Monthly Archives: January 2021

Calligraphy Maestro 真体字，真·汉字？

January 29, 2021 2021年1月29日

On an unassuming street corner in North Point, a piece of Hong Kong history glows brightly in gold, red, and white. This is Au Yeung Cheong’s calligraphy shop, where his work covers every available surface, even the ceiling. Inside, it almost feels like a 360-degree virtual interactive gallery of ’90s-era Hong Kong typography, with signage handwritten in Chinese characters crammed into every available inch of the shop. And at 63 years old, Au’s story definitely includes a lot of history.

欧阳昌的招牌制作店位于香港北角一个不起眼的街道拐角处，金色、红色和白色的文字招牌讲述着香港的一段辉煌历史。店铺的四面墙壁以及天花板，密密麻麻摆满了欧阳昌的作品。一踏入店内，就仿佛进入一个全方位无死角的虚拟互动画廊，每一个角落都摆放着手写的中文招牌，充满 90 年代的香港风情。在现年 63 岁的欧阳的人生故事中，自然也见证了不少的历史。

He started learning calligraphy as a kid with some encouragement from his mom while living in the rural countryside of Shunde, Guandong. Reading calligraphy books his dad bought, he stayed up late teaching himself, working under candlelight since electricity wasn’t yet readily available there. “It felt like a remote island at the time,” he laughs. “It’s all the more rewarding now because I overcame the hardships.”

在母亲的鼓励下，他从小就开始学习书法。小时候，他和家人生活在广东顺德农村，由于没有电力供应，他常常到深夜还点着蜡烛，翻阅父亲买的书法书籍，自学书法。“那里好像一个离岛一样所以迟迟都不会有电的。”他笑着说道，“梅花香自苦寒来，真体字出自点火水灯钻研。”

The historic State Theatre building 现在的皇都戏院

In 1983, Au opened the King Wah Signboard shop in Hong Kong, tucked inside the historic State Theatre. His shop was set up next to an elevator that led to the upper floors, so there was a lot of foot traffic. But after a huge fire in 1995, and the theater’s shuttering in 1997, businesses slowly began disappearing until he was nearly alone inside the building’s darkened marketplace. He only recently relocated down the street after developers offered him some financial assistance. But there are plans to preserve and restore the building, and Au hopes to return to his original State Theatre location one day.

1983 年，欧阳昌的“京华招牌”在香港开张，地址就在历史悠久的皇都戏院内。他的店铺旁边就是通往戏院的扶手电梯，因此人流量很大。然而 1995 年的一场大火导致戏院在 1997 年关闭，周围的店铺也日渐式微，最后，欧阳昌成为了这幢冷清的商业大楼里唯一仍在开张的店铺。直到最近获得开发商提供的一些资金补助之后，他才搬到街上另一个位置。这幢大楼之后很可能会被保留和重新修建，因此，欧阳昌希望终有一天能重回皇都戏院。

Over the years, Au has remained insistent with sticking to a style of Chinese calligraphy, which he claims to be “real script,” describing it as the most authentic version of regular script, one that’s informed by ancient calligraphy from all around the region. He believes an important era of calligraphy was lost when the Old Summer Palace was burned down during the Qing Dynasty. “The original real scripts were burned,” he sighs.

多年以来，欧阳昌一直坚持创作名为“真体字”的书法字体，在他看来，这种字体是最正宗的正楷，深受周边地区的古代书法影响。他认为，清末英法联军火烧圆明园，对真体字书法带来了摧毁性的影响：“那些很真的字已经在火烧圆明园的时候被烧掉了。”

To reconcile that loss of history, Au turned to other ancient scriptures, studying how Chinese characters were written in Buddhist, Taoist, Guanyin, and Namaste texts. “After examining their brushstrokes, character structures, the way certain lines are slanted, and so on, I developed the real script I now work with.” Although it’s something he seemed to piece together on his own, older generations often recognize it. “When people in their 80s and 90s pass by my shop, they’d say, ‘Yes! I learned these characters when I was in school.'”

“Each stroke is perfectly symmetrical,” Au says of his script style. “Each character is compressed, and the strokes are interconnected. Every character occupies its own space, and they’re structurally dense—never loose or slumped over. In life, only when a person is ill do they slump over.” He says you need to understand every part of a script and that your knowledge grows like a multiplication table as you master each character.

为了弥补这段历史的缺失，欧阳昌潜心钻研其他古代经文，研究汉字在佛经、道经、观音经和南摩经的书写形式。“所有经书研究出来，原来落笔是这样的、结构是这样的，加起来才有我现在这样的真体字。”尽管这更像是他自己所拼凑而成的字体，但上了年纪的人都能看得懂这些字。“有一些八九十岁的老人认得到我的字，他说‘是了，我读卜卜斋（当时的私塾）的时候就是这些字’。”

谈到真字体的风格时，欧阳昌说：“它是端端正正的，四平八稳的，它每下一笔都是指着前上角下笔。字是不分散的，笔锋是连着的。一个字只有一个，称为结构紧密。它不会垂头丧气、烂头烂尾、四分五裂。一个人病了或者是牙痛，这才会垂头丧气的。”他认为在练习书法时，你需要了解字体的每一个笔画，这样，每掌握一个字，你的书法水平都能获得极大的提升。

For all his musings about where history got things wrong, Au believes we’re in the middle of losing tradition once again, as people stop writing by hand. “Scripts have lost some of their qualities through printing. I hope to maintain them by doing it by hand.” To that end, he offers affordable lessons out of his shop, but he’s yet to have a student interested in sticking around, let alone master his style of calligraphy. He says it’s especially difficult to host apprentices considering the size of his small, cluttered shop. “I hope anthropology becomes more important that there’s more teaching in proper spaces where people can really learn,” he says. “If not, real script might disappear again.”

在反思历史问题之余，欧阳昌也认为，现代人越来越少写字，书法传统正再次处于消失的命运。“现在真体印出来变成了楷体一样，不是很真了，没有我的这么真。”为此，他除了开招牌制作店，还提供便宜的教学课程，但至今他还没有遇到愿意坚持下来的学生，更不用说掌握他的书法风格了。他说，自己的店铺空间狭小，杂乱无章，也不方便招收学徒。他说：“希望以后有关部门可以提供一个地方，有一些好的环境，才有更多的人学。”他不无惋惜地说道，“如果再没有人学，这些真体字会第二次或者是第三次失传的。”

At his peak in the ‘90s, he employed over 20 staff members and his work could be found all over the city, but now he works alone in his small shop. He once made a lightbox sign that rivaled the Rolex sign in Causeway Bay. Au says that it’s mostly collectors who frequent his store these days. “In the past my clients only needed signage, it was exclusively for businesses and such,” he says. “But now, a lot of people want to collect my work, especially the younger generation.”

Because of media attention and coverage from local universities, students often come to his shop to purchase signage, lightboxes, and smaller trinkets as decorations. But there are still some commercial clients interested in his work. Earlier this year he created an installation sign for a Fashion Farm Foundation event, one of his favorite pieces to date. It’s even still hung in his store now. “Today, people are becoming more appreciative of the beauty in handwritten script. They realize it’s more elegant than digitized fonts.”

在上世纪 90 年代的巅峰时期，他曾雇用 20 多名员工，他的作品遍布这座城市，但现在，他独自一人在这间小店里工作。他所制作的一个灯箱招牌曾与铜锣湾劳力士店的招牌争光夺彩，而现在，光顾他的人大多都是收藏家。“过去我的顾客是只需要招牌，大部分是专供商业的。”他说道，“现在是有一点不同，有一些年轻人就帮衬我写的宣纸，把真体字用来收藏。”

在媒体和当地大学的报道和关注下，有越来越多学生到他的店里购买招牌、灯箱和一些精致的装饰品；与此同时，他的招牌也吸引了一些公司客户的兴趣。今年早些时候，他就为 Fashion Farm Foundation 活动创作了一个招牌艺术装置，这也是他迄今为止最喜欢的作品之一，现在还挂在他的店里，“现在，多了一些大学生、中学生，因为他们知道了我的字比电脑字应该是靓一点的。”

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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Tang Kam Hong Kenneth
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

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供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Tang Kam Hong Kenneth
英译中: Olivia Li

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Icelandic Memoirs 冰岛恋歌

January 27, 2021 2021年1月27日

If you’ve ever wanted to visit another planet without actually leaving Earth, then Iceland may be as close as you’re going to get. Formed millions of years ago in the early Miocene Epoch, this landmass of volcanic origin isn’t shy in flaunting its ancient beauty. From its obsidian terrains and vast mountain ranges to its immense glaciers and awe-inspiring waterfalls, the country has captivated the imagination of countless travelers throughout the centuries.

Since high school, Li Yiwei has heard Iceland’s calling. The first time she learned about the Nordic country was in geography class, when the name of its capital—Reykjavík—piqued her interest. From there, her own research into the country left her mesmerized by its history and beauty. She couldn’t get Iceland off her mind, and years later, in 2013, she finally visited. She ended up staying, attending university and finding her first job there. Now, having lived there for nearly eight years now, she remains no less fascinated by it.

如果想要地球上来一场外星之旅，冰岛恐怕是不二之选。形成于上千万年前的早中新世晚期，这个靠近北极圈由火山岩堆积而成的国度，像是被某种古老力量风冻的晶石。斑驳嶙峋的熔岩、磅礴浩瀚的冰川和山脉、瀑布在一望无际的平原之上奔涌狂澜、极光与湖泊相互衬映彼此的美艳……几近疯狂的地貌和气候，让冰岛成为近年来电影人、游客的光顾胜地。人们无需驾驶飞船，就可以抵达这奇异的国度。

早在高中时期，李宜蔚便对冰岛产生了浓厚兴致。记忆中一堂地理课上，她被雷克雅未克（冰岛首都）的名字深深吸引，那是她第一次与地球上天涯海角的彼端结缘。从 2013 年第一次踏上冰岛开始算起，李宜蔚已在这块被称为“北境之王”的土地上生活了足足八年。现在，冰岛陪伴她度过了大学和工作时期，岛屿之上的探险还在继续。

When Li first arrived in Iceland, the country was even more beautiful than she imagined. The majesty of its great outdoors inspired Li to pick up a camera for the first time. “It’s not that difficult to photograph Iceland,” she says. “It’s just too beautiful here. It feels like I can do no wrong, so that gave me the creative confidence I needed.”

Photography quickly consumed Li. To her, every image she’s taken bears a special memory. She says one of the most memorable images is one she snapped after a seven-hour-long mountain trek through falling snow. The tiring journey was all worth it when she reached the summit—the clouds opened up, offering a panoramic view of the open blue sky, and as the sun set, the scene was colored in by a magical, pastel tint. “I saw the most beautiful moon that day,” she says. “The snow-capped mountain ranges, with the moon alongside, was a sight to behold. The obsidian precipices of the nearby mountains also seemed to shimmer in the light.”

Born and raised in Guilin, a Chinese city renowned for its own breathtaking mountains and lakes, Li has long believed that urban life is a deviation from the norm. She believes cities have severed mankind’s connection with the natural world and sees Iceland as a place where that connection can be rekindled.

Even though she’s already lived in Iceland for eight years, Li stills enjoy exploring the country and soaking in the sights. There always seems to be new discoveries around every corner. “Heading out in search of specific places I hear about is just an excuse to go out and take pictures,” she smiles. “My favorite photos usually happen when I’m still on the road.”

