Monthly Archives: July 2020

Supernatural Reality 没有面孔的诙谐

July 31, 2020 2020年7月31日

Zhang Jingran runs an antique business in Chengdu. In his occupation, an interest in historical curios and religious artifacts is a given. However, even outside of work, Zhang holds an appreciation for classic Chinese literature and Buddhist scriptures. These atypical interests have even carried over into his photographic practices, resulting in an experimental body of work that zigzags between disparate photographic genres: faceless figures, liturgical artifacts, and inexplicable oddities are all hallmarks of Zhang’s visual vernacular. Through his flair for eccentricities and an offbeat sense of humor, Zhang’s photography offers a uniquely different look at contemporary China.

居住在四川成都的张景然（Jingran Zhang）平日里做着古董生意。因为职业关系，会经常与佛珠、古玩打交道，手边也时常摆放古文明和宗教等相关类书籍。这些元素潜移默化地影响着他的另一个身份 —— 摄影师。初次看到他的作品时，你或许会被那种强烈的压迫与神秘感所吸引。他的创作方式行走在各类摄影风格之间，让身边的日常素材达到一种颇具实验性的效果。没有面孔的角色、宗教意味的文物摆设、意想不到的古怪趣味……这些元素共同构成了张景然的创作语言，带观众瞥见他眼里的中国社会，裹挟着几分魔幻与诙谐。

Zhang’s series Linglong Pagoda, shot over the span of three years, focuses on places of worship throughout the country. In one image, rising incense smoke partially obscures a figure covered by a dark velvet cloth. In another, a similar figure—now shrouded by a cut of red fabric—clasps a stack of religious scripture. In yet another, a figure draped in an all-black curtain has his hands together in prayer. These images feel mystical, borderline irreverent even, but Zhang admits there’s no hidden subtext or deeper meaning. He was only concerned with conjuring a sense of mystery. “I grew up in Xinjiang, and I’ve always loved the aesthetics of my hometown’s mix of religions, especially the colors and designs of the region’s traditional garments,” he says. “This series was inspired by the veils worn by Uyghur women, a simple piece of clothing that gives off a sense of mystery.”

The sense of unearthliness is only heightened by his use of flash. “Flash is great because you have full control over the light,” he says. “Pairing that with some clever camera angles often nets unexpected results.”

《玲珑塔（Linglong Pagoda）》是张景然在 2017 至 2020 年间途径多个地方拍摄的作品。照片的取景地往往和宗教有关，四周朦胧的升烟让事物笼罩在超现实的氛围中；画面中的肖像被一块深色的丝绒布遮住全身，他们双手合十或受捧经文，像正在做某种仪式。张景然承认自己是一个向往神秘的人，即便那些蒙住面孔的肖像没有特别的含义，但他还是希望向读者传递的一种神秘的感受，他说：“从小在新疆长大。我一直很喜欢故乡的宗教美学，尤其是传统服装的设计和颜色。早期的维吾尔族女人都会蒙着面纱，简约又神秘的轮廓深深地吸引着我。” 

同时，作品中强烈的光照让整幅画面看起来像抽离了现实，为了在作品中达到这种效果，张景然在闪光灯上有着自己的研究，他说：“你觉得光从哪来更酷，就让它从哪来。再搭配一些合适的拍摄角度，就会产生意想不到的效果。”

Anonymity is another defining feature of Zhang’s photography; his subjects’ faces are almost never visible. In an older portrait series shot on analog film, he placed fragmented pieces of gems atop the developed images, covering his subjects’ faces before scanning them. In a way, these gem fragments symbolize the fleetingness of youth: although these broken shards still reveal glimpses of the stone’s original beauty, they’re not quite what they used to be. “I’m bored of traditional portraits, frankly,” Zhang says. “Commercial shoots and the beauty filters of today revolt me. I want my photos to be fun, and I don’t want to waste time indulging superficialities.”

除了《玲珑塔》系列，张景然镜头下的人物往往缺失了面容特写。他的另一系列作品由上了年头的交卷照片组成，不同颜色的细碎石块，不同程度地遮住了人物的面孔。他说道：“我对传统人像照片有点抵触吧，特别是商业人像摄影，还有现在浮夸的美图修容技术等等。我更希望发现更多好玩有趣的摄影形态，而不是浪费时间在面容的表达上面，那些对我来说不重要。” 照片上带有颜色的小石子依稀还能看到破碎前的美感，但好像再也回不到当初的完整，张景然则用它们代表转瞬即逝的青春与年华。

Much of Zhang’s work reflects his endless fascination with the visual contrasts of contemporary China: as a country propelled by unrivaled economic and technological advancements, it’s managed to retain many of its traditional ways of life and aesthetics. The push-and-pull between these opposing forces contributes to the strangeness of his work. “The reality I live in is just that surreal,” he says.

张景然认为中国的现状很有意思，社会一方面提速发展经济和科技，另一方面又保留了过去生活的习惯和审美，两者巨大的反差给人留下一种 “魔幻东方” 的感觉。这些有趣的镜头很随机，通常来自他的日常生活，并没有丝毫刻意的意思。他笑着说道：“因为身边的现实本身就是如此魔幻呀。”

Zhang advises viewers to not take his work too seriously, as most of them are shot with personal context in mind. “To me, the art of photography is in finding personal meaning,” he says. “I’m not interested in over explaining or adding a message that isn’t there, as I find that suffocates the viewers’ imagination.”

The deliberate ambiguity and sense of not knowing is precisely the allure of Zhang’s work. It invites viewers to meditate on their personal truths and the notion of reality. In this way, while not his original intent, the surreal happenings shown in his photography do carry deeper meaning—it’s just up to the viewers to decipher what that may be for themselves.

张景然建议，观看他的作品时没有必要太过较真，因为很多作品都来自他个人背景下的独特视角。他说：“我对于摄影的理念是读图艺术，太多的文字阐述或者介绍无异于画蛇添足，抑制观者的想象空间。” 而那些照片里的魔幻却往往让我们勾起对身边现实的思考，那些魔幻的、不可思议的不仅仅是画面，更像是对很多事情的隐喻。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @3000zhang
Weibo: @低端摄影

 

Contributor: Pete Zhang
English Translation: David Yen

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @3000zhang
微博: @低端摄影

 

供稿人: Pete Zhang
中译英: David Yen

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

From Karaoke to Stardom ✨卡拉 OK の迷恋✨

July 29, 2020 2020年7月29日

The best way to describe Bryn’s musical style is maximalist, karaoke-room rap with a dusting of pop sheen. The 21-year-old, Seoul born and raised artist sing-raps about love and relationships in autotune drenched hues, skipping through a medley of rhythms with bits of English lyrics sprinkled throughout.

Bryn 的音乐风格大概可以用 “极繁主义” 来形容 —— 卡拉 OK 风格说唱搭配天花乱坠的流行乐元素。这位二十一岁来自首尔的女生，擅长运用 Anto-Tune 调配恋爱与人际关系的颜色，在一系列旋转跳跃的旋律中穿插可爱的英文歌词。

Listen to some of our favorite tracks by Bryn:

试听 Bryn 的一些精选歌曲:

The karaoke influence is hard to miss. After all, it’s where she found her calling for rap. Bryn, whose given name is Choi Ran, used to hang out at videoke spots with her friends after class in middle school. “One day I picked out some K-hip hop song and started rapping. All of a sudden, my friends were encouraging me to really rap,” she recalls. “So I figured, sure; let’s give it a shot.”

不可否认，她的歌曲带有强烈的卡拉 OK 音乐元素，而 K 歌房也正是她开始迷恋说唱音乐的地方。Bryn 原名 Choi Ran，中学放学的时候，她常常和朋友一起去 K 歌房。她回忆道：“有次我点播了一些韩国嘻哈音乐跟着唱了起来，我的朋友听后都让我走说唱路线。我心想那不如试试看好了。”

Two years ago, Bryn finally felt comfortable with the songs she was creating for fun and started releasing them on Soundcloud. As people took notice, she landed a spot on Show Me The Money, the Korean rap competition TV show. Like much of Asia, reality TV plays a huge role in who makes it in the rap game in Korea. 

The show has been huge for Bryn, allowing her to gain a larger audience while still retaining an experimental edge. Fans follow her down K-rap wormholes online, where the genre has begun branching off into unexpected directions. “Rap is on the TV, on the radio, in the club. It’s everywhere,” she says. The ubiquity affords her the freedom to strip some of the polish from the tightly wound Korean music industry. She clearly revels in the fumes of change, ratcheting up a fairly common style of kawaii music to a point of delirium.

出于好玩，Bryn 从那时起便开始说唱创作。而直到两年前，她才将一些满意的作品发表在 Soundcloud 上。歌曲一经上传，便很快引起了关注。随后，Bryn 参加了火爆全国的电视说唱节目《Show Me The Money》。

与亚洲大部分地区一样，真人秀节目对韩国说唱界的发展举足轻重。Bryn 认为该节目对她的意义也十分重大，这是一次珍贵的机会，让她独具特色的说唱表演在观众面前大显身手。大伙儿们纷纷在 Bryn 的个人页面点了关注，而她的音乐风格也开始朝着更令人意想不到的方向延伸。

如今，众多不同类型的说唱音乐风格在韩国遍地开花，她说：“无论在电视、电台还是夜店，说唱无处不在。”，而与此同时，广泛的热度也为传统的韩国音乐产业增添了一抹亮色。Bryn 从心底里为这样的转变感到高兴，而能让 “卡哇伊” 风格说唱被大众所了解，更是一件令她雀跃不已的好事儿。

无法观看？前往腾讯视频

For music videos and songs, Bryn now works with a revolving cast of collaborators. Different producers, directors, and stylists are involved in each project. Her videos bombard viewers with blasts of saturated colors and electronic sounds. And though she’s new to the rap game, her flair for performing is clear—she looks completely in her element when she’s in front of the lens.

在音乐 MV 和歌曲制作的过程中，Bryn 尝试与不同艺术家合作，每个项目都会有不同的制作人、导演和造型师参与当中。在她 MV 里，浓郁的色彩与电音轮番轰炸观众的视线和听觉。尽管还是一名说唱新人，但镜头里的她看上去如鱼得水，游刃有余，表演能力毋庸置疑。

Still a newcomer to the rap game, she’s only performed in Seoul nightclubs so far. “The hip-hop clubs are usually found in two different neighborhoods with different vibes,” she says. “The younger generation loves to dance and they really know how to party. They prefer Hong Dae and places like Henz. But older crowds usually prefer Itaewon and spots like Owl or Soap. I have fun in both areas.”

Despite Korean rap’s increasing global reach and the genre’s popularity at home, Bryn says the industry can still feel underdeveloped at times. Things are changing for the better though. “There used to be a big gap between the underground and major labels, but I don’t think that’s true anymore,” she says. “I personally think there’s not much of a difference. Music is just music.”

Bryn 的大部分演出活动举办在首尔的夜店。她说：“韩国的嘻哈音乐俱乐部主要分布在两片区域，这两个地方的氛围也截然不同。年轻一代喜欢跳舞和派对，他们则更喜欢出没在弘大和 Henz 一带；年纪大一点的更喜欢梨泰院，和 Owl 或 Soap 这样的夜店。这俩地方都不赖。”

Bryn 认为，虽然韩国说唱音乐在全球的影响力不断扩大，在韩国本土也越来越受欢迎，但有时她仍会感觉到这个圈子还不够成熟，不过一切正朝着更好的方向发展。她说：“以前觉得地下音乐和主流厂牌音乐之间还有很大的差距，但现在好像已经不是这样了。我个人觉得这两者之间没太大差别，毕竟音乐就是音乐，没必要争个你强我弱。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @brynbling
YouTube: ~/BRYN
Soundcloud: ~/98b

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
Images & Videos Courtesy of Bryn

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Instagram: @brynbling
YouTube: ~/BRYN
Soundcloud: ~/98b

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li
图片与视频由 Bryn 提供

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Sahara Stories 撒哈拉：远方的归人

July 27, 2020 2020年7月27日

For some people, the desert holds a special allure. They’re drawn to its severe beauty, its terrifying openness, its punishing sun and frigid nights. For readers of Chinese, perhaps the most memorable figure to dream of the desert—and one of the most singular travelers of the 20th century—is the Taiwanese writer known as Sanmao.

