Monthly Archives: June 2019

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 在 2016 和 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 于 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
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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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Just Desserts 小小的甜点，大大的梦想

June 26, 2019 2019年6月26日

What would it be like to live in a world where everything is made of desserts?

Step into the imagination of Hong Kong artist Thomas Napoleon and you might find an answer. His series, A Life of Sweets, depicts a universe filled with whimsical happenings, delectable confections, and pocket-sized characters with distinctive eyebrows and pleasured expressions. From swimming through syrup atop a piece of french toast to scaling scaffolding made of chocolate Pocky sticks, Napoleon’s signature characters lead lives that revolve around an assortment of delicious desserts.

如果生活在一个全部由甜点组成的世界里，将会是怎样？

踏进香港插画师托马斯·拿破仑（Thomas Napoleon) 奇想世界，你可能就知道答案。他为我们建构了一个充满甜蜜的趣味梦幻世界，并以“生活中一点甜”来命名。跟随他笔下有着标志性粗眉、带有微妙陶醉表情的迷你小人物，去体验在法式吐司上的糖浆里游泳，到踩着 Pocky 巧克力棒搭成的脚手架上绘制户外广告。在这个城市里生活的人们，和各种甜品融为一体。

Since starting the series, Napoleon has found himself fixated by the details of every dessert he sees. He’ll immediately think about how it’d look within a scene. From there, he thinks about how he can elevate it into something more playful and charming. Once inspiration strikes, he’ll quickly begin sketching.

He admits that his nitpicking tendencies can be a drawback at times though. “I like making changes a little too much, so it takes me quite a long time to finish a drawing,” he says. For Napoleon, deciding on color, texture, and composition are matters of careful deliberation that require multiple revisits—only after this painstaking process will he feel like he has something that’s ready to be shown.

这个项目开始后，拿破仑现在看到一款甜品，都会驻足细细观察，“脑海总是在想象一个场景”，然后由甜品本身开始延伸，思考“怎样才能让这款食物变得更有趣、更可爱”，一旦出现有意思的灵感，就会立即把它们画下来。

提到创作中是否会遇到一些小困难时，“大概自己喜欢一直改东西吧，所以一般创作时间都比较长。”他坦言道。甜品的色泽、质感和结构比例都需经过反复考量，这些趣味盎然的“游乐场”也都是经过一次次的修改和调整之后，才得以将其呈现在大家面前的。

Napoleon has created well over a hundred illustrations for the series so far, but his favorite is still the one that kickstarted the whole project, Pancake Restaurant. “Every day, my way to school, I’d pass by a shop selling pancakes,” he recalls. “For tired individuals who walked by in the morning, these smells were comforting. So, I thought, if there was a place that was entirely made of pancakes, then people there can feel relaxed and happy all the time!”

He laughs at the memory of this early inspiration, and ultimately, this is exactly what Napo’s work is all about, bringing laughter and joy. Through his art, he wants to remind people that even when you’re stressed or in a bad mood, life can still be sweet.

从最初创作到现在，拿破仑的《生活中一点甜》系列插画已累积了百余幅、但他创作甜品世界系列的第一幅作品“Pancake餐厅”（即“松饼餐厅”），依然是他最喜欢的一张。“我每天上学的时候都会经过一间卖松饼的店，那传来的食物香气，总让早上感到疲累的人放松，当时就在想如果能进入一个由松饼做成的地方，里面的人也可以很放松快乐吧。”

说到这里，他笑了笑。这也是他在创作绘画时想要传达给观众的心情，希望“从这份‘甜味’带出很快乐的感觉”，给身处都市繁忙疲惫的人们带去些许会心一笑的调味剂，再烦闷的情绪都会被一扫而空。

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Facebook: ~/napodezato
Instagram: @napo_hk

 

Contributor: Vinnie Fan

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供稿人: Vinnie Fan

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Tips for Documentary Photography 你不知道的纪实摄影小技巧

June 26, 2019 2019年6月26日
Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and VSCO. VSCO’s membership program is designed to help you reach your creative potential. Take the next step in your creative journey by starting your free 7-day trial today and gain access to the complete VSCO preset library, the newest editing tools, and inspiring educational content.

Berenice Abbott, a renowned twentieth-century photographer, viewed taking pictures as a way to document reality deeply, honestly, and accurately. On a radio interview, she once said, “Documentary photography tries to get at the root of things. . . . We cannot go on just looking at things on the surface. . . . This means getting at things as they really are, which is not always pretty; in fact, almost never pretty.”[1]

She maintained this objective approach to photography when working on Changing New York, a photo project that focused on the radical transformation of New York City from 1929 through the 1930s.[1] She captured 300-plus photos that show the city’s architecture, a diverse array of people, and their way of life amidst change.[2]

View a selection of Abbott’s work below, with helpful insights you can apply to your own photography.

本篇文章来自新茶媒体合作伙伴 VSCO 的内容交换。VSCO 是一个专门帮助摄影爱好者发挥创造潜力的会员项目。现在就开启你的 7 天免费试用，获取完整的预设滤镜，以及新的编辑工具、视频编辑和教程内容。

20 世纪著名摄影师贝伦尼斯·阿博特（Berenice Abbott）认为拍照是深入、诚实、准确地记录现实的一种方式。在一次电台采访中，她曾经说：“纪实摄影试图找到事物的根源。我们不能继续只看表面上的东西。这意味着要得到他们真正的东西，哪怕并不总是漂亮的；事实上，几乎从来都不漂亮。”[1]

她在拍摄“改变纽约”时，保持了这种客观的摄影方法，这个摄影项目主要关注从 1929 年到 1930 年代纽约市的彻底变革。[1]她拍摄了三百多张照片，展示了这个城市的建筑，不同的人群，以及他们在变化中的生活方式。[2]

浏览下面 Berenice 的作品选集，你可以把她那些建设性的见解用到自己的摄影作品中。

Look for Change

寻求变化

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

Abbott photographed the transformation of New York City into an urban metropolis. She documented old, historical buildings before they were torn down and skyscrapers constructed in their stead.[1]

Berenice 拍下了纽约转变为国际大都市的照片。她记录了那些古老的历史建筑，历经拆毁，最终由摩天大楼来代替城市面貌的过程。[1]

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

In addition to capturing the before and after, she often looked for moments where old and new stood juxtaposed — a horse and carriage beside an automobile or a brick building dwarfed by a modern high-rise.

