Monthly Archives: May 2022

Poolside Daydreams 泳池畅想

May 24, 2022 2022年5月24日

The paintings of Fan Yang-Tsung are technicolor visions of poolside life created with crisp lines and geometric edges. Vacationers lounge along abstract decks, tanning in the sun; others swim weightlessly in hypnotically crystal-blue water or peer out from hidden vantage points behind lush green foliage. The Taiwanese artist’s work seems to balance many alternating views at once: natural and artificial, pleasure and discomfort, cleanliness and filth. And he doesn’t seem too concerned with resolving any of this, which gives his work an uncertainty that’s compelling.

范扬宗的画作以俐落线条、几何轮廓突出泳池的灿烂时光。画中的主角，有的躺在抽象化的池畔沐浴阳光；有人在葱郁的绿叶背后探头张望；还有人则仿如失重状态，飘浮于梦幻般的蔚蓝之上。这位台湾艺术家的笔触似乎在不同角度之间切换：自然与人工、愉悦与不适、纯洁与情色。而这一切却像是他无意而为之，这也让他的作品透露出引人入胜的不确定性。

Some of Fan’s work is painted from a bird’s-eye view, with pool-goers splayed about at random below. Sometimes he gets up close and personal, with a focus on someone’s sunburnt back or calves. Others are painted from an voyeuristic perspective from behind the bushes. There are paintings set inside the pool and below the water as well. All together the variety of angles and viewpoints of the same scene gives his work a , the feel of a photo album of an overzealous cameraman. It’s pretty much all men in his works, and he’s straightforward about the meaning behind this: “It’s because I’m attracted to men.”

 

在一部分作品中，范扬宗以空中俯瞰的角度来进行绘制，让泳池中玩乐的人物随性地分布于画面之上；时而，他又会拉近距离，从亲密的角度来放大阳光照射下的肌肤；有时，他又好像躲到灌木丛后，偷窥画中之人。除此之外，他还会潜入游泳池内部，从水下的角度来进行创作。同一场景的各种角度和视角，令其作品看上去就像是一个狂热摄影师的相册。他作品中的人物几乎无一例外全是男性，而他也直截了当地揭晓了背后的原因：“因为我会被男人迷住。”

Fan was born and raised in Hsinchu, a province about an hour southwest of Taipei where he still lives and works. Outdoor pools aren’t very common there, but in the capital, they’re regular and affordable. Fascinated by public pools, he realized they would make for great subject material about ten years ago. “Swimming pools are a public space where everyone can show off their bodies and express themselves,” the 40-year-old artist says. “People really enjoy being seen and seeing others. The desire of watching others’ bodies is at the same time fulfilled.”

范扬宗在新竹出生和长大，这里距离他现在生活和工作的台北西南部约一小时车程。在新竹，室外游泳池并不常见，但在台北却很普遍，而且费用低廉。他对公共游泳池很感兴趣，早在大约十年前就发现这是一个非常不错的创作主题。“作为一个公共场所，每个人都可以在游泳池展示自己的身体，表达自己，”这位时年 40 岁的艺术家说，“泳池的人们喜欢被注视，也喜欢观察他人，他们可以在这里满足观察他人身体的愿望。”

Sometimes nature is prominent in Fan’s paintings, with vibrant green trees scaling high or large verdant leaves taking up most of the foreground. But it’s always contrasted with the built environment. Sterile blue water, unnaturally green-painted surfaces, bright towering spotlights. Even his style of linear gradient shading seems to refer to the artificial, the digital. This is contrasted with a swirling paint effect used for foliage and waves. Geometric patterns are paired with curvy bubbles and wavy leaves. The pool is, after all, a human recreation of something we’re drawn to in the natural world: “People are trying to recreate this environment where they relax and interact with each other,” he says. The results are not always great though, and oftentimes he depicts the pools and surfaces as being dirty and unkempt.

有时，大自然是范扬宗的画作的主要元素，绿植高高延伸，大片青翠绿叶占据着画面大部分前景，但总是与周围的建筑环境形成鲜明对比，譬如蔚蓝色的消毒泳池、非天然的绿色油漆地面、明晃刺眼的聚光灯。就连他的线性渐变色似乎也在暗指人工与数字化，与树叶和波浪的漩涡纹理形成鲜明对比。几何图案与弧形气泡和波浪形叶子相得益彰。毕竟，游泳池是人类对所向往自然界事物的重现：“人们正试图重构这种供他们放松和交流的环境，”他说，但结果往往并不理想，很多时候，他笔下的泳池和地面显得脏乱。

Contrast is central to most of Fan’s work. A sharply delineated horizon line; a pool’s edge in a diptych that switches up colors on each side but shares a common through line; the tanlines. From pale white, to lobster red, to dark umber, he relishes differences in skin tones that he paints. He says that while tanning is often frowned on in East Asia, especially among women, it’s considered healthy and attractive for gay men. He portrays his characters lying prone in every corner of the pool, exhausted by the heady sun or happily relaxed. Awkward tan lines with pasty white flesh starkly juxtaposed alongside freshly burnt skin is a regular feature as well. “This is just a normal feature at the pool, but I try to exaggerate that aspect,” he grins. “Tan lines show off what areas are usually concealed, which suggests a sensual desire of peeking at what’s not usually available.”

在范扬宗大部分作品中，对比是核心。清晰明了的地平线，以游泳池边缘将画面分成两侧，不同的颜色并互并列，但又共享着同一条分界线；从白皙、红润再到黝黑的肤色，他热衷于绘画不同的肤色。他表示，虽然在东亚国家，人们不喜欢晒黑，特别是女性，但对男同性恋者来说，这种肤色代表着健康和吸引力。他笔下的人物俯卧在游泳池的各个角落，沐浴在热烈的阳光，或心情愉快地放松休息。除此之外，黝黑与白皙之间明显的分界线也是其作品中常见的细节。“这在游泳池边很常见，但我喜欢夸大这种效果，”他笑着说道，“这些分界线代表了人们喜欢遮盖的部位，也代表着人们渴望窥看又看不到的地方。”

While Fan paints mainly in cool colors, pastels, and pared-down tones, a sense of warmth still radiates from his canvases. Clear blue skies, dripping sweaty, and well-cooked skin imbues an unmistakable summertime vibe. He also manages to avoid easy categorization, constantly readjusting the way his work could interpreted, all the while remaining laser focused on his subject material. It makes his work instantly accessible while still encouraging deep viewing—a difficult balance that he pulls off with ease.

虽然范扬宗主要以冷色调、粉彩和低饱和度色彩绘画，但其画面上仍然洋溢着温暖感。晴朗的蓝天、汗水和皮肤，提升了画面的温度。他刻意避免作品被简单分类，不断调整作品的解读方式，同时专注于同一个主题，这使得他的作品与观众产生共鸣，又引观众对画面深入解读。他不费吹灰之力，就实现了这种巧妙的平衡。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @xyzfanxyz

 

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: @xyzfanxyz

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

From Lore to Art 菲律宾怪谈

May 19, 2022 2022年5月19日
From the Trese comic / Image via Alamat Comics 《Trese》漫画版，图片来自 Alamat Comics

An elevated streetcar screeches to a halt, its darkened silhouette sitting beneath the glare of a giant LED billboard. The passengers disembark onto the tracks, only to be swarmed by fanged creatures. This is the opening scene of “Trese,” an animated series responsible for the most famous appearance of Filipino folklore on a global platform. The show is set in the dark megalopolis of a fictional Manila, and brings to life a cast of creatures from Filipino myths in a contemporary, neo-noir storyline. “Trese” follows its namesake hero, a detective supported by magical bodyguards. The trio is called on by the police when supernatural crimes are committed, which begins happening with increasing frequency. While the show is currently the most well known, there are a number of artists today who continue these traditions through contemporary art forms, as many generations have done before them. You can find folklore in nearly every form of art in the Philippines today—in fashion editorials, illustrations, fine art, and even graffiti. These artists see it as a way to explore Filipino identity, to decolonize their art, or to revisit fond childhood memories.