“I don’t remember when it was exactly, but one day I found myself absentmindedly flipping through an issue of National Geographic. It just so happened there was a feature on the Sahara,” Sanmao wrote in the early 1970s, explaining the desert’s pull. “I couldn’t understand the feeling of homesickness I had, inexplicable and yet so decisive, towards that vast and unfamiliar land, as if echoing from a past life . . . My desire to go only deepened, torturing me with nostalgia and longing.” Not content simply to dream, in 1973 she and her future husband José moved from Madrid, where they had been working, to the town of El Aaiún, in what was then the Spanish colony of the Western Sahara.

Sanmao’s account of her life there, Stories of the Sahara, first published in 1976, brought her overnight fame in Taiwan, and it launched her brief but fertile literary career. Over the course of the next fifteen years, she published some twenty books and became wildly popular throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Even today, few writers are as beloved. Now, at long last, the book that made her famous is available in English, in an elegant translation by Mike Fu.

对于有些人来说，沙漠有一种特别的魅力：极端严酷的环境、摄人心魄的空旷，加之炎炎烈日与漫漫寒夜，无不令人心弛神往。对于华语读者而言，在有关沙漠的幻想中，最有代表性的人物——同时也是 20 世纪最具传奇色彩的旅行家之一，就是台湾作家三毛。

“不记得在哪一年以前，我无意间翻到一本美国的《国家地理》杂志，那期书里，它正好在介绍撒哈拉沙漠。我只看了一遍，我不能解释的属于前世回忆似的乡愁，就莫名其妙，毫无保留地交给了那一片陌生的大地。” 1970 年代初，三毛这样写下沙漠的莫名吸引力。“等我再回到西班牙来定居时……我怀念渴想往它奔去的欲望就又一度再苦痛着我了。”为了不再满足于纯粹的想象，1973 年，三毛和后来成为她丈夫的荷西（José）从他们原来工作生活的马德里搬到了阿尤恩（El Aaiún，又称“阿雍”），这是当时被划分为西班牙保护地的西撒哈拉中的一个小镇。

在《撒哈拉的故事》中，三毛讲述了这段生活。这本书在 1976 年首次出版，一经推出，就让三毛在台湾一夜成名，由此开启了她短暂而精彩的文学创作生涯。在之后十五年期间，她一共出版了近 20 本著作，在华语文学界声名大噪。即便到了今天，也鲜有作家能像她那样广受欢迎。最近，在译者傅麦（Mike Fu）的努力下，这本曾让她一举成名的著作终于被翻译成了英语版本。

Stories of the Sahara is a series of autobiographical sketches—an intimate, if not always factual, chronicle of Sanmao’s life in El Aaiún with her husband José and their Sahrawi neighbors. The stories offer a glimpse into a world her readers in Taiwan, and eventually in mainland China, could only dream of—a small colonial outpost on the edge of the desert must have seemed unimaginably remote, while her globe-trotting lifestyle must have struck many as a fantasy. “Driving through this great wasteland, so peaceful in the afternoon it was almost frightening, it was hard not to feel some measure of loneliness,” she writes. “But, by the same token, to know that I was wholly alone in this unimaginably vast land was totally liberating.” She traveled the world alone and had little patience for the gender expectations of her day. “Sanmao was unique for her time as an independent Chinese woman,” says Fu. “She not only wrote of her travels far and wide, but expressed herself with a certain boldness and (some might say) vanity.”

《撒哈拉的故事》是一本自传式散文集，其中讲述了她与丈夫荷西在阿尤恩的生活以及在当地结识的朋友，虽然故事的真实性有待商榷，但行文着实真切可感。这些故事给大陆两岸的读者打开了一扇窗户，以一窥这个想象中的曼妙异域：这个位于沙漠边缘的小小殖民地对读者来说显得那样遥远，而三毛本人周游列国的生活方式，对很多人来说更是一种遥不可及的奢望。“在下午安静得近乎恐怖的大荒原里开车，心里难免有些寂寞的感觉。”她写道，“但是，知道这难以想象的广大土地里，只有自己孤零零的一个人，也是十分自由的事。”她独自一人周游世界，无视那个时代对女性的期待。傅麦说：“三毛是一位独立的中国女性，这在那个时代是相当难得的。她不仅写下自己天南海北的旅行经历，还表现出了相当的勇气和自信。”

Born in 1943, in wartime Chongqing, Sanmao grew up in Taiwan after her family fled the communist advance. As a child she found her given name, Chen Maoping, too difficult to write, she changed it to Chen Ping; on her first trips abroad, in college, she adopted the English name Echo. Yet it’s as Sanmao—a pen name she borrowed from a 1930s comic-book character—that she became famous. Her literary persona is by turns charming, surprising, and exasperating. “She’s a whimsical character and protagonist, centering the reader as her confidant and co-conspirator,” says Fu. In her hands, even the most outrageous or harrowing situations seem entirely normal. She talks freely of her longing and her disappointments, and though she doesn’t exactly show a vulnerable side, she has no qualms about occasionally appearing ridiculous.

Before moving to the Sahara, Sanmao had already lived in the US, Germany, and Spain. She returned to Taiwan in 1970, but after the untimely death of a fiancé, she left again to take a job teaching English in Madrid. That’s where she began to dream of the desert. José María Quero, a younger man who she had met years earlier, began courting her, and even found a mining job in order to move to the desert with her. She realized that in him she’d found someone to take seriously, and the two got married in El Aaiún in 1974, in a civil ceremony Sanmao recounts in the book. (As a wedding present, he gave her a camel skull. “I was overjoyed,” she writes. “This was just the thing to capture my heart.”) They remained in El Aaiún until late 1975, moving to the Canary Islands when Spain withdrew from the Western Sahara.

三毛生于 1943 年战时的重庆，后来跟着家人逃离国内党派的追逼，来到了台湾。小时候，她觉得自己的名字陈懋（mào）平太难写了，于是就改名为陈平；大学期间，她第一次出国旅行，给自己取了英文名 Echo。然而，她最终成名是以“三毛”的名字。这个名字来源于《三毛流浪记》里的角色。她笔下的自己时而魅力四射，时而令人惊喜，有时又让人觉得可气可恨。“她在书中是一个性格反覆无常的主角，而读者则成为了她倾诉的知己和同谋。” 傅麦说道。在她笔下，即使遭遇了相当糟糕或悲惨的境况，也不过是平平带过。她毫无保留地谈论自己的渴望与失望；虽然没有完全展露自己脆弱的一面，但她毫不在意写下那些偶尔的荒诞插曲。

前往撒哈拉之前，三毛已先后在美国、德国和西班牙生活过。1970年，她回到台湾，但未婚夫不幸去世后，她又回到马德里去教英语。正是在这个时候开始，她对沙漠心生向往。而她几年前认识的一位年轻男子荷西（José María Quero）也开始追求她，甚至还找了一份采矿的工作，只为了和她一起到沙漠生活。当她意识到这是一段值得认真对待的感情后，两人于 1974 年在阿尤恩登记结婚，三毛在书中也描述了这段婚礼。（荷西送了她一个骆驼头骨作为结婚礼物。她这样写道：“我太兴奋了，这个东西真是送到我心里去的”。）他们继续留在阿尤恩生活，直到 1975 年底，当西班牙殖民军从西撒哈拉撤退时，才移居到加那利群岛。

Just why such a singular writer remained unknown in the West for so long is a mystery. “I encountered Sanmao in 2011, when a friend gave me Stories of the Sahara as a birthday present,” says Fu. He had begun dabbling in translation a few years earlier, while doing a master’s in Chinese Film at Columbia, and when he read her he immediately knew he wanted to bring her into English. “One of the first things that drew me to this book was Sanmao’s eminent readability, even for a Chinese-American like myself who grew up largely without deep knowledge of or access to Chinese literature,” he says. “I wanted her to sound just as lively, funny, and relatable in English. I felt that the spirit of her words has aged well and really lent itself to the task.” His version admirably captures her casual, conversational voice, and her personality comes through on every page. (Fu is also the translation editor of the Shanghai Literary Review.)

In recent years, Sanmao has finally begun to attract more international attention, thanks to Fu and other translators. Stories of the Sahara appeared in Catalan and Spanish in 2016 and in Dutch in 2019. Recently the New York Times devoted an “Overlooked” feature (a sort of belated obituary) to Sanmao, and the New Yorker published an essay on her life and works. The upcoming second issue of the Latin American literary journal Chopsuey will include the first-ever Spanish translation of her travelogue from Argentina. And in March of this year, for what would have been her 77th birthday, Words Without Borders published a reminiscence of her by her niece, along with videos of Fu and other translators reading her work in different languages.

这样一个充满传奇色彩的作家竟然一直不为西方社会所了解，实在让人感到匪夷所思。“我是在 2011 年认识三毛的，当时朋友送了我一本《撒哈拉的故事》作为生日礼物。” 傅麦说道。几年前，他在哥伦比亚大学修读中国电影学硕士学位的时候，开始从事翻译工作。他一读这本书，就有了要将它翻译成英文的想法。他说：“这本书最吸引我的地方在于三毛文字的可读性，即使是像我这样对中国文学不甚了解的美籍华裔也看得懂。我希望翻译成英文后，依然能呈现出她活泼、风趣的文字风格，能让读者产生共鸣。我觉得她的文字中透露出一种永不过时的精神，也因此让整本书更加出色。”他的译文出色再现了三毛随性、自然的文字语调，在字里行间，栩栩如生地勾勒出三毛的形象。（另外，傅麦也是《上海文艺评论》的翻译和编辑。）

近年来，三毛开始在国际社会上获得越来越多的关注，傅麦和其他译者功不可没。《撒哈拉的故事》加泰罗尼亚语和西班牙语版本已经于 2016 年出版，荷兰语版本也于 2019 年出版。最近，《纽约时报》发表了一篇专题文章，讲述“被忽略”的三毛（相当于一份迟来的讣文），《纽约客》(The New Yorker) 也发表了一篇文章，介绍了三毛的生平和作品。即将出版的拉美文学刊物《Chopsuey》第二期也将首次发表三毛的阿根廷游记西班牙语译本。今年 3 月是三毛的 77 岁生日，Words Without Borders 发表了由三毛侄女撰写的一篇三毛回忆录，还有傅麦和多位译者用不同语言阅读三毛作品的视频。

What explains Sanmao’s lasting appeal? Partly it’s her curiosity about everyone around her, which in turn owes a lot to her boundless confidence and willingness to flout gender norms. She was a keen observer of the life of El Aaiún and effortlessly moved across social and political lines, meeting Sahrawi notables and colonial bureaucrats, Spanish soldiers and rebel militiamen, conservative women and traveling prostitutes. She and José were much more involved in the local life than their Spanish peers. “We had many Sahrawi friends,” she writes. “The stamp seller at the post office, the security guard at the courthouse, the company driver, the store assistant, the beggar pretending to be blind, the donkey wrangler who delivered water, the powerful tribal chief, the penniless slave, male and female neighbors young and old, policemen, thieves; people from all walks of life were our sahabi.” Not everyone got along, of course, and intolerance and violence were never far from the scene. One of her most dramatic pieces, “Crying Camels,” shows how a mixture of religious intolerance, sexual conservatism, political infighting, and personal vendettas culminated, in the chaotic days of Spain’s withdrawal, in a brutal tragedy.