与冰岛的初次见面，这里的一切景象就与李宜蔚心中对美的向往就达成某种默契。而她的摄影创作也从冰岛开始，她说：“在冰岛成为摄影师的成本其实很低，随手拍都是美景，这也给了我很强的自信心。” 很快，拍摄对于她来说成为一件兴奋的事，令沿途的风景与镜头随行，一张张记录下属于自己与冰岛的恋曲。在一次内陆高地的徒步中，李宜蔚在雪山中行走了七个多小时，在登上雪山的一刹那，漫布天际的粉紫色云烟映入眼帘，瞬间开阔的美丽让她至今难以忘却。她回忆道：“那一天看到了一生中最美的月亮，与雪山交相辉映，山顶还有好多黑曜石，在地上闪闪发光。”

从小在桂林山水下成长，让李宜蔚对美有一种独特的认知。她认为城市将人原始的本能割裂，而在冰岛，“人回归到了人性最开始的地方，” 她说道。

李宜蔚认为能居住在冰岛，对于任何摄影师都是一件幸福的事。目前居住在雷克雅未克，她平时喜欢四处走走，沿途的美丽总在不经意间发现。她说：“有趣的邂逅会引起我拍照的兴趣。去寻找景色只是出门拍照的一个借口，大多数自己满意的照片都是寻找景色的过程中遇到的惊喜。”

There’s an expansiveness to Li’s photography, one that magnifies the innate bond between man, wildlife, and land. In her images, the clouds often seem to be within reach. The contours of the land are welcoming yet breathtaking in their sheer scale. There’s also a minimalist elegance to be found in a lot of her work. Through Li’s eye for color and composition, she brings a sense of balanced harmony into every image. Each snapshot is cohesive and every element is purposeful, constructed with seeming effortlessness. “I think like a designer when I take photos,” she says. “I want the relationship between every element to be clearly illustrated.”

There’s also a duality to her work, one that’s most obvious in the differences between her day-time and night-time snapshots. In the former, the sun’s radiance illuminates the entire scene, revealing her vision in 20/20. For the latter, she wields the darkness of night to conjure moodiness and a sense of mystery.

Her use of color, and at times, Photoshop manipulation, further elevates the surreal qualities of her work. “Even though my photos are based on reality, post-processing can make the colors feel even more otherworldly,” she says. “After all, that’s how I see Iceland—a place of fantasy.”

她的作品中，视线和心灵总是无比开阔，人、动物、事物、景观毫不违和地融为一体。画面中，天边的云朵触手可及、大地的轮廓清澈且壮丽，一不小心将观众的思绪和身体跌入震撼的场景。看似简约的构图，却在色彩和比例的安排上令人心旷，不同事物间的关系也交代地清晰。李宜蔚说：“我拍照的时候大概会用到很多设计思维，让照片中的不同元素保持一种互相依存的关系。”

地处北极圈边缘，冰岛通常会在一年中出现极昼和极夜的现象。或许正是因为如此，她的作品往往呈现出两种不同的色系，明亮的似乎可以洞穿万物的心灵、黑暗的则在深沉中匿藏神秘。

与此同时，“超现实主义”则构成了李宜蔚作品的主色调——人物以裸露和释怀的姿态拥抱自然、天地之间的冰岛马特写、漂浮在山间的云朵……她说：即便拍摄对象来源于冰岛的现实环境，通常我也会通过后期制作来让画面看起来更具超现实的感受，因为印象中的冰岛本来就是梦幻且不真实的。”

2021 marked the eighth year of Li’s time in Iceland. She’s witnessed the country’s sweeping changes, namely the surge in tourism. Especially in city centers, a lot of establishments were shut down and transformed into inns, restaurants, or shops catered towards tourists. Much of the country’s dated architecture has been modernized. Many locals have also begun moving out of downtown. “Tourism has brought in a lot of money, but it’s also affected the locals in a negative way,” she says. “A lot of the places they used to frequent are now gone, and the price of eating out has gone up significantly.”

The direction that Iceland is heading isn’t something she’s particularly thrilled by, and it’s given her photography a sense of urgency. “This is perhaps the greatest allure of photography,” she says. “It allows you to capture fleeting moments and preserve them forever.”

李宜蔚在冰岛度过八年间，她也亲眼见证了岛上发生的转变。随着旅游业的慢慢兴起，冰岛的游客数量大幅度上升。城市中几乎所有店铺成为酒店、餐厅和旅游用品店，很多文化场所被迫改建，不少原住市中心的居民开始向外搬迁。她说：“旅游给当地带来了很多经济收入，但是也逐步吞噬了居民的日常生活，很多常去的地方渐渐消失，餐厅的价格飞涨。”

显而易见地，李宜蔚并不希望冰岛原始的风貌被旅游和商业侵占，而一键恒久远的摄影创作，对于一切或许带有更多含义。她说：“这大概也是摄影的魅力，捕捉到的瞬间是存在的但是只能靠照片保存下来。”

In the past eight years, Li has only returned to China once, staying briefly for a year. The urban lifestyle was a worse culture shock than she imagined, and she opted to return to Iceland. Though the Nordic country can be numbingly cold at times, and it’s of course much smaller than China, Li simply feels more grounded there. “Much of the country was built from the ground up in the past decade,” she says. “This means new visitors feel less like an outsider. You assimilate pretty quickly. Perhaps that’s part of Iceland’s appeal. A lot of people come and don’t want to leave, like me. They feel right at home.”

冰岛生活间隙，李宜蔚也曾回国呆过一年。但对于习惯了生活在原始自然环境的她来说，喧闹和茂密的混凝土丛林显然不再适应。很快，她又回到了熟悉的冰岛。这片岛屿虽然不大，也时常严寒，但这里的一切却让李宜蔚觉得踏实。她说：“很多东西是近几十年建起来的，不太让人有排他的感觉，很容易就融入到其中了。这也许也是冰岛的魔力，很多外国人来了就安了家，不想离开。这里是我的第二个家。”

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Contributor: Pete Zhang

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供稿人: Pete Zhang

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Filipino Pride 一张图拼凑出你的文化背景

January 25, 2021 2021年1月25日
Details of Vortex《Vortex》局部细节

Jay Cabalu is no stranger to loneliness.

Growing up in Canada, the Philippines-born artist spent much of his childhood collecting comics and magazines. Popular culture through the lens of printed media served as a much-welcomed escape from the isolation that he experienced as a queer immigrant. As he began making art as an adult, he decided to revisit the print media that offered him temporary comfort, only to discover them with a new perspective. “In the magazines I flipped through, I saw little of myself,” he says. “There were no representations of Asian men that were reflective of my sexuality. As I grew older, I desired to represent my adult self as the person I was looking for in the material I browsed as a child.” Now, cutting these magazines and comics to shreds, he’s creating visually staggering collages that touch on themes of identity, capitalism, and supremacism.

Jay Cabalu 是出身于菲律宾的酷儿艺术家，专注于波普艺术，擅长手工切割拼贴，现居温哥华。对从小在加拿大的一个移民家庭中长大、不太接触电子设备的他来说，在漫画和杂志对他的艺术实践产生了重大影响。菲律宾移民、加拿大国籍、同性恋……自小就在三种身份的夹缝中长大，这让 Jay 倍感孤独。“在翻阅过的杂志中，我几乎看不到自己。” Jay 说，“没有任何能反映我性向的亚洲男人形象。而随着年龄的增长，我愈发渴望在我小时候浏览的资料中就能找到代表我这一群体的成年人。”于是，身份焦虑促使着他不断思考和探索自身认同的问题，最终也催生出了他缤纷多彩的拼贴作品。

The Count of Monte Cristo《The Count of Monte Cristo》
SUPERMODEL (MIDNIGHT BLUE)《SUPERMODEL (MIDNIGHT BLUE)》

In Vancouver, media representation of Filipinos was scarce. Hence, once Cabalu started making art, it felt all the more important for him to provide proper representation. This came in the form of self-portraits. Take, for example, the piece De Los Reyes, titled after his mother’s maiden name. In it, he hoists a massive can of SPAM over his head in triumph. The prominent depiction of the canned meat is, in a less subtle way, also a homage to his Filipino roots. This was a staple food item for nearly all Filipinos during the Second World War and remains wildly popular today. “I wanted to create a loud self-portrait about Filipino identity so I threw in many stereotypical references to my culture that you would only know if you were an insider,” he explains. “While stereotypes can be harmful and perpetuate a notion that people of racial groups are all the same, they can also sometimes provide comfort when you are part of a diaspora that lacks visibility.”

在 Jay 从小成长起来的地方，菲律宾人是几乎不会出现在电视电影中的人群。亚裔族群的数量既非少到无法计数，也远不至于被完全忽略。

在 Jay 为自画像《De Los Reyes》的命名时，他沿用了母亲的娘家姓（直译为“国王的”），结合着触目的“SPAM”午餐肉品牌字样，让人直视其背后的历史：二战期间，在菲律宾（当时是美国殖民地），罐头肉在作为一种易于运输的军用粮非常流行。“我想创造一个关于菲律宾人身份的响亮的自画像，所以我抛出了许多关于我的文化的刻板印象。” Jay 说道“虽然说‘刻板印象’可能不太友好，且会使种族群体的人都是一样的观念永久化，但当你是缺乏知名度的少数群体的一部分时，它们有时也可以提供安慰。”Jay 坦然说道。

De Los Reyes《De Los Reyes》
Details of De Los Reyes《De Los Reyes》局部细节
Details of De Los Reyes《De Los Reyes》局部细节

From celebrity portraits and comic-style bubble dialogue to Costco and luxury-brand logos, the hodgepodge of motifs that appear in his collages is designed to shock the senses. Despite his personal artistic goals, Cabalu hopes for audiences to piece these disparate components together and form their own interpretation. “I like hiding Easter eggs in plain sight, inviting viewers to take a closer look and discover the connection between the fragments,” he says. “Working on this type of art forces me to see small, standalone images with a new perspective, to identify how they can come together to form a larger picture.”

细看 Jay 的作品，从明星照片到漫画字体，从大卖场价码标到毛泽东像，从 Jeff Koons 的气球狗到LV、宝格丽的 LOGO……每一张肖像拼贴都包含了很多信息，Jay 希望观众们可以用任何他们中意的方式来自行理解作品。“我很喜欢把彩蛋藏在显而易见的地方，邀请观众仔细观察，并在更大的画面和组成它的碎片之间建立联系。这种类型的艺术创作迫使我把小的、孤立的图像看成另一种东西，以创造更大的画面。”

Details of AUDREY 1 (PJÄTTERYD)《AUDREY 1 (PJÄTTERYD)》
AUDREY 1 (PJÄTTERYD)《AUDREY 1 (PJÄTTERYD)》
Details of AUDREY 1 (PJÄTTERYD)《AUDREY 1 (PJÄTTERYD)》局部细节

Cabalu’s collages are mostly cut and pieced together by hand. It’s time-consuming but worth the effort as he believes that the “materiality” of the medium best represents his life experiences. To him, paper collages have a tactility unrivaled by any other medium. “Especially in person, you can see the fragility of the paper in every ripple, cut, and tear,” he says. “It reveals how the superficial notions that magazines tout—about how human beings should look and what we should own to be considered worthy—as being paper-thin.”

His art is vengeful, in a way, made to cast a critical gaze on the white-male society that he grew up in. “I love the ironic symbolism of physically taking traumatic materials and adorning myself in branding to reverse my exclusion, while also being obvious that it’s just paper— it’s nothing essentially.”

