Monthly Archives: April 2021

Pandemic Bound 留学生败给了疫情吗？

April 29, 2021 2021年4月29日

Shi Yuewei hasn’t been home for 19 months. She’s stuck overseas.

This unexpectedly extended stay in New York has forced her to bear witness to an America under siege by an unchecked pandemic: months of stay-at-home mandates; store aisles swept clean of masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper; and the bustling streets of Manhattan abandoned. Her classes at the School of Visual Arts were canceled or rescheduled to be held online.

Covid-19 has had a far-reaching impact, the brunt of which has been felt by everyone to varying degrees. International students are just one of many affected by the outbreak, and others face similar predicaments as Shi Yuewei—those already overseas can’t return home due to limited flights and exorbitant ticket prices, and those preparing to study abroad had to cancel their plans entirely.

In this new normal, is studying overseas still worth the risk and stress? In an unfamiliar country, what happens in these times of unforeseen emergency? For those already overseas, is the high cost of tuition and renting an apartment worth it when only online classes are available? If the online courses offered are the same, why even travel abroad? We caught up with a few students with aspirations to join the creative industry to get their take.

施悦玮 还没有回国，这是她待在纽约的第 19 个月了。

19 个月没回家的日子里，她见到了美国应对大规模传染病而展露出来的、罕见的另一面：长达两个月的居家隔离，医疗防护设备抢购一空，往日人来人往的街道上几近无人……作为一名纽约视觉艺术学院（SVA）的学生，本应需要准备设计制作丝网印刷的教学课程，也全部停摆，改成了上网课。

疫情几乎让全球各行各业都面临停摆。随之而来的，是国内留学市场持续半年的低迷期，在外的学子回不了国，国际航班机票价比天高，还将面临各国不同的自费隔离政策，而于此同时，在国内的“准留学生们”计划又全被打乱……

疫情尚未完全宣告结束的当下，出国留学是否必要成为了不少人内心悬而未决的疑问——国外人生地不熟，如果碰到健康安全问题怎么办？学费生活费居高不下，但换来的却是几个学期的网课？一样是提升自己，留在国内读研好像也可以？

A Turn of Events

Chinese nationals are a sizable majority of the international student population. According to China’s Ministry of Education, over 25 million Chinese students studied abroad between 2016  — 2019. In 2019 alone, over 7 million students studied abroad. The appeal is obvious: earning a degree overseas will help them land better jobs after graduation, they can learn a new language, and it’s an opportunity to broaden their worldview. Of course, aside from purely academic goals, there are also those who see a student visa as the first step toward foreign citizenship. For those with strictly academic ambitions, universities abroad seem to have stronger reputations. Chinese higher education is often ranked low against international counterparts. In the 2020 Quacguarelli Symonds World University Rankings, only 12 Chinese universities made it into the list of 100, and none made it into the top ten.

But now, with the Black Swan event that is COVID-19, many Chinese students are second-guessing their decision to leave the country. Concerned with the virus handling overseas, they’re delaying or completely scrapping their plans of going abroad. Universities around the world have also tightened their visa restrictions, which has added a layer of difficulty for Chinese students who are planning on studying abroad.

Shi Yuewei enrolled at SVA in 2017 for a degree in illustration. In the summer of 2019, she flew back to China like she does every year, spent quality time with friends and family, and headed back to New York to complete her studies. Little did she know that she wouldn’t be seeing them again for the foreseeable future.

For Handowin He, who finished a degree in visual communication at SVA and returned to China in 2020, her plans were equally disrupted. Right before the pandemic surged, she was preparing to participate in several illustration exhibitions and book fairs in New York. These plans have all been abandoned.

Some Chinese students haven’t even been able to leave the country. Before the pandemic restrictions set in, Fang Yuanli spent all her waking hours building her photography portfolio, with the hopes of getting into one of the two England universities she applied to: the Royal College of Art and the Ruskin School of Fine Art. She was ecstatic when she was accepted into the former, but that excitement was short-lived. “All of a sudden, I couldn’t go anywhere,” she says.

Currently living in Shanghai, Hunan-native Song Yang is another student whose plans of studying outside of mainland China have been put on the backburner. At the end of 2019, he quit his job and planned on studying art history. He intended on enrolling at the City University of Hong Kong for Fall 2020 classes, but that plan went out the window.

“Everything happened so fast,” he recalls. “I followed the news early on. I was skeptical of the rumors on Douban saying that it may be a mutated variation of SARS, but then, all of a sudden, I found out I couldn’t return home to Hunan for the Chinese New Year. Hubei, our neighbor providence, was on lockdown.”

1/ “太突然了吧”

 

来自中国的学生构成了全球最大的国际学生群体。根据中国教育部的数据，2016 至 2019 年，中国学生出国留学人员总数 251.8 万人，单 2019 年度就有 70.35 万人。出于许多原因，留学对中国学生来说具有相当的吸引力。许多人认为获得国际学位有助于他们毕业后获得更好的工作，同时也获得了学习外语和拓宽视野的机会。当然，也有不乏一部分人觉得出国留学是移民的途径之一。根据高等教育分析公司 Quacquarelli Symonds 在 2020 年的全球前 100 名大学中，仅有 12 所中国高校在排名中——中国缺少一流的大学，也导致了有些人由于对国内教育体系的不满而来国外学习。

但 2020 年成了留学市场上的一只“黑天鹅”，许多留学生和他们的家庭出于对健康的担忧而推迟了原本的学习计划，国内外的高校则也限制了签证和入学。这一来，就拦住了许许多多中国留学生们的步伐——已经出国的，即将赴读的，刚刚毕业的。

施悦玮是四年前申请上的纽约视觉艺术学院插画系，在疫情来前的一个暑假，她和往常一样回国旅游、探亲、访友，然后登上了飞往纽约的班机，一切好像和往年没有任何不同。

无独有偶，Handowin He 上的也是在几年前申上的纽约视觉艺术学院，念的是视觉传达。在疫情来临前，她刚毕业不久，正在筹备去纽约参加插画书展等活动。

而方苑郦和宋扬的留学之旅就不是那么顺利了。疫情开始前，方苑郦精心准备了自己的作品集，包含三个相互关联的摄影项目。她同时申请了两所学校，英国皇家艺术学院和牛津大学的 Ruskin 美术学院，然后不负众望地被皇艺 MA Photography 项目录取了。得知这个消息后的她还挺高兴，万万没想到的是，“之后，我就出不去了。”

宋扬没能如期出国。住在上海的他是湖南人，19 年底，他辞掉工作想去追寻自己想学艺术史的梦想，准备“出去看看”。如果顺利的话，他原本打算在 2020 秋季前往香港城市大学入学。但事情的发展有点出人意料，用他的话来说是：“太突然了吧。”

“我从疫情开始在国内爆发就一直关注着，一开始有人在豆瓣网传是‘变异版的 SARS’，我还将信将疑。一直到春节前吧，我忽然发现我不能回老家了——隔壁省（湖北）封城了！”宋扬意识到，这场疫情好像比大家预想的要更严重。

From Offline to Online

In WeChat groups organized by overseas students, lively chatter broke out at the onset of the pandemic. Typically, these chatrooms are quiet, but as news of the virus spread, they came alive with anxiety. Students turned to these groups for answers. Bunker down overseas or fly back to China? Take a hiatus next semester? Is enduring the time-zone difference to finish out the next semester of online courses an option? When do tuition refunds get processed? Can student visas be extended? Can rent be reimbursed?

As more information about the disease became known and quarantine policies were established, universities around the world quickly adapted. Online courses were announced, new campus protocols rolled out, and students affected by the pandemic were offered counseling services. Tuition refunds were also quickly issued and deferred enrollments were allowed. The lenience of these new policies gave Song some peace of mind.

Being that Song had hopes of enrolling in a Hong Kong university, the start date was about the same as mainland universities. This meant he needed to submit his application by February. “But the virus didn’t ease off, and after the lockdown, my family didn’t want me to risk it,” he says. He decided to play it safe, and with the savings he had, there wasn’t much downside to staying in place. “It’s not a bad idea to keep preparing for the IELTS and try to score higher.”

Fang Yuanli is someone else who chose to delay her enrollment to the Academy of Royal Arts in London. Even though online courses are available, the tuition is no less expensive. For now, she’s decided to join the workforce until the pandemic subsides. She began freelancing for Sanlian Lifeweek, a Chinese publication, and has recently joined their team full-time as a staff photographer.  Although this was different than her original plans for the year, she believes she’s still on track with her future goals. “I plan on applying for the Magnum Photography and Social Justice Fellowship this year,” she smiles.

For Shi, the internet has become her only means of connecting with the outside world. “It’s not that different with online lectures,” she shrugs. “Most of the classes still feel the same. It’s not unlike listening to a lecture in person, and there are still one-on-one reviews. There are advantages, in that exhibitions are now often held online, so I don’t have to go out—which is great for an introvert like me.”

But there are also plenty of drawbacks. Two of her designs for a project in spring required the use of a screenprinting press, which was available for free at the school. The project was ultimately scrapped.

Shi also planned on participating in two exhibitions, which were both moved online. As opposed to viewing them in person, she found that digital exhibitions had far more limitations. “It’s different to see your own work on screen than in person,” she says. “It’s a pity that exhibitions have had to move online. Despite the real size of your work, they’re reduced to the size of the viewer’s screen. The overall impact, the details on the work, and the work’s physical textures get lost in translation. Also, you’re forfeiting the opportunity to meet like-minded people who you can bounce ideas off of, which is one of the greatest perks of holding a normal exhibition.”

Similar sentiments are shared by He. “All the connections I’ve made offline feels like they’ve been severed,” she says. When she was still attending SVA, the school held a lot of offline events, which can no longer be done. “I attended a different event every week when I was in New York. It allowed me to meet so many talented artists from different fields, but that’s no longer possible, even if the events are still around in a digital format. The interactive element of it is gone. Face-to-face communication is still the best way to build relationships.”

2/ “线下所有资源和体验都没了”

 

与此同时，大家在微信上看到留学生群里开始了热烈讨论，一些平时往往只在毕业季会有的讨论，此刻却炸翻了锅：回国还是留校？索性 gap 一学期还是忍着时差上网课？学费退款何时审批？签证和房租是不是能及时续补？ 随着疫情逐渐蔓延和人们对其的认知逐步扩大，国外的高校陆续开始响应隔离政策，推广线上网课、安排防疫护具、安抚留学生心理，相应的退学与延期入学政策也逐渐放开，这让宋扬少许安了一些心。

宋扬想申请的是香港院校，遵循和内地差不多的开学时间，他本需要在 2 月前递交学校所需的申请资料。“但疫情没稳定，回老家后又遭遇了封城，家里人其实也不放心让我离开。”几经考虑，他最终选择放弃当年入学，已经有了一些储蓄的他觉得，“再准备准备，把雅思再考高一点也未尝不可。”

方苑郦也同样选择了不入学。她半开玩笑地说“皇艺的学费是真贵”，虽然学校开设网课，但并不能减免多少。权衡之下，她选择先工作起来，疫情渐渐得到控制之后，她开始跟着三联周刊记者进行一个外拍任务，之后也开始面试摄影师的职位。虽然和最开始的打算有所不同，但方苑郦对这样的改变并没有很失落，“今年我也会尝试申请下马格南社会公正奖学金。”

对于在疫情爆发前就已经到纽约的施悦玮来说，她享受了一系列“云端服务”：“就线上授课而言，其实大部分的课影响不大，基本还是像在学校一样老师讲 Lecture，之后再一对一点评。而线上展览相对于实体展览而言唯一的好处可能就是不用出门，对我这种阿宅很友好吧。”她如此说道。但因为学校完全关闭了，所以有一些需要用到学校设施、模特或者实验室的课程就会比较困难，“我春季学期就有一个 Junior Project 需要用到学校的丝网印刷室，但是因为疫情的原因最后有两幅作品没能来得及印出来。”

本来也要参加两个展出的施悦玮，对线上展览的弊端更有些体会：“从屏幕前看作品和在实地的感受是截然不同的。但都因为疫情变成了线上，还是觉得很遗憾的。首先线上展出所有的作品都变成了屏幕的大小，整体的震撼力，细节，质感都大打折扣。其次参加展览有时候可以遇到一些有趣的人，可以和他们介绍一下你的作品或者交流一下大家的想法，而线上展出就没有这个机会了。”

Handowin 也这样觉得，“线下所有资源和体验都没了”。她往年在纽约读书时， SVA 会拥有很多活动的机会，“同样去年我几乎在纽约周周会去参加活动，能够认识到各界的艺术家。现在这些都没了吧。即使有些变成线上，但是参与感明显下降。”原本应该在纽约参加插画书展等活动的 Handowin 说道，“人与人的沟通最直接有效的仍然是面对面。”

A Time For Reflection

Even though COVID-19 has hampered the plans of students looking to study overseas, there are upsides to be found in the throes of adversity. Those homebound by the pandemic have been afforded the time to reconsider their priorities and goals. A lot of people believe that these reflections have offered them a lot more clarity about their future.