为什么三毛能拥有如此经久不衰的魅力？一部分原因可能是她对别人的那份好奇心，这归功于她的自信和对社会性别规训的反叛。她细致敏锐地观察着阿尤恩的生活，轻松自如地游走于不同的社会和政治阶层，既结识了撒哈拉维名流和殖民官员、西班牙士兵和反政府武装士兵，也认识了保守的传统女人和四处漂泊的妓女。比起荷西比西班牙人，三毛更加融入当地的生活。正如她笔下所写：“我们有很多撒哈拉威人（Sahrawi，指居住在西撒哈拉的人）的朋友，邮局买邮票的，法院看门的，公司的司机，商店的店员，装瞎子讨钱的，拉驴子送水的，有势的部族首长，没钱的奴隶，邻居男女老幼，警察，小偷，三教九流都是我们的“沙黑毕”（朋友）。”但是，这里的生活也不是一片其乐融融，这里也会有仇恨和暴力。在她最具戏剧性的作品之一《哭泣的骆驼》中，她描写了在动荡的西班牙大撤退中，各种宗教仇恨、性保守主义、政治斗争和个人仇杀所带来的，种种毫无意义的悲剧。

Her curiosity didn’t preclude criticism, and she never hesitated to pass judgment on what she saw. She deplored the Sahrawi practices of slavery and child marriage, and she was incredulous about local ignorance and poor hygiene. As Fu notes, “there are quite a few instances where her judgments of others, especially the Sahrawi characters, may come off as insensitive at best, derogatory or racist at worst.” Yet her judgments were balanced by a profound sympathy for nearly everyone she encountered: the young shopkeeper duped into sending money to a distant woman he thinks is his wife, the Spanish soldier filled with hatred after his comrades are massacred, the old women who asked her to treat their aches and pains. She found herself compelled by the very landscape to seek out these human connections. “Back in civilization, life was too complicated. I wouldn’t have thought other people or things had anything to do with me,” she writes. “But in this barren land, fierce winds howling year round, my spirit was moved by the mere sight of a blade of grass or a drop of morning dew . . . How could I turn a blind eye to an old man tottering on his own beneath such a lonely sky?”

她对世界充满好奇，也不吝于批判眼前所见的一切。她曾强烈谴责撒哈拉威的奴隶制和童婚传统，对当地的封闭无知和恶劣的卫生条件，也提出过质疑。就像傅麦指出的：“书中有多处，她对他人的评价，尤其是对撒哈拉威人的描述，让人感觉过于冷漠，甚至可以说是一种贬低或歧视。” 然而，在批判之余，三毛几乎对于她所遇到的每一个人又流露出同情：一直给远方所谓“妻子”寄钱的年轻店主、在战友被屠杀后充满仇恨的西班牙士兵、一位请求她治疗他们病痛的老妇；她发现，置身于沙漠的环境，她不由自主地想去寻求人与人之间的联系。她写道：“在文明的社会里，因为台服在了，我不会觉得其他的人和事跟我有什么关系，但是在这片狂风中年吹拂着的贫瘠的土地上，不要说是人，能看见一个槽，一滴晨曦下的露水，它们都会触动我的心灵，怎么可能在这样寂寞的天空下见到蹒跚独行的老人而视若无睹呢？”

In 1979, José died in a tragic diving accident on the Canary Islands, leaving Sanmao distraught. She returned to Taiwan, where she settled down to teach writing. Yet before long she was on the road again, spending several months in Latin America on assignment from United Daily News, the paper that had printed her first dispatches from Africa. Toward the end of the 1980s she traveled to mainland China for the first time. By the time of her sudden death in 1991, in an apparent suicide in a Taipei hospital, she had already become a literary legend on both sides of the straits.

Her evocations of life in the Sahara remain haunting. “What attracts me to this place? The wide openness of the earth and sky, the hot sun, the windstorms. There’s joy in such a lonely life, there’s sorrow.” Sanmao’s life and works continue to be an invitation for readers to take a leap into the unknown. And now this singular, alluring writer is available to readers in English.

To purchase Mike Fu’s translation of Stories of the Sahara, click here. The original Chinese version can be ordered here.

1979 年，荷西在加那利群岛潜水时不幸意外身亡，留下悲痛欲绝的三毛。她回到台湾定居，教授写作。然而，没过多久，她又重新踏上旅程，受《联合报副刊》邀请，在拉丁美洲生活了几个月。该报纸也曾发表了她在非洲旅行的文章。在 20 世纪 80 年代末，她第一次到访中国大陆。1991 年，三毛突然在台北一家医院自缢身亡。这时的她已经成为两岸文学界的传奇人物。

她所描写的撒哈拉生活至今仍萦绕人们的心头。“这儿有什么吸引我？天高地阔、烈日、风暴，孤寂的生活有欢喜，有悲伤，连这些无知的人，我对他们一样有爱有恨，混淆不清，唉！我自己也搞不清楚。”直到今日，三毛和她的文字仍然在吸引着读者探索未知的世界。现在，她的作品终于突破了语言的壁垒，终于能为英语读者献上她传奇的生平与故事。

如想购买傅麦的译本《Sahara Stories》，请戳此链接；如想购买中文原版《撒哈拉的故事》，请点击这里。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Contributor: Allen Young
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
Images Courtesy of Xiao Quan & Chengdu University of Science and Technology

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

供稿人: Allen Young
英译中: Olivia Li
图片由 肖全 与 成都科技大学出版社 提供

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Needle Contaminated Pork 注射针混入豚

July 24, 2020 2020年7月24日

Deafening guitar sounds blare out from the small Tokyo club at headache-inducing decibels. Inside, the solo guitarist on stage is thrashing around in a manic frenzy as the crowd moshes and headbangs. Even more jarring than the vicious sounds being discharged from the guitar is perhaps the person behind it. Covered up by a full-body hazmat suit and gas mask, the performing musician might seem like someone on edge about the pandemic, except this show took place in early 2019, months before the first cases of Covid-19 emerged.

Conceived in 2006, Needle Contaminated Pork is a one-man slamming brutal death metal act from Niigata, a quiet coastal town that’s given birth to a number of notable Japanese brutal death metal bands. Accompanied by drum samples, the anonymous guitarist plays an extremely violent form of slam death metal that bludgeons eardrums and incites riotous mosh pits.

在东京一间小俱乐部里，传来了震耳欲聋的吉他声。走进俱乐部，舞台上的吉他手正激烈地弹奏着吉它，台下的观众跟随强劲的音乐摇头晃脑，群魔乱斗。比起躁动的吉他声，更令人意外的是弹吉他的人。这位吉他手全身穿上了危险品防护服，带着防毒面具，很像是疫情爆发时的医护人员；只不过这场演出其实是 2019 年初举办的，当时离首例新冠肺炎感染者出现还有好几个月。

注射针混入豚 (Needle Contaminated Pork) 成立于 2006 年，是来自新泻的Slam Brutal Death Metal（残酷死亡金属）一人乐队。新泻是日本一座宁静的沿海城市，曾诞生过许多日本著名的残酷死亡金属乐队。伴随着鼓采样，这位不见真面目的吉他手演奏着强劲的 Slam 残酷死亡金属音乐，轰炸着观众的耳膜，鼓动台下的观众蹦起来。

Listen to some of our favorite tracks by Needle Contaminated Pork:

试听注射针混入豚的一些精选歌曲:

“I started playing slamming death metal because of Gorevent and Patisserie, bands both from Niigata,” the masked musician explains. “With Gorevent, I noticed the importance of the groove in the music rather than the blast beat.”

Patisserie, being a one-man goregrind project, was what inspired Needle Contaminated Pork to become a solo act. “He is an American guy who got his start in Niigata. I listened to his demo CD Pathorgenal Forensology, and it felt like unlimited possibilities were available to me. Being a one-man band is to be free. I can do what I want.”

 

这位戴着面具的音乐人说：“我一开始想做 Slam 残酷死亡金属音乐完全是因为两支来自新泻的乐队，Gorevent乐队和Patisserie 乐队。Gorevent 让我认识到，音乐中的律动比爆炸式的节奏更重要。”

Patisserie 是一个单人碾核（goregrind）乐队，也正是受到他的启发，才有了“注射针混入豚”这个单人乐队。“他是一个美国人，在新泻开始做音乐。听过他的 demo《Pathorgenal Forensology》后，我才发现自己也可以有无限的创作可能。单人乐队是一种自由，我可以随心所欲地做音乐。”

While the creative freedom is liberating, being a one-man project also has its setbacks. “There are disadvantages of course,” he says. “Making a song by myself takes a lot of time, especially programming the drums. The whole concert is also my lone responsibility. I want to overwhelm the audience every time, but I can’t play for so long because I’ll suffocate.”

作为单人乐队，虽然创作更自由，但也会有相应的困难。他说：“当然也会有一些缺点。自己制作一首歌往往要花很多时间，尤其制作鼓声的部分。而且整场表演都是我一个人的责任。而每一次表演，我都希望能带给观众震撼的音乐感受，但我又不能表演太久，否则我可能会窒息而死。”

For each show, Needle Contaminated Pork sets the tone with a modified version of “Densha Kamo Shirenai“—the theme song of a vintage Japanese cartoon—playing from the venue speakers. It’s a cheery track that offsets the oncoming sonic onslaught of his own songs, such as “Wriggling Maggots in Wound” or “Strong Smell of Rotting Corpses.”

“This Tama song has a bizarre ambiance and lyrics,” he says. “I edited the song for a slower playback. It helps in making the audience feel unnerved as I prepare to take the stage.”

每一场表演，“注射针混入豚”都会以一首改编的《有时可能是列车》（日本一部旧卡通片的主题曲）开场，通过现场音箱播放。这是一首风格轻快的曲目，可以平衡他接下来要表演的那些极具冲击性的原创音乐，例如《在伤口中蠕动的蛆虫》（《Wriggling Maggots in Wound》）或《腐尸恶臭》（《Strong Smell of Rotting Corpses》）。

他说：“《有时可能是列车》它这个卡通片主题曲有一种怪异的氛围，歌词也很特别。我改编的节奏更慢一些，这样有助于在观众中营造一种不安的情绪，之后我再上台表演。

All of his upcoming shows have been canceled due to the ongoing pandemic. But with a demo, two compilation albums, a collaborative album with three other bands, and finally a recent China Tour 2019 Limited Vaccination album released, Needle Contaminated Pork can be safely listened to in the comfort of your own home. Granted, the proper way to experience his music is at his live shows where almost anything goes, or just about. Since he started donning full-body PPE in 2007, he’s remained adamant about keeping his identity under wraps and doesn’t take too kindly to people who don’t respect his anonymity. “One time during a gig, I dove into the audience, and a drunk madman tried to remove my gas mask,” he recalls. “If I find him again, I will impale him.”

由于当下疫情的影响，他接下来的所有演出都被取消了。但是他已经推出过demo、两张精选专辑，和其他三支乐队的合作专辑以及最近发行的《China Tour 2019 Limited Vaccination》专辑，所以你完全可以在家中安全地听到“注射针混入豚”的音乐。当然，体验他的音乐最好的方式还是听他的现场表演。自从在 2007 年开始穿上全身防护服表演后，他就一直坚持保密自己的真实身份，所以，有时遇到一些不尊重他这一点的人，他也会被激怒。他回忆说：“有一次演出，我跳到观众当中，一个醉酒的疯子想取下我的防毒面具。下次再看到他，我一定会让他好好记住我。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Facebook: ~/ChuushabariKonnyuuButa

 

Contributor & Photographer: Ryan Dyer

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

脸书: ~/ChuushabariKonnyuuButa

 

供稿人与摄影师: Ryan Dyer

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Good Things Come in Threes 好事成“三”

July 22, 2020 2020年7月22日

The power of three is all around us.

It’s a recurring motif in religions across the world: the Holy Trinity in Christianity, the Trimurti in Hinduism, and the three marks of existence in Buddhism, just to name a few. Even in art and photography, the rule of thirds governs visual balance. Other fields—such as writing, science, comedy, philosophy, music, and more—all rely on similar triplicities. Human minds seem to thrive on these types of patterns.

Chengdu-based graffiti artist Fan Pang, best known by his moniker Fansack, doesn’t pretend to fully understand the significance of the rule of thirds, but his work wholly embraces it. Fan—in his pursuit to find meaning within traditional and contemporary symbols—blends Eastern philosophy, religion, and science to create vibrant murals populated by stoned astronauts, zen monkeys, and pensive priests. In doing so, he kneels at the altar of pop culture and offers audiences a heady tribute to what we’ve always known to be true: good things come in threes.

“3” 的力量无处不在。

世界各地的宗教文化中，经常出现 “3” 这个数字：基督教的三位一体、印度教的三神一体以及佛教的三法印等等。在艺术和摄影方面，则有构图平衡的三分法原则。至于诸如写作、科学、喜剧、哲学、音乐等其他领域，也有类似与 “3” 有关的理念。“3” 似乎是一个能激发人们丰富想像的数字。

成都涂鸦艺术家庞凡（Fansack）虽未自诩，却已参透 “3” 这个数字的玄妙，他的作品充满了各种 “3” 的寓意。在探索各种传统与现代符号的意义中，Fansack 融合东方哲学、宗教和科学，创作出活力四溢的壁画，宇航员、充满禅意的猴子和沉思的僧侣是他的作品中经常出现的形象。他借鉴流行文化的元素，向观众展示着众所周知的真理：好事成‘三’。

Graffiti, Hip-Hop, and Youth Culture

Now 31 years old, Fan has graced the streets of Sichuan with his spray-paint creations since his teenage years. The difference now is that his art is no longer considered vandalism. With over 100 murals in Chengdu alone, including brand collaborations and commissions from the local government, he’s lost track of how many walls he’s painted throughout the country. It’s an ironic twist for Fan, who in his younger years was used to being chased off by security guards before even finishing a piece.