从规划设计到剪裁粘贴，Jay 会花费很多时间在手工的过程中，以期呈现出最佳的层次分布效果。他认为这种“物质属性”更能表达他的生活经验，这也是他用实体纸张拼接作为主要媒介的原因，他喜欢纸质拼贴的原始和触感。“尤其是亲手制作的话，你能从每一个波纹、剪裁和撕裂中看到纸张的脆弱。”Jay 说，“一纸厚度，它却向我们展露杂志所吹捧的肤浅观念——即关于人们理应如何穿着打扮，以及什么才是值得拥有的。”

同时，他也认为目前人们生活在一个消解白人至上主义结构的、严肃对话的时代，而他童年印象中的杂志则一直以来都是个维护白人至上主义的资本主义工具。“我喜欢这种具有讽刺意味的象征意义，亲躬力行地拿着创伤性的材料——杂志，来装饰自己的作品，以扭转我的排斥感。同时也显而易见的是，这不过就只是一页页纸头而已，本质上说，它什么都算不上。”

Details of HEARTTHROB (RED)《HEARTTHROB (RED)》局部细节
HEARTTHROB (RED)《HEARTTHROB (RED)》

Cabalu’s pivot into digital collages happened last year, with his first piece, Fortune Diptych, debuting at an exhibition in Vancouver’s Chinatown. The piece was also his first typography-focused work. To retain the handmade aesthetic of his past works, this piece is still all cut out by hand. The only difference is that these individual cutouts were cobbled together via software after being scanned. There was a new level of creative freedom to be found working digitally that surprised and delighted him—he realized that he was able to alter the cutouts any way he liked, whether it be scaling them up, warping them, or even changing the colors completely. “The process was like discovering a new language to express myself,” he says.

在去年不久前，Jay Cabalu 刚为温哥华唐人街的一个街头展览创作了数字拼贴画《Fortune Diptych》，对他来说，这种体验非常新鲜。它们也是 Jay 的第一件文字拼贴作品，单从字面上看，就已经饱含了他对种族主义的态度。由于想保持自己的手作过程，Jay 也是先把所有的图片实物找来，在拼贴前先行扫描成电子版。他改变了这些图像部件的尺寸，随意剪裁，玩弄色彩、比例，这是他创作中莫大的乐趣之一。Jay 笑称这整个过程就像发现了一种新的语言来表达自己。

Fortune Diptych, Part 1: RACISM IS DISTRACTION, digital collage on vinylFortune Diptych 第一部分: 《RACISM IS DISTRACTION》
Fortune Diptych, Part 2: YELLOW PERIL SUPPORTS BLACK POWERFortune Diptych 第二部分: 《YELLOW PERIL SUPPORTS BLACK POWER》

This was a surprising pivot from the self-portraits that audiences have known Cabalu known for, but he’s since realized that this self-imposed restraint did him no good. While a number of powerful, introspective works resulted from that period, he believes breaking out of this pigeonhole can result in works that can find resonance with individuals from backgrounds different from himself. “My biggest takeaway from the last year is that what I have, and what all artists have, is internal and not dictated by a singular style or process, and it does not run out,” he says. “This is why artists are important and will always be—they can help people discover their capacity for growth.”

Jay 表示在自己刚开始拼贴肖像的时候，有一段时间他笃信他的自画肖像将永远是自己的艺术表达形式，但现在看来这无异于把自己囿于桎梏之中。“在去年，我最大的收获是，我和所有艺术家所拥有的源动力都是内在的，那不是由任何一种风格或过程所决定的。虽然我们有自己特定的价值观和品位，但我们也在不断地与时俱进，艺术也应该反映这一点。”

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Website: jaycabalu.com
Instagram: @jay_klmnop

 

Contributor: Chen Yuan

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网站: jaycabalu.com
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供稿人: Chen Yuan

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Seventeen & Virtual 有点调皮，对香蕉怕得要命

January 22, 2021 2021年1月22日

“Seventeen, openly virtual, a little naughty, and deadly scared of bananas.” That’s how Bangkok Naughty Boo describes himself. Digital, androgynous, and downright quirky, he’s the first cyber influencer in Thailand and the first non-binary cyber influencer. A computer-generated character designed with a human personality—Naughty Boo is eager to speak his mind.

“I’m Thai but global at heart, created during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, aka the ‘new normal’ era, as a non-binary seventeen-year-old spirit.,” he says. “It’s fine to call me ‘he.’ I’m totally into that. It sounds kinda sexy, right?”

“17 岁，100%虚拟，有点调皮，对香蕉怕得要命。”这是曼谷 Naughty Boo 的自我介绍。他是泰国第一位拟真虚拟网红，也是互联网上第一个非二元性别网红。作为一个完全由电脑生成的虚拟形象，Naughty Boo 渴望说出自己的心声。

他说：“我来自泰国，但内心是个地球人。今年我 17 岁，属于非二元性别，诞生于新冠肺炎疫情爆发期间，也就是‘新常态’时代，我不 Care 你怎么称呼我。怎么样，听起来是不是还蛮性感的？”

Naughty Boo is obsessed with becoming an internet sensation. He’s a hybrid of Lil Miquela, Lady Gaga, and Troye Sivan, with the virtual nature of the first, the fortitude and glamour of the second, and the gentleness of the latter. Like Miquela, he began with an Instagram profile, broadcasting his life through Bangkok’s trendy spots and art galleries, hanging out with other fashionable members of the city’s underground scene.

His facial features are entirely original and developed with a calculated ambiguity that discards racial associations. Even though he appears plausibly human, Naughty Boo’s face is unmistakably rendered. It was never the intention to cover up his digital nature and trick people into believing he’s real. Still, he needs to resemble a living person, so his body is invariably borrowed from a real-life model, someone whose identity will never be revealed.

Naughty Boo 想要成为网红。他和 Lil Miquela 一样，是时下火热的网络拟真偶像，同时兼备 Lady Gaga 的自信和大胆风格，以及 Troye Sivan 的细腻温柔。与许多虚拟偶像一样，他先创建个人 Instagram 页面，然后通过曼谷的时尚圈和艺术画廊宣传，与曼谷非主流时尚人士合照增加热度。

Naughty Boo 的五官完全为原创设计，设计师特意模糊了种族特征。尽管看起来很逼真，但仍然能稍稍看出明显的计算机渲染效果。虽然从未想过要掩盖他的数字本质，让人们误以为他是真人；然而他毕竟是模仿人类而设计，所以身体部分是基于一位真人模特创造的，至于原型的身份，大概会永远成为一个秘密。

Naughty Boo, like many influencers, also has modeling aspirations. He had his first modeling gig in October, in a collaboration between IWANNABANGKOK©, his creators, and stylist Kanit S., all captured by the sharp lens of Kanrapee Chokpaiboon. The goal was maximum fashion lunacy.

In one shot, Naughty Boo appears on all fours in a royal-blue velour bodysuit, a deconstructed red leather skirt, and boots on his hands and feet. In another, he leans on a golden sideboard wearing a leather jacket, spike-laced pants, and fin-like shoes. The shoot was as much about showing off his personality as it was about showcasing the clothes—a gender-fluid collection juxtaposing cuteness and bizarreness that capture the rebellious energy and confidence of disparate youth subcultures around the world.

和很多网红一样，Naughty Boo 也有自己的模特梦想。去年十月份，他第一次做模特，呈现近乎疯狂的时尚风格。该组照片由虚拟偶像创作者 IWANNABANGKOK© 和造型师 Kanit S. 合作，联合摄影师 Kanrapee Chokpaiboon 掌镜。

照片中，Naughty Boo 趴在地上，穿着一件皇家蓝色的天鹅绒紧身衣，一条解构主义风格红色皮裙，手脚都穿上了短靴。另一张照片中，他身穿皮衣，铆钉裤子搭配鱼鳍鞋，倚靠在一个金色餐具柜上。这些照片将他的个性和盘托出，也是在展示一个中性风格的服装系列，糅合可爱与怪奇元素，诠释世界各地不同青年亚文化群体的叛逆与自信。

Shooting a virtual character, however, has its challenges, and they mostly appeared in the post-production phase where Naughty Boo’s creators realized that his face only matched with specific angles, so a lot of good material went wasted.

Six different people across two different teams created Naughty Boo. Visual and sound platform Shapes Shifter tackled all technical and post-production challenges, while everything relating to creative ideation, from content strategy, pre-production, and production, was in the hands of IWANNABANGKOK©, a local community of young creators aiming to rebrand the city’s image through forward-thinking collaborations with local artists and creatives.

然而，拍摄虚拟角色的过程并不轻松，尤其是在后期制作阶段。Naughty Boo 的创作者发现，镜头只能识别特定的角度，很多好的素材被因此废弃。

Naughty Boo 的创作者一共有 6 人，分成两支不同团队。一支团队负责技术和后期工作，另一支团队负责创意构思。从内容策略、前期制作到制作，一切都是由 IWANNABANGKOK© 完成。IWANNABANGKOK© 是由年轻创作者组成的当地团队，旨在通过与当地艺术家和创意人士合作，推出前卫大胆的作品，重塑这座城市的形象。

Naughty Boo is also born from their desire to build a future without binary genders, thus representing the Thai capital as modern, progressive, and free. Beyond global celebrities, his creators concocted Naughty Boo’s persona based on the quirks of different members of their community. They hope that he can influence people by promoting equality, touching mainly on issues around gender, race, and ethnicity. “I want to see humans as world citizens. It’s sad to see us separated into countries. Why can’t we just be humans from earth?” they say.

Still, to achieve these ambitious goals, they first have to reach a nearer objective: to make Naughty Boo a virtual superstar and leverage the wave of virtual influencers, first in Thailand and then abroad.

IWANNABANGKOK© 渴望建立一个没有二元性别的未来，呈现一座现代化、前卫和自由的泰国首都城市。Naughty Boo 也因此而诞生。

在考虑并设计 Naughty Boo 的人格与个性时，除了借鉴一些全球知名人士，他们还综合参考了团队内一些成员的个性。团队希望通过这个虚拟角色，促进平权，解决性别、种族和民族问题。“我希望看到所有人类成为世界公民。明明都是人类，却被划分成不同的国家，这让我很难过。为什么不能把所有人都只看作是地球上的公民呢？”他们说道。

不过，要实现这些雄心勃勃的目标，他们首先必须达到一个更小的目标：让 Naughty Boo成为超级虚拟网红，利用虚拟网红的影响力，从泰国走向世界。

While the project is still in its early days, Naughty Boo has found appeal with people craving new standards—or rather craving de-standardization. The genderqueer movement is increasingly popular among Gen Zs, who value freedom of self-expression over cisgender confinement. Within this movement, fashion and music seem to be the bastions of empowerment, with a growing army of non-binary and transgender influencers in these industries rightfully claiming their space on social media.

Naughty Boo is the first virtual member of this genderqueer army. He also represents a change in narrative for the profitable trend of virtual influencers. As for not actually being human, Naughty Boo is totally fine with it, just as is his growing group of followers. “It’s kind of cool, actually. We’re the new race,” he says.