随着一声巨响，一辆高架有轨电车紧急刹停，漆黑的车身停靠在一块巨型 LED 广告牌的眩光之下。乘客纷纷下车走上铁轨，殊不知身边长满獠牙的怪物正朝着他们蜂拥而至。这是动画片《灵探特莱丝》（Trese）的开场。该动画将于 Netflix 平台放送，内容是诸多菲律宾家喻户晓的民间传说。片中以虚构马尼拉为背景，运用“新黑色”（Neo-noir）风格，生动呈现了菲律宾神话故事中的鬼怪形象。《灵探特莱丝》的主角特莱丝是一位神探，拥有两位魔法保镖助手。因为超自然案件近来频频繁发生，警方找到这三人寻求帮助。

如今，这部动画在网上已有较高的知名度，但其实，一直以来还有很多艺术家通过艺术的方式来讲述当地民间传说。在今天的菲律宾，从时尚杂志、插图、美术作品乃至涂鸦，几乎每一种艺术形式都能找到民间传说的元素。对于艺术家而言，这是他们探索菲律宾身份、非殖民化艺术以及重温美好童年记忆的一种方式。

A screencap of Trese / Image via Netflix 《灵探特莱丝》剧照，图片来自 Netflix
A screencap of Trese / Image via Netflix 《灵探特莱丝》剧照，图片来自 Netflix

Filipino folklore is a mix of Animism (the belief that places and creatures have their own spiritual essence) and local superstition whose roots in the archipelago stretch back to a time before Spanish colonization in the late 1500s. The mythological characters that populate these stories are often mischievous and sometimes outright demonic, but a few are also known to provide blessings. Although the specifics change from region and group, there is a lot of overlap across the country with the same concepts, even if they at times appear with different names and minor details. Many of these stories have pre-colonial roots, but they’re frequently altered from their origins by the widespread adoption of Catholicism and other contemporary influences.

菲律宾民间传说信奉泛灵论（即相信所有地方和生物都有灵魂或精神的存在），其最早可追溯到 16 世纪后期，即西班牙殖民之前的时代，后来混杂了当地的迷信文化造就了现在的样子。故事中的角色通常耍宝顽皮，有时则是彻头彻尾的恶魔，还有一些是能带来祝福的善良角色。虽然角色在每个地区的叫法不同，但往往大同小异，有着大致相同的背景。这些故事大都源自前殖民时期，后来受到天主教和不同时代的影响，而不断被后人改编。

 

。

 

无法观看？前往腾讯视频

Belief in and discussion of folklore is more common in the provinces, but it certainly makes its way into the city as well. Trese, which was originally a Filipino komik before its animated adaptation by Netflix, makes a point of reimagining these mythological characters by removing them from their rural origin stories and placing them in urban settings. So for example, instead of challenging people to wrestle in the forest, the Tikbalang competes in drag racing. And the Nuno sa Punso becomes something more like a Nuno sa Sewer, since it lives under the street instead of a mound of dirt.

相较于城市，民间传说的迷信和讨论在偏远地区更为普遍。动画片《灵探特莱丝》改编自一部菲律宾漫画，漫画的故事设定在乡下，而影片则将故事背景设定在城市中，重新构想了传说中的角色。例如，Tikbalang（马怪）原本与人在森林里摔跤，在动画里则变成飙车一族；Nuno sa Punso（土丘之祖）变成了 Nuno sa Sewer（下水道之祖）。

Carved statues representing Anito, or spirits and deities. An illustration by Ralph Reyes. “ Anito（恶灵）”雕塑。来自插画师 Ralph Reyes 的作品。

“The Dictionary of Philippine Mythology” is another recent piece of work celebrating the country’s folklore traditions. It’s an English-translated edition of a book dating back to 1895 cataloging the various mythologies across the country. It includes the original ethnographic maps and a compendium of Filipino tribes and languages, but now features an additional 59 historical photographs and 19 illustrations. ” I don’t think we should forget our roots,” says Ralph Reyes, who drew the illustrations. “Our culture is ever-evolving and Filipino folklore could always adapt to contemporary storytelling. We haven’t had enough representation, even locally.” He for one believes the stories, although he’s not sure he’s experienced any himself. “There are a lot of witnesses, especially in Mt. Makiling, where my family is from.”

Among Reyes’s new illustrations is the Aswang, one of FIlipino folklore’s most well-known creatures. In animal form, these monsters are often depicted as a very large pig or dog. They can also have long tongues, believed to be capable of sucking fetuses out of pregnant women. There’s also an Aswang of vampiric origins, those who delve more in witchcraft, and ghouls. But Reyes thinks the Hukloban is the most powerful mythical creature, as she can burn down a house with just the point of her finger. You can find her in the dictionary as well.

While the dictionary is more explicitly educational, there are a lot of artists taking creative license with the stories.

英译版《菲律宾神话词典》（The Dictionary of Philippine Mythology）是近期以当地民间传说为主题的另一部作品，其初版可追溯至 1895 年。当中记载了菲律宾全国各地大量神话故事，包括原始的民族志地图、菲律宾部落和语言的描述。现如今，又新增了 59 张历史图片和 19 幅插图。负责绘制插图的 Ralph Reyes 表示：“我们不应该忘记文化根源。我们的文化在不断发展，菲律宾民间传说也可以适应当代来进行叙述。一直以来，民间传说没能获得足够重视，即使在本地也是如此。”他甚至相信其中一些故事曾真实发生过，“尤其在我的家乡马基林山，很多人都曾亲身经历过，在民间口口相传。”

由 Ralph 新增的插图，包括 “毒裁梦魇” 阿斯旺（Aswang）——是菲律宾民间传说中最闻名遐迩的鬼怪之一，它们往往长着猪狗之类动物的躯干、长长的舌头，据说会从孕妇身上吸食胎儿。还有吸血鬼版本的阿斯旺，它们精通巫术。除此之外，Ralph 还认为胡鲁班（Hukloban）是字典中最强大的恶魔，手指随便一点就能烧毁一幢房子。后来很多艺术家，也是根据了这本字典，对传说进行艺术演绎。

An Aswang is a shape-shifting creature thought to take the form of vampirie, large dogs or pigs, ghouls, and more. An illustration by Ralph Reyes. “阿斯旺（Aswang）”是嗜血的物种，外形是大狗、猪或是食尸鬼。来自 Ralph Reyes 的插画作品。
The Hukloban is a goddess of death who can kill simply by raising her hand. An illustration by Ralph Reyes. “胡鲁班（Hukloban）”是死亡女神，抬手之间便能置人于死地。来自 Ralph Reyes 的插画作品。

Bastinuod, an illustrator from the central province of Cebu, is probably the most purposeful about the incorporation of folklore into his art. He’s well known for using art to speak out on charged topics, such as politics, disaster relief, and international issues like the war in Ukraine. His use of mythology is just as meaningful, and he recently created a month-long series depicting these creatures in modern times. “I try my best to incorporate Filipino elements in my artworks as my little way of contributing to the promotion and preservation of our culture,” he says. “Folktales are one of the oldest heirlooms we’ve inherited from our pre-colonial ancestors, and they’re a testament to how rich our culture is and was. I want to help define and preserve that heritage.”

Growing up, he was told to avoid doing certain things to avoid conjuring or disturbing spirits because of superstitions rooted in these folk tales. Although he doesn’t believe in them personally, he thinks studying them is valuable as a way to learn about Filipino culture.

