体裁方面,《线》都与他早期的纪录片作品截然不同。他早期的作品中,大多为出柜和获得父母认同的主题,而《线》却是在探讨人类欲望中那些令人难以启齿的话题,以及常常被人们所忽略的、爱情中的孤独感。

In Floss, we follow the pair as they go about their lives. On the outside, they’re no different from any other couple: they dine out, walk the dog, watch movies together, and have sex. But something is simmering inside Li Ting. When Mark buys flosser picks rather than thread floss, Li Ting can’t hide his dissatisfaction. During intercourse, he shows no interest in emotional intimacy. He concocts excuses to remove himself from situations where these might be expected. Mark, painfully aware of all this, tells him at one point, “I don’t think you like me at all.” Li Ting, in return, says nothing.


在《线》这部影片里,镜头跟随着这对同性情侣的生活轨迹。从表面看来,他们和其他情侣没什么区别:他们一起外出就餐、遛狗、一起看电影、做爱。但李廷的内心却在酝酿着什么。当 Mark 最后要买牙线棒而不是牙线时,李廷无法掩饰住自己的不满。两人做爱时,他也不会表现出对情感亲密关系的兴趣。当他需要作出情感回应时,他总是找各种借口来逃避。意识到这一切的 Mark 痛苦地说:“我觉得你根本都不喜欢我。”对此,李廷一言不发。

“I studied scriptwriting in film school, so making fiction films is what I always wanted to do,” says Fan. “But when I graduated, I thought I could use documentary filmmaking as a way to practice. Now this ‘practice’ has been going on for almost ten years.” He freely admits that Mama Rainbow and Papa Rainbow presented hopeful images of what parent-child relationships in “rainbow families” could and perhaps should look like, rather than balanced depictions of the current state of queer life and rights in China. But he also finds himself bored with the formulaic coming-out stories that tend to dominate LGBTQ film festivals, important though they are. “I didn’t want to do another coming-out story,” he says. “I wanted to do something new.” And, to his credit, Floss’s central motif—sexual obsession with dental floss—is certainly novel.

Its novelty, however, isn’t for shock value but instead serves as a point of entry for examining contemporary relationships. Mark’s apartment is decorated with pictures of a happy couple that bear little resemblance to the sullen pair eating their dinner in silence and passing time with gory films. The viewer wonders if something has shifted, or if the images that couples tend to display for themselves and the world are illusory from the start. “Does being in a relationship actually make you happier?” Fan asks. “From my observations, often it’s the opposite.” Even during their occasional bouts of vigorous but passionless sex, the two appear worlds apart, as Li Ting averts his gaze from Mark and is later haunted by dreams of being bound by web-like, incandescent floss.


“我在电影学院学过编剧,因此拍摄剧情片一直是我想做的事情。”范坡坡说,“但是毕业的时候,我觉得可以通过拍摄纪录片来练习一下。到现在为止,这种‘练习’已经持续了将近十年。”他承认,《彩虹伴我心》和《彩虹老爸》所展现的是酷儿家庭中可以实现且应该有的理想亲子关系,但这并非目前中国酷儿群体实际的生活和权利状况。但是,他也表示,自己已经厌倦了 LGBTQ 电影节中那些公式化的出柜故事,尽管讲述这样的故事也很重要。他说:“我不想再拍关于出柜的故事。我想拍一些新的题材。”因此,在《线》中,他选择了以牙线的性迷恋为题材,这毋庸置疑是一个新颖的题材。

然而,短片的新颖题材并不纯粹为了吸引眼球,而是旨在审视当代的情感关系。 在 Mark 的公寓里摆放着一对幸福夫妻的照片,这张照片与一对闷闷不乐、沉默不语地吃晚餐,看恐怖电影消磨时光的情侣形成了鲜明的对比。这让观众不禁开始思考,是不是有些事情已经发生了变化,或者说,这对情侣表面看来的样子,从一开始是不是只是做给自己和世界看的,是虚幻的。范坡坡提出问题:“处于情侣关系中真的能让你更开心吗?从我的观察来看,事实往往相反。”连在他们偶尔激烈而冷静的性爱时,两人看起来也像是处在不同的世界里,李廷总是避开 Mark 的注视,而那被蛛网般的牙线紧紧箍住的梦魇,也始终萦绕着他。

Li Ting’s obsession with floss invites reflection on the highly private, idiosyncratic nature of fantasy and the power it exerts, particularly when it concerns some aspect of reality that is typically forgotten or forbidden in daily life. Indeed, the line between desire and disgust can be vanishingly thin, with the same thing triggering both at different times: sweat, spit, an unwashed body—even, in Li Ting’s case, blood and bits of masticated food. But awareness of the abject nature of one’s fetish, its crossing into the territory of the undiscussable, the gross, or the weird, also means shame and its attendant silence. Just how much of ourselves do we conceal from the person closest to us? That is the central question Floss invites audiences to chew on.


李廷对牙线的迷恋让观众对高度私密的性幻想及其力量的思考,特别是当它涉及日常生活中常被遗忘或禁忌的某些现实时。事实上,有时欲望和厌恶之间的界限只有一线之隔,在不同的时间,两种感受能被同样的事物触发:汗水、口水、未洗澡的身体,甚至李廷迷恋的血液和咀嚼过的食物。不过,意识到自己的恋物癖伤风败俗,会使人避而不谈、倍感恶心或怪异,那么也就会让人羞于启口了。在我们最亲密的人面前,我们又隐瞒了多少关于自己的秘密?这是短片《线》想要引发观众思考的问题。

While much recent mainstream LGBTQ cinema shies away from the less savory aspects of love and lust, Fan centers on a fetish in order to question the one-size-fits-all model of the monogamous couple. Sometimes, your dentist understands what your lover just can’t. Like Li Ting, Fan is obsessed with what lies beneath the pearly-white exterior of relationships, fixing his camera on something disavowed and decidedly more interesting. With a studied restraint worthy of its neurotic protagonist, Floss strings the viewer along until it reaches an uncomfortable truth: like it or not, we can only ever have part of our partners.