为了捕捉前后对比的照片，她还常常寻找新旧并存的那些场景——汽车旁货真价实的马车，现代高层建筑边上矮得相形见绌的砖瓦老房。

* Try this — Like Abbott, look for advancements happening around you, being mindful of both developments that happen quickly (like technological improvements) and those that happen subtly over time (like a person aging). Consider what about the present you want to preserve for the future. To get started, look for things that feel slightly out of place, either because they feel a bit outdated or because they feel new and unfamiliar.

*试试这个——就像 Berenice 一样，寻找你周围正在发生的改变，留心那些迅速发生的变化（比如技术革新）和那些随着时间而微妙发生的事情（比如一个人的变老）。想想那些你会想为将来留下的现在的记忆。开始前，可以找找那些感觉有点过时的东西，要不是那些感觉有点老旧的东西，要不就是感觉起来新鲜和不熟悉的东西。

Image by howiehowei 图片由 howiehowei 提供

Use Composition to Express a Feeling

用构图传达感情

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

As New York City was rapidly developing, Abbott felt a growing disconnect between progress and preserving people’s humanity. “I may feel that the skyscrapers are beautiful and majestic,” she said. “Or I may feel that they are ugly, inhuman, illogical, ridiculous, pathological growths which have no place in the planned city. Whatever I think and feel about the skyscrapers, I say through understanding of and application of composition.”[1]

随着纽约市的快速发展，Berenice 感到进步和保护人们的人性之间的差距越来越大。她说：“我可能觉得这些摩天大楼既美丽又雄伟。”“或者我可能觉得它们是丑陋的、非人的、不合逻辑的、荒谬的、病态的成长，而这些在规划中没有立足之地。无论我对摩天大楼的看法和感受如何，我都是通过对构图的理解和运用来表达的。”[1]

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

By aiming her camera up at the towering buildings, she made the structures appear threatening and foreboding. By shooting downwards from the tops of the skyscrapers, she captured people as mere dots on the street below, giving the sense that the city overshadowed people’s individuality.[1]

她把照相机对准了高耸的建筑物，使它们显得有威胁和压迫的感觉。她从摩天大楼的顶端向下拍摄，将人们描绘成下面街道上的小不点，给人的感觉是这个城市的魅力盖过了人们的个性。[1]

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

* Try this — When you are shooting, think about how your perspective expresses how you feel about the subject you are documenting. For example, to convey that you feel part of a scene, try shooting from your waist. The image will likely take on the aesthetic of a snapshot, showing that you were present in the moment rather than just an observer.

* 试试这个——当你拍照的时候，想想你的观点是如何表达你对你所记录的主题的感受的。例如，为了表达你感觉到了场景的一部分，试着从你的腰部拍摄。这幅图片可能会呈现出一种快拍式的美感，显示出你身在现场，而不仅仅是一个旁观者。

Image by josephgreer 图片由 josephgreer 提供

Document a Complete Story

记录一段完整的故事

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

Although Abbott is most often recognized for her architectural images, her goal was to produce a thorough portrait of New York City, and that meant documenting much more than just the buildings.[1]

尽管 Berenice 的建筑照最为人熟知，但她的目标是对纽约市进行一次彻底的描绘，这意味着，她记录的绝不仅仅是建筑物。[1]

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

She explained it this way, “Everything in the city is properly part of its story — its physical body of brick, stone, steel, glass, wood, its lifeblood of living, breathing men and women. Streets, vistas, panoramas, bird’s-eye views and women’s-eye views, the noble and the shameful, high life and low life, tragedy, comedy, squalor, wealth, the mighty towers of skyscrapers, the ignoble facades of slums, people at work, people at home, people at play — these are but a small part of the city.”[1]

她这样解释：“城市中的一切都恰如其分——它的物质身体是砖块、石头、钢铁、玻璃、木头，它的生命之源，活生生的男女。街道、风景、全景、鸟瞰的视野和女人的观角，奢靡而可耻的、高尚或低贱的生活，悲剧、喜剧、肮脏、财富，摩天大楼的巨塔，贫民窟的丑陋外表，上班的人、不上班的人、玩闹的人——这些只是这个城市的一小部分。”[1]

Image courtesy of The Digital Public Library of America's Changing New York archive. Changing New York archive. 图片由美国数字公共图书馆 Changing New York 提供

* Try this – While your project may not be as exhaustive as Abbott’s, try taking whatever subject matter you are shooting and photograph it from as many angles as you can think of. Make it your goal to document something as completely as possible. Shoot a scene from above, below, and straight on. Then play with distance, moving close to photograph the details within the scene or further away to understand scale.