In one recent piece from his folkloric series, Bastinuod depicts witches‘ embracing and laughing, with ants crawling along their touching hands and a bird in the upper right. “Langgam” in Bisaya means “bird” but in Tagalog means “ant” and the loose translation for “witch” is “Mangbabarang” and “Mangkukulam” in each language respectively. It’s a pan-Filipino image, using the words from different local languages that sound the same but mean separate things, to reimagine traditions in a more inclusive context. Another image from a few years back captures the custom of pouring the first drink of a bottle onto the ground. He was always told this was done because people believed that the top portion of the drink tastes different, but another interpretation is that it is an appeasement to Yawa, or rather a devil.

在当代一批围绕传说进行创作的艺术家中，来自中部宿务省的插画家 Bastinuod 是当之无愧的佼佼者。他擅长于在艺术作品中探讨极具争议的话题，譬如政治、灾难救助以及乌克兰战争等国际问题，使得他笔下的神话元素别具深意。最近，他用一个月的时间，将神话角色融入进现代场景中。“我会尽量在艺术创作中融入菲律宾的元素，也算是我为推广和保护本地文化付出的微薄之力，”他说道，“民间传说是我们从前殖民时代的祖先那里获得的最古老的传承之一，能充分展示了我们文化的丰富性。”

受到民间传说中的迷信思想的影响，小时候的 Bastinuod 常被大人告诫一些禁忌，一些行为可能会招引或打扰到鬼怪和神灵。即便他不是迷信之人，但他依然认为，研究这些民间传说有助于菲律宾文化的深入。

在最新的系列作品中，Bastinuod 描绘出女巫们谈笑风生的场景，蚂蚁沿着她们相互触碰的手爬行，乌鸦在手臂上驻足。“Langgam”一词在比萨亚语中意为小鸟，但在他加禄语中却代表蚂蚁，而“女巫”在这两种语言中大致可分别翻译为“Mangbabarang”和“Mangkukulam”。作者使用不同方言中发音相同、意思不同的单词，将这些词语的意象以一种更加包容的态度进行融合。几年前的另一幅作品中，他描绘了当地另一种习俗——饮料开瓶后的第一口要倒在地上，人们相信，饮料最上面部分的味道与饮料本身的味道不同，但还有另一种解释，认为是为了安抚魔鬼 “Yawa” 的情绪。

Mangkukulam means witch in Tagalog but in Bisaya it's Mangbabarang. Here, two Mangkukulams play with langgam, which means ant and bird in each language. An illustration by Bastinuod. “Langgam”一词在比萨亚语中意为小鸟，在他加禄语中代表蚂蚁，而“女巫”在这两种语言中大致可分别翻译为“Mangbabarang”和“Mangkukulam”。来自插画师 Bastinuod 的作品。
A Sarimanok is a bird whose presence entails good fortune. An illustration by Bastinuod. “Sarimanok”是一种能够带来好运的鸟。来自 Bastinuod 的插画作品。
Yawa, or devil, accepts the offering of a drink poured on the ground as ritual. An illustration by Bastinuod. 恶魔“Yawa”，将倒在地上的酒视作仪式。来自 Bastinuod 的插画作品。
The Tiyanak is a fanged creature that takes the form of a baby or toddler to lure in its victims. An illustration by Bastinuod. “Tiyanak（鬼仔）”是一种长着尖牙的生物，以婴儿或蹒跚学步的样子来引诱受害者。来自 Bastinuod 的插画作品。

Patrick Gañas is another Filipino illustrator fond of drawing upon local folklore, and he revels in their dramatic and powerful nature. He grew up in and around Metro Manila and has been drawing mythology-inspired characters since childhood. “My elders and neighbors would tell me tales that haunted me in my sleep,” he laughs. He drew them in sketchbooks throughout his school ages and later even enrolled in a university class involving Philippine mythology. “The class rekindled the same enthusiasm I had for them as a kid.” 

He says the inclusion of local folklore is actually a common theme for graduates with a fine arts degree searching for their artistic voice. “Although I grew up imagining ghosts around me, I knew, somewhere inside me, they would never show up in real life,” he notes. “But I’ve always respected our ancestors’ storytelling, the way they incorporate good values in a creative context. To spread that knowledge is a way to recognize that we belong to a beautiful tradition. If we abandon the memory of our past, we’ll lose the basis to move forward, halting our progress as a country in the process.”

In many of Gañas’s pieces, endless swirls of hair and smoke weave and dip into a wide tapestry that takes up most of the page. Manlalayog directly concerns a myth surrounding sentient, vengeful hair. In the original tale, a blind shaman with beautiful hair was abducted by colonizers who demonized powerful women and they proceeded to eat her. Her hair fell to the blood-soaked ground and absorbed her rage, turning into a monstrous incarnation of anger. Since the shaman wasn’t able to see her attackers, the creature directed its rage at any passerby. And then there’s Harionago, who uses her flowing white hair to camouflage herself in the snow, only appearing on the first day of snowfall. Its origin story is similar to that of the Manlalayog. “She was bound and mutilated by a group of men during the first day of snow while being forced to smile during her death,” Gañas explains. “Because of this, she inflicts the same horror on men who smile back at her.”

Patrick Gañas 尤其迷恋民间传说的戏剧性与惊心动魄的情节。他在马尼拉大都会及周边地区长大，从小喜欢画神话角色。“长辈和邻居经常跟我讲一些让我做恶梦的故事，”他笑着说。学生时期，他喜欢用素描本来画画，后来在大学时修读了关于菲律宾神话的课程。“这门课重新点燃了我儿时对神话故事的热情。”

他表示，对于美术专业毕业生来说，融入当地民间传说元素是一个共同的课题。他谈到：“故事的真实性虽有待考量，但对于祖先们口口相传的故事，我依然满怀敬意，这些天马行空的故事里蕴含着美好的价值观。推广民间传说也是对传统文化的肯定。如果我们抛弃过去的记忆，就失去了前进的基础，我们国家也会因此停下前进的步伐。”

在 Patrick 的许多作品中，毛骨悚然的发丝与烟雾交织在一起，几乎占据整幅画面。作品《Manlalayog》（曼德勒戈）的灵感来自一段关于头发复仇的传说。原著中，殖民者将拥有强大力量的女性视为妖魔，他们绑架了有着一头秀发的盲人萨满巫师，并打算吃掉她。萨满巫师的头发掉落在布满鲜血的地上，吸收了愤怒，成为可怕的化身。此外，他还曾以 “Harionago”（针女）创作过作品，针女以一头飘逸的白发在雪中伪装自己，只在落雪的第一天现身。针女的故事和 Manlalayog 有着相似之处，“在下雪的第一天，一群男人捆绑并肢解了她，强迫她在死去时仍然保持微笑，” Patrick 解释说，“正因如此，她对那些对朝她微笑的男人施加了同样的暴行。”

The Manlalayog is vengeful hair spirit created by murderous colonizers. An illustration by Patrick Gañas. 在殖民者的逼迫下，女性的头发化作“Manlalayog”（曼德勒戈）开始复仇计划。来自 Patrick Gañas 的插画作品。
The Harionago appears on the first day of snow to attack men who smile at her. An illustration by Patrick Gañas. “Harionago”（针女）以一头飘逸的白发在雪中伪装自己，只在落雪的第一天现身。来自 Patrick Gañas 的插画作品。
The Critana is a seamstress turned witch covered in voodoo dolls. An illustration by Patrick Gañas. “Critana”是由女裁缝化身的女巫，全身包裹在巫毒娃娃之下。来自 Patrick Gañas 的插画作品。
The Karpe is a muscular tree giant that's known for its love of smoking. An illustration by Patrick Gañas. “Karpe"是一个肌肉发达的树巨人，以爱抽烟而闻名。来自 Patrick Gañas 的插画作品。

With such dark trails to follow in folklore, a lot of  artists fully embrace the gory side of the stories. Doktor Karayom, whose trademark color is a bloody red, frequently incorporates mythologies into his dense murals, paintings, and sculptures. His work is rooted in supernatural mystery stories from movies, TV, and folk tales that he absorbed as a kid, and he often emphasizes the horror elements in his reinterpretations. “Aside from bringing back the memories and feelings from my childhood, I had learned to tell stories using my own world as inspiration.” 