Shi was originally supposed to finish her degree earlier this year, but the delay isn’t a disappointment. She’s most disappointed with how she’s been unable to see her friends and parents this past year, outside of video calls. After graduating, her top priority is to head home. To her, family and friendship are the most important pillars of her life.

Song also believes the past year may have been a blessing in disguise. “Looking back, my decision might have been rushed,” he says. “I think I just didn’t want to be another cog in the nine-to-five machine, so I quit. But when my life trajectory switch and application to schools were a bit too hurried. 2020 gave me time to slow down and rethink things.”

Now, he’s looking further out and has his sights set on schools in England, which he believes will teach curriculums that better serve his academic aspirations. In the meantime though, he’s freelancing on the side for some income and studying by himself. “The pandemic may not have been all bad,” he says. “There will always be opportunities to study abroad, and I don’t mind waiting.”

For He, the pandemic has caused her to doubt her plans of returning to New York for a longer-term stay. “Originally, I wanted to work there after I graduated,” she says. “But now, I’m in an awkward dilemma. It’s not a huge problem though, I’ve always been good at adapting.”

She believes the only way to cope with the volatility of the past year is to just keep moving forward. For the time being, He will stay in Shanghai, and she’s begun working on a children’s book around themes of environmentalism. It’s a fitting time for such a book, she believes, as the pandemic has spotlighted just how much humans are at the whims of nature.

Fang has similarly adjusted her plans and is now interning at a Chinese company during this gap year. She also reveals plans of starting a new photography project that’s based on some of her introspection during this pandemic.

Despite how much the pandemic has upended the plans of many students looking to travel abroad, it’s only a temporary setback. Most still have plans of heading overseas once the virus eases. The opportunity to immerse themselves in another culture, brush up on their language skills, and experience an entirely different educational system is too good to pass up, but at a time when leaving isn’t possible, many have discovered that there are still plenty of ways they can better themselves right at home. Rather than admiring how green the grass may seem on the other side, perhaps tending to our own garden is the best course of action in these strange times.

3/“灾难会促使人去反思”

 

虽然疫情的阻碍使很多学生没有办法去实地参与课程，也错过了一些能够在国外社交和寻找实习的机会，但这让很多准留学生们得以有时间重新考虑他们的目标和追求，也让他们对未来有了更明晰的方向。

2021 年应该是施悦玮的毕业年，她觉得疫情给她带来最大的遗憾就是没办法回国与家人朋友见面。留在美国足足 19 个月，她和家人的见面的机会仅限于视频聊天。在毕业之后，她会考虑先回国和家人认认真真地团聚一次。

宋扬则是很坦然地表示自己没有什么遗憾的。“现在想想我本来的决定作得有些仓促，可能只是不想过一成不变的‘打工人’生活，所以要为了梦想辞职。但其实当时备考雅思、选择学校，都有些匆忙，2020 给了我重新思考的契机。”

宋扬把英国的大学纳入了考量范围，在静下心来了解过一系列留学国家之后，他觉得欧洲国家疫情相对趋缓，教育质量也更高。目前宋扬是自由职业状态，一边赚钱一边学习，目的是为了“想申更好的学校”。“对我来说，疫情真的算很善待我了。毕竟要留学，机会一直都在，我不怕等。”

而对 Handowin 说，过去这一年对她来讲最大改变就是对“是否长留纽约”这个问题有了新的认知。“原本的机会当然是毕业在那里工作，现在感觉有点尴尬，进退两难，但也不会是很大的问题，适应变化对于我来说也不是一次两次。”她说道，在谈到疫情对国外学习的影响时，她表示“这场大疫已经改变了世界改变了我们每一个人，无论是否能够尽快结束，我们都回不到过去了。”Handowin 最近在写关于北极和环保的童书故事，希望人类能一起努力让地球健康一点。这样的环保意识在疫情来临前，未必得以在众人面前曝光，但瘟疫给了人们思考和自省的机会。

同样，方苑郦也在短期内迅速调整了自己的规划，目前已经开始 gap year 并着手实习，并同时进行自己的个人项目。和她之前做过的摄影项目一样，她认为无论瘟疫、地震甚至其他天灾人祸，“灾难会促使人去反思”。

而无论疫情给留学市场带来了怎样的变化，但对于想要和正在留学的学生来说，疫情的爆发或许只是短暂地给留学市场按下了暂停键，海外的多元文化和不同于中国式教育的学习体验，依然是他们最为珍视的目的。但与此同时，大家也都在逐渐释怀，留学并不是唯一的提升自己的道路，只是提供了一个理解世界的角度，而真正重要的是试图打开自己的眼界、提升自己的学术能力、结交不同立场的朋友、放宽心态去接受一切，这才是创作和艺术背后最源头的能量。

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Contributor: Chen Yuan
Illustrator: Xiao Hei

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供稿人: Chen Yuan
插画师: Xiao Hei

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Kotobuki 你不知道的 12 生肖

April 27, 2021 2021年4月27日

The paintings of feebee are rooted in classical Japanese tradition. They’re a window for learning the lessons of a tumultuous past, but they’re also comforting—in that they illustrate the strife of today is not entirely unique. In her work, mythical creatures in brilliant colors float on blank expanses of gold and earthen tones. They fly and thrash about in confusion or anger, sometimes eating or preening themselves, other times enraged or gazing at something out of frame.

日本艺术家 feebee 的绘画植根于日本古典传统，既提供了一个了解过往动荡历史的窗口，又能安抚人心——在一定程度上它们也是一种借鉴，告诉人们现今的世界冲突，也并非什么新鲜事。在她的作品中，色彩艳丽的神话生物漂浮于金色或大地色调的背景之上，因慌乱或愤怒而横冲直撞；时而在进食，时而在整理毛发，时而看上去怒气冲冲，又像是凝视着画面之外的什么东西。

feebee’s newest series is the Cycle of Transformation, a collection of twelve paintings depicting each animal from the zodiac calendar in chimeric form. These hybrid creatures are representations of conflict and coexistence. “I view the phenomena in our world to be part of a large cycle,” the self-taught artist from Kanagawa prefecture says, “and I’m interested in exploring how we can interact with it to create a better cycle for the next generation through my work.” The zodiac animals were introduced by China to Japan sometime around the 500s or 600s. “They represent the cycle that has existed since time immemorial, changing but repeating throughout the ages.”

feebee 最新系列《Cycle of Transformation》包括十二幅画作，描绘了“奇美拉”（希腊神话中狮首、羊身、蛇尾的神兽）式的十二生肖，用这“混血生物”来代表冲突与共存。feebee 来自日本神奈川县，是一名自学成才的艺术家，她说：“在我看来，世界所发生的事情本属于一个大循环，我热衷于探索如何与之互动，通过我的作品，为下一代创造更好的循环。”在公元 500 或 600 年期间，十二生肖由中国传入日本。“它们代表着远古时代以来一直存在的循环，不断变化，又不断重复。”

Her fascination with chimeras, or creatures comprised of different animal parts, began with the Kotobuki, a creature first imagined by Shigemitsu Enrousai for his ukiyo-e prints in the late 1800s. feebee even painted a series directly referencing him. But her most recent series takes that inspiration a step further, mixing and blending the creatures with the elements of nature. “Seeds germinate, shoots grow, roots spread, flowers blossom and bear fruit, and when the plants finally wither, they return to a seed.”

最初让她对“奇美拉”这种由不同动物部分组成的生物产生兴趣的是“Kotobuki”，来自 Segemitsu Enrousai 于 19 世纪后期创作的浮世绘。feebee 甚至曾以他的作品为灵感，创作了一整个系列。但是，她最近的系列作品进一步挖掘这一灵感，将各种生物与自然元素融合起来。 “从种子萌发，嫩芽生长，根部蔓延，开花结果，到最后植物枯萎时，又重新变回种子。”

Other Japanese chimeras predate the Kotobuki, including the Nue and the Baku. The Kirin even has roots in China stretching all the way back to at least the year 200. Her style of painted animal—with slinking, wavy bodies, and bulging, cartoonish eyes—can be found in East Asian art as far back as the 1200s, although it’s unclear where exactly they originated. She says that by combining different animals as one, she’s able to “depict the relationships between them, ranging from enmity, cooperation, and indifference as they coexist.”

在“Kotobuki”之前，其他的日本奇美拉式神兽还包括鵺（Nue）和梦枕貘（Baku），还有起源于中国、有着至少 200 年历史的麒麟。她的彩绘动物有着起伏的身体和鼓突的卡通眼睛。虽然不确定确切的起源，但这样的绘画风格在 13 世纪的东亚艺术中便已存在。她说，将不同的动物特征合而为一，可以“描述它们之间的关系，包括敌对、合作和冷漠。”

In some paintings, feebee expands her menagerie to include animals outside of the Japanese zodiac, such as the piece that depicts a cat crushing a frog and a weasel under its paws. “It represents the unknown,” she explains. “It suggests the possibility of changing the cycle that has been repeating forever. A lot of things that no one had predicted have happened, and they’ve caused a lot of disruption to our norms and traditions. This represents a break from the cyclical flow of time represented by the zodiac. One way the cycle has certainly changed is that time has sped up because of the internet.”

feebee 有时还会画十二生肖之外的动物，譬如青蛙、黄鼬和猫。她解释说：“这些动物代表未知，暗示一直重复的循环也可能会被改变。许多人们没有预料到的事情发生了，打断了我们一贯的规范和传统，这正是十二生肖所代表的时间循环的中断。可能肯定的变化之一是时间似乎流逝得更快了，而原因就在于互联网的出现。”

Her use of gold also builds on centuries of tradition. Gold leaf was first used in Japanese art to paint clay Buddhist sculptures in the 700s as an alternative to bronze sculptures. The use of gold in paintings was prominent by the 1200s as a way to present deities, Buddhist beings, and rays of light. Gold continued to be used in different ways in painting for centuries to come. feebee’s style of blending gold and earthy browns in the background grows out of that history. The way she places colorful characters on top of the gold can also be traced back to the 1400s, when a branch of Kanō school painters became known for using metallic colors as backgrounds for bright, polychromatic focal points.

除此之外，她在创作中对黄金的使用也源于流传数百年的传统。公元 700 年左右，金箔开始被用于日本艺术创作。当时人们用它来创作为黏土佛教雕塑，以替代青铜雕塑。到了 13 世纪，使用黄金绘画流行开来，黄金被用来描绘神灵、佛教形象以及各种光芒。在之后的几个世纪，黄金一直以不同的方式用于绘画创作，而 feebee 在背景中融合金色和土褐色的做法亦正是源于这段历史。她以金色作为色彩鲜艳的动物背景的做法，也可以追溯到 15 世纪。当时，日本狩猎画派（Kanō）的一部分画家以金属色为背景，搭配色彩缤纷的画像，并因此而为人熟知。

Buddhism first spread from India, making its way into China, Korea, and Japan, picking up new interpretations and incorporating local beliefs along the way. Different variations of the religion (and fluctuating degrees of Chinese and Korean influence) appear throughout the history of Japanese painting, although secular and domestic ideas also became prominent. The zodiac traveled with the Buddhists. Woodblock prints were also monopolized in Japan by Buddhists as a way to proselytize from the 800s until the 1600s when they started being used to bring art to the masses in the form of the ukiyo-e prints. Zodiac animals became common subject matter in ukiyo-e prints.

起源于印度的佛教，后来传入中国、韩国和日本，在这个过程中又不断获得新的诠释，并与当地的信仰相结合。纵观日本绘画历史，尽管世俗观念和日本当地信仰也很突出，但仍然能看到各种形式的佛教文化影响（取决于受到的中国和韩国文化影响程度）。十二生肖也随佛教文化一同传入。在日本，木刻版画几乎被佛教所垄断，在 800 年代到 1600 年代期间成为佛教的重要传播方式，以浮世绘版画的形式，向大众推广艺术。而十二生肖动物也成为了浮世绘中的常见元素。

The ukiyo-e prints from the late 1800s, after a militarized Western presence had brought new techniques and ideas to Japanese painters—along with the era’s social upheaval—are major sources of inspiration for feebee, and she believes there are lessons that can be applied to the present day. “It was an era of rapid change and people were filled with new hopes and fears,” she says. “I think the current age we live in shares this tumultuous aspect.” 