整个项目才刚开始，Naughty Boo 就已经吸引了一批思想前卫的人群。非二元性别运动在 Z 世代中日益流行，他们注重自由表达，不愿受顺性别（cisgender）观念拘束。在这场运动中，时尚和音乐是主要阵地，你会看到有越来越多的非二元和跨性别人士在社交媒体上发声。

Naughty Boo 是非二元性别群体里的第一位虚拟成员，也是全球虚拟偶像的家庭成员，他们共同制定着网红的新规则。而无论是 Naughty Boo 自己，还是他日益增长的粉丝们，身份和标签对于他们来说似乎并不重要， “事实上，这其实还挺酷的，我们算得上是新新‘人类’了。”他说。

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Instagram: @bangkoknaughtyboo

 

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

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @bangkoknaughtyboo

 

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

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Human Dilapidation 建筑死了，但自由还在

January 20, 2021 2021年1月20日
Resolute《Resolute》

You’d be hard-pressed to find a single human face in the recent paintings of Renz Baluyot, but his art is very much about people. Through his depictions of architecture, building materials, and open skies, the Filipino artist meditates on how power, time, and life itself take their tolls on humans. Colonial structures, monuments, and unassuming dwellings in varying states—ranging from the rundown, to the half-constructed, to the pristine—speak to the lives of the people they serve and how time has taken its toll on them. 

在菲律宾艺术家 Renz Baluyot 最近的绘画作品中，几乎找不到一张人的面孔，但很大程度上，这些作品探讨的主题却正是人。通过描绘各种建筑、钢筋水泥和无垠苍穹，他思考着力量、时间和生命本身对人的影响。各种形态的殖民建筑、古迹和简陋的房子，一些已是断壁残垣，一些是烂尾工程，还有一些则装点一新……但每一间都透露出曾住在这里的人们的生活，以及岁月的变迁。

A Manifesto in Hiding《A Manifesto in Hiding》
Water District Tower《Water District Tower》

In his new series, Empire, Baluyot focuses on a post-COVID society, one left in ruin. Once glamorous structures such as spiral staircases are dismantled and discarded in different outdoor settings. The return to the Earth they came from in an infinite cycle is hinted at through the infinity-shaped position they lay prone. The skies glower with fiery discontent as the sun sets on into this new normal. In the related piece It’s Nice Outside, a crumpled hazmat suit defines its owner through the artifacts surrounding them.

在他的最新作品系列《Empire》（即“帝国”）中，Renz 着眼于后疫情时期一片残垣的社会。曾经宏伟华丽的建筑结构（例如螺旋楼梯）被丢弃在各种户外环境中。倒塌的螺旋楼梯呈现“ ∞ ”的无穷大符号，暗示着重归大地，循环不息。背景的日落，寓意进入新常态的社会，而炽红的天空仿佛在愤怒地凝视这一切。而在相关作品《It’s Nice Outside》中，一套皱巴巴的防护服和周围的物品，则隐约透露出其原来主人的身份。

Across Infinity from Renz Baluyot's Empire series《Across Infinity》来自 《Empire》系列
Octavian from Renz Baluyot's Empire series《Octavian》来自 《Empire》系列
It's Nice Outside《It's Nice Outside》
Cradled by Conflict from Renz Baluyot's Empire series《Cradled by Conflict》来自 《Empire》系列

The somber mood is a response to current events. In previous works, open blue skies with streaks of gleaming white clouds often gave the feeling of endless possibility. The use of the sky adds depth and scale to his paintings, creating a universe for the built structures to inhabit. But it’s also a form of personal expression, a way for Baluyot to imbue the works with his own feelings. “Noontide Hagonoy was a depiction of my family’s hometown as I remember it as a child,” he says. “The sky there just feels different to me.”

这种忧郁的情绪折射出了近期世界所发生的时事。相比之下，他之前的作品中，开阔的蓝天，布满亮眼的白云，让人有一种一切皆有可能的感觉。天空能让他的画有更多的深度和层次，为他笔下的建筑物提供存在的空间。但与此同时，它们也是一种个人表达，承载着 Renz 的个人感受。他说：“《Noontide Hagonoy》画的是我小时候生活的家乡。对我来说，那时的天空都是不一样的。”

San Sebastian II from Renz Baluyot's Noontide Hagonoy series《San Sebastian II》来自 《Noontide Hagonoy》系列
Pangkabuhayan from Renz Baluyot's Noontide Hagonoy series《Pangkabuhayan》来自 《Noontide Hagonoy》系列
San Sebastian I from Renz Baluyot's Noontide Hagonoy series《San Sebastian I》来自 《Noontide Hagonoy》系列

Noontide Hagonoy captures a range of structures, from a Spanish colonial mansion, to a more humble abode built from corrugated metal sheets, to a mundane water tower plastered with an American soda-brand advertisement. One constant theme throughout the series is how aged all the subjects are. “My exploration of urban decay is about how politics and power deeply affect and degrade the places we live,” he says.

《Noontide Hagonoy》系列描绘了各种各样的建筑结构，既有西班牙殖民时期的豪宅，也有用金属波纹板建造的简陋房屋，还有贴满美国苏打水广告的普通水塔，它们的共同点是，所有建筑都充满了历史感。他说：“我对城市衰败的探索，主要围绕于政治和权力如何深刻影响和恶化人们居住地。”

We Build Monuments《We Build Monuments》
On Rebuilding Foundations《On Rebuilding Foundations》

In the series, everything feels frozen in time, which is necessary since the area (a low-lying, river basin just north of Manila) may become fully submerged by water due to a combination of sinking ground caused by overuse of well water, river mismanagement, and sea-level rise. Flooding is already so common they celebrate some holidays in knee-high water. All of Baluyot’s paintings in the series, however, gaze upward with the ground out of frame, suggesting a forced optimistic perspective. “These towns and cities are forced to adjust to the capitalist notion of development. What will we make of ourselves when the places tied to our identities are gone?”

在这个系列中，时间宛如停止了一样，而这也事出有因——位于马尼拉以北的低洼河流域，此地区由于过度使用井水、河水管理不善以及海平面上升导致地面下沉，很可能会被水完全淹没。在当地，洪水如此频繁发生，人们有时甚至是站在膝盖高的洪水中举办节日庆典的。但是，整个系列的所有画面都是从下往上的仰视角度，并且看不到地面，以此暗示一种不得已的乐观精神。“这些城镇被迫适应资本主义的发展观念。当这些与我们的身份紧密联系的建筑消失时，我们要如何看待自己？”

Entrada《Entrada》
Against the Fence II《Against the Fence II》
Against the Fence I《Against the Fence I》

The story told by decay, like history etched into the surface of our lived environment, is most prominently explored in Baluyot’s Fragile Borders show. His up-close images of deeply weathered sheet metal and steel gates used in low-income sheltering focus on those most at peril. “Architecture changes through time over years and decades, serving as a container of memories,” he notes. “I think the maturity and transformation, the way they represent the passing of time, suggests that they are archives, maybe even material history. No matter the object or architectural style they follow.” Each dent and wrinkle is filled with years of rust and grime, a symbol for the accumulation of neglect by society.

这些残石剩础所讲述的故事，如同把历史镌刻于人们生活环境的表面，这也是 Renz 的《Fragile Borders》展览所探索的主题。在这个系列中，他描画了许多残旧的金属板材和铁闸的特写，这些都是一些贫民窟里的常见建筑材料。他指出：“建筑会随着时间流逝而变化，成为承载记忆的容器。它们的老化和变迁，展现着时间的流逝，因此，可以说它们是历史的档案，甚至可以是物质的历史，无论它们原本属于什么物件或有着什么建筑风格。”每个凹痕和皱褶都布满多年的锈蚀和污垢，代表着被社会遗忘的岁月。

Almost There《Almost There》

Baluyot’s most indelible piece might be Almost There!, which seems to distill his overarching messages. The painting portrays a simple residential gate, one commonly seen around the Philippines, battered but still standing strong under an expansive sky. The word kalayaan, Tagalog for “freedom,” is crudely spraypainted across its exterior. “The struggle for genuine freedom is weathered and old from all our country’s countless knocks and bids over the centuries up until today,” he says. “But I believe that one day soon, after enduring the stormiest weathers, we Filipinos will enter this gateway together.”

Renz 最令人印象深刻的作品可能是《Almost There!》，这幅作品凝结着他的主要艺术理念。在这幅画中，他描绘了一种菲律宾常见的住宅大门，这扇门虽然饱经风霜，但在广阔天空下，仍然屹立不倒。门上胡乱地写着他加禄语 “Kalayaan”（意为 “自由”）：“一直以来，菲律宾人们为了争取真正的自由，数百年来不断艰苦抗争，历经风风雨雨。但我相信，在经历最剧烈的暴风雨，菲律宾人必定能踏入自由的大门。”

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Website: www.renzbaluyot.com
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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

网站: www.renzbaluyot.com
Instagram: @renz.baluyot

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Mountain, Water, and Ink 胳臂上的山水

January 18, 2021 2021年1月18日

In China, tattoos have faced stigmatization for many years, often being associated with thugs and gangsters. It’s a stigma that can perhaps be traced to the Cantonese box-office hits of the 1990s, such as Young and Dangerous and A True Mob Story, which depicted machete-wielding hooligans with a devil-may-care attitude and inked skin. These preconceptions around tattoo art have led to its poor reputation, especially in white-collar professions. In recent years, the Chinese government has even issued a decree banning tattoos from appearing on television, further cementing body art as a mark of disgrace. Even if international superstars are free to show their inked skin on Chinese broadcasts, local celebrities are held to a different standard.

But in reality, body art has long been a part of Chinese culture, dating tens of centuries back. From being a Song and Yuan dynasty custom to body art references in old literature, tattoos haven’t always held such negative associates. Sure, during certain periods of time, branding criminals with permanent tattoos served as a form of punishment, but for even longer periods, they were seen as symbols of courage and power. For example, in Treatise on Geography from the Book of Han, a passage reads, “A man with short hair and inked skin can repel scaled dragons,” which is linked to the belief that tattoos can infuse an individual with draconic powers and allow them to conquer any hardship. The 14th-century Chinese novel Water Margin, offers yet another example of how tattoo art used to be seen under the public eye—Shi Jin and Yan Qing, the celebrated protagonists of the book, were described as ink-covered vagabonds.

在中国，关于纹身的刻板观念络绎不绝，依然有不少人群将纹身视为黑帮甚至是社会毒瘤的象征，将纹身与 “坏孩子” 等号入座。这类 “有色眼镜” 或许是受到了来自上世纪八九十年代香港黑帮电影的影响，在《古惑仔》，《龙在江湖》等影片中，那些动不动手持砍刀、「左青龙，右白虎」的凶恶造型，使得纹身在印象中成为望而生畏的词语。而在现实社会中，用人单位要求从业者不能拥有纹身、中国广电等政府机构遏令 “纹身不能上电视” 的举措等等，让此类观念更是有过之而无不及。即便电视上国际体育明星龙头虎臂的形象，让不少人放下对纹身的“警惕”，但在偏见与争议还在持续。

其实早在数千年前，不少中国古代典籍中，就曾出现过文身、镂身、扎青、点青、雕青等文字记载。除了先秦等一些朝代里，纹身作为一种刑罚（墨刑）被刺在囚犯的面部之外，纹身则更多象征忠诚、勇气、力量。《汉书·地理志》就曾记载：“文身断发，以避蛟龙”，中国古代东夷人和百越人认为，纹身能让他们获得蛟龙之力，征服大海。而在四大名著《水浒传》中，九纹龙史进和浪子燕青纹身的形象深入人心，他们都是行侠仗义的孤胆英雄。

In modern-day Beijing, tattoo artist Chen Jie creates her art with the pride of Chinese tattoo’s earlier lineage. Her works are a departure from conventional tattoo styles, with an aesthetic that more closely resembles Chinese ink-wash paintings. Under her needle, a menagerie of wildlife flutters to life atop forearms; lush prairies and glistening streams surface from tendon and muscle; while plum orchids, blossoming chrysanthemums, and bamboo groves sprout freely from bare patches of skin. The colors, details, and exacting line work with which Chen approaches each piece demonstrates an impressive mastery of her craft, and her unique style of tattooing carries an appeal that can be appreciated by even those unacquainted with the art form.  As such, she’s garnered her much-deserved attention both at home and abroad. “Japan has ukiyo-e style tattoos, Europe and the U.S. have old-school and new-school tattoos,” she says. “What I look to achieve is my own distinctive style, one that stems from my own culture.”