For one sculpture, he molded it into likeness of Filipino protective amulets called agimats. In another art piece, he draws his interpretation of a vampiric Aswang. Like many artists, he says that these tales are great for nurturing the imagination and allow for a lot of creative exploration. But he truly believes in them, and recounts several stories, including one that’s quite horrific: “Once when we were kids alone at my grandparents’, we heard our three dogs fighting in the yard at night. In the morning we found one poor dog with its body torn open and its internal organs missing. Its body was clean cut open. They said it was probably an Aswang or a Sigbin that attacked it. I still remember it clearly.”

对于这些带有暗黑色彩的民间传说，许多艺术家选择在创作中延续故事的恐怖一面。Doktor Karayom 的作品以血染的红色著称，涵盖了壁画、绘画和雕塑作品。创作灵感源于童年时看过的电影、电视剧和民间传说里的超自然神秘故事，以及他个人偏爱的恐怖元素。

他仿照菲律宾民间护身符（agimat，又称安亭）进行雕塑；还以自己的想象，重绘吸血鬼阿斯旺的造型。和许多艺术家一样，他认为这些民间传说夸大着自己的想象力，激发丰富的创意构想。他深信一些传说是真实存在，还分享了自己儿时一次非常可怕的经历：“有一次，我们几个小孩儿单独留在爷爷奶奶家，晚上我们听到三只狗在院子里打架。第二天早上，我们发现其中一只可怜的小狗身体被撕开，内脏都不见了。它的身体被干净利落地切开。人们都猜测元凶是阿斯旺或怪物 Sigbin（晚上出现，往往将鲜血从人或动物的影子中吸走），这件事我至今仍然历历在目。”

A different take on the Aswang. Photography by Andrea Beldua. 以“阿斯旺（Aswang）”为灵感的时尚造型。来自摄影师 Andrea Beldua。
A different take on the Aswang. Photography by Andrea Beldua. 以“阿斯旺（Aswang）”为灵感的时尚造型。来自摄影师 Andrea Beldua。

Other artists prefer to approach folklore with a more playful attitude, such as photographer Andrea Beldua, who recently shot a fashion editorial based on mythological characters. “At first, we just wanted to do something cute with fairy wings or elf ears,” she says. “But we thought it had already been done too much, so we wanted to go darker. More ‘ugly pretty.'” And so they landed on the idea of a high fashion interpretation of folklore. The editorial features a Mambabarang with butterfly adornments and long, steel nails; There’s also a Sirena mermaid with clear bubble nails and a chain link sheath dress. The Aswang stands out most though, reimagined as a high-fashion goth with ripped stockings, big black boots, and a lacey mask.

Although Beldua doesn’t believe in these stories, they’re fused with her childhood and were a big part of popular culture growing up. “A lot of my friends really believed, and would say ‘tabi tabi, po‘ whenever they’d pass by a grassy area or a big tree,” she recalls, which is a way of saying “excuse me” to spirits when passing the kind of areas they’re believed to inhabit.

Beldua and her team aren’t the only ones to explore folklore and fashion in recent times. Designer Axel Que created a dress in the form of a Bakunawa serpent-like dragon. The dress was worn by Beatrice Luigi Gomez as she competed for the Philippines in the Miss Universe 2021 pageant.

另有一批艺术家，则希望以相对轻松的角度借用民间传说，例如摄影师 Andrea Beldua。最近，她拍摄了一组以神话人物为原型的时尚大片。“最初，我们是想用仙女翅膀或精灵耳朵，拍一些偏可爱的造型，”她介绍着说，“但又觉得类似的照片已经拍过很多，所以想尝试点别的，吊吊胃口”。最终，他们将视角放在了民间传说。其中一位模特儿打扮成女巫 “Mambabarang” 的模样，佩戴蝴蝶装饰和钢钉；另一位主角化身海妖 “Sirena”，身着铁链编制的紧身裙，亦有水滴状美甲加持；其中最引人注目的还是阿斯旺造型——破洞丝袜、夸张的黑色靴子和蕾丝口罩，以高定时装的哥特风格重新演绎。

Andrea 不迷信，但这些民间传说已经成为她的童年的一部分，也是她从小所接触的流行文化中的重要组成部分。她回忆道：“我有很多朋友真的相信这些传说，他们每次经过草地或大树时，都会说‘tabi tabi，po’。”这是人们在经过神灵所在的地时，担心冒犯而表达 “不好意思” 的方式。

在时尚领域，借鉴民间传说元素的并非只有 Andrea 和她的团队。设计师 Axel Que 以菲律宾神话中的巨龙巴库那瓦（Bakunawa）为原型，设计了一条连衣裙。在2021年环球小姐选美比赛上，Beatrice Luigi Gomez 曾穿着这条裙子代表菲律宾参赛。

A different take on the Mambabarang, which is a witch in Filipino myth. Photography by Andrea Beldua. 以女巫 “Mambabarang”为灵感的时尚造型。来自摄影师 Andrea Beldua。
A different take on the Mambabarang, which is a witch in Filipino myth. Photography by Andrea Beldua. 以女巫 “Mambabarang”为灵感的时尚造型。来自摄影师 Andrea Beldua。
The Sirena is a mermaid from Filipino legends. Photography by Andrea Beldua. 以海妖 “Sirena”为灵感的时尚造型，即菲律宾神话故事中的美人鱼。来自摄影师 Andrea Beldua。
The Sirena is a mermaid from Filipino legends. Photography by Andrea Beldua. 以海妖 “Sirena”为灵感的时尚造型，即菲律宾神话故事中的美人鱼。来自摄影师 Andrea Beldua。

“Trese” may have helped Filipino folklore reach new, contemporary heights, but it started as a humble ashcan komik, photocopied by its creators and sold hand to hand locally, taking many years to garner the level of attention it has now. It’s not alone either. Ella Arcangel is another komik-turned-cartoon with plenty of nods to local folk tales. The story follows a band of kids in a squatters’ village battling evil creatures. Although the character art is drawn in a cartoony style, its subject matter leans decisively into the adult horror genre. And there are at least a dozen podcasts cataloging Pinoys’ encounters with the mythic realm. Book series like True Philippine Ghost Stories have also dutifully done the same.

如今，动画《灵探特莱丝》让菲律宾民间传说获得了前所未有的关注。而它的雏形，最初只是一本很不起眼的迷你漫画书，之后随着多年的积累和努力，才有了现在的成就。另一部动画《Ella Arcangel》同样改编自菲律宾民间传说，讲述了一群孩子在村庄里与邪恶斗争的故事。即便片中的角色都是卡通风格，但故事和内容却是不折不扣的成人恐怖类型。除此之外，还有至少十几个电台播客，持续讲述菲律宾神秘世界的故事；当地还曾发行过《真实菲律宾鬼故事》（True Philippine Ghost Stories）系列丛书等等。

Some of the artworks available from the Aswang NFT projects “Aswang NFT”项目中的一些艺术作品。

Folklore might not be as central to Filipino life as it was centuries ago, but it’s still quite common. All these pop culture influences; old tales from lola (grandma) or shared stories from pinsan (cousin); veteran artists like sculptor Roberto Feleo or the 60-artist strong exhibit “Filipino Myths and Legends” from 2014 help cement folklore in Filipino lives. There’s even an Aswang NFT of various creatures already. Mythology is embedded in the culture and piles up in the subconscious. Oftentimes, it’s just a natural influence, with artists instinctively pulling these subjects from their everyday lives. It’s extremely Filipino, which also gives it value beyond some trend or novelty. As many of the artists have said above, the tales are a way to communicate their history and identity amongst themselves and to the rest of the world. It’s a means of finding pride in a culture so frequently trampled by colonialism. And the lessons embedded within the tales themselves, whether one believes them true or not, hold important values. This generation of artists is only the most recent to draw inspiration from folklore, and hopefully the next will continue the tradition.