With the proliferation of hip-hop culture in the mainstream by way of TV shows such as The Rap of China and Hot-Blooded Dance Crew, his art—and street art in general—has become a lot less faux pas in China. Fansack is now the biggest name in street art south of the Yangtze River.

涂鸦、嘻哈和青年文化

 

今年 31 岁的 Fansack 从少年时代就游走于四川街头，创作涂鸦作品。和以前相比，现在唯一的区别是他在创作时不会再被当作破坏公物来对待。单是在成都，他就创作了 100 多幅壁画作品，包括品牌合作和受当地政府委托的创作，连他自己也数不清在全中国到底创作过多少副壁画作品。这对 Fansack 来说挺有讽刺意味的，毕竟在他年少的时候，常常还没完成创作就要被保安赶走。

随着《中国有嘻哈》和《热血街舞团》等电视节目的热播，嘻哈文化在中国主流社会越来越流行，Fansack 的艺术作品，或者说整体的街头艺术，已经不像以往那样 “上不了台面”。Fansack 也一跃成为江南地区最著名的街头艺术家。

Within the last decade, Chengdu has proven to be fertile grounds for hip-hop. From street art to rap music, the region’s hip-hop culture has even garnered international recognition after the success of acts linked to Chengdu Rap House (CDC), such as the Higher Brothers and Wang Yitai. With the Sichuan hip-hop community as tight as ever, everyone—from rappers to street artists—seem to be spurred on by the success of one another.

在过去十年间，成都肉眼可见地成为了嘻哈文化重镇。在成都说唱会馆（CDC）的 Higher Brothers、王以太等人的推波助澜下，成都从街头艺术到说唱音乐都获得了国际范围的认可。四川嘻哈圈子之间一贯的紧密联系，让每一个人的成功都成为了彼此的激励。

Beneath the dimly lit basement of Club Nox, one of the most popular hip-hop venues in Chengdu, is Fan’s studio. Inside, a mural of the Higher Brothers—who appear as a quartet of aliens doing the dab—cover a wall. “Some of my closest friends are musicians, like the Higher Brothers, Bohan Phoenix, and Wang Yitai; we all know each other,” he says. “I’m actually working on an album cover for Wang Yitai right now. My studio is right down the hall from his producer, Harikari.”

灯光昏暗的地下室 Club Nox，是成都最著名的嘻哈聚集地之一，也是 Fansack 的工作室。在工作室的一幅壁画上，Higher Brothers 以外星人的形象，做着 Dab 手势。“我的很多好朋友都是音乐人，譬如 Higher Brothers、Bohan Phoenix 和王以太，我们彼此都认识。”他说，“事实上我正给王以太创作专辑封面。从我的工作室出去，穿过走廊就是他的制作人 Harikari 的工作室。”

Past, Present, and Future

Fansack is a firm follower of Eastern philosophies, such as Taoism and Buddhism, and his artwork often features spiritual motifs, which range from lotus flowers to reclining Buddhas. “I trust karma,” he says. “When you plant a seed with your consciousness, it will blossom one day, with or without your consent. So what kind of fruit do you want later?” 

Fansack’s journey as an artist began with a conscious decision to grow his own creative seed. He was introduced to street art through watching the documentary 20 Years of Graffiti in Paris (2004) and became hooked. When graffiti legend Cyril Kongo came to China, he even flew to Shenzhen to meet him. In the following years, he moved to France to study art, where he earned a master’s degree from Sorbonne University and a name for himself within Europe’s fine-art circuit. As more galleries began to take notice of his work, Fansack had the opportunity to not only personally meet the street-art legends he looked up to, but also work alongside them.

过去、现在和未来

 

Fansack 是一位坚定的道教和佛教等东方哲学追随者，他的作品中常常出现各种带有宗教色彩的元素，如荷花和卧佛。Fansack 说：“我相信因果报应。当你在意识里种下一颗种子，它总会有开花的一天，不论你愿不愿意。所以你要想想，以后究竟想得到什么样的果？”

Fansack 成为艺术家也源于他在意识里埋下的一颗 “种子”。他第一次认识街头艺术是在观看《巴黎涂鸦 20 年》（2004）这部纪录片的时候，看完后，他就迷上了街头艺术创作。当传奇涂鸦艺术家 Cyril Kongo 来中国时，他甚至专门飞到深圳去见他。随后几年，Fansack 移居法国，修读艺术专业，获得了索邦大学 (Sorbonne University) 的硕士学位，并在欧洲艺术圈子闯出一席之地。随着越来越多的画廊关注他的作品，Fansack 有机会结识自己崇拜的传奇街头艺术家，还与他们展开过合作。

As both an artist and an entrepreneur, Fansack operates with a business savviness that many artists lack: he always expects greater returns on his efforts. Although pop-culture and consumerism are themes prevalent in his work, they’re often rendered through a lens of playful humor instead of criticism. Popular Chinese children’s cartoons can be seen holding designer bags and with a third eye on their foreheads as if enlightened by their consumerism. Buddhas sip Cola-Cola and recline with VR headsets, astronauts lounge about with cups of KFC coffee, and monkeys don Supreme-branded robes. “I always consider my market, always,” Fansack says. “So many street artists think we should stay underground. . .and I respect that. But with age, we should also grow and adapt.” 

To Fansack, art is all about balance, and he refuses to be consumed by ego, money, or rigid ideologies.

作为一名包揽创作和主办的艺术家，Fansack 身上有许多艺术家都缺乏的商业细胞：他希望自己的作品能获得更多的回报。虽然流行文化和消费主义是他作品中常见的主题，但他通常都是以幽默的方式呈现出来，而不是加以批判。在他的作品里，熟悉的中国卡通角色，拎着名牌包，额头画着第三只眼睛，仿佛寓意消费主义对他们带来的启发；在另一幅作品中，头戴 VR 耳机的佛陀正侧卧一旁，享受着杯中的可乐；宇航员在休息室里喝着肯德基咖啡；猴子身披 Supreme 的长袍。Fansack 说：“市场是我一直都会考虑的问题。很多街头艺术家认为我们要保持地下创作，我完全尊重这一点。但随着年龄渐长，我们也应该学着成长和适应。”

对于 Fansack 而言，艺术在于平衡，他拒绝被自我、金钱或呆板的意识形态所局限。

Art, Religion, & Science

For Fansack, art, religion, and science are lenses in which people can “discover the meaning of life, the meaning of the universe, and the relationship between ourselves and nature.” He captures this pursuit of greater understanding in his art. For example, in Enter the Oeil, he paints Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, nuclear physicist Albert Einstein, and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi as three parts of the same head. Each individual holds their own unique path toward ultimate truth, which is often symbolized in his artwork as the third eye. Likewise, the role of aliens, astronauts, and monks as frequent cast members in his artistic landscape are interchangeable. In one work, an alien might be dressed in priest robes; in another, a baby’s umbilical cord might be swapped with a space tether; and in yet another, an astronaut lounges in a traditional Tibetan bed. By splicing iconography in this fashion, Fansack doesn’t discount the notion that different truths can co-exist parallel to one another.

艺术、宗教与科学

 

Fansack 认为，艺术、宗教和科学是人们 “发现生命与宇宙的意义，探索人类与自然之间关系” 的方式。他在作品中诠释了这种对艺术的宏观认识。例如，在《入眼》这幅作品中，他描绘了中国艺术家艾未未、物理学家阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦和精神领袖圣雄甘地，将三人的面孔重叠在一幅画面里。这三个人都以自己的方式去追寻着终极的真理。在他的作品中，他经常以第三只眼睛来象征终极的真理。此外，他作品中常见的外星人、宇航员和僧侣形象常常互换身份，外星人可能穿着僧侣的长袍；婴儿的脐带可能是太空缆索；宇航员可能躺在传统的西藏床上。通过不同图像元素的拼接，Fansack 传达出一个信念：即使真理不同，也可以共存。

Stop, Look, and Listen

Taoism versus Capitalism, religion versus reason, collective versus self—Fansack’s art is full of opposing viewpoints. Yet, in painting contradictions in such a casual, approachable style, he offers the average person an entry point into these deeper concepts.

Whether on a busy commute or in an upscale art gallery, the universal charm of Fan’s art is perhaps its accessibility. For patient observers, his artwork reveals a multitude of parallel universes rich in symbolism. But even if you can only spare a brief glance upwards from a busy sidewalk in Chengdu, that’s okay, too.

停下来，看一看，听一听

 

道教与资本主义，宗教与科学，集体与个人 —— Fansack 的作品中充满了对立的概念。然而，通过以一种轻松随意的风格来描画这些对立概念，他的作品为大众提供一个切入点，去探索这些更宏观的哲学概念。

无论是在人来人往的路边或在高档的艺术画廊，Fansack 艺术作品的魅力或许就源于其平易近人的风格。耐心的观众能从他的作品中发现充满丰富象征意义的平行宇宙。但即便你只是匆匆地过路成都的街道，偶尔抬头看到他的作品，也是别有一番滋味的享受。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @fansack
Weibo: ~/fansackart

 

Contributors: Rorí Mencin
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @fansack
Weibo: ~/fansackart

 

供稿人: Rorí Mencin
英译中: Olivia Li

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

The Other Side 你以为看到的朝鲜都是真的？

July 20, 2020 2020年7月20日

There’s only so much a foreigner can do in North Korea, and Matt Kuleuzs has done most of it plus more—including partying with villagers in the isolated province of North Hamgyong. He’s been to the country over sixty times and shot a body of work that offers a considerate look into the secretive nation.

Kuleuzs’s interest in North Korea started in his hometown of Melbourne, where his studies in international affairs focused on East Asia. The more he learned about the country, the more infatuated he became—North Korea soon grew into an obsession. 

在朝鲜，外国人能做的事情屈指可数；Matt Kuleuzs 几乎将外国人在朝鲜能做的事情都做遍了，还曾在偏远的咸镜北道与村民一起参加派对。他已经去过朝鲜六十多次，期间拍摄了大量的照片，让人们得以一窥这个神秘国家的真实面貌。

Matt 在家乡墨尔本攻读东亚地区国际事务时，对朝鲜产生了浓烈的兴趣。随着对朝鲜的了解加深，他越来越想去了解这个国家。

His first visit to the country was on a 12-day tour through Young Pioneer Tours, one of the few agencies specializing in North Korea. Before his return home, he had already decided to be part of their team as a tour guide as soon as he graduated.

In his three years working as such, Kuleuzs had an unparalleled opportunity to travel through eight out of the nine North Korean provinces, multiple times, through paved and—most of the time—unpaved roads.  One of the most interesting destinations for him was Kaesong. Unlike most of the cities in the north, Kaesong wasn’t as affected by air raids during the Korean War, and with its thatched-roofs and various heritage sites still preserved, it was a valuable look into the history and culture of the unified peninsula.

他第一次到访朝鲜是通过参加 Young Pioneer Tours 为期 12 天的旅游——这是提供赴朝鲜旅游的少数机构之一。旅游结束之前，Matt 就下定决心在毕业后加入团队，成为一名导游。

三年期的导游工作为 Matt 提供了难得的机会，遍访朝鲜九个省中的八个省，除了基建良好的城市，他也造访了落后的乡村僻野。对他来说，最有趣的朝鲜城市之一是开城。不同于朝鲜北部的大多数城市，开城在朝鲜战争期间并未受到空袭的影响，至今依然保留着茅草屋顶和各种历史遗址，为了解这个朝鲜半岛国家的历史和文化提供了宝贵的窗口。

There’s a stark contrast between what he saw in the rural areas and the capital. Pyongyang had three-fourths of its infrastructure wiped out during the war, and much of the city was reconstructed in a Stalinist style.