在 19 世纪后期，西方军国主义为日本画家带来了新技术和新想法。这个时期的浮世绘连同那个时代的社会动荡是 feebee 的重要灵感源泉。在她看来，现代人们也能从这段历史中借鉴一些经验教训。她说：“这是一个瞬息万变的时代，人们充满了新的希望和恐惧。我们现在所处的时代也同样动荡不安。”

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Website: www.feebee.jp
Instagram: @feebeejp
Facebook: ~/feebeejp

 

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.feebee.jp
Instagram: @feebeejp
Facebook: ~/feebeejp

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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An Upcycling Renaissance 谁拿了你的旧衣服？

April 22, 2021 2021年4月22日
Left to right: Duc Thanh, Ngoc Ha Thu Le, Hoang Anh Nguyen 从左到右: Duc Thanh, Ngoc Ha Thu Le, Hoang Anh Nguyen

As we look back on a tumultuous year, it’s clear that parts of Southeast Asia, like much of the world in general, have been left in a trail of destruction. Typhoons of increasing strength and frequency have washed away areas in Vietnam and The Philippines. Thailand is bursting at the seams with plastic-waste pollution, which skyrocketed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. And Jakarta continues sinking faster than any other city on Earth while its rainforests are set on fire. But what does any of this have to do with the latest T-shirt you wear? As it turns out, a lot.

回顾过去动荡的一年，世界上大部分地区都遭受了环境和经济的重创，许多东南亚国家也一样——频繁袭击的强台风彻底摧毁了越南和菲律宾的部分地区；在泰国，新冠肺炎疫情导致当地的塑料垃圾污染达至崩溃边缘；雅加达成为全球下沉最快的城市，大片热带雨林被付之一炬。

可是，这些问题与你有什么关系吗？确实有，而且可以说是息息相关——你身上的一件快时尚品牌 T 恤，可能就是“万恶之源”。

Ngoc Ha Thu Le in a floral-print coat that she redesigned with scrap material. Ngoc Ha Thu Le 穿着的碎花大衣是用废衣料重新设计的。
Hoang Duy Minh, the founder of Rockboy Clique, wearing a customized denim jacket Rockboy Clique 的创始人 Hoang Duy Minh 穿着定制的牛仔外套。

The Consequences of Fast Fashion

The fashion industry accounts for 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It uses 1.5 trillion liters of water annually. It’s a major source of chemical waste and plastic pollution in the ocean. This is all due to things like the use of petroleum-based fabrics such as polyester, large amounts of wasted product, expansive supply chains, and untreated wastewater from textile factories.

With the fashion industry creating such grim environmental realities, it’s reaffirming to see a rise in upcycling and custom clothing, particularly in Vietnam, where the momentum is growing at an outsized pace compared to most neighboring countries.

1/ 为什么要“反快消文化”？

在制造时尚的同时，时尚产业也正在制造庞大的污染和浪费。根据联合国政府气候变化专门委员会的数据，时尚产业占世界碳排放量的 10%，而每年用水量更是高达 1.5 万亿升。此外，由于聚酯纤维等石油基织物的使用、大量废弃产品的流出，以及不断扩张的供应链等问题，这也导致了海洋化学废物和塑料污染的主要来源。

现实环境如此严峻，时尚行业有着不可推卸的责任，升级回收（Upcycling）和定制服装开始风行，与周边大多数国家相比，越南在这一方面显得很有“超前意识”。

LL Cool J wearing a custom track jacket by Dapper Dan LL Cool J 穿着 Dapper Dan 定制的运动外套。
A group of men wearing custom jackets from Dapper Dan 一群穿着 Dapper Dan 定制外套的人。
Dapper Dan in front of his shop in 1983 Dapper Dan 站在他的店铺 1983 前。

Upcycling is basically just recycling with a fancy name. It means taking an older product and reusing it for something new. So that old jacket you love with a big hole in it? Instead of throwing it out, you can repurpose it into a new shirt or bag. It’s not exactly a new concept though. In the past, sewing was a more integral part of our lives and mending clothes was more common than buying new ones. But one of the most notable examples from modern history before the term “upcycling” even existed is probably Harlem’s Dapper Dan in the 1990s. The Black designer was taking brand name clothes like Gucci and Louis Vuitton from customers and redesigning them into new fits and styles. Although Dapper Dan was sued for the practice back in the day, he’s now celebrated by the fashion industry, with big-name brands seeking out official collaborations with him.

你钟爱的那件旧夹克上破了个大洞？那不如把它重新加工，变成一件新衬衫或一个新手袋，而不是一扔了之——这就是升级回收，其实也就是指“回收利用”，利用旧产品制作新产品。虽然用词新鲜，但这并不是什么新奇的发明，在过去人们也经常“打布丁”，缝缝补补比买新衣服更常见。

但是，早在“升级回收”这个词出现之前，时装界便有一个著名的例子，那就是 1990 年代的 Dapper Dan。这位黑人设计师从顾客手中收集 Gucci 和 Louis Vuitton 等名牌服装，通过重新加工设计，变成全新款式。在过去，他曾因为这种做法而被起诉，但现在却备受时尚界的追捧，甚至有许多著名品牌前来邀请他一起合作。

Hoang Anh Nguyen, one of the co-founders of 1 of 1 Fashion Group Hoang Anh Nguyen，“1 of 1”的联合创始人之一。

Upcycling and custom designs are blowing up now in Vietnam. To see how fast things are growing in the country, you can look to the range of local brands that specialize in upcycling and customizations. There’s the casual wear of The Vandal; the Viet-punk look of 247 Art Club; the updated traditional garbs of Ugly Born; and the high-fashion wear of Môi Điên. And this doesn’t even account for individuals making clothes for themselves and friends, with no brand in mind. Perhaps the best spot to go at the moment to find out what’s bubbling underground is the Vietnamese 1 of 1 Fashion Group, a spot dedicated to creating a community around custom and upcycled clothing.

现在，升级回收和定制设计在越南迅速兴起，其受欢迎的程度从专门从事升级回收和定制设计的品牌就可见一斑：主打休闲着装的 The Vandal、 越南朋克风格的 247 Art Club、复古服工装风潮的 Ugly Born；还有专注高级时装的 Môi Điên……林林总总，而这还未包括那些没有成立品牌，只给自己和朋友做衣服的个体设计师。

而如果你想要了解越南的地下流行时尚，1 of 1 Fashion Group 是最合适的地方，这是一个致力于打造定制服装和升级回收服装的社区。

Duc Thanh and Hoang Anh Nguyen, the two founders of 1 of 1 Fashion Group Duc Thanh 和 Hoang Anh Nguyen，“1 of 1”的创始人。

Custom Made

Founded by Hoang Anh Nguyen and Đức Thành, two upcycling enthusiasts from Hanoi, 1 of 1 is a place to share ideas, share work, talk about production methods, and spread the gospel of upcycling. It’s a meeting space for creators and customers alike. Nguyen is currently studying fine art and never expected to get involved with fashion, but when she met Đức, he taught her how to sew, and they’ve been making artsy clothes together ever since. “We don’t consider our work as a brand or anything like that,” she says. “We’re just a clothing shop reworking or destroying your old clothes. I’m always asking my friends for old clothes. Throw them away to me; I’m a hoarder!”

“All we do is recycle old clothes because we’re thinking about what we can do to protect the environment,” Nguyen adds. “ I’m not an environmental activist, but I do care about the environment, and I hate how the fast fashion industry works.”

2/谁在“逆势而为”？

 

“1 of 1”由两位来自河内的升级回收爱好者 Hoang Anh Nguyen 和 Đức Thành 创立，是一个分享创意与作品、讨论生产工艺和推广升级回收的地方，设计师和顾客可以在这里见面交流。Hoang Anh 正在大学学习美术，她从未想过会涉足时尚行业，但是自从认识 Đức 并学会缝纫后，他们就经常一起创作艺术服装。她说：“我们从来没有把作品当作是品牌或之类的东西。我们只是一间专门加工或毁掉旧衣服的服装店。我常常向朋友要旧衣服。把不要的衣服都给我吧，我是个囤积狂！”

Hoang Anh 又补充了一句：“我们的目的只是为了回收旧衣服，因为我们想为环保出一份力。我不是一个环保活动家，但我关心环境，同时很反感快时尚行业的运作方式。”

Duc Thanh and Hoang Anh Nguyen, the two founders of 1 of 1 Fashion Group Duc Thanh 和 Hoang Anh Nguyen，“1 of 1”的创始人。
Duc Thanh and Hoang Anh Nguyen, the two founders of 1 of 1 Fashion Group Duc Thanh 和 Hoang Anh Nguyen，“1 of 1”的创始人。

Thrifting culture is also widespread in Vietnam and has proven to be a quick way to enter the fashion industry with very little capital. Creatives with a good eye can buy a piece they find for a dollar and flip it for double or triple that. A lot of people sell secondhand goods and many have started their fashion careers that way. Phương Vũ from Vietnamese creative collective Antiantiart, an artist widely known in fashion circles here, got his start selling secondhand goods online. Many brands sell their own designs alongside thrifted pieces. “I definitely loved going to the thrift shop before I ever thought about making my own clothes,” Ngyuen from 1 of 1 says.

“This upcycling movement, which grew out of streetwear and thrifting culture, is really democratic, in the way a customer who isn’t professionally trained can be a part of the design process,” says Ngoc Ha Thu Le, a sustainable fashion designer and blogger who was born, raised, and educated in Hanoi. “You don’t need to understand the techniques because you have pieces that are readymade, you just mix them together with basic sewing skills. It can be really empowering; they’re not just consuming but creating too. They may not even understand that what they’re doing is sustainable.”

The movement isn’t strictly, or even mainly, about the environment, but it dovetails with social and technological changes, as well as recent fashion trends. The antipathy toward fast fashion is widespread. With people now being exposed to styles from every corner of the world, a growing desire to dress expressively and with individuality is only to be expected. Customers no longer have to wait for the next season when the fashion gods reveal what’s cool. They can step outside these commercial cycles and dress on their own terms.

“I don’t care about the latest hype; I want my pieces to be timeless, to be appreciated forever,” says Hoang Duy Minh, who founded the Rockboy Clique brand about five years ago. Duy primarily uses new fabric for his work and specializes in customizing old pants. The Hanoi designer leans toward streetwear but bristles at being pigeonholed. “There are a lot of styles in Vietnam but I don’t think about what category I fall into. I just do my thing, I make clothes as a passion. I just want to make you feel good about the clothes you’re in.” He doesn’t upcycle much, preferring instead to use new materials for most pieces, but he follows the same ethos, placing an increasing value on vintage pieces and how they could be reused. “You can take pieces from your archive and deconstruct them and you have something no one else in the world has.” Escaping from the hype cycle can only be a good thing.

越南是一个有着节俭传统的国家，因此，很多人可以凭借微薄的资本，快速进入时尚产业。独具眼光的创意人可以用一美元买到一件衣服，然后以两倍或三倍的价格售出。很多创意人都在卖旧货，其中有很多人就是这样开始自己的职业生涯的。来自 Antiantiart 的 Phương Vũ 是当地时尚圈一位有名的艺术家，他就是靠在网上卖旧货起家的。和其他许多品牌一样，他们在出售自有商品的同时也会出售旧货。“我在自己做衣服之前，也一直很喜欢去逛旧货店。”来自 1 of 1 的 Hoang Anh 说道。

无独有偶，在河内出生、长大和接受教育的 Ngoc Ha Thu Le 是一名可持续发展时装设计师和博主，她说道：“这个地区由街头服饰和节俭文化发展起来，面向大众且很平易近人，即使没有受过专业训练的顾客也可以参与设计。你甚至不需要掌握复杂的制衣工艺，因为可以直接使用成衣为材料，你要做的只是用简单的缝纫技能，把这些材料拼贴缝合。这是一种真正的赋能，顾客不仅是在消费，也是在创造，虽然他们甚至不知道自己的所作所为是在推动可持续发展。”

这其实不算是一场严格意义上的环保运动，但却与当下的社会与技术变化，以及最近的流行趋势不谋而合。人们对快时尚的反感与日俱增，也受到到越来越多可持续和环保主义的影响，一件经久耐穿、凸显个性的设计师服装，或许已经在理念上打败了快时尚。人们不需要再等待时尚领袖来揭晓下一季的流行趋势，他们可以跳出商业流行趋势的周期，按照自己的个性打扮造型。

“我不关心什么最新潮流，我只想打造经典不过时的作品。” Hoang Duy Minh 说道，他在约五年前创立了 Rockboy Clique 品牌。Duy 喜欢用新面料创作，尤其擅长定制改造旧裤子。这位来自河内的设计师喜欢街头服装，但不喜欢被贴上特定标签。“越南的时尚风格多种多样，但我不认为自己就属于哪一类。我只是做我想做的事情，我做衣服就是因为我喜欢。我希望人们穿着我的衣服时能有个好心情。”虽然比起“以旧换新”，他更喜欢用新材料做衣服，但他非常认同升级回收的大趋势。“挑选你衣柜里的一些旧衣服，通过解构和重组，你就能打造出世界上独一无二的衣服。”他深刻地感受到，不跟从潮流是一件值得推崇的事情。

Hoang Duy Minh, wearing pieces from his brand, Rockboy Clique Hoong Duy Minh 穿着他品牌 Rockboy Clique 的衣服。

Many DIY designs combine dyes, fabric paints, and bleach in new ways to create different textures and colorways, which are mixed with prints, patchwork, and layers that resemble a collage. The Hidden is a good example of this approach, a Vietnamese brand of handmade T-shirts featuring psychedelic designs and striking color schemes, each piece looking a bit like an abstract painting. “Most shirts that teenagers wear are very similar, all printed and sewn by machine. Mass produced. It’s pretty much all the same piece,” says founder Nhi Kieu Le. “I figured I’d just create my own with different styles and forms to make them pop, make them unique.” Le is a medical student from Da Lat, a city outside Saigon. She got her start in fashion as a model and launched The Hidden about two years ago. They’ve made around 1000 pieces so far in batches of 30-50 at a time. Although she uses new fabrics, she handpicks them and brings them to a shop to have them sewn.