虽然民间传说已经不像几个世纪前那样占据菲律宾人生活的中心，但其影响仍可见一斑。无论是亲朋邻里在茶余饭后的分享、还是 Roberto Feleo 等资深艺术家的创作、抑或是 2014 年 60 位艺术家共同举办的展览“菲律宾神话和传说”（Filipino Myths and Legends）、以及由各种神话角色组成的 Aswang NFT 项目等等，这些人、这些事，都巩固着民间传说在菲律宾人生活中的比重。

神话故事根植于文化之中，潜移默化地影响着我们的行为和思想，一切自然发生。艺术家们本能地从日常生活中借鉴这些元素。正因为是菲律宾本土特色的属性，也因此超越了流行和猎奇意味的价值。正如许多上述艺术家所说，这些故事是传达菲律宾历史和身份的一种方式，让他们从殖民主义的践踏中找到共鸣、并引以为傲的途径。无论人是否迷信，这些故事本身所蕴含的意义和智慧都具有不凡价值。这一代艺术家是最新一批从民间传说中汲取创作灵感的艺术家，他们对于传统的执着与敬畏心，但愿可以代代相传。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram:
@__r.angelo
@bastinuod
@patrick.ganas
@andreabeldua

 

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:
@__r.angelo
@bastinuod
@patrick.ganas
@andreabeldua

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Stay Negative 考验心态的时刻，我选择舞蹈

May 16, 2022 2022年5月16日

China’s Zero Covid policy and Shanghai’s subsequent lockdown due an Omicron flare-up in the city have been disruptive to say the least. Its impact has rippled far beyond the country’s borders, but Shanghai’s residents have bore the brunt of the consequences. In the face of these tribulations, one unexpectedly positive development has been the strengthening of communal bonds in the city. Neighbors who were once strangers have come together to help secure food for one another and countless volunteers have stepped up to help their respective communities. This sense of solidarity was the similar impetus for Stay Negative, a newly launched project looking to leverage the power of creativity for the greater good during Shanghai’s citywide lockdown.

不得不说，中国在疫情清零政策和上海奥密克戎爆发下实施的封锁，带来了颠覆性的影响，波及全国和境外。这段日子，上海居民首当其冲。在这个艰难动荡的时刻，一些出乎意料的积极变化加强了这座城市里人和人之间的纽带。原本素不相识的邻居团结起来，帮助彼此获取食物，志愿者挺身而出，为各自的社区尽力而为。在这股精神的影响下，Stay Negative 艺术项目诞生——旨在借助创意力量，为封控下的上海加油打气。

The project is founded by five China-based creatives—Alessandro Pavanello, who oversees social media operations; Vittorio Sileo, who specializes in NFTs and marketing; joining them are two designers and a public relations expert who’ve chosen to remain anonymous. To them, this project is a way to give back to the place they proudly call home.

In April, when Shanghai’s lockdown measures began ramping up, the severity of the situation began to set in. However, the team realized they were the fortunate ones when compared with the plights many other locals faced. Pavanello himself spent time in a quarantine center after testing positive in late March, and the conditions there gave him further perspective on how important it was to keep a positive mindset—this became one of the driving philosophies for the entire project. “As a team, we all share the same values and firmly believe that positivity can drive a change and achieve more than negativity,” says Pavanello. “Humor and a smile are magic ingredients that foster inclusivity and can bring people together.”

该项目由五位现居中国的创意人成立，他们分别是负责社交媒体运营的 Alessandro Pavanello、负责 NFT 和营销工作的 Vittorio Sileo，以及两位匿名设计师和一位公关专家。团队希望将该项目献给这个引以为傲的家园。

3 月底，上海收紧封控措施时，人们这才开始逐渐意识到情况的严重性。和许多当地人面临的困境相比，团队的经历还算幸运。Alessandro 本人在三月下旬检测阳性后被送往方舱，期间他更加意识到，保持积极心态的重要性，而这也是推动整个项目的理念之一。Alessandro 说：“作为团队，我们有着相同的价值观。我们相信，比起消极的想法，积极的心态更能带来改变，也更有意义。幽默和微笑有时具有的神奇的力量，可以凝聚人心。”

Despite knowing there was only so much they can do within the confines of their homes, the team knew they needed to contribute to the fight. The project initially sought to raise funds for charity through selling T-shirts, but the logistic complexities that arose from the stringent lockdown hamstrung the idea. This led them to look towards Web3, where NFTs seemed like an ideal medium to distribute their art and raise funds. “We believe that apathy never really made an impact on anyone’s life,” says Sileo. “Having a positive and proactive approach, even during tough times, can indeed make a difference, and that’s what we are trying to achieve as a team.”

隔离在家，很多事情心有余而力不足，但团队确信地想要为这场抗疫出一份力。最初，项目试图通过销售T恤衫的方式筹集善款，但严格的封锁措施导致物流受阻，后来不了了之。于是他们转向了 Web3 领域，这当中，NFT 似乎是传播艺术作品和筹集资金的理想媒介。Vittorio 表示：“我们相信，冷漠对人们的生活无济于事，而保持积极心态让人在困难时期也会有所作为，这正是我们团队想要努力传递的信息。”

Without context, some of the artworks from the project can seem completely absurd, but they’re all based on real happenings within the city—more specifically, riffing off of some of the most viral videos that have been posted since the lockdowns began. In one, a fish is seen dangling from a drone, a reference to a video of someone fishing from the confines of their high-rise apartment with a consumer-grade UAV. In another, a robot dog references a widely circulated video of a four-legged machine patrolling an apartment complex as a megaphone on its back broadcasts a pre-recorded message urging residents to stay indoors.

Mundane moments are equally given a spotlight in the project though. Some illustrations feature sights that’ve become all too familiar for Shanghai locals in the past month, such as the rapid antigen test kits that are self-administered every few days, the men in white hazmat suits disinfecting the streets, or the groups of volunteers in blue surgical gowns collecting the group-buy deliveries for their apartment complexes.

作品的创作都来自上海真实事件；具体来讲，这些创作都是他们参考封锁以来一些流传于网络的视频。例如无人机钓鱼，参考的是前一阵特别火的视频，视频中，高层公寓住户利用无人机钓得池塘里的鱼；机械狗则参考了另一段广为流传的视频，视频中，一台四轮机器在公寓大楼巡逻，狗背上的喇叭正在播放一则预录语音，敦促各位居民足不出户。

除此之外，项目也着眼于生活中的平凡时刻，描绘过去一个月里熟悉的场景，例如隔几天一次的抗原测试、大白消毒、或是穿着蓝色防疫服的志愿者团体正在统筹社区救援物资等等。

Compared with some of the most popular NFT projects out there, the team decided on a more pared-down aesthetic. A busier composition can be too distracting for their purposes. Simple details such as the blue markings on the otherwise all-white hazmat suits of city workers, a splash of red on the vest of a community-level officials, or the distinctive yellow of cordon tape are the only pops of color within each frame. Against the plain gray backgrounds, each illustration is given plenty of room to breath within the frame. The project shows that when it comes to NFT art, simplicity can still be a virtue.