* 试试这个——虽然你的项目可能没有贝伦尼斯的那样详尽，但尽力尝试捕捉任何题材，并从尽可能多的角度拍摄。你的目标是尽可能完整地记录一些事情。从上往下拍摄一个场景，然后一直拍下去。然后和距离玩闹吧，在现场或更远的地方，移动靠近，去拍摄细节。

Image by ericvannynatten 图片由 ericvannynatten 提供
Image by ericvannynatten 图片由 ericvannynatten 提供
Sources:
[1] Yamada, Takayuki. “An Analysis on Berenice Abbottʼs ‘Changing New York’: People and Lives of the Heterogeneous City.” Waseda Rilas Journal, Oct. 2016, www.waseda.jp/flas/rilas/assets/uploads/2016/10/Rilas04_225-241_Takayuki-YAMADA.pdf.
[2] Synan, Abbie. “Berenice Abbott: Feminist Pioneer Of NYC Photography.” Culture Trip, 28 Oct. 2016, www.theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/unique-new-york-a-changing-city-through-the-lens-of-photographer-berenice-abbott.
来源:
[1] Yamada, Takayuki. “一篇关于 Berenice Abbott 的《改变中的纽约：异质城市的人与生活》的分析” Waseda Rilas Journal, 2016 年 10 月刊, www.waseda.jp/flas/rilas/assets/uploads/2016/10/Rilas04_225-241_Takayuki-YAMADA.pdf.
[2] Synan, Abbie. “Berenice Abbott: 纽约市摄影的女性先锋” Culture Trip, 2016 年 10 月 28 日, www.theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/unique-new-york-a-changing-city-through-the-lens-of-photographer-berenice-abbott.

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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

 

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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

 

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们的微博与微信。

 

脸书: ~/FlossShortFilm

 

供稿人: Brandon Kemp
英译中: Olivia Li

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Into Dreams, into the Wind 到梦里去，到风里去

June 21, 2019 2019年6月21日
Chaos Theory 1898 (2014) 19 x 34 cm / Chinese ink and paper, an original painting from the animation 《混沌记 1898》(2014) 19 x 34 厘米 / 中国画颜料、手工禅衣宣纸、手绘动画原稿

Dreams layer sorrow atop endless sorrow.
In dreams everything has a sorrowful tinge.
In dreams I meet all my sorrows yet still push onward.
Dreams vanish upon waking, but sorrows remain.

These lines appear in When I Sleep, My Dreams Come, a new work by Liu Yi, who is currently an artist in residence at the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, in France’s Loire Valley. Born in 1990, Liu most often works in inkwash animation, a medium that incorporates the elegance and deftness of traditional Chinese brushwork and requires a considerable time and effort.

Maybe it’s the soft fluidity of ink, maybe it’s the artist’s natural sensitivity and care, but Liu’s works have a dreamlike quality that draws the viewer into the strokes and lines of her page.

梦将悲伤无限制的叠加，梦里的东西都带着悲伤的情绪
在梦里我遇见了所有悲伤，但是我依然愿意前往
梦在醒后逐渐消退，而悲伤的感觉一直在

这是最近在法国 Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud 驻留的艺术家刘毅为新作《当我睡着时，梦来了》写下的感悟。生于 1990 年的刘毅，最常用的创作媒介是水墨动画——这种融合了中国水墨画优美灵动的特质、制作起来又相当耗时费力的创作方式。

或许是沾染了水墨特有的温柔水汽，或许是创作者天生的敏感和细腻，刘毅的作品恰恰给人以“梦”的错觉，仿佛就游走在她毛笔勾勒的线条画里。

Still from When I Sleep, My Dreams Come 《当我睡着时，梦来了》片段截图
Still from When I Sleep, My Dreams Come 《当我睡着时，梦来了》片段截图

Liu first encountered inkwash painting as a child, when her curiosity was awakened by the ink seeping into the paper in the brush’s wake. The idea for inkwash animation came in college, while she was completing a storyboarding assignment.

While Liu goes about making each of her films in a different way, they all involve hand-painted scenes and stop-click animation. “I have to make the whole film myself from start to finish, so the animation process is exceedingly slow. A five-minute short takes at least a year to complete,” she says. “I want to make people aware of their everyday surroundings in a new way, to get them to pay attention to their everyday experiences, to awaken them to their own world.”

初初接触水墨画的时候，刘毅还是个孩子，水墨在纸张上氤氲开去的笔法，让她分外好奇。而大学时的一次画分镜脚本的经历，让她拾起了做“水墨动画”的念头。

虽然每个片子的创作方法不一样，但就刘毅目前的几个作品来说，都是通过她逐帧手绘的方式去做的，“一个片子的开始到结束都是需要自己亲力亲为，所以动画的制作是非常慢的，一个 5 分钟左右的短片，最快也要花一年多时间去完成。”刘毅说。“我想以一种新的方式让人们意识到自己的日常环境，关注日常的感受，引起对自身世界的感悟。”


Excerpt of Chaos Theory (2014) from Liu Yi’s Thrown into the Wind exhibition

《混沌记》（片段），2014 / 来自刘毅“扔到风里去”个展

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In her previous project, Chaos Theory, Liu painted the whirls and eddies of the wind. “It whips by at a hundred miles an hour, carrying away what was once etched in our hearts and the things we solemnly swore. But it can never return a balloon blown up and released from our hands,” she says. The ungraspable wind and elusive dreams are precisely what Liu Yi looks to share with viewers. How do memories and states with such immediacy and dynamism find us, and how do they influence us?

“If we can’t avoid becoming balloon-blowers, then I want to thank how the wind gives us the gift of dispersal,” she says.