许多 DIY 的设计以新的方式，结合染料、织物涂料和漂白剂，创造出不同的纹理和色彩，像拼贴画一样，混合不同的印花、拼布和层次。越南手工 T 恤衫品牌 The Hidden 正是这种制衣风格的一个很好的例子，其作品特色是迷幻的图案与醒目的配色，每一件看起来都像是一幅抽象画。品牌创始人 Nhi Kieu Le 说：“现在很多年轻人穿的 T 恤衫都差不多，都是用机器印花和缝制的。大批量生产的成品看上去大同小异。所以我想创造属于我自己的风格和款式，做出独一无二的 T 恤衫。”

在进入这个行业之前，Nhi 是一名来自西贡郊外大叻的医学生。她是在做模特后开始进入时尚界的。The Hidden 到目前为止成立仅约两年，但他们已经一共制作了大约 1000 件衣服。和时尚快消品牌的理念不同，The Hidden 专精于品质而并非成衣数量，因此也不会有巨大的消耗与浪费，Nhi 表示，这些 T 恤全都是由她精心挑选出来的布料缝制，每一次制作数量约为 30-50 件不等。

Ngoc Ha Thu Le Ngoc Ha Thu Le
Ngoc Ha Thu Le Ngoc Ha Thu Le

Being in direct touch with the various parts of their supply chain gives brands and designers the chance to make ethical choices. Le, the blogger and designer, has been studying sustainable fashion since high school. She recently won the Redress award for her upcycled menswear line and says she’ll be sourcing local, natural fabrics as a way to commercialize her winning entry. “I also plan to purchase deadstock, the leftover rolls of fabric from big international corporations, as a way to commercialize the Redress designs.”

Upcycling can happen at different levels of the supply chain. Bigger companies sign deals with manufacturers to buy large quantities of leftover fabrics. Smaller, under-the-radar brands buy their textile waste. Then finally the smallest scraps get used as installation in things like pillows and stuffed animals.

当品牌和设计师直接参与供应链的各个环节，就能作出合乎道德的选择。博主和设计师 Nhi 从高中起就开始研究可持续环保时尚。最近，她凭借升级回收理念的男装系列获得了 Redress 设计大奖。她考虑采购当地的天然面料，对获奖作品进行商业化生产，“我还计划向大型国际品牌购买他们的废货库存，来生产这次获得 Redress 大奖的作品。”

当然，升级回收也可以多管齐下。大公司与制造商签订协议，大批量购买库存布料；而小品牌则可以购买纺织废料。最后，细小的碎屑则可以用来填充枕头和玩偶等产品。

Duc Thanh in a full outfit he designed himself from upcycled material Duc Thanh 身上的全套服装都是用再生材料进行设计的。
Duc Thanh in a full outfit he designed himself from upcycled material Duc Thanh 身上的全套服装都是用再生材料进行设计的。
Hoang Duy Minh, wearing pieces from his brand, Rockboy Clique Hoong Duy Minh 穿着他品牌 Rockboy Clique 的衣服。

Looking to the Future

At the macro level, fashion companies need to be properly registered with the Vietnamese government, but below that, people often start up their own businesses in Vietnam without needing to jump through regulatory hurdles. The relaxed laws make it easy to get started, and Vietnam’s longtime position as an outsourcing country means skilled workers are readily available. It’s easy to find a seamstress or a production house to help with designs. This partially explains upcycling and custom culture’s growth here. Minh from Rockboy is the son of a working tailor, for example. As upcycling grows in the country, it has the opportunity to open up a lot of local employment opportunities.

But the loose business rules can also have downsides. Health, labor, and environmental safety are often overlooked. In rural Vietnam, where a lot of the upcycled materials come from, the burning of leftovers pollutes the air while buried polyester leeches into groundwater.

Vietnam seems uniquely positioned to lead in the world of custom and upcycled clothing. All the pieces are there, and younger designers are already making the moves. Events like that of Hidden Archive, aimed at teaching sustainability, forums like 1 of 1, and outreach by people like Le are feeding that growth, educating designers about how to take the next steps and also why they should take them. These types of resources are essential in furthering the upcycling movement.

Of course, without government action across the globe to deal with industrial, agricultural, and corporate offenders, there won’t be enough change. But a creative culture that embraces the issues of sustainability as part of their everyday lives sends a message to the world, proclaiming that this is the change we want to see.

3/升级回收有未来吗？

 

在越南，开办大规模的时装企业需要向政府做好注册登记，但如果是较小规模的企业，人们往往能避开复杂的监管障碍。宽松的法律使创业变得更容易，加上越南长期作为一个外包国家，有大量的熟练工人，轻松就能找到裁缝或工厂来生产，这也是升级回收和定制文化在当地发展如此迅速的原因之一。例如，Rockboy 品牌的 Minh 的父亲本身就是一名裁缝。随着升级回收在越南进一步发展，这将会为当地提供大量的就业机会。

然而，宽松的商业法规也有其弊端。健康、劳工和环境安全常常被人们所忽视。在越南农村有许多回收填充物的工厂，人们直接焚烧剩余废料，造成空气污染，或是将合成聚酯纤维的残渣倒入地下水中。

在定制和回收服装方面，越南有着得天独厚的优势。这里可以说是万事俱备，年轻的设计师纷纷加入行动，加上 Hidden Archive 这类旨在宣传可持续发展的活动、“1 of 1”之类的论坛以及 Ngoc Ha Thu Le 等人的推广努力，无一不在促进这项运动的发展，并引导着设计师的下一步行动，帮助他们理解之所以要持续的原因。所有这些资源都是推广回收文化和个性定制必不可少的因素。

当然，如果没有政府在全球范围内一致去打击工业、农业和企业方面的违法之徒，真正意义上的环保变革也难以到来。但是，在日常的创意文化中纳入可持续发展的理念，就能向世界传达一个信息：这才是我们所希望看到的变化。

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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Nguyen Hoang Long
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Nguyen Hoang Long
英译中: Olivia Li

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Memory Reassembly 我荒唐的童年记忆

April 20, 2021 2021年4月20日
Using vests to skip rope 《Using vests to skip rope》

“Being raised in Hong Kong, I felt a bit detached from my roots to the mainland,” says artist Hung Chingyan. “This grappling with identity is one of the most important elements of my creative process.”

As a second-generation immigrant from Fujian, Hung often felt different from her peers in Hong Kong. Unlike born-and-raised Hong Kongers, her earlier educational background was far more traditional and conservative. Social constructs such as filial piety and gender roles were deeply ingrained into her psyche.  She felt estranged once she arrived in Hong Kong, where the education system was more influenced by the British. “I felt different from others, and it didn’t feel like I belonged in Hong Kong,” she says.

Only years later did she realize that these feelings of otherness were of no fault of her own and how pointless it was to dwell on these memories. Coming to terms with the absurdity of it all proved to be the perfect creative fodder. Her collage series The Song of a Young Nutter takes these realizations and stirs in an extra dollop of quirkiness to bring her childhood experiences into a visual form. This project uses Hung’s original photos, which include shots of keepsakes from her childhood, random objects that have caught her eye, and even herself. Together, this mishmash of disparate images has become her way of revisiting the experiences that have shaped who she is today.

“作为一个土生土长的香港人，我好像已经忘掉自己的根在中国，这一切有关探讨身份的寻索也是我创作中重要的故事元素。”洪澄欣说道。她是在香港长大的福建第二代移民，和当地多元开放文化下生长起来的孩子不同，她坦言自己所受到的教育是相对传统而保守的，比如小辈要遵从“孝悌忠信”，比如女子要“秀外慧中”，也有些习俗和礼仪和香港等本土文化有着很大差异。“所以从小我就有一种与别人不同的感觉，亦觉得自己对香港这地没很大的归属感。”直到多年后，她才发现那种不同是基于“根”的不同。洪澄欣把儿时的有关经历称为“荒唐的记忆”。

于是，她决定用艺术创作的方式来表达自我感受，“用幽默的方式来表达我过去大人眼中的怪异”——《The Song of a Young Nutter》就得以诞生。这是一系列摄影拼贴作品，自画像、童年记忆中的物件和与过往的荒谬经历交互组合，以挖掘更深层的文化意义。

A child under care 《A child under care》
Chicken will appear when the egg paste flows down 《Chicken will appear when the egg paste flows down》
A Barefoot Girl in a Stone Sitting Position 《A Barefoot Girl in a Stone Sitting Position》
The neighbor downstairs is cleaning in every second 《The neighbor downstairs is cleaning in every second》

Piecing together different images to speak on specific topics in a cohesive way is always a challenge for Hung. “When I take photos, I like looking inwards,” she says. “I like to find inspiration at home, taking photos of objects I find laying around. It’s interesting to observe their little manmade scratches and examine the condition of the item. During the worst days of the pandemic, I was forced to look even closer within my limited surrounding for inspiration. This taught me that inspiration could be found anywhere.”

She eventually had the idea to include herself within her collages. This was a new creative stepping one, one that allowed for a deeper connection between her and the memory or subject she sought to explore.

最开始试图拼贴的时候总是最麻烦的，不同内容不同主题的物件，很难被同时放在一个空间里去讲述。“在找摄影题材的时候很喜欢‘往内看’，我会喜欢在家中找物件作为我的摄影对象，并观察他们的状态和痕迹。我记得一开始创作时遇上新冠肺炎爆发的高峰期，所有人都需要留在家里，我也不例外，所以更加多了空间去构思如何好好利用家中的物品配合我的创作。”洪澄欣试过几次合并素材之后，她开始拍摄自己的身体，并将“自己”放到拼贴里去与其他物件互动，以此产生一种有趣且怪诞的效果。

Dad Loves Eating Sticky Rice Dumplings Wrapped With Rocks 《Dad Loves Eating Sticky Rice Dumplings Wrapped With Rocks》

In the collage, Dad Loves Eating Sticky Rice Dumplings Wrapped With Rocks, she looks back on a Dragon Boat Festival that she spent with her grandma. The night before the holiday, Hung was helping her grandma wrap zongzi when a mischievous idea struck—she thought it’d be a funny prank to stuff one with rocks and trick her dad into eating it. Grabbing pebbles from a potted plant, she plucked two into the zongzi she was wrapping. In this artwork, the zongzi floating downriver have all been split open, revealing Hung’s face within, grinning impishly. The flowing river represents the holiday season, a not-so-subtle nod to the dragon boat races held during the celebrations.

This blending of unlikely elements is one of the most prominent themes in her work—even the loosest of threads can be woven into something new. Hung isn’t interested in quieting her ideas, no matter how strange or nonsensical it may seem. She’s simply interested in bringing her imagination into the real world.

比如在《Dad Loves Eating Sticky Rice Dumplings Wrapped With Rocks》这张作品里，她是回忆起有一年的端午节前夕，在家里帮阿嬷一起包粽子，突然之间灵机一动，把两颗放在花盘里的石头包在其中两只体形较小的粽子内，想来捉弄下晚归的爸爸。于是在作品里，粽子对半切开展示的是她自己坏笑的表情，而粽子顺流而下的石绿色背景则隐喻着古老的端午节必备传统：河道划龙舟。

这种天马行空的想象力串联，在洪澄欣的作品中并不少见，她没毫不掩饰自己的想法，并刻意把一些“无厘头”的意见放到拼贴当中，“希望呈现一种自我感觉最原始、自然的创作风格”。

Fish is a terrible creature 《Fish is a terrible creature》
I use fries to eat tomato sauce 《I use fries to eat tomato sauce》

Color and shape are the most deliberated aspects of Hung’s art, and like the memories they’re based on, they’re often scaled to exaggerated proportions. “My parents wanted me to eat some fish, so they mixed it into my congee and I got a fishbone stuck in my throat,” she recalls. “They were terrified, and they took me to the clinic downstairs to get the bone out. From there onwards, I’ve been terrified of eating fish. It feels dangerous.”

This childhood fear is the basis of Fish is a Terrible Creature, a collage featuring fish popping out from a black-and-white sea surface, as if ready to ambush.