不同于许多热门 NFT 项目，团队决定采用极简风来进行创作，他们认为复杂的构图会过于分散观众的注意力。项目的作品中，画面中只保留一些单色来突出细节，如大白身上的蓝条、抗原试剂上的红色标记、警戒带上醒目的黄色等等。同时保留了底片上灰色的留白。这也表明，极简风格在 NFT 领域同样能引起人们的注意。

Shanghai’s residents have demonstrated a laudable resilience and patience since early April until now, and these artworks capture the fortitude and levity that have been essential for getting through the lockdown. Despite the obvious drawbacks and plethora of issues that’ve arose from the current Covid strategy, there are perhaps lasting benefits that can be reaped once the city opens back up. “We believe that this lockdown will make us stronger as human and as a collective, and the sharing of such an incredibly intense experience will inevitably change the dynamic within the community and people,” says one of the anonymous artists behind the project. “We’re not saying that we will have weekly dinner with the neighbors, but we’re pretty sure that we will smile more and be more willing to help each other in moments of need.”

Proceeds from the Stay Negative NFT series will go to an organization helping homeless people impacted by the lockdown. You can learn more about the series and its mission by visiting the official website.

从 3 月底到现在，上海居民表现出令人称赞的韧性和耐心，而这些画作也捕捉苦难时期下的坚强与幽默。尽管当前疫情政策仍存诸多问题，但当这座城市重新开放，这次的经历或许会留下许多供后人借鉴的经验和思考。“我们相信，这次封城将使我们更加强大，共同度过如此不平凡的时刻一定会在某种程度上改变社区和人群之间的关系，”参与项目的一位匿名艺术家说道，“并不是说我们以后就会每周与邻居共进晚餐，但可以肯定，我们以后会对彼此有更多笑容，在有需要的时候会更乐于帮助对方。”

Stay Negative NFT 系列的盈利将捐赠给那些为疫情时期无家可归者提供帮助的机构。您可以通过访问项目的官方网站来了解更多信息。

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Website: www.staynegative.io
Instagram: @staynegative.io
Twitter: ~/staynegativeio
OpenSea: ~/staynegative

 

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.staynegative.io
Instagram: @staynegative.io
Twitter: ~/staynegativeio
OpenSea: ~/staynegative

 

英译中: Olivia Li

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Energy Exchange 她的作品并非来自这个世界

May 14, 2022 2022年5月14日
Unconscious 《毫无意识》

The artwork of Fawalai Fai is otherworldly. It’s a universe conjured from the digital ether. Her main characters—suspended faces with big eyes and disembodied hands—seem to live in the cloud, digital natives created for the coming dawn of a virtual reality more real than our own. They’re surrounded by a stream of consciousness, each little thought and feeling scripted by a dynamic algorithmic, but translated into swirling visuals designed for human consumption.

Fawalai Fai 别名 Mamablues，其作品科幻离奇，呈现出一个由数字以太构成的宇宙。她笔下的角色往往以上半身特写为主，大眼睛、悬浮在半空的双手，仿佛是一个个生活于数字云层之间的原住民，她们绝非来自现实。此外，各种意象不明的元素环绕于人物左右，每一个细小的思绪和情感都按照动态的算法编写成脚本，又转化成引人入胜的漩涡般视觉效果。

From the Medium of Nowhere series 来自《难以被界定的媒介》系列
From the Medium of Nowhere series 来自《难以被界定的媒介》系列

Fai was born and raised on the outskirts of Bangkok in Min Buri. It’s a district known for its fish market and Islamic and Chinese communities. Fai is half Chinese herself. “There’s no art there,” she says, adding that her parents weren’t too happy about her artsy leanings. But whenever they would go to the mall, she was allowed to pick out one thing for herself, and she would make a beeline straight to the comics.

Those early manga influences are definitely still present in her artwork, as evidenced by her character designs. But there’s another significant inspiration that’s a lot less obvious: mimes. “I would see them at festivals and amusement parks and it always stuck with me,” she recalls. “I recreate that with faces that make eye contact with my audience and use hands movements to create movement. It’s the idea of life as a performance. We all play our little roles.”

Fawalai 在位于曼谷郊区的民武里长大，这里以鱼市场、伊斯兰教和华人社区而闻名（她自己也有一半华人血统）。“那里没有艺术，”她说，并表示她的父母起初并不支持她对艺术的兴趣。而每次逛商场，父母让她自己挑一样喜欢的东西时，她都会毫不犹豫地跑去买漫画书。

从她的作品中，能明显看到早期的漫画影响，譬如她的角色设计。但她承认自己的创作灵感却是来自哑剧。她回忆道：“我通常都是在节日活动和游乐园里看哑剧，每场都印象深刻。作品中，角色直视观众，以手部和肢体动作传达故事内容。其背后的理念告诉观众：生活就是一场表演，每个人都扮演着自己的小角色。”

Futureproof 《时空典藏》
Youth Soul! 《青春之魂！》
Playground 《乐场》

When Fai moved away to university, she became captivated with local street artists like Alex Face, who was her senior at school. Her roommate was studying fine art and doing street art, so she would go with them when they painted. She focused strictly on street art for about five years, only painting canvases when they were commissioned work. At first, her murals were painted with aerosol, but she eventually decided to switch it up for brushes, which she still uses to this day. “I learned a lot from the local street art community,” she says. “Not necessarily in a style sense, but in terms of techniques and marketing myself. They freely offered advice whenever I would ask.”

当 Fawalai 离家去大学念书，她开始关注当地的街头艺术家，这其中就有她的同校学长 Alex Face。她当时的室友所读的专业是纯艺并自己创作街头艺术，他们经常一起去很多地方，Fawalai 用心地关注他们的创作。长达五年的时间，她一直专注于街头艺术创作，只有接到客户委托工作时才在画布上绘画。刚开始，她用气溶胶来创作壁画，后来又决定换成画笔，并一直延续至今。她说：“我从本地的街头艺术社区学到了很多东西。不只是风格，还包括创作技巧和营销方式。身边同学为我提供了不少帮助，每次我有疑问的时，他们都非常乐意提供有用的意见。”

Theatre 《剧院》
Amusement Paradox 《娱乐悖论》

Without any context, it would be very difficult to place Fai’s artwork. Full of disparate motifs and styles, it looks easily like it could be from the US or Japan, and she’s firm about her work’s placelessness. “One of my favorite words is ‘nowhere’,” she smiles. The crisp lines, bold colors, and acrobatic characters resemble video games, anime, and Saturday morning cartoons more than anything Southeast Asian. “My art is not Thai at all. It comes from nowhere. It’s not from this world.”

Fai had tried out many styles over the years, only to return to an older aesthetic, one defined by crowded compositions drawing influence from memes, popular culture, and her street art roots. “The pandemic gave me the time to be alone and think things through thoroughly.” Before she starts painting she draws three or four digital sketches. Once the canvas is done, she photographs it and completes it digitally for conversion into an NFT. Sometimes she takes her final digital pieces and has them printed on metallic sheets. “The way the light changes on the metal gives it even more energy; it comes to life.”