在如今北京的纹身场景中，陈洁算是一位从古代穿越过来的“墨”客。她的作品不像是纹身，更像是由丹青墨水浸染的中国画，能泼墨于山水，寄情于草兽，有梅兰竹菊的雅致，也有景色的山清水秀。精湛的细节、深思熟路的着色无不令人惊叹，铿锵有力的线条不输于任何一种纹身形式，扎刻着对中国传统画风的赞美之情。独树一帜的纹身风格吸引了大量海内外纹身爱好者的眼球，即使你对纹身文化不甚了解，也会被陈洁笔下的“中国风”吸引。她说道：“日本有浮世绘风格纹身、欧美有 Old School 和 New School，我要做的是自己文化属性的纹身。”

Chen’s tattoo journey began back in 2005. At the time, she was working as a real estate agent in Beijing. Every day, she had to pick up and drop off her father at work at what is now Beijing’s 789 Art Zone, which was then a factory lot. At the time, it was beginning the early stages of its transformation from an industrial zone to an art-and-design hub. Creatives of all stripes were beginning to set up shop there, and one day, a tattoo parlor by the name of Leng Yan Tattoo caught Chen’s attention. She soon began frequenting the small studio as a customer, adding one inked design atop another across her body. “At the time, I only thought tattoos looked good and had a certain attitude to it,” she recalls. “But I’ve loved art from a young age, so I quickly found myself deep down the tattoo rabbit hole.” As her interest in the art form snowballed, she went from client to apprentice and quit her real-estate job to pursue a career in tattooing full-time.

Back in 2005, tattoos were an even more niche form of self-expression in the country. Many believed that only lowlifes would defame their bodies in such a way, but that didn’t stop Chen from pursuing what she loved. “When I decided to pursue a career in tattooing, my family objected,” she says. “They didn’t consider it a serious profession.” But she was tenacious—stubborn even. Now a 15-year veteran in the industry, she’s as optimistic as ever about China outgrowing the stigma around tattoos.

一切要从 2005 年开始说起，陈洁还是售楼处专员，每天上下班去北京 789 工业园区接送父亲。当时他的父亲在工厂里工作，那时候正值 798 由工业转向艺术园区时期，不少艺术从业者纷纷涌入。一家名为 “冷炎刺青” 的纹身店迅速吸引了陈洁的眼球，这家纹身店后来成了她经常光顾的地方。陈洁说：“那时对于纹身的印象仅仅是个性与好看，但因自小喜欢美术，我很快爱上了这门手艺。” 随后，她与“冷炎刺青”从客户转变为师徒的关系，决定放弃售楼的工作，开始走上纹身师的道路。

2005 年，纹身在国内还非常小众的群体，“好孩子不纹身”的观念让绝大多数人对纹身持有偏见。陈洁义无反顾的选择也同样遭受他人的质疑与阻扰，“决定去学习纹身的时候家里人都是非常反对的，觉得这不是什么正经职业。” 但她坚信这种偏见会随着时间的推移而慢慢改变，这一坚持就坚持了十五余年。

As Chen was exposed to more and more different styles of tattoo art, whether it be tribal, irezumi, or old-school tattoo, her ambitions of developing a style that she could call her own only increased. On a day like any other, when she was daydreaming in her living room, a generic Chinese peony painting that she had hung on the wall caught her attention. These paintings, mass-produced and popularized in China due to their associations with prosperity and peace, unexpectedly opened her creative floodgates. “Chinese culture dates back thousands of years,” she says. “There’s so much to work with, so why not bring the material to life through my tattoos?”

With this eureka moment came a new set of challenges. She was well versed in tattoo art by that point, but traditional Chinese art was a subject far out of her wheelhouse. To learn, she began looking into ink-wash painting, finding inspiration from and emulating the brushstrokes of the country’s most talented painters. The hard work and dedication paid off, as she’s now developed a distinctive style of tattoo art that blends the best of Chinese culture and Chinese art.

在接触了图腾纹身、日式传统、欧美写实等市面上常见的纹身风格之后，陈洁开始渐渐思考并探寻属于自己的风格。她躺在家中的沙发上，对着墙上的《富贵牡丹图》端详许久，这是一副传统的中国画卷，被挂在很多家庭的客厅和卧室中，错落有致的线条搭配温和色调，调和出富贵祥和的美好寓意。突然间，一丝想法涌上心头：“中国自己的传统文化有几千年历史，有这么多好的题材和无数的辉煌为什么不能拿来做纹身呢？”

灵感在瞬间爆发的同时，也面临艰巨的问题。虽然自己是绘画爱好者，但中国传统绘画对当时的她来说太过陌生。陈洁决定尝试自学国画，经常观看并临摹水墨画大师的作品，并从中汲取灵感。在当时，中国风纹身师可以称得上凤毛菱角，甚至可以称得上前无古人后无来者，陈洁全凭自己的经验和领悟慢慢进步。

Due to the drastic differences between her past tattooing style and her tattoo reimagining of Chinese art, there was a steep learning curve to be climbed. It was especially tough to properly capture the weight, pressure, and flow of different brushstrokes, the way that ink distributes on paper, and so on. Electric tattoo machines were out of the question—they were far too clumsy. Chen settled on working by hand with a single needle, replicating the flowing grace of ink-wash paintings poke by poke, a time-consuming process to say the least. She also has to dilute the ink at different stages to ensure that the colors can match the gradience of a brushstroke. Although her tattoos aim to reinterpret Chinese paintings, there’s a degree of power and rhythm to her works that differentiates itself from traditional ink paintings.

因与以往的纹身类型不同，在绘制水墨纹身的时候也具有挑战。要想在纹身中体现水墨画中焦、浓、重、淡、清产生丰富的变化，以及笔头在宣纸上划出的劲道等等，并不是一件容易的事情。同时，陈洁认为渲染效果是水墨纹身的重要一环，这种渲染类似于墨水在宣纸上晕开的效果，需要讲究 “心中有墨而达到心中有渲。”

陈洁摒弃了传统纹身中割线和打雾填色的创作方式，用纹身针慢慢推出水墨画的图案，需要耗费比其他纹身更多的时间来完成。而相同的颜色也需要经过稀释成不同的程度后，再在皮肤上刻出水墨画中渐深或渐浅的变化。虽然是水墨画，但陈洁在纹身中埋入张扬的线条，纹身图案如同风中的劲草，使得韵味与力量的比例平衡。

Today, Chen runs her very own tattoo studio in Sanlitun under the name Newtattoo Studio. It’s home to 11 residing tattoo artists, most of whom have all apprenticed under Chen. Droves of customers drop in every week, with a diverse demographic that includes stay-at-home moms, white-collar professionals, and expats with an interest in Chinese art. “I hope my tattoos can be the opening of a window,” Chen says. “The past is the foundation, but I’m building atop of it with my contemporary take. I hope it can help people see just how rich Chinese culture really is.”

如今，陈洁的纹身工作室已从早前北京三里屯“脏街”搬至另一侧二百平米的创意空间内。这家名为“Newtattoo Studio”的纹身店由陈洁一手创立，现在共有十一位纹身师。其中几乎所有人都是陈洁的徒弟，或是慕名而来的纹身师。每周，都有数十名以上的顾客前来纹身，顾客从带孩子的母亲到职场的上班族等等。还有很多喜欢中国文化的中外顾客也前来问询，陈洁说：“我希望用纹身打开了一扇窗，以古典为体，现在为用。让更多国际友人了解中国博大精深的文化。”

注释：北京“脏街”，曾经北京年轻人聚集的酒吧、小吃街，于2017年5月被拆迁

It’s been a long journey from her humble beginnings as a customer at Leng Yan Tattoo to being one China’s most sought-after tattoo artists today. This past decade, she’s bore witness to tattoos gaining an increasing level of acceptance with younger generations. Naysayers still remain of course, as evidenced by the banning of tattoos on broadcast television, but her persistence is unwavering. “Stigmas aren’t always a bad thing,” she shrugs. “They can remind us of what we should or shouldn’t do.”

As for what the future holds for tattoo art in China, Chen only hopes that her work can change people’s minds about the art’s stained reputation. “I want every client to feel respected and show more people, especially ink enthusiasts, that Chinese culture can very much be incorporated into tattoo art,” she says. “A Chinese tattoo renaissance is possible.”

回望当初在“冷炎刺青”第一次接触到纹身时的场景，陈洁早已是中国纹身圈子的资深玩家。而在这十几年中，随着各种地下文化的宣传与普及，纹身在很多年轻人当中渐渐远离了禁忌色地带，陈洁是这十多年的见证人。现在，即便身边还依然会听到少部分人的偏见声音，但她依然会带着她的水墨色和 “Newtattoo Studio” 一直把中国风纹身做下去。她说：“有偏见也不是什么坏事，会时刻提醒我们什么该做什么不该做。” 而对于中国纹身的未来，陈洁只希望自己作为一个推广者继续坚持下去，她说：“要对得起顾客每一寸肌肤，让更多喜欢纹身的人可以选择中国文化为题材，来一场皮肤上的文艺复兴。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @chenjie.newtattoo
WeChat: newtattoo-studio
Weibo: ~/newtattoo陈洁CEO

 

Contributor: Pete Zhang
Images courtesy of Newtattoo Studio

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @chenjie.newtattoo
微信: newtattoo-studio
微博: ~/newtattoo陈洁CEO

 

供稿人: Pete Zhang
图片由 Newtattoo Studio 提供

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Saved by Humor 画里嬉笑怒骂，画外正义剧场

January 15, 2021 2021年1月15日
The Fast 280 x 400 cm / Oil on linen《The Fast》280 x 400 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画

Inside a rickety bus, a group of horrified passengers screams for their lives as it barrels down the street. One commuter throws himself on the floor, shielding his head with his arms, while on the other side of the frame, a monk, with only his feet and the bottom of his saffron robe in frame, has thrown himself out the window, trying to escape. The bus driver is the only person oblivious to the imminent disaster. He has both his hands off the steering wheel, and his eyes glued to his smartphone.

一辆摇摇欲坠的公交车在街上疾驶，车上的乘客面露惊恐，争相呼救。一边躺着一名摔在地板上的乘客，正用胳膊护住头；而另一边，有个和尚半个身子挂在窗外，只见他的双脚和藏红色长袍在移动，试图逃出公交车。在这部夺命公车上，只有公交车司机一人还淡定自如，像是没意识到即将发生的灾难，他的双手完全脱离方向盘，目光紧紧锁定在手机屏幕上……

Hope 100 x 100 cm / Oil on linen《Hope》100 x 100 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
Attend Your Studies 150 x 150 cm / Oil on linen《Attend Your Studies》150 x 150 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画

Reckless attitudes of the sort are a recurrent theme in Lampu Kansanoh‘s art. In large and colorful paintings, she portrays the idiosyncrasies of life in Thailand, using comical imagery of ordinary people’s misfortunes as a means of denouncing dishonesty, phoniness, and power imbalances.