“Pyongyang is meticulously planned,” Kuleuz says.“The distance between the Workers Party Foundation Monument, with the big hammer, sickle, and paintbrush, and the Mansudae Grand Monument, with the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, is exactly 2.16 kilometers. It was conceived as a tribute to Kim Jong Il’s birthday on February 16.

朝鲜的农村地区与首都城市形成了鲜明的对比。在战争期间，首都平壤有近四分之三的基础设施被彻底摧毁，之后大部分建筑都按照了斯大林主义风格进行重建。

Matt说：“平壤是一座经过精心规划的城市。由巨型的锤子、镰刀和画笔组成的建党纪念碑，与金日成和金正日雕像的万寿台大纪念碑之间的距离刚好为 2.16 公里，这代表了金正日的诞辰 2 月 16 日。”

“The city is grand: the brutalist soviet architecture sits alongside the new Jetsons-esque style of pastel buildings,” he adds. “The interiors are kitsch; you’ll find 1970’s carpet alongside floral murals, fake palm trees, fairy lights, and neon chandeliers. Things clash, but somehow it works.”

“这座城市看上去很宏伟，各种野兽派苏联建筑与风格柔和的新科技风并存，内部装潢华丽俗气：1970 年代的地毯搭配花卉壁画、人造棕榈、彩色灯光和霓虹吊灯。互不相搭的元素，却又莫名的和谐。”

Fashion is another fascinating facet of North Korean aesthetics. Away from the conformism of military attires and state-approved hairstyles, there’s color and texture, and it happens in an involuntary retro way. Kuleuzs points to the timelessness of the country’s female fashion as an example, describing it as “a secretary style, trapped somewhere between the 1960s and 1980s.”

人们的着装也是了解朝鲜美学的另一个有趣角度。除了一致的军装和国家标准的发型，服装的颜色和面料都透露着并非刻意为之的复古风。Matt 指出朝鲜女性经典风格的着装，将其描述为“上世纪六十年代至八十年代的秘书风格”。

From amusement parks to dolphinariums and countless museums, Pyongyang provides a variety of wholesome entertainment options. Even though the authorities enforce a nationwide nightly curfew, there are many bars and karaoke clubs. North Koreans also take advantage of the various national holidays—most of which relate to the party, the leaders, or the war—to gather in parks and celebrate.

“They love drinking, dancing, and singing,” Kuleuzs says. “Once, in an extremely off-the-beaten-path village by the Chilbo Mountains, the locals brought out a speaker, and we had a mini-rave around a bonfire on the beach to the sound of North Korean techno.”

从游乐园、海豚馆到各种各样的博物馆，平壤提供了各种的娱乐设施。虽然政府在全国实行宵禁，但仍能看到许多酒吧和卡拉 OK 俱乐部。除此之外，朝鲜人还喜欢趁各种国定假日（大部分都是与党、领导人或战争有关的假期）在公园聚会庆祝。

Matt说：“朝鲜人喜欢喝酒、跳舞和唱歌。有一次，在七宝山附近一个人迹罕至的小村庄，当地人拿了一个音箱，放着朝鲜当地的电子音乐，就在沙滩的篝火旁放举行了一场迷你的锐舞派对。”

North Korea’s stigma of being a closed and hateful society isn’t all true, Kuleuzs says. He’s found North Koreans to be humorous, curious, and utterly relatable. “North Koreans are proud, nationalistic, and very much into their leadership,” he says. “But I find the accusation that they are brainwashed automatons pretty naff. Their devotion is not very different from those of groups with specific religious beliefs.”

Kuleuzs admits that foreigners not being allowed to talk to the population at large is, to some extent, true. But on the occasions that it is possible to do so, like when visiting the Munsu Water Park, North Koreans are open and friendly.

Matt 说，外界称朝鲜是一个封闭和充满仇恨的社会，这种偏见并不完全真实。他所了解的朝鲜人风趣幽默，好奇心强，完全可以正常沟通。他说：“朝鲜人很自豪，充满民族主义，也非常尊重他们的领导。但是像外界将他们描述为被洗脑的机器人，这种说法就过分了。他们这种热爱跟那些宗教信仰的团体其实并没有太大区别。”

他承认，从一定程度上来说，朝鲜确实不允许外国人与大多数的民众交谈。但是也不是绝对的，例如参观文殊水上乐园 （Munsu Water Park）时，他遇到的朝鲜民众都很开放和友好。

“It’s pointless to expect conversations about how North Korea really is; it’s not going to happen,” he says. “Besides, there is so much more happening in their lives beyond politics. I prefer to speak to them about whatever I’d speak to my friends back home: relationships, movies, music, what would they do with a million dollars? Common ground things.”

With a unique perspective grounded in local life and not politics, Kuleuzs’ photographs pivot from the usual narrative around the country. They tear the homogeneous and largely misconceived image of North Korea and reveal its real character through the resilience, stoicism, and livelihood of its people. “Instead of Kim Jong Un pointing at things and goose-stepping soldiers in a military parade, I aim to capture the other side—the human side of the country,” he says.

Matt 说：“和当地人去谈论朝鲜现实的政治问题，这种对话毫无意义；也不会发生。况且，除政治之外，他们的生活中还有很多值得关心的事情。我宁愿像跟我国内的朋友那样，跟他们谈谈人际关系、电影、音乐的话题，或者是问他们有了一百万美元会做什么，这些有着共通点的话题。”

他的摄影作品从独特的视角，用镜头记录了朝鲜当地的日常生活而非政治问题。这些摄影作品打破了外界对朝鲜的同质化的、很大程度上被误解的刻板印象，展示出朝鲜人的坚韧品性和谋生之道，呈现了朝鲜的真实面貌。他说：“我不想拍摄金正恩在军事阅兵中指挥的样子或是正步走的士兵，我要拍摄的是朝鲜的另一面——朝鲜人们人性的一面。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @mattkulesza

 

Contributor: Tomas Pinheiro
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @mattkulesza

 

供稿人: Tomas Pinheiro
英译中: Olivia Li

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

The Color of Distance 你说的蓝是什么蓝？

July 17, 2020 2020年7月17日
The Age of Migration 1 (2018) 71.2 x 144.2 cm / Cyanotype, watercolor, inkjet print on silk 《迁徙时代 1》(2018) 71.2 x 144.2 厘米 /  蓝晒，水彩，丝绸喷绘

Sapphires, ocean tides, twilight skies, and the murky depths of a jumbled dream—these were the visuals that came to mind when I first saw the cyanotype prints of Chinese artist Han Qin. Her use of blue, which seemed to rove through every possible shade of the color, forms azure expanses swarmed by swimmers in white. These figures, some with arms interlocked, move with pressing urgency as if ready to surface from the paper. Han’s works are as mystifying as they are riveting.

With blue occupying nearly every inch of her prints, some may ask, “What’s the significance of the color?”

这样的蓝色，蓝得像宝石，像海洋，像仲夏的袭人晚风，像幽深的梦境，一梦到酩酊。

初看韩沁的作品，就是这深深浅浅的蓝，在一片氤氲里绵延开去，几枚洁白的小小幻影，漂游着、牵着手走来，好像要冲破画布跟你说些什么，却欲言又止。于是你沉醉了。

这是韩沁给我们设的第一个谜题：“为什么是蓝？”

Lover 1 (2018) 25.4 x 16.8 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《爱人 1》(2018) 25.4 x 16.8 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）
Falling 2 (2018) 25.4 x 16.8 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《落 2》(2018) 25.4 x 16.8 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）

Han explains that blue can establish a sense of distance and calm. It’s a color of mystery, divinity, and regality that carries a certain timelessness. The mere mention of blue brings to mind unclouded skies and the boundless seas. It feels close, yet out of reach, like the sliver of cerulean where the sky meets the ocean on the far-off horizon. “Even when you look at my prints up close, they still feel distant,” she says. “It also represents the spirit of exploration—the exploration of the unknown, of life’s uncertainties.”

蓝色可以创造距离感，韩沁说。和那些我们一提及蓝就会联想到的事物一样，它与海天同色，神秘、庄严、圣洁而神化，好似是寻常风景，却触手不可得。“即使近看我的作品，依然很远。”而蓝色就是这种距离的媒介。

蓝色对人类心理的影响又是镇静的，深远的，韩沁说。蓝色在自然界支配着水和天空，与“神性”有所相关，“它也许也代表着一种对未知的探索吧，探索一种遥远以及不确定。”而这或许就是蓝色永恒的精神魅力。

Pattern of Movement (series) (2016) 23 x 30 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《变动的印记 10》(2016) 23 x 30 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）

Han’s experimentation with cyanotype printing began in 2017. In these earlier works, she staggered paper cutouts atop a sheet of parchment paper coated with a light-sensitive solution and exposed it to sunlight, which turned the uncovered areas to cyan-blue. “There’s an element of unpredictability with the medium, whether it’s the angle that the sunlight is reaching the surface or maybe the solution was mixed differently,” she says. “The intense blues and the hazy lines produced by the method make each work unique.” The fickleness of the medium itself seems suitable for the theme of uncertainty that’s often deliberated on in her works.

2017 年，韩沁开始用“蓝晒法”在皮纸上创作。脱胎于真实的人物，她把脑中的形象先剪成各种各样的形状，再把剪纸放在预涂的皮纸上，在光线下暴晒。而光线作用在皮纸上产生相应的投影轮廓, 创造出一个青色到蓝紫色之间的图像。然后用流水冲洗，把重重叠叠的影像“嫁接”在一起，再让最终的图像显影于薄如蝉翼的纸面或者绢面上。“由于阳光的不可预测性、表面的角度和预涂溶液的不同效果, 每件作品中模糊的群体和神秘独特强烈的氰蓝色都是独一无二的。”韩沁告诉我们。而这种不确定性在某种程度上，又反过来诠释了蓝色之所以重要的原因，它太独特了。

Pattern of Movement (series) (2018) 23 x 30 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《变动的印记 1》(2016) 23 x 30 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒
Single Shadow 2 (2018) 25.4 x 16.8 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《形单影只 2》(2018) 25.4 x 16.8 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）
On the Way 1 (2018) 25.4 x 16.8 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《在路上1》(2018) 25.4 x 16.8 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）

Han recently showcased ten prints at the Nassau County Museum of Art, each a different meditation on departure, memories, uncertainties, transformation, and—morbidly enough—drowning. Of these pieces, one of the most notable is The Direction of Migration, a large-scale piece that examines human migration. Han invited over twenty individuals to share their experiences of making a new home in a foreign city through a static pose—their bodies formed the white silhouettes that cover the piece. All of the participants were people who moved from China’s countryside to Hangzhou in search of better opportunities. “One of the participating artists was an older individual,” Han recalls. “She described her pose as a show of strength, a way of capturing the hardships she’s had to endure to stay in Hangzhou.”

From a distance, the silhouettes are hazy; encased within the swaths of blue, they’re like bits of sea foam being relentlessly being tugged, pulled, and set adrift by forces outside of their control. But Han believes there’s plenty of meaning to be found in the riptides of life, and she converts these diverse experiences into a visual format. In the series of Age of Migration, she even looks inwards, using her own immigration experiences to better understand the complexities of human migration.

飞翔、溺水、起航、回望，任何未知和变化都是灵感的来源。

韩沁最近在纽约拿桑郡美术馆（Nassau County Museum of Art）展出了 10 件作品，其中包括一张巨幅蓝晒作品，《迁徙的方向》。这是一副展示漂泊人生千姿百态的蓝晒作品。在创作《迁徙的方向》时，韩沁邀请了二十多名从异乡迁徙至杭州的朋友，请他们用不同的身体形态表现出各自的辗转经历。有一位艺术家前辈也参与创作，她说，‘我用尽全力好不容易才留在杭州，这就是我的奋力姿态’。”而每个人在迁徙过程中的姿态，远看就宛如一簇簇白色浪花，裹挟在蔚蓝色的海洋里。

个体的漂泊经历相互累加，所组成的内容就显得宏大许多。韩沁想通过更广阔的层面去讲述和移民大图景相关的内容，另一个系列《迁徙时代》也是如此，从自身的见闻出发，她试图讲述那些复杂又相互连接的故事：人之迁徙。

The Direction of Migration (Diptych) (2019) 84 x 2.4 m / Cyanotype on paper 《迁徙的方向（双联）》(2019) 84 x 2.4 米 / 纸面氰版摄影
The Direction of Migration (Diptych) (2019) 84 x 2.4 m / Cyanotype on paper 《迁徙的方向（双联）》(2019) 84 x 2.4 米 / 纸面氰版摄影

Two of the paintings from Age of Migration were inspired by her move to the U.S., specifically the 16-hour flight from Shanghai to New York. “After the landing gears leave the ground and the engine begins to roar, you’re given a God’s-eye view of the world; you feel above everything,” she recalls. “With the sky filling my field of view, I found myself lost in thought. I looked around the cabin, observing the passengers. Some were focused, some were weary, some were anxious, and some were frustrated. But they were all looking out of the window, gazing into the sea of clouds. I suppose that’s why we travel—we’re all in search of bluer skies that we can call our own.”