Fawalai 的作品很难被简单定义。各种样式的图案，看起来明显受到许多日本或美国风格的影响，而她也很强调自己作品中这种“无地域性”，她笑着说：“我最喜欢的一个词是‘nowhere’。”清晰俐落的线条、大胆的色彩和杂技演员般的角色更像是视频游戏、动漫和周六早上的卡通人物，毫无东南亚艺术痕迹，“我的作品一点也不泰国。它没有特定的地域性，也并非来自这个世界。”

这些年来，Fawalai 尝试过多种不同的风格，在新冠疫情期间，她回归了一种传统的绘画风格，将网络热梗、流行文化和街头艺术糅合成纷繁复杂的构图，“疫情给了我时间独处，去认真思考问题。”在开始绘画之前，她会在电脑画三到四幅素草稿图；在画布上完成后，再拍摄下来，转换成 NFT 的数字格式。有时，她会将数字化的完稿作品印于金属板上，“金属表面的光线变化能赋予作品更多能量，看上去更生动，”她解释道。

Close-up details of The Creator 《缔造者》局部

Energy is Fai’s primary focus. No matter how dense her work gets, and it gets extremely dense, there’s always a strong sense of movement, almost like its many parts are moving with the same choreography. It’s that performance element again: “Humans live life like a theater,” she says. “I want to be a medium to tell those stories and events.”

One relevant work in this new phase is called The Creator. It’s painted mainly in greyscales, with small, colorful splotches bubbling in the foreground visualizing an old-school artist coming into the new era. It’s personal, as she only started making digital art about a year ago with the rise of NFTs. “I didn’t care about digital before. I thought real art had to be painted. I believed in classic technique,” she explains. “But once I started experimenting, I realized there are no limits with digital. I can fully express what’s inside me this way.”

能量感是 Fawalai 在创作中的关注重点。无论是多么复杂的画面，当中总会透露出一股强劲的动能，仿佛各个部分正按照编排好的舞步在移动，而这又是她在作品中体现哑剧的方式，她说：“人的生活就像剧院一样，我想成为讲述这些故事的媒介。”

她近期的一幅相关作品名为《The Creator》（缔造者），这幅作品的色彩以深浅灰色为主，前景中点缀零星的几抹彩色，寓意一位跨入新时代的 Old-School 艺术家。这幅画与她本人有关，她大约一年前 NFT 兴起才开始创作数字艺术，“我此前对数字领域并不感冒，总觉得真正的艺术作品应该是手绘完成。我比较推崇传统的创作技巧，”她解释道，“但开始接触数字艺术后，我才发现这种方式可以让人摆脱各种限制，畅快淋漓地表达出内心的想法。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @mamablues

 

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: @mamablues

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Inking Absurdities 一切从魔改教科书开始

May 12, 2022 2022年5月12日

This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and FLAT43. To see more of FLAT43’s content on Neocha, click here.

For tattoo enthusiasts, body art is their way of communicating with the world at large. It’s a way for them to express their own interpretations of reality, however zany they may be. This is the belief of Taipei-based illustrator and tattooist Sic Lee, whose work effortlessly weaves together humorous absurdities with insightful context.

Almost every kid has scribbled in the pages of their textbooks, and Lee is no exception. These mischievous doodles became his earliest memories of creating art. He drew on and off for a number of years throughout his teenage years, and ended up pursuing a degree in visual communication at Taiwan’s Shih Chien University where he found himself in awe at the illustration skills of other classmates. This was where he realized that perhaps becoming an illustrator could be a viable career path, and he began attending fine-art classes. However, the fun for him typically began once classes ended—in his personal time, he drew demons, trolls, and fictional species. Irreverent towards the pretentiousness of the fine-art scene, he even parodied the works of world-renowned painters.

本篇文章来自 Neocha 杂志合作伙伴 FLAT43 的交换内容。在 Neocha 上阅读更多来自 FLAT43 的文章，请点击这里。

纹身，像是人与世界的内在交流，通过对现实景象的重新诠释，回归都市化的纹路。就像纹身兼插画师 Sic Lee（李金霖）笔下那些充满戏谑和深意的作品，让人重新感受生活中那些有点荒谬但又滑稽的片段。

也许我们每个人，八成都经历过在课本上乱涂画的快乐时光，而那也是 Sic Lee 记忆中开始创作的起点：“我一直喜欢画好玩的，大学攻读实践媒体传达设计学时期，一切开始发生转变。”当时 Sic 看到班上几位同学私下的画作心生敬佩，于是便开始有了 “不如也来认真画画” 的念头。从那时候起，他开始上绘画课外班，自创各种生物和怪兽、并发布在网络，算是把人体写生课程“学以致用”。

In late 2020, Lee joined Taipei’s Moon Face Dragon Temple tattoo studio as an apprentice artist. Along the way, he’s stuck with his unconventional style of illustration that comes with an unfakable sense of spontaneity. Since joining, he’s developed a distinct aesthetic defined by bold line work and unconventional silhouettes. Sometimes, the illustrations he uploads are accompanied by concise English copy with a dose of levity. “I love encyclopedias, so my work sometimes imitates encyclopedic entries,” he explains of this approach. “It’s more fun when my drawings come with a caption. My English may seem a bit goofy to native speakers though because it’s not always grammar proper usage.”

This affinity for humor is a stark contrast to the deadpan calm Lee speaks with. Similar juxtaposition can be found in his work, whether it be his muscle-bound cupids or lovelorn zombies. These dualities are precisely what makes his art so unexpected, and that much more hilarious. 

2020 年下旬，在加入太陽龍宮拜师学习纹身之前，Sic 一直沿袭自己的 “乱想乱画” 道路。他一边接插画私活儿，一边忙于一些无关绘画的工作。Sic 擅用对比鲜明、令人印象深刻的配色画出五官独特的角色，衬以版画线条构成的背景；搭配简短的配文，这些旁白时而带有调侃讽刺，有时温馨得格外诡异。“我蛮喜欢百科全书的感觉，所以常常以系列进行创作，搭配文字则是单纯觉得这样更有笑点。其实有些英文在外国人看来可能笨笨的，搞不好弄巧成拙。”Sic 说出 “好笑” 的语气格外冷静，就像他笔下壮汉模样的小天使、面目狰狞却在讲述爱情观的怪物，这种反差涌现奇特的幽默感，不知不觉地触发观众的笑点。

Whether it be inside jokes or his unconventional approaches to art, Lee’s work is undeniably memorable. “One of my favorite mangas as a kid was Old Master Q,” he says. “No two frames are alike in each graphic novel, and even when there wasn’t any dialogue, it still managed to be hilarious.”

Lee’s passion for creativity followed him well into his college years, where he consumed as much music and films as he could get his hands on. In the case of films, he’d purposely find the most avant-garde works that he could, such as The Holy Mountain (1973) and Naked Lunch (1991). Understanding the plot was hardly of any importance. The visual direction and compositional genius were more than enough to spark Lee’s creativity.

These influences have been deeply engrained into his mind and manifest in his art today, whether it be the absurd plot devices of his favorite films or the visual storytelling of his childhood comics. One of his favorite past times is drawing short-form comics, which in a few short panels is able to induce leave viewers feeling poignant or dying with laughter.

即便是内行人才懂的梗，或绕了个无厘头的弯，结果反而比刻意的编排更容易戳中观众的记忆点。“我小时候很爱看老夫子，一大本里每篇漫画都不重复，就算没对白也很好笑。大学时期，每天狂找各种电影和音乐，电影还尽量找看不懂的片，像是邪典电影《圣山》、《裸体午餐》之类的。” 看不懂要怎么办？“那些电影中的画面很好看，我把它们潜移默化成自己的东西。” 正因如此，你偶尔会发现 Sic 的四格漫画，总像一出诙谐短片的分镜，情节跳跃在难以捉摸的思维上，最后抵达令人哑然失笑或心头一暖的结局。

In college, Lee discovered that with a bit of imagination, anything could become his canvas. He’s since drawn on red envelopes, court summons, and even bento boxes. His enjoyment of working on varied surfaces eventually led him to the world of tattooing, where the human skin offered new possibilities. “It felt like working on a living, breathing canvas,” Lee laughs.