“My paintings reflect the humorous behavior of Thai people, who are always so laidback, comfy, and make difficult things seem easy,” she says. “But their behavior can also turn out to be reckless and endanger or affect other people’s lives. I want to turn the stress of everyday life into a joke.”

这些人物是 Lampu Kansanoh 笔下常见的角色，鲁莽大意，罔顾一切。在她的大幅彩色绘画作品中，描绘着充满泰国特色的生活场景，既揭示着普通百姓的各种不幸，又以幽默的方式批判着各种狡猾、虚伪和权力失衡的现象。

“我的画体现了泰国人的幽默感，他们总是那么悠闲自在，令艰难的生活也变得轻松起来。但有时这些行为也会显得过于轻率，从而危害或影响到其他人的生活。”她说道，“我想把人们日常生活里的紧张和压力变成幽默的笑话。”

I’m so Surprised! 200 x 300 cm / Oil on linen《I’m so Surprised!》200 x 300 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
My Beloved Vendor 200 x 200 cm / Oil on canvas《Daily Pursuit》200 x 200 厘米 / 布面油画
Daily Pursuit 150 x 150 cm / Oil on canvas《Daily Pursuit》150 x 150 厘米 / 布面油画

Kansanoh struggled to find her painting style all the way until her third year in art school. “One day, I looked at a friend’s face and realized I loved his beard and mustache; he didn’t look regular,” she says. From there, she began to use her classmates as subjects, painting them with oversized heads and baby bodies in a way that reflects their unique personalites. “That’s how my caricature style was born.”

Lampu 先前一直不太确定自己的绘画风格，直到进入艺术学校大三那一年。她说：“有一天，我看着我一个朋友的脸，突然意识到我真的很喜欢他的胡须，他的胡须让他看上去显得那么特别。”然后她就开始以她的同学为原型，创作各种头大身小的形象，以此突显每个人的特点和个性。“我的漫画风格就此诞生了。”

Hot Fight 240 x 250 cm / Oil on canvas《Hot Fight》240 x 250 厘米 / 布面油画
Hey! Watch My Knees 150 x 150 cm / Oil on linen《Hey! Watch My Knees》150 x 150 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
Where Are We Going Tonight? 100 x 100 cm / Oil on linen《Where Are We Going Tonight?》100 x 100 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
I am a Kind Person 150 x 150 cm / Oil on linen《I am a Kind Person》150 x 150 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画

Kansanoh grabs people’s attention through the principles of exaggeration. But, unlike most caricaturists, she does not only exaggerate people’s unusual features. Instead, she dials up the intensity of their emotions and reactions, which are often inconsistent with the incidents or situations they face.

There’s a certain level of realism to her characters that gives them relatability. She culls inspiration from across Thailand’s social threads, whether it be a street vendor or a politician, no one escapes her brush strokes. Kansanoh depicts their activities and interpersonal relationships, giving viewers a sense of how diverse and complex Thai society truly is. Her scenes express the harsh tragedies of daily life, but also how people always find a way to cope with the adversities humorously.

不同于其他漫画家，Lampu 虽然通过夸张的风格来吸引观众的目光，但这种夸张并不在于夸大人物的五官，而是加剧人物的情绪和反应，他们所透露的情绪和反应往往与他们所处的情景或事件是不协调的。

她笔下的角色有一定的写实感，令人更易产生共鸣。Lampu 从泰国的各种社交媒体中搜罗灵感，从街头小贩到国家政客，形形色色的人都纳入笔下。Lampu 通过描绘人物的活动和人际关系，让观众一窥真实泰国社会的复杂性和多元化。她所描绘的场景既揭示了人们艰难的日常生活，同时展现了泰国人应对困境时的幽默和乐观。

That Will Be Mine 200 x 300 cm / Oil on linen《That Will Be Mine》200 x 300 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画

On various occasions, she depicts selfie-taking characters in unfortunate circumstances, whether it be getting hit by a car, undergoing surgery, or getting busted by the police. It’s her way of lambasting our modern dependency on technology. “Nowadays, we prioritize the world in our smartphones more than the real world,” she says. She also scoffs at the inauthenticity and shallowness of the online world. “We want people to accept what we show online, even if it is bogus. Loneliness has disappeared. But now we can build relationships that last shorter than the life expectancy of a mosquito.”

Her work also resonates politically. Kansanoh often paints the familiar faces of controversial politicians from Thailand and abroad. She refers to them as the “symbols of what’s causing problems in the world.”

在她的许多幅作品中，都曾描绘过一些在不幸中坚持自拍的角色，例如在被车撞倒后自拍，在手术期间自拍，还有在被警察逮捕时自拍。这是她对现代人们过分依赖科技这一现象的抨击。她说：“现在人们把手机里的世界看得比现实世界还重要。”此外，她还批判了网络世界的虚假与肤浅。“人们希望别人点赞自己在网上展示的内容，但这些内容很多都是假的。虽然人们好像不会感到孤独了，可这样建立起人际关系的进展也太过短促，大概还比不上一只蚊子的一生。”

Lampu 也会创作政治相关的作品，她经常描画泰国和国外备受争议的政客，其中不乏一些世界领袖，而她称他们为“在世界上制造麻烦的人。”

Emergency Case 150 x 150 cm / Oil on linen《Emergency Case》150 x 150 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
Just One Shot 100 x 100 cm / Oil on linen《Just One Shot》100 x 100 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
I Will Survive 30 x 30 cm / Oil on linen《I Will Survive》30 x 30 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
I’m Fine, Thank You 50 x 50 cm / Oil on linen《I’m Fine, Thank You 》50 x 50 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画

When she reflects upon her own country’s history, she notes that corruption today remains the same as in the past, with officials from the top down gathering wealth, power, and privilege, while society’s most vulnerable live in agony. “In Thailand, we have accumulated so many problems over the years. Legal matters, government neglect, corruption. These things never go away. No matter how many years pass, life here remains the same. I’m mocking the suffering of society,” she says.

Her mockery, however, doesn’t take a vicious form. Kansanoh shows strong empathy for people’s suffering. This is perhaps better shown in how she paints their facial expressions, which places emotions like tenderness, contentment, anger, and despair front and center, bringing these human stories to life and making viewers identify with these people’s feelings and plight.

回顾自己国家的历史时，她指出，从过去到现在，泰国社会的腐败程度并无二样，由上至下的政府官员聚敛钱财、滥用权力和特权，而生活在社会底层的人们则困在痛苦之中。“这么多年来，泰国积累了很多的问题：法律问题、政府的无作为和腐败。这些问题永远不会消失。无论过去多少年，这里的生活都一样。我讽刺的是这个社会的苦难。”她说道。

然而，她的讽刺却并无恶意。Lampu 对于人们的苦难深表同情，这一点从她对人物面部表情的描绘中可以看出：通过温柔、满足、愤怒和绝望等情绪，生动地讲述这些普通人的故事，让观众理解他们的感受和困境。

Can I See Your Panties? 100 x 100 cm / Oil on linen《Can I See Your Panties? 》100 x 100 厘米 / 亚麻布面油画
Untitled未命名

Kansanoh doesn’t believe her paintings can change society or reform politics. With them, she’s merely expressing her discontent with the status quo. Her disillusionment might seem to contradict the surface-level humor of her paintings—some of them are downright hilarious. But if nothing else, she hopes that her paintings can provide her audience with temporary relief. “I hope I can make them relax and forget the suffering for a while,” she says.

Some of Lampu Kansanoh’s paintings are on display as part of the Bangkok Art Biennale, at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre until January 31st, 2021.

Lampu 不认为自己的作品可以真的改变社会或变革政治，她纯粹想通过自己的作品表达对现状的不满。这种对现实的不满似乎与她画中表现的幽默感（当然其中不失纯粹的搞笑）自相矛盾。但是不管如何，她希望自己的画作能够带给观众暂时的轻松，她说：“我希望我能让他们放松一下，暂时忘掉生活里的不幸。”

Lampu Kansanoh 的作品将会参加曼谷双年展于曼谷艺术文化中心隆展出至 2021 年 1 月 31 日，欢迎前往参观。

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Website: www.lampukansanoh.com
Instagram: @lampu.kansanoh
Facebook: ~/LampuKansanoh

 

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

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网站: www.lampukansanoh.com
Instagram: @lampu.kansanoh
Facebook: ~/LampuKansanoh

 

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

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China Re-rendered 一百年前的上海名媛有多美？

January 13, 2021 2021年1月13日

How did the socialites of Shanghai dress a century ago? What did the Great Wall look like before a century’s worth of human and natural damage? What would one of the terracotta soldiers of Xi’an look like in real life?

New York-based artist Hu Wengu, better known by the online handle of DGSpitzer, has pondered long and hard on these questions. In his search for answers, he’s using AI and machine-learning software to restore archival footage of China, offering audiences a high-definition glimpse into the country’s past.

一百年前的上海名媛穿什么颜色的衣服？没有被拆掉的老北京城墙是什么样子？兵马俑的真人长相如何？

旅居纽约的独立艺术家胡文谷（DGSpitzer）用 AI 技术，通过对百年前的视频资料进行人脸修复，让我们看到了属于中国的、跨越时代的高清过往。

Hu works full-time as a game developer, and his original impetus for learning AI was to learn how the technology can be incorporated into his game-design workflow. He quickly realized that it could be applied in nearly every area of game development, whether it be training in-game NPCs, generating vast maps, or even composing original music. “It actually has interesting applications in a wide range of fields, even social and human sciences,” Hu says. “So this year I made a series of videos introducing people to how AI can compose music, paint, generate faces, and more.”

As Hu’s understanding of AI deepened, he began exploring how the technology could carry over into other domains. This interest eventually led him to AI-enhanced video. Since then, he’s leveraged the power of AI to create a stunning collection of color-restored videos showcasing China’s past.

作为游戏开发者的 DGSpitzer，最开始主动学习人工智能的动机很现实，是为了尝试一下这些技术“能否为自己的游戏开发节省时间和成本”。但随着对 AI 技术了解的逐渐深入，他发现，人工智能不仅能在训练游戏 NPC、制作游戏贴图、音乐作曲素材上有着各种便捷的使用方式，“在更广阔的领域，甚至社会人文科普上都有着很有意思的应用前景。” DGSpitzer 说，“于是最近这一年我也开始制作了一系列视频，来介绍 AI 作曲、绘画、面部生成的各种小工具的使用方法。”

于是乎，尘封多年的黑白影像就得以有机会还原了本初的鲜艳面貌。而目前，在 DGSpitzer 的个人频道上，他正在制作人工智能相关的科普介绍视频，100 年黑白影片 AI 上色修复，也正是他的其中一个视频作品。

 

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Three of Hu’s AI-enhanced works include footage sourced from the University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections, which showcase a Beijing streetside barber, a Shanghai fashion show, and the construction of the Broadway Mansion Hotel. Hu discovered their footage archives by chance, and as he dug through the video library, he became more and more fascinated. “MIRC has recordings of China from the 1930s, which is extraordinary,” he says. “In the old Beijing barber video, there was a bald, charismatic guy who left a profound impression on me. So much so that, after I watched it, I got in touch with the university and asked if I could use their black-and-white videos in my AI project. They responded quickly and were happy to oblige. They even helped look into the exact dates of when the films were shot.”