Memories of this trip have stuck with her, and in 2017, she finally turned them into a series of cyanotype prints populated by tiny swimmers. These water-bound figures would serve as the basis for the paintings of Age of Migration, which saw the same swimmers navigating much larger expanses of blue. “They are passengers on their own journeys,” Han says. “Depending on where they are in life, some may be floating while others may be sinking. With the advent of travel, mass migrations are commonplace now. The travelers are not happy, but nor are they sad. They’re content.”

《迁徙时代》系列中的两套作品，是韩沁最初从上海飞到纽约的那 16 小时联想而来的。“当飞机滑轮离开地面的一刹那，伴着引擎轰鸣声，产生俯视众生的自豪感。随后，空无的天际让人的联想毫无征兆地展开，从哪里来，到哪里去？细看机舱里每一个人的神情：专注的，倦怠的，期待的，落魄的，都在同一个机舱中，看窗外云海翻滚。我们爬山涉水，为的不就是那片更高更远的蔚蓝色风景吗？”

这个场景和当时的心情在韩沁心中一直挥之不去，后来逐渐形成完成一副描绘迁徙场景作品的想法。直到 2017 年，在完成一系列蓝晒小作品之后，她便将这些作品中的小人儿作为素材，创作了一幅时代迁徙大军的画作。“他们是旅途中的乘客，也是在生命不同阶段沉浮的芸芸众生。全球迁徙的时代，纵浪大化中，不喜亦不惧，应从容应对。”

The Age of Migration Tryptic (2018) 71.2 x 144.2 cm / Cyanotype, watercolor, inkjet print on silk 《迁徙时代三联幅》(2018) 71.2 x 144.2 厘米 /  蓝晒，水彩，丝绸喷绘

From Hangzhou to New York, Han’s art has been showcased in as many places as she’s lived, and the evolution of her work directly reflects all that she’s experienced in these places over the years. She moved out of China at the age of 24, and in the decade since, she’s completed college, built a home abroad, and gotten married. These transitional moments have enriched her art, pushing her to create even more ambitious works.

In 2019, for her exhibition at New York’s Fou Gallery, Ethereal Evolution, Han decided to incorporate a performative aspect to her works with the inclusion of live dancing. In continuing her exploration of migration and displacement, the invited dancers were all either non-American or exchange students. “The curator Hai Liang and I discussed how performance art could be included in the show,” she recalls. “The creation process and the performative dance could be one and the same. We envisioned it as something dynamic, capturing the sense of uncertainty that is inherent to migration. This would give additional dimensionality to the show.”

In the series, the dancers’ movements are rendered as blurry silhouettes against the deep-blue backdrops. The lack of definition is a deliberate feature of the series. These ill-defined forms visualize the struggle of the immigrant experience in their search for identity—for outsiders, these experiences can often be difficult to see and understand, but for the individuals experiencing them, the hardships are as clear as day.

从四海而来，在杭州创作，到纽约展出，翻山越岭的并不仅仅是作品本身，也折射出作品背后的个人经历。韩沁是 24 岁离开中国的，其中经历求学、移民、结婚定居，短短十年间文化环境与身份的转变，让她的艺术创作就此丰富起来。2019 年，在纽约否画廊举办个展的过程中，韩沁邀请舞者参与了创作全过程，其中很多是留学生和外国艺术家。“我和策展人海良讨论，将创作过程同时发展成为一段行为舞蹈，叙说动态的、不确定的状态给迁徙和旅行带来的意义，给精神层面带来的震动和冲击。”

就此诞生的作品名为《演.化》（Ethereal Evolution），模糊的人影层叠显现，像是一张巨大的胶片负片。舞者的身体就是实在的媒介，紫外线光就是画笔，韩沁把舞者身体挪移的过程“摄”下来了，无有面目，仅存轮廓。而这或许就是大背景下的个体经历，对外者是虚虚轮廓，对自身却再真实不过。

Ethereal Evolving 2 (2018) 208.3 x 119.4 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《演化 1》(2018) 208.3 x 119.4 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）
Ethereal Evolving 4 (2018) 208.3 x 119.4 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《演化 4》(2018) 208.3 x 119.4 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）
Tracking the White Shadow Performance Premier (2019) Performers: Izumi Ashizawa and Zhiwei Wu / ©Han Qin, Photographed by JoJo Zhong 《描摹白影》表演现场 (2019) 舞者：Izumi Ashizawa，吴芷葳 / 摄影师：JoJo Zhang
Ethereal Evolving 8 (2018) 208.3 x 119.4 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《演化 8》(2018) 208.3 x 119.4 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）
Ethereal Evolving 2 (2018) 208.3 x 119.4 cm / Cyanotype on paper 《演化 2》(2018) 208.3 x 119.4 厘米 / 纸面蓝晒（氰版照相法）

In recent months of lockdowns and border closures, relocation and travel haven’t exactly been relevant topics for Han. She says this is the longest that she’s stayed in one place in recent memory. Her full-time job as a professor means she’s mostly stayed at home, teaching online. Traveling has been the furthest thing from her mind. She isn’t starved for inspiration though; the internet and global politics have provided plenty of creative fodder.

Outside of her artistic endeavors, she’s also eager to do her part in fighting the pandemic. When Covid-19 was at its worst in China, Han worked with Chinese art institutions and media platforms to organize donations. When the virus reached New York, she helped exchange students figure out ways of returning home and even offered free counseling. “Every day was a new crash course on how to navigate the pandemic-stricken world,” she recalls.

As for the future, Han reveals that she plans to turn her focus toward the changing relationship between people and the place they call home. She also plans on merging together performance art and visual art again. An eagerness to further her art keeps her motivated and optimistic. “Nowadays, I’m often reminded of Henry Matisse’s work, and one specific quote by him,” Han says. “‘Each of us must find his own way to limit the moral shock of this catastrophe . . . For myself, in order to prevent an avalanche overwhelming me, I’m trying to distract myself from it as far as possible by clinging to the idea of the future work I could still do, if I don’t let myself be destroyed. ‘ This quote motivates me to keep making art.”

在最近的几个月里，关于“迁徙”的主题却显得有些落寞。韩沁也说，最近这段时间是她最长的“固定居所”时间，作为常年在中美两国的大学机构都有任教的她，最近“没有旅行，没有迁徙，甚至没有进城。”

于是，家、网络、这国与那国的新闻，成了她的生活主题，也成为新的创作思路。国内疫情严重的时候，韩沁和否画廊一起参加了华人艺术界联合网络媒体、昊美术馆和上海宋庆龄基金会为抗疫做的筹款活动，并捐赠了自己的一件作品。纽约疫情开始之后，帮助国内在美留学生成了她的日常：筹备课程、在线录播，联系种种资源为他们做归国打算，并做了许多的心理疏通和建设。她笑说，“了解危机中的世界成了我每天的必修课。”

对于未来的创作方向，韩沁把目光投在了人和生活环境的变化关系，并试图从历史故事中的获得启发。同时对创作语言和舞蹈语言解构重构，探索更多对视觉艺术表达的可能性。“我想起马蒂斯的剪纸花园，马蒂斯说：‘我们每个人都必须找到自己的方式来限制这场灾难的精神冲击。对我自己来说，为了防止让崩溃淹没我，尽可能依赖于仍然可以做的创作，以此来分散我的注意力，如果我不让自己被摧毁的话。’这句话在很大程度上给我以创作的动力。”

Han Qin: Ethereal Evolution installation view / Photographer: Nadia Peichao Lin 《韩沁，演·化》场景图 (2019) / 摄影师：林沛超
Han Qin: Ethereal Evolution installation view / Photographer: Nadia Peichao Lin 《韩沁，演·化》场景图 (2019) / 摄影师：林沛超

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Website: hanqin.myportfolio.com
Instagram: @hanqinart
Facebook: ~/hanqinart
Weibo: ~/qinkkk

 

Contributor: Chen Yuan
English Translation: David Yen
Images Courtesy of Han Qin, Fou Gallery, ART33 & NCMA

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

网站: hanqin.myportfolio.com
Instagram: @hanqinart
Facebook: ~/hanqinart
微博: ~/韩沁art

 

供稿人: Chen Yuan
中译英: David Yen
图片由韩沁与否画廊、ART33、纽约长岛拿骚郡立美术馆提供

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

For the Ladies 赐女性以力量！

July 14, 2020 2020年7月14日

On the internet people become stars so fast they’re sometimes caught by surprise. In November 2019, When Zae Zacarias dropped “Pantsu“—a racy music video accompanied by empowering lyrics for women—she had no idea it would blow up.

“I had only been working on music seriously for four months,” says the Filipina rapper and singer. “I went from making videos for my friends to people wanting to take pictures with me at shows. It was all so sudden! I’m still not used to it.” Sometimes a song just hits at the right moment and people respond passionately.

在网络世界成名太快，有时也会让人措手不及。2019 年 11 月，来自菲律宾的说唱歌手 Zae Zacarias 发布了性感辛辣的《Pantsu》音乐MV，歌词以女性赋权为主题。当时的她完全没料到这首歌会一炮而红。

Zae Zacarias 说：“我认真做音乐只有四个月。我以前都只是给朋友制作视频，现在演出的时候已经会有人来找我合照。这一切变化太突然了，我现在还没适应过来。”有时候就是这样，正好遇到合适的时机，一首歌就这样突然走红。

Listen to some of our favorite tracks by Zae:

试听 Zae 的一些精选歌曲:

Only 19 years old and standing just under five feet tall, Zae is diminutive in stature and speaks shyly. But “Pantsu” couldn’t be any louder. The song takes misogynists on directly, putting them on the spot for their hypocrisy. “I see, you been thirstin’ on big booty videos / But the audacity to call us out when we show / Our body, it’s majestic, hypnotizing, we know / This power ain’t from your attention / Just so you know.” And walking her walk, she dresses proudly in revealing clothing, reclaiming the power of her body for her own devices.

“I’m tired,” Zae says, explaining her motivation for making the song. “I’m tired of these people. It’s every day. I just felt like I needed to do it.” A #MeToo protest in Ireland inspired her, providing her a framework to express herself and giving birth to the song’s refrain, “Ilabas ang mga panty,” which translates roughly into “panties out.”

“Revealing clothes are not consent,” she emphasizes.

Zae 年仅 19 岁，身高不到 1 米 6，身材娇小，说话害羞。但是在《Pantsu》中，她的歌声悭锵有力。这首歌直接抨击了社会的厌女者，揭露他们的虚伪：“一边喜欢看性感视频/一边转过头又对我指手划脚/我身材好，令人着迷，这我知道/但我的力量不来自你的关注/你要有自知之明。”(I see, you been thirstin’ on big booty videos /But the audacity to call us out when we show / Our body, it’s majestic, hypnotizing, we know / This power ain’t from your attention / Just so you know.) 在生活中的她也喜欢性感打扮，无所畏惧地展示自己的身体。

Zae 解释了自己创作这首歌的动机，说：“我真是受够了这些人。每天都会遇到这样的人。所以我觉得有必要站出来。”爱尔兰的 #MeToo 运动给了她灵感，让她找到了表达自我的框架，并催生了这首歌的副歌“Ilabas ang mga panty”，大意为“panties out”。

她强调道：“穿着暴露不代表‘我同意’。”

 

无法观看？前往腾讯视频

In the track, Zae singles out local rapper Nik Makino for sexist lyrics in the song “Neneng B,” but she stresses that her song isn’t a diss track. It’s something she just needed to get out there and his lyrics happened to come up during her writing process. “I hope that one day rap music will not be entirely about women being sexual objects, women being accessories, more bitches. Women got shit to do and space to take.”