在她此前的《Chaos Theory》里，她描绘风兜兜转转的模样，“它总是带走我们一度比较刻骨铭心，或是信誓旦旦的言语事件，时速百里。但它又从来不会将吹入空中的气球送回来。”刘毅说。而不可捕捉的风、难以琢磨的梦，正是刘毅不断在通过作品传递给大家的东西——这种即时性的、动态的记忆和情境，是如何与我们邂逅，又如何影响着我们。

“如果我们不可避免的成为了吹气球的人，那么，我要感谢风所赐予的烟消云散。”她说。

Chaos Theory 3742 (2014) 19 x 34 cm / Chinese ink and paper, an original painting from the animation 《混沌记 3742》(2014) 19 x 34 厘米 / 中国画颜料、手工禅衣宣纸、手绘动画原稿
Chaos Theory 1804 (2014) 19 x 34 cm / Chinese ink and paper, an original painting from the animation 《混沌记 1804》(2014) 19 x 34 厘米 / 中国画颜料、手工禅衣宣纸、手绘动画原稿
Chaos Theory 1108 (2014) 19 x 34 cm / Chinese ink and paper, an original painting from the animation 《混沌记 1108》(2014) 19 x 34 厘米 / 中国画颜料、手工禅衣宣纸、手绘动画原稿

Liu has a cool, detached attitude toward her future work. “Animation is always an experiment and an exploration, whether you’re creating something or just expressing yourself,” she says. “All sorts of challenges and problems can arise at each stage. It’s like a video game with different levels: you go through level after level, and as you acquire more weapons and items, you perhaps become a little more skillful.”

对于未来的创作，刘毅的心态也很淡然和超脱：“动画的创作一直需要实验和探索，每个阶段都会出现不同的挑战和问题，就像闯关游戏，一次次通关，直到自己领到那些武器，宝藏之后，也许以后会更游刃有余一些吧。”刘毅如是说。

Still from Chaos Theory 《混沌记》(2014) 片段截图
Still from Chaos Theory 《混沌记》(2014) 片段截图
Still from Chaos Theory 《混沌记》(2014) 片段截图

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Contributor: Chen Yuan
Chinese Translation: Allen Young
Additional Images Courtesy of ShanghART Gallery

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

供稿人: Chen Yuan
中译英: Allen Young
附加图片由香格纳画廊提供

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Kamali 滑板吧！妈妈

June 19, 2019 2019年6月19日

 

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To the burgeoning communities of women skaters in India, skateboarding has become more than a just sport. It represents empowerment and independence, a subversion of the country’s outdated gender norms. When director Sasha Rainbow traveled to India to document these female skateboarders for Wild Beasts’ “Alpha Female” music video in 2016, she met Suganthi, a single mother working to build a better future for her then seven-year-old daughter Kamali, a charismatic little girl in love with skateboarding.

在印度，对正在兴起的女滑板爱好者来说，滑板已经不仅仅是一项普通的运动了。它代表着赋权和独立，是对过时的国家性别规范的颠复。2016年，当导演 Sasha Rainbow 前往印度为“野兽乐队”（Wild Beasts）的《女首领》（Alpha Famale）音乐 MV 拍摄滑板女郎时，她遇到了 Suganthi——这位单身母亲，正试图为自己热爱滑板、充满朝气的 7 岁女儿 Kamali 打造一个更美好的未来。

Suganthi and her daughter Kamali are from Mahabalipuram, a small fishing village in southern India. It’s a place where people hold fast to their traditional ways and beliefs, especially when it comes to gender roles, and Kamali’s tomboyish hobby of skateboarding is often met with disapproving glances. But Suganthi, whose own life has been hemmed in by these notions of what a woman should or shouldn’t do, refuses to let her daughter fall into the same trap.

Rainbow’s new documentary, Kamali, captures their story, celebrating Suganthi’s heroism as a mother, Kamali’s passion for skateboarding, and how seemingly minor actions of a few individuals can inspire big changes in a community.

Suganthi 和她的女儿 Kamali 来自印度南部的一个小渔村 Mahabalipuram。这个地方的人们，坚持传统和信仰，特别是当涉及到性别角色时，Kamali 那种男孩子气的滑板爱好经常会遭到反对的目光。但是身为母亲的 Suganthi 觉得，自己的生活已经被这些“女人应该或不应该做什么的”观念束缚住了，所以她拒绝让女儿落入同样的境遇。

这部长达 23 分钟的纪录片《Kamali》，就向人们阐述了她们的故事、彰显了 Suganthi 身为人母的英勇气概、表现了 Kamali 对滑板的热衷，并展现了通过少数几个人的小作为就可以激发整片社区的大变化。

Kamali recently qualified for the 2020 Oscars, but Rainbow’s aspirations go beyond simply sharing Kamali and her mother’s story on the big screen. Money earned from the documentary will go toward Kamali’s future education and toward bringing more skateboards to the area to provide similar opportunities for other young girls in the region. To find out more, visit the film’s official site.

影片《Kamali》最近荣登 2020 年奥斯卡的候选名单，但导演 Sasha 的抱负，绝非仅仅是简单地在大屏幕上分享 Kamali 和她母亲的故事。这部纪录片的获利，将用于 Kamali 未来的教育，并将更多滑板引入该地区，为其他年轻女孩提供这样的机会。如想了解更多信息，可移步电影的官方网站。

Kamali will next be screened at the Academy Award qualifying ShortFest 2019.

 

Address:
Camelot Theatres (PS Cultural Center)
2300 E. Baristo Rd
Palm Springs, California
United States

Screening Time:
June 20th, 2019
1:00 PM

 

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Website: www.kamali-film.com
Instagram: @kamalifilm
Facebook: ~/kamalifilm

 

Contributor: David Yen

影片《Kamali》接下来将于 2019 年美国加州棕榈泉国际短片电影节上展映。

 

地址:
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20日
下午1点

 

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们的微博与微信。

网站: www.kamali-film.com
Instagram: @kamalifilm
脸书: ~/kamalifilm

 

供稿人: David Yen

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How to Photograph Food 如何把食物拍得好看？

June 19, 2019 2019年6月19日

This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and VSCO. VSCO’s membership program is designed to help you reach your creative potential. Take the next step in your creative journey by starting your free 7-day trial today and gain access to the complete VSCO preset library, the newest editing tools, and inspiring educational content.