在 GDSpitzer 修复的老影像中，其中有三期是来自南卡罗莱纳大学影像研究馆藏（University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections，以下简称 MIRC），分别是老北京剃头、上海时装秀、百老汇大厦建造纪录。

着手制作的契机来得很偶然，GDSpitzer 是不经意在网络上浏览到相关年代有声的影像，本着好奇的探索欲，他找到了他们的影像资料库网站，“MIRC 所藏的中国有声影像最早可以追溯到1930年代，非常的珍贵，尤其老北京剃头那期视频中光头精神小伙的逗乐劲儿，颇为打动我。”GDSpitzer 说道，“所以在官网找到他们的联系邮箱后，我果断就发去了电邮。邮件里介绍了我之前做过的项目，以及希望他们可以授权我来上色这几部黑白影像，并允许我发布在社交网络上。之后不久收到了回复，那边的工作人员欣然应允，还帮忙扫描了当时的影像卡片确认影片的拍摄日期等信息。”

 

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无法观看？前往哔哩哔哩

 

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Hu’s video restorations happen in three stages. The first involves adding in extra frames, then the footage is colorized, and finally, the resolution is upscaled. His arsenal of AI software, which includes DAIN, DeOldify, DeepRemaster, and PaddleGAN, all tackle these tasks independently. “For example, the AI that adds missing frames, it analyzes the first frame and last frame to logically work out what should fit between them to smooth out the framerate,” he explains. “As for the colorizing AI, it almost like a human toddler. It examines large amounts of black-and-white photos, eventually learning that when a plant-shaped object appears, it should be green; when the sky and clouds appear, they should be blue and white; and when a human face appears, it should be flesh colored. The resolution upscaling AI works in a similar way, and by combining the output of these AI software, the footage is restored.”

人工智能上色主要分为三个阶段：补帧、上色、和分辨率提升。在这几个步骤里，每个 AI 都是单独分工的，DGSpitzer 动用了多个海外开源的 AI 项目来实现修复影片，比如 DAIN、DeOldify、DeepRemaster和 PaddleGAN 等。“例如补帧AI，就是 AI 通过联系前后帧画面形状和景深的逻辑关系，绘制出一个不存在的中间帧，实现提升画面流畅度的效果。” DGSpitzer 分享道，“而在上色 AI 当中，我个人觉得这个人工智能就像和人类从幼儿开始成长观察世界一样，通过慢慢用双眼收集数据，这个 AI 就是通过学习大量黑白彩色的对比图片，了解到有植物形状特征出现时，画面区域应该是绿色的；天空云朵出现时，应该是蓝天白云；有人脸特征出现时则是肉色……由此实现了黑白影片的上色。提升分辨率的人工智能也是同理。这几个人工智能各司其职，一起完成了影片的修复工作。”

 

无法观看？前往哔哩哔哩

 

无法观看？前往哔哩哔哩

Despite the amount of work and time Hu has invested in the project, he confesses that he’s not exactly a history buff. Instead, he considers himself a sci-fi nerd. “When I watched black-and-white videos in the past, they felt like history lessons,” he shrugs. “I would fast forward it to get through it quicker. They just didn’t catch my interest.”

However, to restore a piece of footage, sped-up viewing was no longer an option. Watching at regular speeds, he was able to discover a ton of details that he overlooked on the initial watch, such as a young man staring at the cameraman from behind a tree, a group of carefree kids playing in the street, or a curious worker studying the camera as he passes by.

These little moments of connection fascinate Hu. “It reminds me of the fact that even though we’re living centuries apart, we’re still under the same sky and walking the same earth,” he says. “It’s like watching a century-old vlog.”

出乎意料的是，DGSpitzer 说自己并不是历史纪录片的死忠粉，日常的观影爱好更偏向于科幻系列。“以前看黑白影片的时候，更多仅仅是把它当作一种历史资料，尤其很多影片还是快放版本，一下就看完了，也没有留下特别深刻的印象。”DGSpitzer 说。但唯独在进行人工智能上色修复时，他必须把影片的时间流速减慢到正常速度，从前不曾注意到的细节一下就浮现出来了。比如，“悄悄躲在树干后面偷望摄像机的小哥”、“天真无邪的小孩”、“充满好奇心手头上依然忙活没有闲着的大人”……而这样的细枝末节，却恰恰是最能抓住人心的时刻，DGSpitzer 直言他的代入感大幅提升了，“让我感受到，这些人原来曾和我一同生活在同一片天空下，同一片土地上，有点像百年前的 Vlog。”

Hu has also begun looking into restoring historical footage from other countries. Recently, he’s working with a German artist to restore a documentary shot in Dresden in 1936, even taking it a step further with the implementation of AR technology that will allow viewers to overlay the AI-enhanced scenes atop locations in real-life to see how the area has changed over the years.

Aside from video-related endeavors, he’s also begun using AI to colorize and upscale old portrait photography from China. Through his use of neural networks, Hu hopes for viewers to experience the simplicity of the past and immerse themselves in the lives of these people long gone—if only for a few short minutes. “It can be a moment of respite when you allow people to look into the past,” he says. “Stepping into the shoes of these people on camera and  looking at history through the lens of the present can perhaps help us gain a greater understanding of culture and what it means to be human.”

History can often seem dull, appearing as unrelatable lines of text tucked inside of course books, but Hu believes it doesn’t have to be. Through his AI-enhanced videos, Hu hopes that people who may have previously dismissed how interesting history can be are able to find renewed excitement for the subject, and in turn, develop a healthy appetite for knowledge in all forms and shapes.

现在，DGSpitzer 还在进一步寻找合适的影片来修复，比如最近会和德国的一位艺术家朋友一起合作，用 AI 上色复原一部德国德累斯顿 1936 年的老纪录片，使用 AR 技术把纪录片中的景点镜头和现实中的景点坐标对接。另一方面，最近他也在进行一些古代历史人物画像的写实修复。让 AI “脑补”出古代人像接近真实的相貌，比如秦朝兵马俑、明太祖朱元璋、宋徽宗赵佶等，下一步，他还会继续进行人物画像还原相关的内容，比如四大美女、竹林七贤等等。

以强大的数据支持为依托，DGSpitzer 说，他想制作出这种“五分钟的彼岸”的意象传达，即让大家能有那么五分钟，通过这些 AI 处理过的复原影像，“可以从纷繁复杂的现代生活中脱离出来，感受一下前人的生活是怎样的，这些古人们的所思所想又是如何，已故鉴今，也许会有不一样的体会，可以说是一种人文关怀的感觉吧。”

在大多数人对历史的理解还停留在课本上白纸黑字的知识时，DGSpitzer 表示，他更希望通过这样有趣且贴近生活的创新形式，去激起网络上的诸多观众对历史文化的兴趣，从而更多地去了解影片背后的故事，从而抛砖引玉、寓教于乐。

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Youtube: ~/DGSpitzer
Weibo: ~/大谷Spitzer
Bilibili: ~/大谷的游戏创作小屋

 

 

Contributor: Chen Yuan

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Youtube: ~/DGSpitzer
微博: ~/大谷Spitzer
哔哩哔哩: ~/大谷的游戏创作小屋

 

供稿人: Chen Yuan

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Tiong Bahru Social Club 幸福经纪人的幸福生活

January 11, 2021 2021年1月11日

 

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“Let’s put ‘unity’ back into ‘community'” is the key catchphrase touted in the fictional commercial promoting Tiong Bahru Social Club, which is advertised as “a data-driven project to create the happiest neighborhood in the world.” The slogan sounds both encouraging and menacing, as if reality (or at least some part of it) had to be forcefully rectified, restored to its past ideal state. This seemingly utopian neighborhood might be just the place for Ah Bee, a 30-year-old office worker who is swamped by mountains of paperwork and pointless KPI metrics. However, his decision to retire from the rat race and join the “modern kampung day experience” is only the beginning of a strange journey.

“团结一心，重振社区！”是中峇（bā）鲁社交俱乐部（Tiong Bahru Social Club）的宣传标语。他们是一帮号称“以大数据驱动的项目，旨在打造世界上最幸福的社区”。口号听起来倒是鼓舞人心，但同时带着某股威慑力。仿佛必须要纠正现实（或至少一部分现实），才能恢复到过去的理想状态。这个乌托邦式的社区是 Ah Bee 的梦想之地，30 岁上班族的他，一直被成堆的文书工作和毫无意义的绩效指标压得透不过气。当他决定离开忙碌的城市生活，加入“现代甘榜体验”活动（甘榜 kampung，指一种传统的集体村庄），一段奇异的旅程就此展开。

Tiong Bahru Social Club, co-written with Antti Toivonen, is Tan Bee Thiam’s full-length directorial debut that premiered at the 2020 Busan International Film Festival. In it, the seasoned filmmaker presents a world infused with a timeless, retro-futuristic aesthetic: outdated bureaucratic formalities and old-school hardware co-exist with seamless high-tech surveillance technology and omnipresent software. Tiong Bahru Social Club reflects the paradoxical nature of present-day nostalgia that traps people somewhere in between the past and the future.

这部名为《中峇鲁社交俱乐部》的电影，由 Antti Toivonen 等作家共同改编，由 Tan Bee Thiam 执导全片，于 2020 年首次亮相在韩国釜山电影节。整部电影中出现的视觉语言可谓五花八门，各种复古和时空纵横的美学概念尽现眼前：老派的官僚主义习俗与前卫的软硬件兼容起来、破旧不堪的教学陈设却在高科技监控设备共处一室……电影《中峇鲁社交俱乐部》打算用这些元素为我们讲述现代与过去自相矛盾的一面，只不过这一面我们大多人都习以为常。

In Tan’s film, Tiong Bahru—a real-life Singapore neighborhood—is reimagined as an artificial paradise, a distorted miniature of the city itself with some of its defining characteristics: the neon colors seem reminiscent of The Gardens by the Bay in the evening time, while the white-and-cream facades are a shared feature of almost all public housing estates across Singapore. Tiong Bahru is the perfect location to tell the story of struggles with modernity, not only because of the Art Deco buildings but also due to the neighborhood’s history. Built in the 1920s via an initiative from the British colonial government, Tiong Bahru is the oldest public housing estate in Singapore. It became one of the models for the future projects undertaken by the Housing Development Board (HDB) after Singapore’s independence. From a contemporary perspective, the neighborhood seems like a modernist dreamland and Tan explores the narrative potential of the location to the fullest, far away from the simplistic label of Tiong Bahru as an epicenter of gentrification.

影片发生于一个真实存在的新加坡社区，其中穿插了各种元素让观众觉得这里恍如隔世。一些包含地标性建筑的镜头，让这个社区已然成为整个新加坡的缩影：霓虹灯色与傍晚的滨海湾花园达成默契，奶油色的外墙则是新加坡组屋的典型特点。想要撰写 “新加坡现代生活启示录”，中峇鲁想必是理想之地，这里是新加坡小资派的代名词。不仅充满了上世代艺术风格建筑，社区的过往也充满传奇性。中峇鲁是在英国殖民政府的倡议下于 1920 年代建造的，是新加坡最古老的组屋项目。在新加坡独立后，这个社区也成为当地建屋发展局的开发模型之一。从当代角度看来，这个社区似乎是现代主义的理想国度。Tan 没有局限于中峇鲁的中产阶级标签，而是充分发掘了这个社区的叙事潜力。

Ah Bee joins Tiong Bahru Social Club as a Happiness Agent and is assigned to accompany Ms. Wee, an elderly resident of the neighborhood. Eccentric and confrontational, Ms. Wee is a challenge for Ah Bee, whose smile and easygoingness mask his confusion and emptiness inside. However, the elderly painter and cat lover is just the mentor Ah Bee needs. In Tiong Bahru Social Club Ah Bee experiences all the milestones of middle-class life—stable work, marriage, a comfortable and spacious house—all the things that often seem out of reach for Millenials. These items had been arranged for him by the command center that monitors the happiness level of all the agents in an attempt to reach 100%. In order to achieve the goal, Ah Bee was paired with another Happiness Agent, Geok, who hides her insecurity behind extreme perfectionism. The ubiquitousness of algorithms, maps organizing the residents’ lives in order to achieve high efficiency is the reflection of real-life Big Data and technological innovations that aim to bring happiness and prosperity to citizens. But as it turns out, dystopia and utopia might actually be two sides of the same coin—it only depends on the perspective.