在洪澄欣的创作里，颜色和物件的形态是画面最重要的元素，在这个系列中，她刻意把这两个元素放大，尝试玩弄一些花样，以致画面的完整度可以提高。“我还记得小时候有一次我的家人把鱼肉拆在我晚饭的白粥里，混在一起喂我吃，我却不小心把一条很粗的鱼骨吃进口里并卡在喉咙中。家人当时很害怕，马上把我送到楼下的诊所请医生帮我把鱼骨拔出来，那次以后，我便对吃鱼产生一种恐惧感，觉得吃鱼是一种很危险的行为。”洪澄欣说道，这就是《Fish is a terrible creature》的来源，她配以阴沉沉的背景色，象征着陷阱的“鱼洞”，来传递自己自小对吃鱼的恐惧感。

Removing the pins and putting them in my mouth 《Removing the pins and putting them in my mouth》
Long hair is rolled into a machine 《Long hair is rolled into a machine》
I ate seaweed secretly by the bed 《I ate seaweed secretly by the bed》

Other sights and sounds that only exist in her memory also make appearances throughout the series. “Like the slide at my playground, which I played on every day after school,” she says. “Or the woods that I hung out in, where I could hear my neighbor sweeping the leaves.”

This visual reassembly of her childhood may seem nonsensical to the average viewer, but to Hong, they hold plenty of meaning. When revisiting the old diary entries she uses for inspiration, she often finds herself teary-eyed or roaring with laughter. Reconstructing these childhood memories has helped her reflect on her place in the world, whether it be within her family or within society at large. “I think families are an interesting topic, and it’s one near and dear to my heart,” she says. “My family are the people I’m closest to, yet it feels like there’s a lot I don’t know about them sometimes. My art is pretty self-deprecating in that way. I’m poking fun at how I just can’t quite fit in anywhere.”

在这个系列的拼贴工具，就是洪澄欣不断翻找记忆中曾经看过、用过或玩过的物件。“就像游乐场里的滑梯，它是我以前每天放学后回家前必玩的游乐设施；树林背景的一幕，就是我小时候在家中听到楼下邻居打扫声音的时候，对身处环境的联想……”虽然说有些物件可能早已散失，但是洪澄欣也不断从那些回忆里再次联想，使之关联成为最后的成品。

她笑说，有时候看到某些有特别意义的物件时，偶然会留下一两滴眼泪，看到一些以前自己写的日记也会大笑一番，好似有种心灵互动。可以说整个创作的过程，是洪澄欣在不断通过拼贴重构自己的童年回忆，也在不断反思自己对于家庭和社会的意义。“我认为家庭是一个很有趣的探讨议题，因为它是离我最近、最亲切却最陌生的一个群体。”洪澄欣说道。

Buying a new school uniform by tying my wrists with elastic bands 《Buying a new school uniform by tying my wrists with elastic bands》
You're like a cloud 《You're like a cloud》
Miss Hong Kong is me 《Miss Hong Kong is me》

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网站: www.hungchingyan.com
Instagram: @fotolotof


Contributor: Chen Yuan

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。
网站: www.hungchingyan.com
Instagram: @fotolotof

 

供稿人: Chen Yuan

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Beautiful Ambiguity 看见一张真正的照片

April 15, 2021 2021年4月15日

Xiangyue is an independent platform dedicated to building a community around art photography. In support of this effort, online, it publishes WeChat articles and Bilibili vlogs, its content running the gamut from artist interviews to explorations of how to analyze a photograph; offline, it hosts workshops and photography exhibitions. Based in Shanghai, it currently consists of a small team of three: Liu Bo, Ding Ding, and Zhong Linjiang. One of their various endeavors is their eponymous photo books, which compile the work of a few dozen photographers per issue.

“象曰”是一家致力于构建艺术摄影社区的独立平台，在线上，他们通过微信文章和 B 站视频，分享艺术家访谈和照片分析等丰富内容；在线下，则举办了一系列工作坊和摄影展览。“象曰”总部位于上海，目前团队有三名成员：刘波、丁丁和钟林江。团队推出了一本同名摄影作品杂志，每期都会展示数十位摄影师的作品。

Zhong Linjiang 钟林江
Ding Ding 丁丁

In the early stages of building the Xiangyue community, the team started a WeChat group in which members could only share photos, and nothing else. The rule was strictly enforced, and whoever sent anything else was booted from the group. As the chat room became flooded with images, an idea began to form, one that ran counter to the conventional fascination with digitalization. “We thought it would be such a pity for these outstanding works to languish on a phone screen,” says Zhong. “If the pictures were in a book, presented in the medium of paper, it would allow these works to last forever—it would truly embody their value.” Inspired, they set up a crowdfunding page and opened a call for submissions for the first issue, which ultimately came out in October 2019. Three photobooks have been published since, and the fourth is imminently on the way.

在“象曰社区”成立初期，团队建了一个微信群，除了分享照片之外，群里不会发任何其他内容，否则就会被踢出群。随着群里分享的图片内容越来越丰富，他们逐渐有了一个与主流数字狂热背道而驰的想法。钟林江说：“我们觉得这些优秀的作品只能寂寂无闻地留在手机内是一件很可惜的事情。如果能印刷成书，以纸为媒介呈现，这些图片就能永远留存，真正体现它们的价值。”受此启发，他们创建了一个众筹页面，并为第一期征集投稿。最终，《象曰》杂志创刊号于 2019 年 10 月出版问世，自那以后，他们已经推出了三期摄影杂志，第四期也即将出版。

Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期
Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期

In a world where so much has been invested into developing and proliferating digital media, it seems meaningful that Xiangyue sees the digital realm as the one where an image would stagnate. It’s easy to understand why, though: online, an image can drown among a billion others. In book format, by contrast, we can see and feel where a book begins and ends, and perhaps that familiar limitation still makes for a better experience of content than the limitlessness of the digital world.

在一个大力发展和普及数字媒体的时代，《象曰》却反其道而行，他们认为数字世界反而会让摄影沦为一潭死水。原因其实很好理解：在线上，一张照片会埋没在铺天盖地的图片信息里；而纸媒这种形式，却能让我们看见和感知一本书的始末，这种熟悉的边际感，比起无边无际的数字世界，或许更能为读者提供更好的内容体验。

Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期
Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期
Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期
Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期

Zhong says many of their followers have asked about the origin of the name Xiangyue (象曰 in Chinese). The name was chosen by Xiangyue founder Shitou, who passed away last March, and to whom the third issue is dedicated.  Xiang is one way to say “appearance” or “image,” but its original meaning is “elephant”–and surprisingly, the double meaning illustrates something of Xiangyue’s ideology.

Since elephants were a seldom-seen animal in ancient times, they came to stand in for distant or abstract concepts; the character is thus often used in words involving “the indefinite, the ambiguous,” says Zhong, offering examples such as imagine [想象], abstract [抽象], impression [印象], and maybe most importantly, image or imagery [意象]. The second syllable yue [曰] means to say or convey, so the more direct interpretation is simply of an image saying something. But the name intentionally retains another sense that’s far more nebulous.

很多粉丝都曾问过钟林江“象曰”这个名字的来历。这个名字其实是由象曰创始人石头所取的，遗憾的是他已在去年 3 月离开世界，第三期杂志的诞生亦是为了向他致敬。“象”有“表象”或“图象”的意思，但其本义是“大象”，这种双重含义却恰好诠释了“象曰”背后的深层理念。

在古时，大象并不常见，因而会被用以代表遥远或抽象的概念；这个字也因此常被用于表达“不确定、模糊”的词义，他举了一些例子，如“想象”、“抽象”和“印象”，当然还有最为重要的“意象”。至于第二个字“曰”意为“说或传达”，更直接的解释就是一个传达着某种意思的意象。但“象曰”这个名字其实有意保留了另一层更朦胧的含义。

Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期
Issue 3 of Xiangyue 《象曰》第三期

This looser sense truly shows itself in the third issue of Xiangyue. Between the accessibility of smartphone cameras and photo editing software, the “perfect” shot seems more obtainable than ever – but that’s precisely what they’re veering away from. “There are many ways for a photo to be good,” says Zhong, initially shrugging off my question about how he curates photos for the books. “But personally,” he allows, “one kind of picture I would not select is the kind that underwent extremely painstaking polishing.”

The theme for the issue is a Chinese idiom, “the fish sink and the birds fall,” which describes animals’ reactions to profound beauty. Yet at a glance, some of the images in this volume might seem to be bewildering responses to such a prompt. A peeling decal of some cherry blossoms on the door of a dirty white car. A steamed-up washroom in somebody’s apartment, the sink counter full of soaps, detergents, a toothbrush in a mug. An uncomfortably close shot from just behind a swimmer about to dive into a river. Many other photos within are unfocused, blurry, or almost abstract. “We wanted to seek after beauty in an image, with no limit to form,” says Zhong, and indeed, this resulted in a book of images stretching the limits of what might be considered beautiful.

As rejections of the search for perfection in digital media, these images are ideal. Understanding them as responses to a theme related to beauty, though, requires the viewer to do some further digging on their own. One could push oneself to draw out poetic interpretations of the beauty of the above images. The decal: quiet, tired individuality. The bathroom: the warmth of a cluttered home. The swimmer: mankind’s vigor, in action. Alternatively, one might ask whether the photos themselves are meant to be beautiful, or if they actually depict the fish and birds responding to something else beautiful about the world.

这种宽泛的概念在《象曰》第三期“沉鱼落雁”征稿照片中得到了淋漓诠释。随着智能手机和照片编辑软件的普及，使得“完美定格”的照片似乎比以往任何时候都更易于获得，但本期主题却背道而弛。当我问及作为主编的他是如何选择照片时，他有点不以为然，只回道：“一张好的照片可以是各种各样的。但就我个人而言，有一种照片是我绝对不会选的，就是那种明显经过大量后期修图的照片。”

本期期刊的主题是“沉鱼落雁”，这个成语描述的是动物看到绝色美人之后的反应。然而，乍一看，本期所选的一些照片却似乎与这个主题差之千里：破旧的白色汽车，车门上斑驳脱落的樱花贴纸；某个公寓里雾气弥漫的浴室，水槽上堆满肥皂、清洁剂，以及一支装在杯子里的牙刷；还有一张是从即将纵深一跃跳入河中的游泳者身后捕捉的特写镜头，其拍摄角度看上去感觉份外别扭。里面的许多照片都是失焦、模糊或抽象的。“我们试图在意象中寻找美，不设任何形式的限制。”钟林江解释道，于是便有了这一本“用不同意象拓展美的界限”的杂志。

若说是要驳斥数字媒体对完美的追求，这些照片已经足以诠释。但如何让观众理解这其实更是“对美的延伸”，则需要人们自行深入探索。要在这些列举照片中，推敲出诗意的阐述，读者是需要下功夫去思索的。车门上的贴纸暗指着安静和疲惫的个体；浴室代表着一个乱哄哄的家所带来的温馨感；以及纵深跳下水的泳者，他是人类活力与能动性的体现。或许人们也会问，这些照片本身就是为了表现美丽，抑或它们代表了“鱼”和“雁”对美丽事物的真实反应。

Suffice it to say that Xiangyue is interested in the way that an image that seems nondescript, framed the right way, can flick a switch in a viewer’s imagination. To the attentive eye, the apparently imperfect image becomes more worthy of attention than the perfect; the ordinary moment reveals itself to be more unique than the rare; the unfocused lens shows something that would otherwise never have been seen. Ultimately, if a picture doesn’t seem to be about beauty at first, one has to admit that its inclusion in the book’s narrative elevates it to be part of the conversation.

In the editor’s letter of the issue, Zhong asks whether the photo book is a work of art in its own right, then humbly declines to answer—but in fact, the editorial choices are no small part of what makes it engaging. “Editing a photography book, one needs to pay close attention to story and rhythm,” he says. “There were some photographs that I liked but, to my regret, didn’t select, because they didn’t align with either the given theme or the overall style of the book.” Photos are arranged with great attention to detail, and distracting information, such as photographers’ names, is left to the end credits so that the images can tell their story unimpeded. Certain photos are isolated to give them space to soliloquize; others are juxtaposed to put them in conversation with each other, or so they can amplify each other’s respective messages.

毋庸置疑，《象曰》想传达的是，看似无可名状的图像，若加以恰当的装裱，却能触动观者想象力的开关。对于细心的观众来说，表面上不完美的意象比完美的意象更引人入胜；平凡的瞬间比难得的时刻更为独特；失焦的镜头反而展示出原本看不到的东西。归根结底，如果一幅画初看之下并不那么美，那当它被纳入本书时，便使得它成为对话的一部分。

在本期杂志的“编辑之语”中，钟林江提出一个问题：这本摄影书本身是否是一件艺术品，但又谦虚地拒绝回答。事实上，本书引人入胜之处也在于编辑的选图。“在编辑摄影书时，要特别注意故事性和节奏。有些照片我很喜欢，但很遗憾没有收录，因为它们不符合给定的主题或书的整体风格。”在排版上，也要特别注重照片细节，一些容易分散注意力的信息（如摄影师的名字）都放到了书的最后部分，以使照片自身可以一气呵成地讲述故事。一些照片被隔离出来，留出独白的空间；有些则被并列排放，可供彼此对话呼应，或强调各自所传达的信息。

Left to right: Ding Ding & Zhong Linjiang 左到右：丁丁与钟林江

Near the back of the book is a page that simply reads, “Every book of Xiangyue is a seed.” What do they hope will grow out of that seed? “Our objective, on some level, is to inject fresh blood into Chinese photography,” he says, “and to change some of the status quo of photography and art circles.” He notes that the majority of China’s photography enthusiasts aren’t pursuing the medium as a means to make contemporary art. In the photography section of video platform Bilibili, most channels tend to focus on technical subjects such as camera specs and lenses. Xiangyue’s channel is an anomaly in the photography section of video platform Bilibili, where other channels tend to focus on technical subjects such as camera specs and lenses.