What started as a daily routine, photographing and sharing her breakfast online, eventually led Stella Liu to a career change. When her food photography drew the attention of a company offering baking workshops in Taiwan, she transitioned from working as a financial management specialist to teaching classes on photography. Liu coaches students how to shoot on their mobile phones and edit with VSCO in order to document their food in a beautiful, appealing way.

Based on her experience shooting food over the last few years, Liu shares advice for improving photos of your cuisine.

本篇文章来自新茶媒体合作伙伴 VSCO 的内容交换。VSCO 是一个专门帮助摄影爱好者发挥创造潜力的会员项目。现在就开启你的 7 天免费试用，获取完整的预设滤镜，以及新的编辑工具、视频编辑和教程内容。

始于一个个人的小习惯，Stella Liu 每天都会拍下她的早餐并在网络上和大家分享，这个举动最后使得她的职业生涯迎来巨大的转变。她的食物摄影引起一家在台湾专门举办烘焙工作坊的公司的注意，于是她从经济管理专员摇身一变，成为摄影师导师，负责教导学生如何用手机拍摄食物，并在 VSCO 上将照片编辑成更美丽、更引人入胜的样子。

基于过去几年来食物摄影的经验，Stella 和我们分享了一些拍摄上的建议：

 

Document the process

 

When focused on the final result, it can be easy to forget to capture the process, but the preparation of the ingredients, the cooking, and the plating of a dish are all important stages that tell a story about the food. “Pictures of the cooking process make the audience see the spirit of craftsmanship and understand that you are persistent and passionate about food,” she explains.

“Nowadays, people pay a lot of attention to what ingredients are in the food they’re eating. However, people like to see images more than read text,” she notes. “So photos are an effective way to showcase the ingredients and let the audience know at a glance, ‘Wow! You use premium ingredients to cook!’”

纪录过程

 

当你一心一意专注在最后结果，很容易就忽略了中间过程。不过备料、烹煮、摆盘等等都是在讲述食物的故事时很重要的一部分。“拍摄这些过程可以让观众看见精巧手艺的灵魂所在，让他们了解你对于食物的坚持和热情。”她解释道。

“现在，人们很在意食物的原料是什么。不过，图像比文字更有吸引力。”她说，“所以照片是一个很有效地展示原料的方式，可以让观众一眼就看得清楚。‘哇！你这些都是上等的原料！’”

 

Set a mood

 

Style a scene to compliment the food and create a mood. For example, in the images below, Liu went for an elegant, romantic theme when photographing her canelé. She achieved this look by selecting a darker background and including antique embellishments. However, for her berry cake, she wanted the overall feeling to be summery and refreshing, which is why she chose a clean, bright background with simple decorations.

营造氛围

 

设定好布景的风格，有助于衬托食物和营造氛围。譬如说，如下方的照片所示，Stella 在拍摄可露丽时尝试了一种比较优雅、浪漫的主题。她使用了深色的背景和古董道具。而在拍摄莓子蛋糕时，整体感觉是比较夏日、清新的，因此她选择了较为干净、明亮的背景和一些简单的装饰品。

Liu explains her practice, “I often say to my students that powerful pictures can inspire viewers to see more, to imagine the environment beyond the confines of the photo. In this way, it is possible for a photo to convey the sounds and the tastes behind it and make the audience feel they are part of the picture. By carefully choosing the appropriate background, cutlery, and accessories, you can infuse the scene with life and help your audience connect with the image. I tend to use no more than three colors in a single scene and am sure to remove irrelevant objects that could be distracting to look at.”

Stella 进一步解释了她的做法，“通常我会和我的学生说，一张有力度的照片会使观众想看到更多，想像到在景框外发生的故事。通过这种方式，可以让照片传递出声音和味道，让观众觉得自己也参与其中。仔细地挑选背景、餐具、摆设道具，你可以在场景中注入生命、牵起和观众的连结。在一个单一的场景中我习惯使用不超过三种颜色，也会移除掉容易分散注意力的不相关物件。”

 

Bring action into the frame

 

To make a scene come to life, try photographing people interacting with the food. “I’ve found that people show a strong interest in an ‘active’ picture, like hands that are serving or bodies that are leisurely enjoying time at a cafe,” says Liu.

If you want the food to remain the focus, you can keep the identity of the person anonymous by not including their face in the frame. “Body language without revealing facial expressions can allow viewers to imagine more than what they observe,” Liu points out. “The viewers may even think the hands are theirs, about to pick up the food to enjoy!”

将动作带入景框

 

为了让照片更有活力，试着将你与食物的互动也拍摄进去。“我发现人们对‘互动’的照片有很高的兴趣，例如让正在端菜的手入镜、或是在惬意地享用咖啡的身体。”Stella 说。

如果你依然想要照片中的主角是食物，你可以不要将人脸拍进去，以保持匿名性。“即使没有表情，单单肢体动作就足以让观众想像得到景框外的故事。”Stella 指出这一点。“观众甚至会觉得画面中的手是他们自己的，正要拿起食物享用它！”

 

Edit with a food-friendly preset

 

After shooting, experiment to find presets that suit your aesthetic and make the food look even more tempting. “To finish a picture, you need to select a good preset and adjust the details,” Liu says. “I became a VSCO member because I like all the presets that have a film aesthetic. It reminds me of pre-digital times, where a photographer would go into a darkroom to develop a photo.”