Ah Bee 加入中峇鲁俱乐部，成为一名“幸福经纪人”（Happiness Agent），负责照顾社区里的老太太 Ms. Wee。Ms. Wee 性格古怪又爱吵架，让 Ah Bee 感到很棘手，他一直都是用笑容和友善来掩饰内心的困惑和空虚。但年迈的画家和爱猫人士 Ms. Wee 却正是 Ah Bee 所需的导师。在中峇鲁俱乐部，Ah Bee 体验了中产阶级的理想生活——稳定的工作、完满的婚姻、宽敞舒适的家，所有这些对于许多千禧一代来说都是遥不可及的。而所有这些都是由指挥中心为他安排的，该指挥中心监视着所有经纪人的幸福指标，直到达到 100％。为了达成指标，Ah Bee 被安排与另一位女性幸福经纪人 Geok 相恋 。Geok 常常用极端完美主义来掩饰缺乏安全感的内心。

无处不在的算法和地图，安排着社区居民的生活，以实现高效率，这恰恰折射出现实中旨在为人类带来幸福和繁荣的大数据和创新技术。然而，影片最后又透露，反乌托邦和乌托邦实际上可能只是一枚硬币的两面，一切都取决于人们的视角罢了。

The world presented in the film is seen through Ah Bee’s eyes. The extreme subjectivity is suggested by the scenes of Ah Bee taking off his glasses upon entering Tiong Bahru Social Club and putting them back on when leaving the community. Ah Bee’s happiness agent ring puts a technicolor lens on the cinematic world, while getting rid of it returns the film back to a palette of mellow beiges. These details suggest that Tiong Bahru Social Club might even be a creation of Ah Bee’s mind. The setting is also clearly divided into aboveground and underground, which hosts the community’s secret command center as well as the Complaint Center where Ah Bee finds suitable work listening to residents’ talking about their problems for the whole day. Underground corridors and rooms indicate the realm of the subconscious, but the psychoanalytic reading is not the only one.

影片所呈现的一切都是透过 Ah Bee 双眼观察到的。在进入中峇鲁俱乐部时，Ah Bee 摘掉了自己的眼镜，而在离开社区时又将眼镜重新戴上，两个动作来回切换着角色的主观视角。当 Ah Bee 戴上了幸福经纪人的戒指时，影片的世界立马变得更鲜艳亮丽起来；而脱下戒指后，影片又会恢复了柔和的米色调。这些细节仿佛在告诉我们，这个峇鲁俱乐部甚至很可能只是 Ah Bee 内心的幻想境地。

影片场景分为地上和地下。地上是秘密“指挥中心”和“投诉中心”，Ah Bee 在那里忙碌工作，倾听居民谈论家长里短；而地下的走廊和房间，则隐隐暗示了潜意识层面，错综复杂的地形预示着精神的不确定性。

The name Tiong Bahru means “new cemetery,” because of the neighborhood’s location near the old burial ground. The fact gives a dark twist to Tan’s film, bringing some black humor into this bright neighborhood. Maybe Tiong Bahru Social Club is another dimension or a sort of an afterlife? The film ends with the quote from Chinese philosopher Laozi: “Without leaving my house I know the whole universe,” so it seems that every answer is possible.

“中峇鲁”这个名字意为“新墓地”，因为这个社区位于一片旧墓地附近，而这无疑又让 Tan 的影片多了一层黑暗的色彩，更为这个看似幸福的社区增添了些许黑色幽默。中峇鲁俱乐部是属于另一个维度的世界，或是某种形式的来世？电影结尾引用了中国古代哲学家老子的名言：“足不出户便知天下事”，这样看来好像一切都说得通了。

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Contributor: Maja Korbecka
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

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供稿人: Maja Korbecka
英译中: Olivia Li

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The Poetry of Everyday Life 平凡生活，了不起的人生

January 8, 2021 2021年1月8日

The philosophy of Taiwanese artist Pan Chunling is perfectly summed up in the first line of her Instagram bio: “Every little thing has a small story behind it.”

Whether it’s a street vendor grilling sausages, a cyclist biking through a narrow alleyway, or an old man waiting his turn in front of a packed barbershop—these quotidians scenes we come across are often quickly forgotten, replaced in our short-term memory by more important matters. However, these seemingly trivial moments are what gives a city its vivacity, and they’re the moments that Pan chooses to highlight in her work. Her art looks away from the extravagant side of city living, focusing instead on street-level happenings and the minutia of daily life. These are the stories that she finds to be the most meaningful, the most cinematic. Using pen and watercolor, she recreates moments of urban connection in calming colors.

打开台湾艺术家潘纯灵（Panpan）个人作品的 Instagram 首页，一句个性签名印入眼帘 —— “再细小的事物也有自己故事”。

认真烤香肠的大叔、穿梭在胡同和弄堂的自行车、老理发店门口翘二郎腿的大爷……回想我们对生活的印象，或许因为这些街头巷尾的吉光片羽，点亮了记忆中每座城市的名片。其往往没有直戳云霄的楼宇或是富丽堂皇的装饰，却自然而然地勾兑着生活的颜色。对于潘纯灵来说，这些微不足道的街景片段令她深深着迷，它们就像是电影情景，每一段背后都拥有有趣的故事，诉说着生活的滋味。她希望能用钢笔水彩将这些片段统统记录，用一幅幅画作成为她与城市连结的纽带。

One of Pan’s favorite pastimes, aside from traveling and drawing, is people watching. “I’ll observe someone and take in their every movement,” she says. “When you look close enough, there’s a lot of beauty to be found in the ways a person interacts with their surrounding environment.”

In 2016, on a solo trip to Melbourne, Australia, she experienced frequent bouts of loneliness. But whenever that feeling sunk in, she’d open up her notebook, find a bench, and begin sketching strangers who caught her eye. These sketches wound up as the earliest entries of what is now Microart, a collection of works that showcase everyday life as she understands it. With passing time and more stamped passport pages, her sketchpad began to fill up with some of her fondest memories of Beijing, Taipei, Thailand, and more.

平日工作的闲暇之余，潘纯灵喜欢一个人画画和旅行，并且有一个特别的爱好——观察路人。她说：“我会观察他们无意识的一举一动，很多时候仔细观察当下，觉得很美，那种美是人跟物之间产生的互动跟张力。” 2016 年，潘纯灵一个人从台北去墨尔本旅行，孤独的时候她便拿起笔描绘过路的景象，不知不觉地沉浸在自己的世界中。这趟旅行也开启了她的绘画系列《Microart》，而后每当周游各地，潘纯灵都会带上她的画具。不同城市的街道，都成为她的调色板，你会看到老北京胡同、台北旧货当铺、曼谷的路边摊等等。

Even the most ordinary of scenes have the potential to light Pan’s creative spark, and under her touch, these mundanities simmer with emotion. “I’ve been asked, ‘Why look to these unremarkable moments for inspiration?'” she says. “But to me, these moments form the very fabric of a city’s personality.”

You won’t find bombastic colors or exacting line work in her art. Pan’s works like the hazy recollection of a distant memory—not quite perfect but no less beautiful. There’s also a warmth that she imbues through the use of watercolor, one that feels real and human. Pan’s artworks are also designed to be easily understandable. The scenes are minimal but straightforward, and the succinct information that’s offered on each page leaves room for viewers’ to fill in the blanks. “I’m not that technically proficient,” she confesses. “I use simple colors, and I’m not great at drawing light and shadow. But the negative space I leave is intentional. It helps draw attention to the main subject and whatever they’re up to.”

《Microart》系列作品中，生活的五味杂陈夺框而出。公交车、放学途中、街边小摊……这些场景在钢笔水彩的勾勒下，生动地呈现在观众面前。一些场景即使看起来再寻常不过，但都能引起潘纯灵的好奇，她说：“曾被问为什么要以这些习以为常的场景进行创作？而对我来说，这些画面都构成了城市面貌的独特。”

没有华丽的颜色、没有精确到每一个细节的轮廓，但恰恰绘制成记忆中的模样。这或许是水彩画吸引观众的原因之一，通过颜色的大量渲染，营造一片温馨的感受。相比于数字绘画，潘纯灵则认为水彩更能具有人情味儿。

潘纯灵认为《Mircoart》系列作品就是平凡生活的缩影，是我们时时刻刻都能感受到的烟火气，不需要观众过多的解读。这并不意味着她的作品平淡无奇，虽然她的画面很简单，却在细节上毫不含糊。很多画作并没有复杂的场景，却能带观众通过片段去想象画面中更多延伸的内容。这些画面就像回忆中某一个特定的场景，想起某一个片刻，彼时彼刻的情形也便映入脑海之中。她说：“我的作品没有太多技巧性，都是很单一的色块，少有阴影与层次的呈现，但我偏好画面留白，呈现人与物之间的关系。”

The bustle of modern life can be overwhelming, and within the urban cacophony, it can be hard to appreciate simplicity. People are too caught up in the pursuit of money, fame, and recognition, but Pan is indifferent to these vapid aspirations. She recognizes there’s plenty of meaning to be found in mundanity. “Real life shouldn’t just be a nonstop highlight reel, and art shouldn’t be made in hopes of attaining fame or fortune,” she says. “I do what I do because I want to show the world through my eyes. There’s a gravitas to ordinary moments, and it’s what I want to show. This approach has made me more mindful, taught me how to quiet my mind, observe the world around me even more closely, and made life that much more interesting.”

深处嘈杂与喧嚣，让忙碌的人们渐渐忽视生活本来的样子，一些人喜欢灯红酒绿的生活、一些人顿错在金融山脉的攀登之中，但对于 Panpan 来说，即便没有光鲜夺目的事物，身边的平凡已足够伟大。她认为：“真实的生活不该都只呈现光鲜亮丽的样貌，创作目的也没有追求名利，单纯想表达我看到的，跟观者产生生活上的共鸣。这些平凡无奇的事物在我的作品成为很重要的主角，会想更用心、更安静的观察周遭细节，让生活变有趣。”

A simple image can carry a wealth of meaning and the humdrum of life can still be poetic, all you need is the right perspective. That’s the ethos Pan hopes to pass on. With her art, she hopes to encourage more people to look closer at the world around them so that they too can discover magnificence in the ordinary.

再小的画作，仔细一看，却大有来头；即便再微观的世界，也饶有不凡。这或许正是 Panpan 想要告诉我们的哲理。因为在平凡的生活里，总埋藏着那些了不起的人生。

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Instagram: @panpanmicroart

 

Contributor: Pete Zhang

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Instagram: @panpanmicroart

 

供稿人: Pete Zhang

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