在这首歌里，Zae 指出了菲律宾说唱歌手 Nik Makino 的歌曲《Neneng B》中带有性别歧视的歌词，但她强调自己这首歌不是为了 diss，纯粹是想表达自己的一些想法，只是在创作的过程中，正好听到他的歌词。“我希望有一天说唱音乐不会再把女性当成性玩物、陪衬，用婊子这些带侮辱性的词语来称呼女性。女性也可以大有作为，占有一席之地。

Her song was particularly timely. A month before “Pantsu” dropped, the Philippines passed a law prohibiting the harassment of women in public spaces. Called the Bawal Bastos Law, it outlaws sexual harassment, stalking, and catcalling; but Zae has personally seen zero difference. “I don’t want to generalize, but ask any girl here what it’s like to pass by construction workers,” Zae says. “There’s still a lot of work to be done. I get touched by a stranger in public every day. I’m objectified every day. I hate that it’s just normal.”

她的歌来得很及时。在《Pantsu》发布的一个月前，菲律宾通过了一项法律，禁止在公共场所骚扰妇女。这条法律被称为“巴瓦尔巴斯托斯法”（Bawal Bastos Law），它禁止性骚扰、跟踪和对女性吹嘘叫嚷，但 Zae 个人认为这条律令的存在有无本质上没有带来任何区别。“我不想一概而论，但问问这里的任何一个女孩，经过建筑工人会是什么感觉。” Zae 说，“我们还有太多要做的。我每天在公共场合都会被‘咸猪手’，我每天都被物化。我厌恶这种被视作‘正常的’日常。”

The same month as her release, one of the biggest and earliest names in Filipino streetwear, Jerick Robleza, was indirectly accused of sexual assault by a popular underground rapper named Peaceful Gemini. The incident sent a shockwave throughout the scene, which had never publicly dealt with similar circumstances before, and led a number of prominent musicians and artists to back out of the annual Maka Festival, which was spearheaded by Robleza. “I wrote my song in September, I didn’t know about any of that,” she says. “But it’s fitting for the situation. It’s normal—that’s every day.”

在她这首歌推出的同一个月，菲律宾著名的街头时尚品牌创始人 Jerick Robleza 被地下说唱歌手 Peaceful Gemini 指控性骚扰。这惊动了整个说唱圈，也成为说唱圈子首次公开处理这样的事件。许多音乐人和艺术家纷纷退出由 Robleza 牵头的年度 Maka 音乐节。她说：“这首歌是我在 9 月份写的，当时我还不知道有这件事。但这首歌很适合这次的事件。会发生这样的事情我并不意外，毕竟这样的事情每天都在发生。

A lot of women are active in the Filipino rap scene, but they don’t get nearly the same exposure as their male counterparts. The song began outperforming many of her more established peers almost immediately and she’s since released other tracks that are just as popular or moreso. “Femcees don’t get enough attention,” Zae says. “There are a lot of meaningful songs that need to be heard.” Her newfound fame has introduced her to the Weman collective, a group dedicated to creating opportunities for female rappers. “I love them, they’re amazing. We need more ears for them.” Based on Spotify numbers, Zae says it’s 90 percent her fellow girls that are following her rise.

Surrounding herself with other women is definitely on her agenda. As a former dancer with the well-respected UPeepz street dance company, Zae says she was often on stage with other women. “I liked that. Now I want to rap with lots of girls on stage, too.“

菲律宾说唱圈也有很多女性说唱歌手，但她们所获得的曝光度远远不及男性说唱歌手。这首歌一经推出，就获得了超越许多著名说唱歌手的成绩，从那之后，她还发表了多首同样受欢迎的曲目。Zae 说：“女说唱歌手值得被更多人关注，人们应该多关注一下那些有意义的歌曲。”这首歌走红后，也让致力于为女性说唱歌手创造机会的 Weman 团队注意到了她。“我爱 Weman，他们真是太棒了。我们需要更多地支持这样的团体。”根据 Spotify 上的数据，Zae 说关注她的粉丝里 90% 都是女孩。

Zae 表示希望能多与其他女性一起合作。她之前曾是著名的 UPeepz 街舞公司里的一名舞者，经常和其他女性一起登台表演。“我喜欢那种感觉。现在我也想在舞台上和其他女孩一起说唱。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @zaexx._
YouTube: ~/ZaeZacarias

 

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

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @zaexx._
YouTube: ~/ZaeZacarias

 

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

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Utopian Spaces 我可能有点入魔了，抱歉

July 10, 2020 2020年7月10日
We Are Swimming (2019) 80 x 100 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《We Are Swimming》(2019) 80 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙烯

Thai artist Kitti Narod sees himself as an underdog of Bangkok’s art scene, an outsider who’s happy just to quietly sell his paintings online. “Have you seen the movie Parasite? I’m the guy in the basement,” he laughs. This self-deprecation and humility, however, is at odds with his thriving career.

To the untrained eye, Narod’s paintings might appear innocent at first glance: long-limbed, cartoonish characters roam his canvases, living happy lives and enjoying simple pleasures such as whittling the afternoon away with a book or sipping a cup of hot coffee.

泰国艺术家 Kitti Narod 自视为曼谷艺术界的无名之辈和旁观者，满足于在网上卖卖画作的低调生活。“你看过《寄生虫》这部电影吗？我就是住在地下室的家伙。”他笑着说道。不同于他的这种自嘲和谦卑心态，他的艺术事业正蓬勃发展。

不仔细看的话，Kitti 的画作充满纯真的风格：四肢纤长的卡通化人物，各种惬意悠闲的活动，生活简单又有乐趣：有书、有咖啡，消磨着下午的时光。

Afternoon (2018) 80 x 100 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Afternoon》(2018) 80 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Middle-class Holiday 2 (2019) 70 x 90 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Middle-class Holiday 2》(2019) 70 x 90 厘米 / 布面丙稀

Narod’s paintings are based on everyday observations, but they’re often tinged with a pop-culture sensibility. He mentions films such as Lala Land and Billy Elliot as influences, citing their colors and musicality. And indeed, his colorful compositions do carry a sense of rhythm. His characters, often shown with their curvy arms held high, can even seem like they’re performing a synchronized dance. This feeling of movement, combined with the myriad of patterns in their clothes, creates a mesmerizing effect.

Kitti 的画来源于他的日常观察，但往往都会融入一些流行文化的元素。《爱乐之城》和《跳出我天地》之类的电影对他的创作影响很大，尤其是电影中的色彩和音乐元素。正因如此，他色彩丰富的作品看上去充满音乐的韵律感。画中的人物角色经常举起弧线型的手臂，像是跟着音乐在跳舞。这种动感，加上衣服上丰富多样的印花图案，不知不觉就吸引住人们的目光。

Sunday Evening (2018) 100 x 120 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Sunday Evening》(2018) 100 x 120 厘米 / 布面丙烯
People Dancing (2019) 150 x 150 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《People Dancing》(2019) 150 x 150 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Orchestra (2018) 100 x 100 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Orchestra》(2018) 100 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Jazz (2018) 100 x 100 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Jazz》(2018) 100 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙稀

One of his most notable pieces is Horizon, an imposing painting showing different groups of people hugging, holding hands, and kissing each other in a park.  A sense of utopian harmony radiates from the canvas. This painting was a special commission for Spectrosynthesis II, Asia’s largest LGBTQ exhibition to date, in Bangkok. Homosexuality seems widely represented through the featured characters but Narod characters are androgynous. “My idea was to explore their gender diversity. If you look closer, I don’t define their sex,” he says.

他最著名的作品之一是《Horizon》（地平线），这幅大型画作展示了一群人在公园里拥抱、牵手和亲吻，整个画面散发出乌托邦式的和谐氛围。这幅画是他受曼谷“Spectrosynthesis II”展览委托而创作的，该展览是目前亚洲目前最大型的LGBTQ 展览。乍看之下，这幅画似乎描画了一群同性恋者，但实际上，Kitti 并没有赋予他们特定的性别。他说：“我想探索性别的多样性。如果你认真看，你会发现，我并没有规定他们的性别。”

Horizon (2019) 190 x 300 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Horizon》(2019) 190 x 300 厘米 / 布面丙稀

Narod’s partner of 15 years, a Welshman named Gwyn Faemol, is pictured in many of his works. Surrounded by their many pet cats, these paintings affectionately portray the couple’s domestic routine as a family, whether it be waking up, cooking together, or undressing to have a shower together. Through highlighting the normalities of their day to day, Narod looks to emphasize the similarities between gay and heterosexual relationships, speaking to the fact that, a person’s sexual orientation doesn’t make them different—we’re all human.

Kitti 的伴侣 Gwyn Faemol 是威尔士人，也常常出现作品中，他们在一起已经长达十五年了。画面里，Kitti 描画了两人温馨的家庭生活，和他们养的几只宠物猫一起生活，一觉醒来，一起煮饭、洗澡。这些稀松平常的生活场景，正是 Kitti 希望向世人展示的：同性恋与异性恋并无不同，不管一个人的性取向如何，所有人都是一样的，我们都是人类。

Take it Off (2019) 70 x 90 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Take it Off》(2019) 70 x 90 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Five in Bed (2019) 70 x 90 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Five in Bed》(2019) 70 x 90 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Kitchen (2019) 70 x 90 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Kitchen》(2019) 70 x 90 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Tango (2017) 100 x 120 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Tango》(2017) 100 x 120 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Balcony (2017) 100 x 120 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Balcony》(2017) 80 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙稀

There’s a subtle eroticism in many of Narod’s paintings, driven, he admits, by his sexual desires. For instance, he occasionally includes his favorite porn actor—a bearded American man covered in tattoos—in his works. Even a painting of people smoking can have raunchy implications, as an allusion to it being a moment of post-coital bliss. A nude beach populated by men becomes a luscious playground of temptation. “I’m sick, sorry,” Narod laughs

Kitti 说自己许多画作中都隐约透过出情色的气息，这大概源于自己内心的欲望。例如，他偶尔会在他的作品中描画他最喜欢的色情演员——一个留着纹身和胡子的美国男演员。即使是抽着烟的画面，也散发着一丝暧昧的意味，暗示着性爱后的时刻。而人满为患的裸体海滩则变成一个充满诱惑的游乐园。“我可能有点入魔了，抱歉。”Kitti 笑着说道。

Tattoo Man (2018) 80 x 100 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Tattoo Man》(2018) 80 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Beach (2016) 60 x 80 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Beach》(2016) 60 x 80 厘米 / 布面丙烯
BARE (2019) 190 x 190 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《BARE》(2020) 190 x 190 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Men in Bottle (2018) 80 x 100 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Men in Bottle》(2018) 80 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Pissing (2019) 70 x 90 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Pissing》(2019) 70 x 90 厘米 / 布面丙稀

Occasionally, Narod also focuses on social-political adversities. In Middle Class and Capitalism, with what seems to be a marathon, he offers commentary on the pointlessness of the modern rat race. The inconspicuous elements of People in the Rain are related to political tensions in East Asia. And, in Bare, he alludes to human fragility; the Covid-19 epidemic has shown that we are all equally vulnerable to whatever the world throws at us.

有时，Kitti 也会在作品中表达社会政治问题。在《Middle Class and Capitalism》（中产阶级与资本主义）中，他通过一场马拉松比赛，批判现代社会无意义的竞争；而在《People in the Rain》（雨中人）中，又通过一些不起眼的细节暗指东亚紧张的政治局势；在《Bare》（裸露）中，他揭露人类的脆弱性；一场新冠肺炎疫情警醒着人们，面对这样的灾难，所有人都是一样脆弱的。

Middle Class and Capitalism (2020) 120 x 170 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Middle Class and Capitalism》(2020) 120 x 170 厘米 / 布面丙烯
People in the Rain (2019) 120 x 170 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《People in the Rain》(2019) 120 x 170 厘米 / 布面丙稀

Narod doesn’t see himself as an LGBTQ artist. “My art is about people. When I see another human being, I sympathize; we all share the same happiness and sadness,” he says. “It’s also about equality and space. Space means opportunity, we all need to share it equally, even if it sounds utopian. I don’t want to preach or moralize, I just hope that people see my paintings and feel more connected.”