While she uses A6, HB1, and HB2 the most, she advises trying out all your options. “The presets can perform in unexpected ways when editing different scenes and themes. So, for example, I wouldn’t limit myself to editing food only with A6. I use all the presets once, choose a favorite, and then adjust the details in the image.”

套用适合食物的滤镜

 

拍摄之后，尝试看看不同的预设滤镜，找到最适合的一种让食物看起来更诱人。“为了完成照片，你必须找到一个好的滤镜以及调整细节。”Stella 说，“我之所以成为 VSCO 会员，是因为我喜欢里面带有电影色彩的滤镜。它让我想起在数位化之前摄影师必须去暗房来冲洗照片的时代。”

虽然她最常使用 A6、HB1 和 HB2，她依然建议你尝试所有选择。“为了适应不同场景或主题，使用滤镜可以产生出意想不到的效果。所以，我不会只使用 A6，我会把所有滤镜套用一遍，找一个最喜欢的，然后再去调整细节。”

Edited with HB1使用 HB1 编辑
Edited with A6使用 A6 编辑
Edited with HB2使用 HB2 编辑
Edited with AL1使用 AL1 编辑
Edited with FP4使用 FP4 编辑

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Embroidering Political Aesthetics 被抹去面孔的亚洲女人

June 17, 2019 2019年6月17日

In her series Girl, artist Jessica So Ren Tang embroiders beautiful patterns onto and around feminine figures, overlaying their skin with flora and fauna. The series began as a response to paintings by Ikenaga Yasunari that feature women set before patterned backgrounds. Tang chose to flip this approach and cover the women themselves, fully or in part.

Tang begins by collecting images of women and patterns; she then tries to combine them in different ways to see what looks the best. “I choose the pose first, which affects the pattern, depending on how much surface area there is to cover,” she says. She chooses her subjects based on how striking their pose looks as a silhouette, which dictates the flow of the pattern.

艺术家 Jessica So Ren Tang 在她的《女孩》（Girl）系列中，通过刺绣，打造出身上布满美丽图案的女性形象，将植物与动物图案与女孩的肌肤融合为一。一开始创作这个系列，是因为受到了池永康晟（Ikenaga Yasunari）那些将女性置于精美背景图案前的画作启发。Jessica 反其道而行，直接将图案部分或全部叠加于女性身上。

开始，Jessica 会收集一些女性和图案照片；然后尝试以不同的方式组合，寻找最佳的搭配。“我会先确定人物的姿势，决定有多少面积可以放上图案。”她说。她会根据人物姿势的轮廓来选择创作对象，而这也决定了图案的走向。

Tang, who was raised in San Francisco by parents from Guangdong, chooses the patterns based on scraps of visuals that resonate with the Asian side of growing up Asian-American. These are typically flowers, fruits, and animals that are common motifs in East Asian imagery. Although she says she often chooses patterns by gut feeling, this still yields a cohesive look that binds her work together. In particular, “flowers and fruits have become more of a focus in my work,” she says. “So I’m hoping this way, I can include more symbolic flora from a wider Asian context.”

Once she finds a match between a photo and a pattern, she begins stitching her pieces by hand. “I do not know how to use a sewing machine,” she confesses. She notes that embroidery has a rich history but is often undervalued as “women’s work.”

This makes it an intriguing medium for a series depicting only women, one that underlines the political side of the pieces. For the images of women, Tang uses photo references pulled from magazines, typically of Asian models striking suggestive poses and showing skin. The piece that best displays Tang’s sense of socially charged irony is based on an old Playboy cover, and includes the vibrant red Playboy logo, as well as the magazine’s tagline: “entertainment for men.”

Jessica 从小在旧金山长大，父母是来自广东的移民。作为一名亚裔美国人，她对图案的选择主要围绕亚洲文化意象的视觉元素，都是东亚文化中常见的花卉、水果和动物。虽然她说自己通常都是凭直觉来挑选图案，但最终的作品依然体现着一种整体性。她特别指出：“花卉和水果已经成为我作品中的主要元素。所以，我希望可以通过这种方式，从更广泛的亚洲文化内搜集更多有象征意义的植物。”

一旦她找到合适的照片和图案搭配，就开始手工缝制作品。“我不会用缝纫机。”她坦白道。她说，刺绣是一门有着悠久历史的工艺，却常常被低估为一种“女红”。

对于一个仅描绘女性的系列，刺绣是一种特别有意思的媒介，也有助强调作品的政治意义。对于女性的形象，Jessica 会参考杂志里的照片，通常是摆着撩人姿势、裸露着肌肤的亚洲模特。最能展现 Jessica 讽刺意味的作品是一幅根据花花公子旧版封面创作的作品，上面绣有鲜红的花花公子标志，以及杂志的标语：“entertainment for men”（男人的娱乐）。

By covering women in embroidery patterns, Tang plays with the Western stereotype that all Asians look alike. She weaves a vague, generic “Asian-ness” into her subjects’ skin, intentionally blurring their features and offering a visual illustration of how stereotypes deny people of their individuality. “I’m not necessarily trying to ‘fix’ this idea, more to respond to it,” she explains.

Focusing on “Asian” imagery also reflects her frustration with not being perceived as American because of her appearance. Some people have even assumed she’s not a native English speaker. “I had a freelancer at my office ask where I was from because my English was so good,” she recalls. “Even with a California accent, I’m still considered a foreigner in my hometown.”