虽然最近的主流 LGBTQ 电影回避了爱情和欲望中不那么美好的方面,但范坡坡通过恋物癖这个题材,进而质疑一夫一妻制下的一体适用模式。有时候,可能你的牙医比你的爱人更能理解你。范坡坡和短片中的李廷一样,痴迷于隐藏于美好的情感关系表面之下的真相。他将镜头机对准那些被拒绝又更有趣的事物上,《线》和其主角一样克制,将观众步步引向一个令人不适的结论:无论如何,我们只能拥有自己爱人的一部分。

Floss will next be shown at Frameline43, San Francisco’s International LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Address:
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Screening Time:
June 26th, 2019
9:15 pm

 

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Facebook: ~/FlossShortFilm

 

Contributor: Brandon Kemp
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


接下来,《线》将在旧金山国际 LGBT 电影节(暨 Frameline43)上展出。

Address:
美国
加利福尼亚州,棕榈泉市
Camelot 剧院 (棕榈泉文化中心)
E. Baristo 路 2300 号

放映时间:
2019年6月26日
下午9点15

 

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脸书: ~/FlossShortFilm

 

供稿人: Brandon Kemp
英译中: Olivia Li

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Chipping away the Layers 被印在墙上的你我

June 12, 2019 2019年6月12日

 

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Ever since he first visited in 2012, Portuguese sculptor Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, has felt a fondness for Shanghai, and the city forms the backdrop for many of his trademark chiseled portraits. On empty lots, construction sites, buildings slated for destruction, and out-of-the-way walls, he’s chipped away concrete and plaster to depict the faces of local residents. Vhils maintains strong ties to China, and in collaboration with the creative group Solid Dogma, he recently made a video in Shanghainese that commemorates his time in the city and pays homage to the people of who make it their home. It’s also a moody meditation on solitude and the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world.


自从 2012 年首次到访上海,葡萄牙雕塑家 Alexandre Farto(又名 Vhils)就对这座城市产生了浓厚的兴趣,并在这里下了多幅标志性的肖像作品。他在空地、建筑工地、围起来的待拆建筑物,到城市各个角落的墙壁上,在混凝土和灰泥上刻凿出一幅幅当地居民的面孔。Vhils 始终和这个国家有着千丝万缕的连接,最近,他携手创意团体 Solid Dogma,合力打造了一部短片,以纪念他在上海的时光,同时向那些以此为家的人致敬。另外,这部短片其实也是对孤独、对人苦苦寻求立命安身之所的深沉思考。

The portraits he creates occupy entire walls, like oversized monochrome photographs, and they call to mind the larger-than-life images of celebrities or political leaders. Yet unlike billboards or propaganda posters, these images show anonymous, everyday people, and by portraying them so prominently and at such a scale, the artist gives them a certain heroic dignity. He also leaves them in the open, where, almost like human faces, they change as they age and erode.


他所创作的肖像作品往往占据整幅墙壁,就像巨幅的单色照片一样,令人联想起那些名人或政治领袖的大幅照片。但不同于广告牌或宣传海报的是,Vhils 的肖像作品都是一些无名的平凡人物,通过如此大规模的肖像画,这位艺术家让这些平民呈现出一种英雄式的威严感。Vhils 让这些画裸露在外,因而它们也像人的脸庞一样,会被岁月慢慢侵蚀,留下印记。

Many of the public artworks that Vhils created were intended to be temporary, and some fell long ago to the wrecking ball. Yet he’s created a series of portraits at a similar scale for display in a museum setting that are now on display at Danysz Gallery in Shanghai. This show, Realm, an expanded version of one previously shown at CAFA in Beijing, allows viewers in Shanghai to experience for themselves these portraits in concrete, wood, and plaster, and to see with fresh eyes the faces of the city around them.


Vhils 创作的许多公共艺术作品都是暂时性的,其中一些作品很久以前就已经被拆掉了。然而,他专门为博物馆展览创作了一系列相似规模的肖像画,最近将于上海的 Danysz Gallery 展出。展览原在北京中央美术学院美术馆展出过,但本次以《境域》(Realm)为名,将呈现更丰富的作品和内容,让上海的观众可以亲自体验这些以混凝土、木材和灰泥创作的肖像作品,以全新的角度审视这座城市里的平凡面孔。

Realm is on display until June 19, 2019, at Danysz Gallery.

Address:
256 East Beijing Road
Huangpu District, Shanghai
China

Hours:
Monday to Saturday, 10 am ~ 6 pm
Sunday, 12 pm ~ 6 pm

 

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Website: vhils.com
Instagram: @vhils

 

Contributor: Allen Young
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li


《境域》(Realm)在 Danysz Gallery 展出至 2019 年 6 月 19 日。

地址:
中国
上海市黄浦区
北京东路 256 号

营业时间:
周一至周六 早上十点至晚上六点
周日 中午至晚上六点

 

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网站: vhils.com
Instagram: @vhils

 

供稿人: Allen Young
英译中: Olivia Li