这本摄影书结尾有一页写着：“每一本《象曰》杂志都是一颗种子。”那他们希望这颗种子能长出什么呢？“从某种程度上说，我们的目标是为中国摄影注入新鲜血液，改变摄影和艺术界的一些现状。”他解释道。他指出，中国大多数摄影爱好者并不是把摄影作为创作当代艺术的手段。在 B 站的摄影版块中，大多数账号都侧重于研究相机、镜头等技术题材。而“象曰频道”却是平台上的一个异类，它侧重于提供艺术家采访和讨论如何分析一张照片之类的视频内容。

The upcoming fourth issue of Xiangyue will come in a transparent dust jacket. 即将发售的《象曰》第四期会有一个透明外壳

None of this is to say that Xiangyue is explicitly anti-digital, anti-photo editing, or anti-technique. Their logo, inspired by the curvature of a fish-eye lens, is tied to their belief in viewing the world from different perspectives. And in a way, the Xiangyue ethos certainly seems to be a response to contemporary trends in Shanghai; for instance, the team’s humble workshop is not far from glitzy high-rise malls that grant pride of place to virtual reality pop-ups, increasingly sophisticated interactive media displays, and sportswear ads with models edited to look somewhere between unreal and hyper-real. For the upcoming fourth issue, they draw inspiration from Zhuangzi’s belief in uncovering the merits of nothingness, which feels particularly aligned with the team’s overall vision. Amid all this rush for faster, more advanced, higher quality, new and improved, Xiangyue prefers to slow down. They find the beauty that already exists all around us, turn it into a seed, plant it, and wait patiently for it to grow.

但这一切并不代表“象曰”就是反数码、反后期或反技术，形似鱼眼的 Logo 更像是一种看世界的眼光，以作为某种对上海当代潮流的回应；例如，团队简陋的工作室不远处就是繁华的大型购物中心，而这些购物中心往往是各种虚拟现实装置和复杂交互式媒体的展示平台，还常常能看到一些运动服装广告中，经过后期修图，看上去近乎虚幻与超真实的模特。在这座城市急切追逐更快、更先进、更高级、更新颖和不断提升的浪潮中，《象曰》的第四期“无何有之乡”诞生了——它的本意是什么都没有的地方，用来指一种精神境界，并影射某种价值观。不过，眼下尚且的荒芜又有什么呢？只要你愿意放慢脚步，发现我们周围本已存在的美，把它变成一粒种子，播撒下去，然后耐心地等待它破土而生，无有便是所有。

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Website: www.xiangyue2020.com
Instagram: @xiangyue2020
Weibo: ~/elefantfoto
Bilibili: ~/象曰

 

Contributor: Kiril Bolotnikov
Photographer: Chan Qu
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.xiangyue2020.com
Instagram: @xiangyue2020
微博: ~/elefantfoto
哔哩哔哩: ~/象曰

 

供稿人: Kiril Bolotnikov
摄影师: Chan Qu
英译中: Olivia Li

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Coochies for Sale 秘密滋味

April 13, 2021 2021年4月13日

Long before homebound activities became the norm due to COVID-19, Lac Hoang and Nguyen Linh Phuong Thao enjoyed spending time indoors. To two formally trained artists, cooking and sewing aren’t just household chores: they are sources of creative gratification and empowerment. While they work independently, the two Vietnamese creatives have a common interest: the female genitalia. Hoang’s brand, Clay Cookies, sells butter cookies in the likeness of vaginas and Nguyen’s Cái lồn gì đấy (meaning “What the cunt”) offers an embroidery service that stitches together ripped clothing with mini vaginas and nipples.

新冠疫情爆发，人人被迫居家，但对于越南艺术家 Lac Hoang 和 Nguyen Linh Phuong Thao 来说不是问题，她们原本就是“阿宅”。她们都是艺术专业出身，哪怕是下厨和缝纫，对她们来说也绝不仅仅是普通的家务，更是她们发挥创意与获取赋能的源泉。虽然二人分开独立创作，但却有着一个共同兴趣：女性生殖器。Hoang 的品牌 Clay Cookies 出售着阴户形状的黄油饼干，而 Nguyen 的品牌 Cái lồn gì đấy （意为“What the cunt”）则提供刺绣作品，用阴户与乳头图案缝补撕裂的衣服。

Lac Hoang
Nguyen Linh Phuong Thao

Women’s sexual organs in art have a complex history. While fertility worship is common in Vietnamese tradition, the vulva is only celebrated for its reproductive function and almost always placed alongside its male counterpart. Paintings and photographs by largely male artists feature female nudity, but the lady bits are often hidden away as if they were vulgar or, at best, an object of mystery. Nguyen finds such representation, or lack thereof, problematic. “Most women, myself included, have no idea what our own body looks like,” she says. Similarly, citing the dearth of sex education growing up, Hoang resorts to online pornographic and medical images to study female anatomy, as they are the only two sources that depict the part up close and personal.

在艺术创作的历史上，女性性器官有着复杂的故事。尽管越南传统文化也存在生育崇拜，但女阴只因其生殖功能而受到推崇，并且几乎总是与男性生殖器官并列放置。在由男性艺术家创作的大部分画作和摄影作品中，虽然也会出现裸露的女性形象，但女性的性器官却常常被刻意隐藏起来，仿佛那过于庸俗，或充其量是神秘的物体。Nguyen 认为这种表现形式或刻意的遮掩并不妥当。她说：“很多女性，包括我自己在内，都不知道自己的身体是什么样的。”同样，对于 Hoang 来说，由于缺乏性教育，她只能诉诸于网络色情作品和医学图片来研究女性的身体，这是唯二她能近距离真实了解这一身体部位的来源。

Hoang became a fervent home cook while studying abroad. She found that, with food, she could bring people together and make them happy. The kitchen affords her a certain freedom absent in the art world where a piece has to tick certain boxes to be considered valid. Since completing her art degree in the midst of the pandemic, Hoang takes on odd jobs to make a living, but her primary source of income has now become selling homemade baked goods. Pivoting from her art degree, she’s now preparing for an alternative career in F&B and is testing the water with her vulva-shaped cookies She sees her pastries as “a happy medium between food and art,” and selling them has helped her learn the ropes of how to manage a business. Just hours after the online launch, orders from curious buyers started pouring in.

Lac Hoang 出国留学期间喜欢上了下厨。她发现食物可以拉近人与人的距离，让人变得快乐。在艺术的世界，总要满足一些条条框框才算“达标”，而厨房却让她在艺术以外获得了一种自由。她在毕业时恰巧碰上疫情，只能打打零工谋生，但是现在她的主要收入来源已经变成出售自制的烘焙糕点。她想运用自己的艺术创意，进军餐饮行业，这些阴部形状的饼干就是她的尝试。她将自己的烘焙糕点视为“食物与艺术之间一种有趣的媒介”，在这个过程中，她也在学习如何经营生意。上网推出自己的烘焙糕点几小时后，她就收到了很多好奇的买家所下的订单。

Hoang’s typical day begins in the kitchen where she mixes simple, utilitarian ingredients: butter, all-purpose flour, and eggs. After kneading and blending food dye into the dough, she starts sculpting fleshy folds with her ring fingers: the vagina, labia minora, and labia majora. Out of the oven, they look slightly puffed as if aroused. She then adorns them with chocolate squiggles and sprinkles, a pearl-like sugar bead sitting on the clitoris.

Lac Hoang 的一天都从厨房开始，各种基本的食材诸如黄油、面粉和鸡蛋成为了她的创作工具。她揉捏面团并加入一些食用色素，然后用无名指仔细地雕琢出肉的褶皱：外阴、小阴唇和大阴唇。从烤箱中取出来时，这些饼干看起来略微膨化，像是性兴奋了一样。最后，她会在饼干上撒上一些巧克力和彩糖，并在阴蒂位置放上一颗珍珠般的糖珠。

Her cookies land somewhere between cutesy and kooky. “While baby pink is the desired shade for vagina-rejuvenation procedures, my cookies are much more saturated and artificial-looking”, she says. She once received a comment on Instagram saying the cookies look like they’re infested with STDs. “Everybody’s got HPV, okay”, she laughs, quoting comedian Ali Wong. Branded as intentionally lowbrow, her edible art feels chaotic, organic, sensual. Despite their appearance, the confections are incredibly tasty.

Lac Hoang 的饼干既可爱又古怪。她说：“虽然人们做阴道修复手术时都想变得粉嫩一些，但我的饼干颜色更深，有一种人造的风格。”曾经有人在她的 Instagram 上留言，说这些饼干看起来像染了性病。她笑着引用喜剧演员黄阿丽(Ali Wong)的话说：“谁还没有过 HPV 呢！”她的艺术饼干有一种刻意而为的低俗化，混乱疯狂，毫不造作，又充满情色意味。不论外形如何，吃起来还是相当美味的。

Nguyen’s elegant needlework is loaded with a darker context. Growing up in a strict, patriarchal household and having survived multiple sexual assaults, she regards hand-sewing vulva shapes as an act of self-care and resistance. A self-described “diligent pussy patcher,” she toils away at an embroidery hoop on most days, spending from several hours to a consecutive week on a piece.

She has been practicing this slow craft on her own for some time before starting an embroidery service as an outlet for intimate, one-on-one conversations with other women. She offers to fix worn-out clothes by embroidering a vulva on top of torn or stained surfaces. She has since given a second life to a variety of garments, including denim pants, T-shirts, knit cardigans, velour blankets, and more. Guided by imagination, she patches rips and exposed seams with blooming vulvas, tiny nipples, or even a rearranged reproductive system.

Nguyen Linh Phuong 优雅的针线作品却透露着一种暗黑的氛围。她成长于一个家规森严的父权家庭，曾遭受过多次的性侵犯。在她看来，手工缝制的阴户图案象征着一种自我保护和抵抗。她自称是“勤奋的阴道缝纫工”，整日埋头在绣花箍上穿针引线，一件作品需要花费几个小时到一个星期不等。

在很长的一段时间里，她一直独自练习这种“慢工出细活”的工艺；现在，她开始提供刺绣服务，藉此与其他女性进行亲密的一对一对话。她在破损或脏污的表面上绣上阴户图案，修补各种旧衣服。到目前为此，她已经翻新过各种各类的衣服，包括牛仔裤、T 恤、针织开衫、丝绒毯子等等。她借助丰富的创意想象，用阴户、乳头，甚至是重新排列的生殖器官来遮盖衣物的裂缝。

The bold project title Cái lồn gì đấy is a play on words. It is an expression of surprise and disgust, the reaction which she predicts onlookers would blurt out when seeing an ornate vulva hanging from a piece of clothing. Across languages, the female genitalia is frequently used in derogatory curse words, implying perceived shame and vulgarity. Clipped and harsh, lồn, meaning cunt, is likely the most offensive sound in the Vietnamese vocabulary. Yet she decides to use it instead of other tame monikers, hoping to dilute its cruelty and reclaim ownership of the term.

大胆的作品标题“Cái lồn gì đấy”（意为“What the cunt”）一语双关，既出人意外，也令人厌恶，她认为这是旁人看到这些衣服上的外阴图案时会脱口而出的反应。在各国语言的粗口里，经常会出现女性生殖器，让这种器官蒙上了一层羞耻与粗俗的色彩。“lồn”这个词意为阴道，发音短促刺耳，可能是越南语最令人反感的一个字。然而，她依然坚持使用这个标题，而不是其他循规蹈矩的标题，其意图在于淡化这个字的冒犯性，重新获得对这个字的话语权。

Graduating from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, Nguyen is familiar with the deep-seated hierarchy of art media. Oil and lacquer paintings are universally revered, instantly qualifying as “serious art,” while contemporary mediums still have a hard time finding their ways into institutions. In fact, embroidery is especially looked down upon since it only requires relatively cheap materials and basic techniques. Despite being well versed in traditional media, Nguyen chooses to work with this underappreciated medium. She explains her fondness by saying that it reminds her of playing with stuffed animals as a child. Aside from the focus on fabrics, repurposing secondhand things is another prominent aspect of her art. For a piece titled Exposure/Hiding, she installed a wall of vulva cushions made from pieces of cloth her grandmother saved up from the subsidy period, which have little practical use in today’s modern life. Depicting the mysterious veil around the female sex organ, the exhibition space is kept dark and the audience has to use a flashlight if they wish to see her work in detail. With its abstract presentation, the audience doesn’t always recognize the work for what it is right away. When they do, it’s often followed by giggles, embarrassed looks, or raised eyebrows.