通过以刺绣图案覆盖女性身体，Jessica 揭露出西方社会的刻板印象：所有亚洲人看起来都一个样。在她所创作的女性形象上，她编织出一个朦胧、泛化的“亚洲人”形象，故意模糊她们的个人特征，通过视觉的创作，说明刻板印象会否定人们的个性。“我不是在试图‘纠正‘这些想法，只是在作出回应。”她解释道。

着眼于“亚洲”的文化意象，也反映出她因为外表而总是被误以为非美国人的沮丧。甚至常常有人以为她的母语不是英语。“在公司，曾经有一位自由职业者问我来自哪里，因为我的英语说得非常好。”她回忆道， “即使我的英语带着加州口音，即使我在自己的老家，我仍然会被误以为是外国人。”

The Girl series thus operates at the intersection between Western perceptions of Asians and men’s ideas of women. Even growing up in ethnically diverse California, Tang’s classmates would sometimes comment on her behavior when she didn’t fit the docile stereotype they seemed to expect of an Asian woman. The series suggests that her classmates’ ignorance comes partly from media representations of Asian women. Tang starts with images that cater to the male, Western viewer by presenting Asian women who look sensual, vulnerable, and available. The overlap between these stereotypical versions of femininity and Asian-ness in turn reflect the male and Western imagination that has directed many media narratives Tang grew up with.

也正因如此，《女孩》系列作品交织了西方社会对亚洲人、男性对女性的偏见。即使是在多元文化的加州，Jessica 在学校的同学有时也会对她的行为指指点点，只是因为她不像他们以为的亚洲女性那样温顺。这一系列也表明，她的同学的无知部分原因在于媒体对亚洲女性的刻板描画。Jessica 先是挑选出那些迎合男性和西方观众的亚洲女性形象，一些看上去性感、脆弱、易于摆布的女性。反过来，女性和亚裔的各种刻板印象相重叠，以这种男性和西方社会的想象引导着许多媒体的描画，而 Jessica 的成长过程中充斥着这种种。

Tang’s point also seems to be that Asian women have historically often had to conform to these stereotypes in order to appear in the media at all. At best, these images are still tokenizations of diversity; at worst, they are purposefully eroticized images that reinforce the notion that Asian women are, in Tang’s words, “docile, submissive, exotic.”

Tang doesn’t just respond to sexualized media stereotypes, she also takes action. In a reclamation of sorts, she removes most or all of the details that form the women’s actual appearance, making them less available to the male gaze.

Jessica 还认为，似乎亚洲女性必须符合这些刻板印象，才有机会出现在媒体上。往好的方面说，这些图像是多样性的标志；往坏的方面说，它们是一种充满性欲化图像，强化了亚洲女性“听话、顺从、充满异国情调”的形象。

对于媒体这些性欲化的刻板印象，Jessica 不只是作出回应，也有实际的行动。她重新修改了作品，删除了所创作的女性大部分或全部的五官细节，以降低这些女性形象的“男性凝视“（male gaze，一种把女性定位于被看者，置于男性凝视主控操纵的现象，译注）价值。

On the other hand, Tang occasionally feels boxed in by being an Asian woman making “Asian and feminine art.” She says, “I have concerns that while exploring my identity in my work, it’s become somewhat of an expectation of me versus making something else, like abstract painting, or something more Western perhaps.” She compares this to other artists who do not limit themselves to imagery or media rooted in their own cultures.

But ultimately, one of the main reasons that Tang continues to create art centered on her identity is because she hopes to encourage other Asian-Americans to do the same, to challenge the idea that Asians shouldn’t do art just because it’s impractical. “It’s too common that I hear about other Asian-American kids being pressured by family into high-paying careers rather than pursuing their passion in the arts,” she says. In this way, her works serve to embolden aspiring Asian-Americans artists, reminding them to take ownership of their own lives and pursue their creative desires without guilt.

另一方面，作为一名亚洲女性，Jessica 偶尔会感到自己被禁锢了“亚洲和女性艺术”之中。她说：“我的顾虑是，在我的作品中探索我的身份时，我对自己的期待已经变成了更西方的东西，而不是创作抽象的绘画。”拿自己与其他并不局限于自己文化的艺术家相比后，Jessica 如是说。

但最终 Jessica 以她的身份为中心创作艺术的主要原因之一是，她希望鼓励其他亚裔美国人也这样做，以挑战“艺术太过不务实，亚裔不会从事此行业”的观念。她说：“我经常听说其他亚裔孩子在家庭的压力下从事高薪职业，而不是追求自己对艺术的热情，这种情况实在是太普遍了。”在这个方面，她的作品给有抱负的亚裔艺术家开了先路，以提醒他们要掌握自己的生活，追求自己的创作之欲。

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Contributor: Kiril Bolotnikov

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网站: www.jessicasorentang.com
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供稿人: Kiril Bolotnikov

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Real or Digital? 真实与虚拟之间的暧昧地带

June 14, 2019 2019年6月14日

Every day, the line between IRL and URL gets a little more blurred, and one of the frontiers in this new digital landscape is the virtual avatar, a digital image used to represent someone on screen. Variations have been around for decades, from AIM Buddy Icons to early avatars in the online game Second Life, but only now are they good enough to pass as living things, breathing 0s and 1s instead of O2. Some people even prefer to use digital characters for their Instagrams rather than posting real selfies and portraits. And avatar accounts are sometimes more popular than real people’s, raking in endorsements and cash.

Chan Kayu, a digital artist in Hong Kong who works under the name Ruby Gloom, makes some of the most visible avatars on the web. Her personal and commercial work ranges from graphic art to 3D illustration to augmented reality. You can find her work in high-end fashion campaigns or viral social media posts.