Kitti 不认为自己是 LGBTQ 艺术家。他说：“我的艺术关注的是人类。当我看到另一个人时，我可以与他产生共情；所有人都会感受到幸福和悲伤。我的作品也关注平等与空间。这里的空间是指人们获得的机会，每个人都应该有平等的机会，虽然这听起来有点乌托邦，我也不是想说教，只是希望人们看到我的画后，能产生共鸣。”

Couple (2018) 150 x 150 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Couple》(2018) 150 x 150 厘米 / 布面丙稀
Watermelon (2017) 100 x 100 cm / Acrylic on canvas 《Watermelon》(2017) 100 x 100 厘米 / 布面丙稀

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @kittinarod
Facebook: ~/KittiNarodGallery

 

Contributor: Tomas Pinheiro
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @kittinarod
Facebook: ~/KittiNarodGallery

 

供稿人: Tomas Pinheiro
英译中: Olivia Li

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Between the Sun & Moon 烈日下的“修行”

July 10, 2020 2020年7月10日

Under the sweltering June sun, street artist Sheep Chen is atop a crane lift, putting the finishing touches on a five-story-tall mural. The piece—covering the side of an entire residential building—is bold and imposing, and against the weather-worn facades of the surrounding buildings, its colors seem even more vibrant.

The mural, titled The Red Hare’s Sincerity, is a stone’s throw away from Chengdu’s Yi Guan Temple. The location’s significance can be found in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms; in the book, when the region’s ruling king Liu Bei was unable to retrieve the corpse of his fallen general, Guan Yu, a cenotaph honoring his passing was built in front of the temple. Giving nod to the tale, the centerpiece of Chen’s composition features the legendary stallion Red Hare, which was briefly owned by Guan Yu in the novel. The horse in Chen’s mural is mounted by a different owner though: a solar deity, one of the few recurring characters throughout his work. In this piece, the sun’s mouth is upturned in a benevolent smile.

On the ground, the crowd that’s gathered to watch the mural’s progress has only gotten bigger. Chen can’t help but crack a smile of his own. After all, working in public is his favorite thing about being an artist.

六月艳阳的成都，升降机发出隆隆的热浪，在一面居民楼侧边墙壁上，艺术家陈暘（Sheep Chen） 正在创作他的最新作品。五层楼高的大型壁画与市景街道形成强烈对比，乍听起来好像格格不入，而整幅作品却又在鲜艳大胆的颜色和轮廓上令人倍感舒适。这部名为《赤兔之诚》的作品，位于成都市衣冠庙地铁口，当地相传是三国演义中刘备祭拜关羽的地方。因此，Sheep 结合三国文化并以赤兔马为主题创作了这幅作品。除了赤兔马，壁画上 “太阳神” 是他作品中常见的元素，嘴角上扬的形象好似对当地居民带来某种福祉。路边围观的群众越来越多，Sheep 迎着阳光露出笑容，这是他多年来最爱做的事情之一 —— 城市公共壁画。

In China, public art first found steam by way of peasant paintings, an art form that was spurred on by government cultural initiatives between the ’50s and ’80s. Yet, despite the historic precedence, contemporary forms of public art never quite took off in the country. Chen believes that street art’s stunted growth in China is in part due to the fact that many domestic artists fail to ground their works in relatable, local context. A successful mural requires the artist to have a thorough understanding of the place they’re working in and the people they’re making it for, Chen says. “A mural should radiate an aura. It should feel surprising and leave an impression. A colorful mural in the concrete expanses of a city should be a sight for sore eyes.”

公共壁画作为公共艺术的一种，最早起步于中国五十至八十年代，当时在政府的倡导下，壁画（也就是所谓的 “农民画”）在农村十分盛行，其中大多作品歌颂着尚好的田园风光。但在如今，国内带有个人风格的壁画形式还凤毛麟角。毕竟是大体量作品，在壁画进行创作时，艺术家需要结合当地人文、地理等特色元素。Sheep 说：“每一个行走在壁画下的人都会被它的磁场所感染。她就像是一个精美的礼物，伫立在街角等待被你发现，让你在钢筋混凝土的森林里不经意地尝一口彩虹的味道。”

Chen refuses to work within the clichés of contemporary street art, opting instead to search for inspiration in myths and legends. Rinsed through his imagination and rendered in vivid colors, he turns common fairy tales and folklores into large-scale murals teeming with power. While Chen enjoys working in the realm of fiction, he finds it equally important to tap into the intangible aspects of everyday life for inspiration. “Wisdom, love, religion, and spirituality are all prevalent themes in my art,” he says. “I want my art to be optimistic. When you channel positivity, the cosmos will channel it back to you.” His cheerful works have brightened up walls in China, Singapore, the U.S., and more.

与常见的街头艺术不同，Sheep 大多数作品中的形象来自神话故事，并通过强烈的颜色和想象力，让角色散发出一种力量与灵气。这种灵气来源自他在日常生活中对玄奇妙想的观察，“宗教，开悟，爱和灵性体验是我在创作中最关注的主题。 ” 他笑着说道，“我的每一幅作品都带着美好的愿景，这样就能得到宇宙的助力，推动我去做好这件事。” 从创作至今，Sheep 把那份 “美好的愿景” 带到了很多不同国家和地区，从上海到新加坡、从关岛到夏威夷，这些作品仿佛与世界人民达成了某种共鸣。

In 2008, when graffiti and street art were still fringe subcultures in China, Chen—still in high school at the time—was introduced to the art form when he met Hangzhou-based graffiti crew Lin Yin at a comics convention. Their expressive work struck a chord with Chen, who at the time was a rebellious teenager searching for identity and purpose. “The first time I sprayed a wall, I fell in love,” he recalls. “The smell of paint was like a hit of dopamine.”

2008 年，街头艺术在中国还并未普及。高中时期的 Sheep 在一次漫画展中认识了杭州涂鸦团队“麟隐”，从此与涂鸦文化结缘。当青少年的叛逆和求异心理与涂鸦艺术碰撞，让 Sheep 找到了强烈的身份认同感，他说：“第一次用喷漆在墙上胡作非为的时候我就彻底爱上这种感觉，喷漆的味道一度成为了我的迷幻药。”

Image Courtesy of HKWalls / Photographer: Ren Wei 图片由 HKWalls 提供 / 摄影师: Ren Wei
Image Courtesy of HKWalls / Photographer: Ren Wei 图片由 HKWalls 提供 / 摄影师: Ren Wei
Image Courtesy of HKWalls / Photographer: Ren Wei 图片由 HKWalls 提供 / 摄影师: Ren Wei

Over the years, Chen has found tremendous success within the Chinese street-art scene, but the self-skepticism and second guessing that marked his younger years have stuck. He treasures this self-awareness and inwardly critical gaze, considering there to be many parallels between his introspective approach to making art and Buddhist practices. He goes as far as to say the artistic journey is a spiritual pilgrimage, and an artist reaches “enlightenment” once they hone in on their own style.

多年创作以来，Sheep 坚持在不断怀疑和推翻中创作，并这样的过程称作为 “修行”。在他看来，创作风格的塑造就像是一场朝圣，在不断对内心的追问下，找到最适合自己的风格。

Born in Jiaxing, a sleepy city in China’s Zhejiang Province, Chen sees his hometown as the perfect setting for making art. Jiaxing is an incredibly calming place to him, a safe haven where he can declutter his mind and reorient himself. He’s lived for stints of time in larger cities, such as Wuhan and Singapore, but he always returns home. “When I’m back home in Jiaxing, everything feels unhurried,” he says. “My thoughts can easily take on a visual form.”

浙江嘉兴地处江南水乡，青枫江上的景观造就了温柔、感性的城市特点。对于出生在这里的 Sheep 来说，嘉兴就是最适合修行的地方。每当他回到家乡，创作中所做所想的一切都在肚中慢慢消化，他说：“在家乡嘉兴，自己的一方世界把所思所想都变成画面，不争不抢，不急不躁。” 尽管因为涂鸦事业，他曾旅居在新加坡和武汉，但如今他还会经常回到故乡。

These visualizations of Chen’s conscious and subconscious mind often appear in the form of disparate religious and cultural symbols, whether it be The Eight Immortals of Chinese mythology or the mysterious unicorns of Western art. He believes tradition and culture are parts of life that best capture the spiritual side of our physical existence. This interest in spirituality has been a defining factor in his artistic growth—Chen considers Buddhist meditation to be one of his biggest inspirations to date.

In 2017, Chen went on a meditation retreat at Nanchan Temple. There, he gained a deeper appreciation of yin and yang. Since then, his art has become heavily influenced by the notion of duality. One of the most prominent visualizations of yin and yang in his work is the appearance of the sun and the moon. “Yin and yang, and the notion of achieving balance are key inspirations lately,” he says. “Being mindful of the world’s duality has afforded me new perspectives in art and changed the way I live my life.”

From 2018 onwards, this pursuit of balance has transformed his creative process. Chen now even looks to feng shui and its five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—when planning a mural. “The colors and shapes I use are dependent on the location,” he says. “If there isn’t a body of water nearby, I’ll use more blues and softer lines. If there’s a lack of metal, I’ll use more whites and angular shapes.”

观看 Sheep 的作品，你很难不会被画面中的深厚的文化或宗教元素所吸引，无论是位于关岛的八仙过海图，还是迈阿密的独角兽形象。他承认自己对不同民族、和文化的喜爱，也更执迷于物质世界背后的精神世界。出于对佛教禅修的兴趣，2017 年，Sheep 独自前往南禅寺内观修行。期间，他深刻领悟到阴阳平衡的意义，并将其运用到之后的创作当中，他说：“阴阳平衡的观念是我很大的灵感来源，其是一种看待事物的眼光，也是一种生活的方式。 ”

2018 年之后，平衡的概念出现在 Sheep 作品的方方面面。他认为每一幅大型壁画都有自己的力量，并运用东方的风水学让作品与周围环境维持一种平衡的关系，他说：“通常，我会根据作品的地理位置，选用创作的颜色和造型。如果缺水，我会更多选用蓝色，和柔软的线条。缺金我会用白色，加上锐利的图形。” 这些在创作方面的调整，让大幅壁画往往具有宁静、祥和的状态。所以，你会经常在 Sheep 的作品中发现太阳和月亮的形象，它们象征在阴阳的平衡。

Today, street-side murals are still fairly rare in China, but Chen is optimistic about the future. “China develops fast, and people are becoming more and more open-minded,” he says. “These types of works will eventually find a place in the Chinese art scene—they’ll most likely first find recognition within the fine art circuit, then it’ll hit the mainstream and be accepted by the masses.”

With over a decade of experience under his belt, Chen is often regarded as one of the pioneers of Chinese street art. These accolades mean nothing to him though. For him, creating art is simply his passion, a way for him to express himself. Chasing clout has never been a motivator. “I’m not someone who lives in a bubble with only personal interests at heart though,” he adds. “I want my work to evoke strong emotions. I’m passionate about art and I want to make more. I want my art to bring joy to friends, family, and strangers alike.”

如今，大型公共艺术在国内依然处在初期阶段，不过 Sheep 对未来充满信心，他说：“中国发展的很快，人们的包容度也越来越强，未来大型壁画一定会被更多的人接受。大型壁画会成为 ‘严肃艺术’ 与 ‘潮流艺术’ 之后再一次对所有人都破冰的艺术形式。”

创作至今的十余年时间里，Sheep 是中国街头艺术发展的亲历者。但创作对于他来说只是一种单纯的热爱，从来没想过名利之事。他更希望能通过自己的作品与他人分享内心的关怀。他在美国迈阿密创作的作品《星辰捕手》，其灵感来源于一个小男孩想要摘下星星的愿望。他说：“我不是一个活在自己世界并单纯追逐自我快乐的人，我希望观看作品的人能有更积极的感受，我也希望我最热爱的事情，能为家人朋友甚至是不认识的你带去快乐。”

时光斗转星移，岁月和风雨或许会让绚丽的画面不复。但 Sheep 的大型壁画所带来的福祉却常存在人们的心中，彼时彼刻，当再次回想起初次看到他的作品时，心中一定还是手摘星辰的信念。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @sheep.chen
Weibo: ~/sheep513

 

Contributor: Pete Zhang
English Translation: David Yen
Images Courtesy of Sheep Chen & HKWalls

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @sheep.chen
微博: ~/sheep513

 

供稿人: Pete Zhang
中译英: David Yen
图片由陈暘与 HKWalls 提供

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