Nguyen Linh Phuong 毕业于越南美术大学，对艺术媒介的等级划分尤其熟悉。油画作品是“严肃艺术”，广受推崇，而当代新兴媒介的艺术作品至今仍然难以得到“体制”的认可。实际上，刺绣就一直备受轻视，原因在于其创作只需要便宜的材料和基本的技巧。虽然 Nguyen 也精通传统的艺术媒介创作，但她依然选择了这种未被充分重视的媒介。她说自己之所以喜欢刺绣，是因为刺绣会让她回想起小时候玩毛绒玩具的经历。除了注重面料的选择之外，重新利用二手物品也是她艺术创作的另一个重点。在一件名为《Exposure/Hiding》（暴露/隐藏）的作品中，她铺满了一墙的阴户靠垫，所用的布料来自她祖母在贫穷的年代积攒的布料，这些布料在现代的生活中几乎已经没有合适的用途。整个展览空间一片黑暗，以此突显围绕在女性性器官上的神秘面纱。如果观众想仔细观察她的作品，就必须打开手电筒。加上抽象的风格，观众有时不能马上意识到作品所描画的内容。而当他们看清之后，往往都会吃吃地笑出身，旋即露出尴尬或吃惊的表情。

Having their work available for purchase encourages interaction and further drives conversations about these hush-hush topics. Hoang plans to make cookies that tackle other relevant subjects such as female pleasure and sexual diversity, thus promoting civilized communication on sex. Luckily, Nguyen and Hoang aren’t alone. There’s a movement to normalize discussions about sex and sexuality in Vietnam with a handful of active community art projects that have popped up, notably Bàn lộn (Vulva Talks) which invites participants from all walks of life to draw their perception of the vulva and share their personal relationship with it.

While not intentionally made to provoke, their handcrafted vulvas send a powerful message. They skirt the virtue of modesty, grace, appropriateness; qualities that have confined women by putting them on a pedestal. Through cookie dough and embroidery tools, two young artists put forward their own version of femininity and elevate women’s everyday creativity as a form of art.

创作这些便于购买的作品能鼓励更多的互动，进一步推动人们谈论这些“禁忌”话题。Nguyen Linh Phuong计划制作其他相关主题的饼干，例如女性愉悦和性多元化问题，促进人们对性话题进行更多有意义的交流。值得庆幸的是，Nguyen Linh Phuon 和 Lac Hoang 并非孤军奋战。在越南，人们正开展一项运动，旨在通过一些活跃的社区艺术项目鼓励人们探讨性与性取向的问题，其中一个突出的项目就是“Bàn lộn”（阴道对话）。该活动会邀请各行各业的人来分享他们对阴道的看法与见解，以及自己与阴道的个人关系。

她们的阴道艺术作品并非旨在故意挑衅，但仍传达了一个强有力的信息，抛开了谦虚、优雅和得体这些道德绑架女性的特质。这两位年轻的艺术家通过面团和针线，表达着自己眼中的女性气质，将女性在生活里的平凡创意，变成一种艺术形式。

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Instagrams: @claycookiesvn | @cailongiday_wtc

 

Contributor & Photographer: Ha Dao
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagrams: @claycookiesvn | @cailongiday_wtc

 

供稿人与摄影师: Ha Dao
英译中: Olivia Li

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Etched in Graphite 你的故事从城中的空白色开始撰写

April 9, 2021 2021年4月9日

When an artist falls in love with a city, it happens in two ways. There’s the outsider who sees it from a fresh perspective, appreciating the scenes that locals often dismiss (sometimes unnecessarily so). And then there are those who are born and raised in the city and are able to savor the nuances and subtleties that take years to truly understand. So Chun Man falls into the latter category, and his drawings seek to capture every little detail of Hong Kong, the city he grew up in.

当艺术家恋上一座城，通常会以两种方式来表达自己的情感。一种是作为局外人，从一个全新的角度来看待城市，采集那些被当地人遗忘（或没有遗忘）的场景；另一种是作为城市土生土长的居民，在常年累月中逐渐学会欣赏这座城市细微之处的魅力。自小在香港长大的蘇頌文就属于后者，他善于通过绘画，记录下香港这座城市的每一处细节。

Under the moniker Pen So, he draws black-and-white sketches that range from detailed cityscapes and renderings of historic Hong Kong architecture to moments of mundane daily life and dystopian reimaginings of the city. “Many of us who live here take the urban environment for granted,” he says. “But the city keeps being built and evolving over time. Therefore I want to record everything while it still exists.”

他以 Pen So 为名创作了一系列黑白素描作品，将细致的城市景观、历史悠久的香港建筑、平凡的生活场景，乃至在这座城市中滋生的反乌托邦式幻想等等，统统以绘画的形式记录下来。他说：“许多港人都对身处的环境早已见怪不怪了，但其实，这座城市一直随着时间的流逝不断演变。因此，我想趁一切还未改变之前，把印象中熟悉的香港记录下来。”

When possible, So uses his own photos for reference, drawing the snapshots out with ink pens and fudepen brushes on paper. Each piece takes about eight to ten hours total and most are A3 size, although some are smaller. He often draws in a traditional comics-art style, which has become his signature aesthetic.

平时在创作时，蘇頌文常常以实景拍摄照片作为参照，再用墨水笔和毛钢笔（Fudepen）在纸上临摹出来。每幅作品大约需要 8 到 10 个小时完成，通常都是 A3 纸大小的篇幅，偶尔会更小一些。他沿用传统的黑白漫画创作方式，也渐渐成为了他的标志性风格。

So’s idea of creating a historical record can be quite literal at times, with realistic drawings of buildings and landmarks. Some of these buildings still exist as shells of their former selves while others have been completely demolished. “Historic sites have so many stories and so much character,” he says. “New architecture is just a bunch of glass walls.” For example, Kowloon Walled City, the ultra-dense, towering enclave that was demolished in the ‘90s lives on in his catalog. The withering State Theatre, which faces imminent redevelopment soon, is captured in its past glory as well.

他的作品像是以日记的方式记录这座城市，创作的方式直截了当，往往都是写实的建筑或标志性影像。他笔下的建筑，有一些至今仍然保留从前的外壳，而另一些则在近几年已被拆除。他说：“城市中的遗迹埋藏着故事和味道。那些后来新建的建筑却往往只是一堆玻璃砖墙，没什么人情味儿。”例如在九十年代被拆除的密密麻麻的九龙城寨，还有即将面临重建的皇都戏院，都被他用笔记录下那些过往的辉煌。

He also seizes on more fleeting moments that come and go, centered on the city’s inhabitants. The lives of street vendors and newspaper salesmen are just as celebrated in his works as aging storefronts and architectural feats.

此外，他还尤其擅长捕捉城市居民那些稍纵即逝的瞬间。在他的作品中，街头小贩和报纸推销员的生活和那些陈旧店面和宏伟建筑一样引人入胜。

Despite his love for the city,  So also likes to imagine Hong Kong within the throes of disaster. Pulling inspiration from horror movies, he often draws the city in total collapse, with whole city blocks destroyed and skyscrapers toppled over. Zombie apocalypses are fair game as well. “Hong Kong doesn’t face many natural disasters, so people here don’t have a strong sense of urgency in this regard,” he says of his interest in destruction. “I hope my work can be a reminder for them.”

即便热爱这座城市，蘇頌文也常常想象香港陷于灾难的景象。他从恐怖片中汲取灵感，把香港想象成一座彻底陷于崩溃的城市，所有街区毁于一旦，摩天大楼轰然倒塌。丧尸末日也是他常用的题材。关于自己这种对灾难题材的着迷，他解释说：“香港很少有自然灾害，所以人们在这方面并没有什么紧张感。希望我的作品能给观众一些忧患意识。”

In So’s first book, Hong Kong Havoc, readers view the city through the eyes of a character living through a disaster. It’s drawn like a visual diary of the main character. Readers can also add to it by filling in blank post-it notes and other spaces within the book. He’s continued that interactive element with his latest graphic novel, Trap, challenging readers to research and solve puzzles to learn more about the book. “To find out the ending, readers need to search online and view certain Facebook posts and news stories,” he says. “I try to really engage my audience to make them think more.”

在蘇頌文发行的第一本画册《Hong Kong Havoc》（香港浩劫）中，观众可以身处灾难的视角反观这座城市。画册以日记的形式呈现，读者还可以填写书中的空白处来对书中的剧情进行联想。在他的最新绘画小说《Trap》（陷阱）中，So 延续了互动环节，希望尽可能发散读者的想象力，同时也加深了他们对整本书的理解。他说：“你在书中并不能找到结局，读者需要上网搜索，查看一些 Facebook 帖子和新闻报道。我希望能让读者与我的作品进行有意思的互动，引导他们产生更多关于香港的思考。”

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Instagram: @penso
Facebook: ~/pen.so.10

 

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。

 

Instagram: @penso
Facebook: ~/pen.so.10

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Distorted Perception 生活扭曲了，活着的意义是什么？

April 7, 2021 2021年4月7日

Reality is what you make of it. But just because everyone around you believes in something doesn’t mean that it’s true. John Lawrence Canto recognizes how media filters the reality in front of us and the growing importance of translating the facts on the ground correctly. Questions about how media changes our understanding of ourselves and the world have been around since the days of the printing press, and it’s a subject that the Filipino artist continues to zero in on today. He even recognizes his own artwork as affecting people’s perceptions of the world and tries to use that tool for the common good.

现实存在于每个人的理解，并不是所有人都相信的事物就是真的。菲律宾艺术家 John Lawrence Canto 认为，大众传播工具往往将现实加上各种滤镜再呈现给人们，反倒让真正的现实变得愈发罕见。自印刷机问世以来，人们就一直在探讨传播工具如何改变人们对自己和世界的理解，而这也是 John 在当下所关注的话题。他甚至认为，自己的艺术作品也会影响观众对世界的看法，并试图通过自己的绘画为人们带来一些积极作用。

Canto’s mixed-media canvases use serigraph printing techniques with distinctive halftone shading, evoking the comic-book aesthetic of the past. His subjects are often warped as if being viewed from a strange angle on a piece of paper and television sets populate many scenes, a symbol for all the different media that populate our lives. Sunday morning comics, ‘70s pop art, and janky photocopiers are all fair game to him. His work is steeped in these vintage techniques and references to different eras of media from the past century. But he uses them to deal with contemporary issues head on.

John 的多媒体混合艺术作品运用了丝网印刷工艺，加上独特的半色调着色，勾兑出老式漫画的风格。他笔下的人物角色看起来以某种奇怪的角度弯曲在纸面上。此外，屏闪的电视机常常画中诸多的场景出现，以此隐喻生活中无处不在的传播工具。周日晨间漫画，70 年代的波普艺术和笨重的影印机都是他常用的素材。他在作品中运用各种老派的绘画技巧，糅合上世纪不同媒体时代的元素，揭示着当代我们所处的社会问题。

Canto revels in CMYK palettes, leaning on these color schemes to evoke imagery of comic-book art and aging adverts. Faces are discolored and colors don’t quite perfectly stay within the fill lines. Everything is saturated and surreal, casting a discomfiting vibe to styles once used to communicate aspirational imagery. The people he depicts are regularly swirling in a way that resembles a cathode-ray tube set struggling to lock onto a wavelength. Other times, his painted characters aren’t even people at all, but crash-test dummies.

John 十分偏爱 CMYK（印刷四分色模式，运用青色、洋红色、黄色和黑色在纸张上实现全彩印刷），这种类型的印刷色总令他回想起漫画书和旧时广告。他的作品中，人物面部往往不做过多着色，画面的颜色分布也并不受线条限制。所有的一切都被深色背景包围，一股浓郁的超现实感从画面中冒出。他笔下的人物仿佛正围绕着超声波长在扭曲地旋转排列。除此之外，面中的人物有时甚至只是撞车测试的假人。

In an era of algorithmic content, Canto captures the anxiety that constantly plagues so many of us. In his art, subjects run around with an unrelenting, nervous energy, no longer guided by the existential answers once offered by religion and philosophy. Instead, his characters are shown blindly chasing make-believe goals and vainly filling their homes with the latest appliances and gadgets.

In Watch Out For The Pothole, they meander aimlessly about, recklessly crashing into objects and themselves. They’re cloned ad infinitum in Too Much Thinking until it’s unclear which is the real character. Even the characters themselves can’t seem to tell who’s who, nor do they care, as they swing construction tools wildly at the fun-house mirrors surrounding them in Dig Ourselves Out Of A Hole. Eventually, they start spiraling uncontrollably, as depicted in Inside This Faulty Machine. This most recent series is colored more darkly than usual because of quarantine and features an out-of-control, circular repetition resembling a zoetrope.