每天，现实生活和数字世界之间的界限都在越变越模糊，而处于这个新数字世界前沿之一的，正是荧幕上的“虚拟人像”。从即时通讯软件 MSN 的头像到早期游戏“第二人生”的人物形象，虚拟人像早已经历数十年的演变。但直至今日，它才达到以假乱真的程度，可与真人相比拟。只是它们赖以生存的不是氧气，而是 0 和 1 的数字。而在 Instagram上，有人宁愿发表虚拟人像的图片，而不是真实的自拍和肖像照片。而这些账户有时候甚至比真人账户更受欢迎，吸引着源源不断的代言机会，带来丰厚的收入。

香港 3D 艺术家 Ruby Gloom 原名 Chan Kayu，她所创作的虚拟人像是当下网络上一些最受追捧的虚拟化身。她的个人和商业作品范围很广泛，既有平面艺术，也有 3D 插图和增强现实，在高端时尚活动或热门社交媒体帖子中常常能看到她的作品。

It might take a moment after visiting Chan’s Instagram to realize the photos aren’t entirely real. Her personal avatar is an exaggerated version of herself, a way of blending the real and the imaginary. She’s created many other avatars, sometimes for others, sometimes for herself. They’re not exactly idealized humans, though, and they all have their own individual differences and flaws.

第一次打开 Ruby 的 Instagram，你可能需要一会儿才意识到照片并非完全是真实的人物。她的个人头像是对自己夸大描绘，算是一种现实与想象的融合。她创作了许多虚拟人像，有时是给别人画，有时是给自己画。但是，这些人像并非是纯粹理想化的人物，相反，各个都有其不同和缺陷之处。

“Humans already have very fixed beauty standards already, so with avatars I want to create more diversity for them,” Chan says, while clicking through a gallery of previews on the computer in her studio, surrounded by an explosion of color and kawaii. “I give them flaws, wrinkles, freckles, and skin conditions. I do different skin colors. I used to do some green skin and alien styles, but I’m more focused on realistic stuff now.”  

“人类社会已经有非常固定的审美标准了，所以在虚拟人像的造型上，我希望能创造丰富多样性。”Ruby 边说边预览着她工作室电脑上的作品，四周是缤纷的色彩和满眼“卡娃伊”元素。她说：“我会给他们加上瑕疵、皱纹、雀斑和不同的肤质。我也会制作不同的肤色。我以前曾创作过一些绿皮肤和外星人风格的形象，但现在更专注于现实风格的作品。”

Her entry point into the creative world was as a Tumblr blogger in 2012, mainly posting her outfits of the day. She was a proto-influencer, with a devoted following before Instagram influencers were even a thing. The blogging went viral and her followers kept asking where she got her clothes, so she decided to create a label called WeeGirlsClub. People from all over the world outside Hong Kong were buying her pieces, mainly from the US. She never lost money but she stopped enjoying it because of the time spent on design, manufacturing, production, marketing, and customer service, all of which she handled herself.

Since she’d already been exploring digital art for a while, she decided that would be her next move: “I knew blogging wasn’t a long term career. I wanted to do something I loved, but I knew I had to make money so I could quit working. So first I taught myself clothing and then digital art.” Her career has been about staying ahead of the curve, spotting trends in the digital universe and navigating them as they change and die. “I used to be obsessed with influencers because you get money, attention, and all the products you want. But they used to be someone who was good at something. Now it’s just people faking talents to become an influencer. I don’t think it’ll last very long.”

她踏入创意世界的切入点是在 2012 年成为 Tumblr 博主，那时候，她主要是在博客上贴自己每日的服装造型。她可以说是现在网红的鼻祖，在 Instagram 网红出现之前就已经深受欢迎。她的博客爆红后，粉丝不断追问在哪里可以买到她的衣服，于是她决定创立自己的品牌 WeeGirlsClub。来自世界各地的人们纷纷前来购买她的作品，主要以美国为主。她是不缺钱了，但她也不太快乐。因为要花费大量时间在设计、制作、生产、市场推广和客户服务上，而所有这一切工作都由她一人承担。

由于当时的她已经探索数字艺术有一段时间，她决定将这种艺术作为自己的下一步：“我知道博主不是一份长久的职业。我想做自己喜欢的事情，但我知道我必须赚钱，这样才能辞职。所以一开始我先自学了做衣服，然后是制作数字艺术。”她的工作要求她一直走在时代的前端，发现数字世界的趋势，把握潮流的变化和更迭。“我曾经沉迷于成为网红，因为可以获得金钱、关注，以及你想要的所有产品。在以前，网红都是擅长某样事情的人，但现在很多网红只是装作很有才华。我觉得这些网红不会持续很长时间。”

While Chan is adept at profiting from the web, she doesn’t gloss over its downsides. “Companies like avatars because they can take full control of someone to represent their brand. People might not be able to relate to them after a while, so their influence could wane,” she says.

For now, Chan finds commercial work creatively satisfying, but in the future, she hopes to focus more on personal projects. Always looking ahead, she says her next goal is to create a 3-D printout of her avatar and travel around the world with it, posing with it in the street. And not just for a photo: she plans to stay with it for entire days at a time, like a street performer. This time, she wants to bring her digital creations into the real world.  

虽然网络世界让 Ruby 获益不少，但对它的缺点，她也直言不讳。“很多公司喜欢用虚拟人像，因为这样他们可以完全控制代表品牌的形象。但一段时间后，人们可能无法再与这些虚拟形象产生共鸣，然后它们的影响力就会有所减弱。”她说。

现在，Ruby 在商业作品中也能获得足够的创意发挥，但在未来，她希望更专注于个人项目的创作。她的目光始终向前，她说自己的下一个目标是制作 3D 打印的虚拟人像化身，然后带着它周游世界，把它放在大街上拍照。不仅仅是拍照片，她还打算像街头艺人一样，与这个 3D 打印的虚拟人像相处一整天。这一次，她要将自己的数字作品带入现实世界。   

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Instagram: @rubyrubygloom

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Mart Sarmiento
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @rubyrubygloom

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Mart Sarmiento
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

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