算法时代，John 尝试用作品捕捉困扰许多人那种焦虑情绪。因此，他刻意在作品中营造出某种混乱与紧迫感，是宗教和哲学理论都未能解决或阐述的混沌状态。画中的人们盲目地追逐着不切实际的目标，用新款的电器和设备填满他们的家，也难以填满他们焦虑和虚空的内心世界。

在作品《Watch Out For The Pothole》（当心路坑）中，漫无目的的人彼此徘徊，他们东倒西歪，不停撞向对方或自己；在作品《Too Much Thinking》（想太多）中，人物被无限复制，他们根本无法辨认哪一个才是真生的自己，但倒也显得满不在乎；在另一幅名为《Dig Ourselves Out Of A Hole》（从洞中挖出自己）的作品中，他们对着四周的哈哈镜疯狂地挥舞着建筑工具；最后，在新作《Inside This Faulty Machine》（在故障机器）中，人们开始失控。由于近期的疫情，这个新系列的色调比 John 以往更加灰暗。而整个系列看起来就像一个圆柱形的幻影灯，呈现着人们失控和崩溃的轮回。

The series Signals from the Back Burner finds Canto’s subjects at home, residing in dark rooms with bare walls and ripped curtains, lit only by the ominous glow of their televisions. They’re unable to look directly at their family, friends, or themselves and are instead left gazing into on-screen doppelgangers. Their actual selves are rendered meaningless by interfering signals that contort them into unrecognizable shapes.

在《Signals from the Back Burner》（次要信号）系列中，黑暗的房间下家徒四壁，只有残旧的窗帘，唯一的亮光来自电视机。他们无法直视家人、朋友或他们自己，只能凝视着屏幕上的分身。通过干扰信号，他们被扭曲成无法识别的轮廓，真实的自己因而变得意义全无。

In the Like Humans Are series, partners affectionately embrace their loved ones—one crash-test dummy slumped into a depressing pile on the floor and another hoisted up like a martyr. Whether the dummy represents a blank slate for the partner to project their desires onto or if it symbolizes a person being crushed by the experiments of those in positions of power doesn’t matter. The interpretation is up to you. Or is it?

在《Like Humans Are》（就和人类一样）系列中，情侣们深情拥抱着各自的爱人——有的假人无力地倒在地板上，有的则像烈士一样被高高挂起。这些假人究竟投射了人们内心欲望的白板，又或代表着掌权者手下被压垮的后果，这些都不重要，因为 John 将对作品解析的权利交在了观众手中。

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Website: www.lawrencecanto.com
Instagram: @cantolawrence

 

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.lawrencecanto.com
Instagram: @cantolawrence

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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High-Brow Hentai 饕餮撕漫女

April 2, 2021 2021年4月2日

Renaissance artists looked at the Greco-Roman world as a golden era of art. They strived to match the archetypical work of the ancient greats but heighten it with the techniques and aesthetics of their own time. Similarly, South Korean artist Lee Yunsung looks at the past for inspiration, tapping into both milestones of European art history to compose brightly colored oil, acrylic, and digital paintings. He recreates scenes from classical mythology and the Bible but in a highly sexualized manga style, using all the freedom the genre provides.

“My work is a reconstruction of old narratives into a contemporary expression, but it isn’t easy to define my intention,” he says. “It would be more accurate to say that, out of various attempts, I found ‘odd combinations’ to be a way of creating new meanings.” 

文艺复兴时期的艺术家将希腊罗马的古典艺术视为艺术的黄金时代，致力于达到古典大师的杰作水准，同时以自己时代的新技巧和美学风格进一步升华。同样，韩国艺术家 Lee Yunsung 也从过去找寻灵感，生于 1985 年的他，借鉴了欧洲艺术史上的两大里程碑，创作出色彩鲜艳的油画、丙烯画和数字绘画。他借助漫画的自由无拘，以情色化的漫画风格，重新演绎着古典神话与圣经的场景。

他说：“我的作品旨在以当代的表达方式，重构旧的叙事，但要确定我的意图并不容易。更准确的说法是，通过各种尝试，我发现‘奇怪的组合’是创造新意义的方式。”

Perhaps the most striking example is his early work, The Last Judgement, a digital piece based on Michelangelo’s eponymous fresco at the Vatican. Lee maintains the scale and drama of the original. There’s confusion, viciousness, and joy—the blessed rise to heaven and the damned succumb to hell. However, apart from two male figures and several demons and skeletons, only naked youthful women populate Lee’s version. Jesus is right at the center, but instead of strong and willful, he appears as a foolish-looking boy, overwhelmed by his surroundings.

他最引人注目的作品莫过于早期的一副《最后的审判》（The Last Judgement），这是以米开朗基罗的梵蒂冈同名壁画为原型创作的数字作品。Yunsung 保留了原作的巨大篇幅和戏剧性，在其中充斥着混乱、邪恶和欢乐——受祝福的人升上天堂，受诅咒的则坠入地狱。然而，在 Yunsung 这幅画里，除了两个男性角色和一些恶魔和骷髅，放眼望去，全是赤裸的年轻女性角色。画面正中的男孩是耶稣，但他看起来一点也不强大或高高在上，相反，他看起来只是一个傻乎乎的男孩，被四周的场景弄得惊慌失措。

In another digital work, Lee paints Laocoön and his Sons, an ancient sculpture from the Hellenistic period, also at the Vatican today. In marble, the original depicts the father and his two sons strangled by two serpents sent by the Gods to kill them. Lee replicates the men’s battle and body poses but replaces them with three naked women, also in total despair while fighting with the massive reptiles. The women have their arms amputated in the exact spots where the statue is broken off.

在另一幅数字作品中，Yunsung 画的是古希腊时期的雕塑作品《拉奥孔和他的儿子们》（Laocoön and his Sons），这件大理石雕塑如今也被珍藏于梵蒂冈，描绘了拉奥孔和他的两个儿子被众神派来的巨蛇缠死的画面。Yunsung 画了三个裸体的女子，复刻了原作中父亲与儿子的挣扎和身体姿势，以及与巨蛇缠斗时的绝望，甚至还保留了原作雕像折断的手臂。

Women with mutilated appendages are a recurrent theme in Lee’s works, especially in the series Torso. They gush out venous blood through their open wounds, flowing out and filling the background with kawaii shapes, such as floating stars and hearts. This series was inspired by the damaged marble statues from the ancient world and the ending scene of Ghost in the Shell. The heroine of the latter, cyborg Makoto Kusanagi, has her body dismembered while fighting a machine. She appears naked, ecstatic, and vulnerable—just like Lee’s women. 

肢体残缺的女性是 Yunsung 作品中反复出现的主题，尤其是在《躯干》（Torso）系列中。在他笔下，这些女性敞开的伤口血液喷涌，变成漂浮的星星和心形等可爱形状，填充于背景中。该系列的灵感源自残缺的古典大理石雕像以及 1995 年赛博朋克动画片《攻壳机动队》的结尾场景。在影片里，女主角机械人草薙素子在与机器搏斗时，身体被肢解，看上去赤裸、狂喜又脆弱，正如 Yunsung 笔下的女性。

In the oil painting series Danae, Lee reimagines the story of the supposedly beautiful Greek mythical princess. As legend has it, Danae’s father imprisoned her in a chamber with no doors or windows. Zeus, who desired her, broke into the chamber and impregnated her with Perseus. Upon finding out, Danae’s father locked her and her newborn son inside a wooden chest, casting it into the sea. Lee paints Danae in three different hues—pink, blue, and yellow—and in the various emotional states that correspond to her tribulations. He split the paintings into different polygonal sections as if different containers of a manga page.

He’s also painted other deities and the twelve Olympians as glorified, youthful, and innocent women. In a sudden change of tone, Lee represents the Three Graces—eternally young and lovely goddesses—in achromatic oil on canvas paintings. Conversely, these non-digital paintings bare the pixelate effect of zoomed-in computer images.

在油画系列《达那厄》（Danae）中，Yunsung 重新构想了这位美丽的希腊神话公主的故事。传说达那厄的父亲把她囚禁在一个没有门窗的密室里。爱慕她的宙斯闯进密室，使她受孕并生下了珀尔修斯（Perseus）。达那厄的父亲发现后，把她和刚出生的儿子锁在一个木箱里，扔进了海里。Yunsung 用粉色、蓝色和黄色三种色调描画达那厄，并展现了与她的苦难相对应的不同情感。他按照漫画的分格形式，把整个画面切分成不规则的几个部分。

此外，他还把其他神灵和奥林匹斯十二主神描绘成耀眼、年轻和清纯的女性形象。在创作“美惠三女神”时，Yunsung 一改色彩风格，选择了黑白色调的油画形式，不同的是，这些非数字画作却又呈现出电脑图像放大后的像素化效果。

Lee admittedly borrows elements of moe for his paintings. In manga culture, moe is a rather abstract emotion embedded with protective affection towards sweet and adorable characters—usually young-looking females. Typically, moe-style females appear vulnerable, with large and expressive eyes, abundant and unnaturally colored hair, blushed cheeks, and sensual bodies. Like in Lee’s depictions, they provoke both protective instincts and sexual desire.

But he also borrows from other underground corners of manga culture. Notably, the controversial ero-guro, deemed by many as revolting but arousing sadistic enjoyment in others. The sub-genre blends eroticism with the grotesque and decadent, often involving violence and rape, with an overabundance of blood and dismembered bodies. 

在 Yunsung 成长的年代，1998 年，日本流行文化和互联网风潮席卷韩国，当时还是一名初中生的他也沉迷不已。他说：“我平生第一次买了一台电脑，装好后，我马上连上网，开始浏览日本漫画论坛。”

毕业于中央大学的美术专业的他主修绘画。在那里，他还深入学习西方古典绘画和艺术史。毕业后，他试图探索“古典叙事与当代流行文化的漫画风格之间的极端关系——一种营造相遇、冲突与和谐的结合”。

Yunsung 表示自己创作时借鉴了漫画的萌系（moe）元素。在动漫文化中，“萌”是一种相当抽象的情感，包含着一种对可爱角色（通常为年轻女性角色）的保护欲。通常，萌系风格的女性看起来楚楚可怜，有着生动的大眼睛、夸张的染色发型、红润的脸颊和丰满的身材。正如 Yunsung 笔下的角色，能激起人们的保护本能和性欲。

Lee was born in 1985 in Seoul. He was still in middle school when, in 1998, the dissemination of Japanese pop culture and high-speed internet in South Korea swept him off his feet. “I bought a computer for the first time in my life. After setting it up, I immediately connected to the internet and started browsing through Japanese manga clubs,” he says.

He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Chung-Ang University. There, among other subjects, he studied classical Western paintings and art history intensely. Upon graduation, he sought to explore “the extreme relationship between classical narratives and the comic style of contemporary pop culture—a composition that creates encounters, conflicts, and harmony.” 

与此同时，他还借鉴了一些地下漫画元素，包括极具争议性“ero-guro”（情色）元素。对于这种漫画文化，有的人厌恶反感，但另一些人却从中获得施虐的快感，这种次流派混合了情色与怪诞颓废，还常常涉及暴力和强暴的元素，充斥鲜血淋漓与肢解的身体。

At first glance, Lee’s art could strike as misogynist. However, a more in-depth look reveals that there’s far more to it than tasteless porn for gore fetishists to hang on their walls. It relies on a mixture of styles with roots on his own experience and on the verses of ancient traditions—that are often misogynist themselves—to compose storylines replete with emotional investment. 

Lee’s paintings are shocking explosions of color, but at the same time visceral and cute, tragical and comical. As he creates on the shoulders of giants from ancient and contemporary cultures, the spectrum of his references is boundless. Yet, everything is articulated as two connected ends, defined enough to yield meaning and sufficiently complex to have different interpretations. “I do not intend anything,” he says. “People can see my work differently depending on their background. A work of art is itself a mirror that reflects each viewer’s perception of the object.”

乍看之下，Yunsung 的作品有一种厌女主义。然而，走近细看，他的作品绝非纯粹为满足情色爱好者幻想的肤浅之作。他立足于自身的经历，借鉴经典传统——其中本身就充斥着厌女主义，巧妙糅合多种风格，讲述情感饱满的故事情节。

Yunsung 的绘画如同色彩的爆炸，既赤裸又可爱，是悲剧与喜剧的结合。他站在古往今来的时代巨人肩膀上创作，灵感的来源丰富多样。然而，每一件作品都是两种极端的结合：既清晰传达其意义，又足够复杂，提供不同的解读可能。他说：“我没有既定的意图。每个人都可以根据自己的背景，对我的作品有不同解读。艺术作品本身就是一面镜子，反映着每一位观众对事物的看法。”

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

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

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