The irreversible nature of tattoos added a new layer of challenge. Each pen stroke had to be decisive. “I used to start with drawing the eyes before I develop the rest of my drawing,” he says. “With tattooing, I had to learn how to create the outline first.”

Skin, with its elasticity and unique textures, was also quite different from the styluses and iPads he had grown accustomed to. Doing away with technology and working with a more hands-on approach felt like a blessing though. “Returning to the basics might be the best way to go about things,” Lee says.

小时候拿课本当画板的 Sic，上大学后喜欢出门乱晃，信手拈来的不只有灵感，还有千奇百怪的物品：红包袋、传票、路边捡来的纸条、便当盒、招租的广告单……直到他了解纹身后，人体肌肤成了他全新的创作媒介，“有点像是活招牌的感觉”，Sic 笑道。

同样以绘画作为基础，但纹身一下笔便成定局，因此 Sic 感到不小挑战：“我以前习惯先画眼睛再发展其他部分，让人物轮廓慢慢形成；开始纹身后，则要试着直接抓好画面的整个轮廓。”由于肌肤有幅度与触感，让已习惯用 iPad 绘制草稿的 Sic 不得不卸甲归田、返璞归真，他感悟道：“有时候第一次创作出来的东西，往往是最好的。”

Adaptiveness is key to growth, but there are advantages and disadvantages to being so creatively malleable. “I’ve found my recent work to be a bit too commercial,” Lee says. “They’re clean but rigid, while my older works were more humorous and impulsive. Some people have even commented that my newer drawings are missing a certain warmth, which to me, is a more scathing critique than saying my works are ugly. I’ve started looking to my past self for guidance.”

生而为人，每一种改变都需要适应，过程中自然有失有得：“我发觉现在的作品好像太商品化，整体相对干净但是很生硬，以前的东西真的生猛又好笑。有人说我现在的画会比较没温度，我觉得还不如被说丑……所以，我现在反而向以前的自己学习。”

说到这，Sic 提到自己最近尝试用多种创作媒介来呈现的画作：“羊毛毡也蛮好玩的，未来可能会找这种创作者合作。”全新的尝试仿佛一门刺绣工艺，从人体肌肤到羊毛，由平面化为立体，Sic 的画作在各物种之间穿梭，将无边想像力附上特殊材质，搭建属于自己的一座新颖的生态圈。

Lee feels that getting older has made him duller, as there are a new myriad of pressures that he has to deal with. He says he has less chances to take creative risks, and even when he feels bottlenecked, he often still forces himself to draw. Despite this, he still sees art a way of relieving stress. Sharing his work with people is a way for him to find respite. “Some artists might only be interested in working for themselves and aren’t interested in sharing their work with others,” Lee says. “Not me though, I want as many people to see my art as possible.”

Aside from tattoos and personal illustrations, Lee enjoys working with varying mediums and collaborating across different fields. His illustrations have since been released as stickers, stamped on accessories, and even printed atop T-shirts. As long as it gets his work in front of more eyes, he’s open to any means. Of his favorite collaborations though, his favorite so far is the animation work he created for “Friend Friend,” a music video for Taiwanese rapper Leo Wang.

“I listened to the song on repeat over several days, and after meeting with the label to discuss the characters I wanted to make, I got to work,” Lee recalls. “Animation is very different from my illustrations, so it took a lot of time and effort to complete. But after finishing, it felt amazing. It was really rewarding.”

将画画从消遣变为职业，自嘲 “年纪越大越无聊” 的 Sic 觉得，如今难得闲晃，没什么机会乱捡东西；有时即使画不出来也得硬画，难免颇有压力，但他仍旧视画画为纾压之道：“不像有些人画了图后不给别人看，只想自己留着，我最大目的还是希望越多人看到越好。”

除了纹身和绘画，Sic 还与多方领域合作，以贴纸、吊饰、联名T恤等方式，来呈现自己的画作。谈及他心中最爱的一次合作，则是 2020 年与颜社（台湾饶舌嘻哈音乐厂牌）旗下音乐人 Leo 王合作的动画 MV《朋友朋友》。他说：“我当时先连续听歌听了好几天，开完会讨论出几只主角后，就开始埋头画图。虽然逐格动画和平时插画很不一样，工作时完全出不了门，画完后累归累，但真的很爽，非常有成就感。”

Going forward, Lee remains committed on experimenting outside the bounds of his comfort zone. He’s even looked into tufting recently, but tattoos will still remain his core area of focus—the steady stream of customers looking to get work done by Lee is a testament to his success. “I have a lot more clients lately, so in the short term, I plan on just staying posted up in the shop, arranging appointments, and inking customers.”

When asked how long he thinks he’ll continue on his path of art, Lee responds without hesitation. “I’ve never thought about stopping, so I supposed it’s something I’ll do forever,” he says. “Illustration has so many diverse forms. I never thought I’d dabble in tattoos before, but now here I am, so I believe I’ll discover even more new approaches going forward. Even years from now, when my hand trembles from old age, perhaps I can even turn that into a new art style of sorts!”

对于未来，Sic 想尝试更多。最近，他还想要以绒毛的方式制作地毯。而现在的他正专心投身于纹身，店里的客人络绎不绝，他短期内只想按部就班，安排好每位客人的时段。当被问到是否想过如果不画画会做什么时，他并未犹豫太久：“我没有这种念头，就画一辈子吧！因为画画也有不同形式，就像以前没想过会开始纹身一样，也许之后总会出现新的形式。如果我老了以后手抖，也会变成一种风格啦！”

Instagram: @sic_lee

 

Media Partner: FLAT43

Contributor: Rachel S.
Photographer: Lin Yu Huan
Additional Images Courtesy of Sic Lee

Instagram: @sic_lee

 

媒体合作伙伴: FLAT43

供稿人: Rachel S.
摄影师: 林俞欢
附加图片来自 Sic Lee

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

The Good Old Days 人人上海

May 5, 2022 2022年5月5日

The work of illustrator Peng Kai peels back the contemporary sheen that many associate with modern-day Shanghai, focusing instead on the seemingly bygone parts of the city. Gazing at his art, viewers are instantly transported to simpler times—sights such as the mom-and-pops convenience shops hidden within the city’s alleyways, plaza dancing routines in Xiangyang park, and hole-in-the-wall baozi restaurant are given the spotlight. Though these types of places and activities are still around, they’ve become less relevant than days’ past, and they’re typically out of mind for younger generations.

“Nowadays, the younger kids in Chinese cities are mostly the same,” Peng says, explaining why the characters who appear most frequently in his art are older individuals. “I’m not purposely focusing on the older generation, but their lives encapsulate the city’s spirit in a much more faithful way.”

At its core, Peng’s work is a celebration of Shanghai’s distinctive essence, and in light of the recent lockdowns, the mundane moments that he spotlights seem to take on new contexts. They’ve become a reminder of how precious ordinary life can be, and how only when the mundanity we take for granted is gone, do we realize its beauty.

与印象中这座现代化都市相比，彭凯（PK）笔下的上海则是一副“老龄化”的样子—— 弄堂里的杂货店、襄阳公园里的交际舞、社区健身器材上挥舞拳臂的大妈、老城厢街边的小笼包铺……这些看似“老去”的城市光影，却簇成上海的烟火和人情，在车水马龙的缝隙里调味。他说道：“现在中国各大城市的年轻人其实没有太大的差异，我并没有特意去挑选老年人来画，只是从他们样貌你可以感受到上海。”

2022 年春天，上海与新冠奥密克戎病毒的僵持让整座城陷入泥潭，对于彭凯来说，上海味道暂存在这一幅幅插画里，让他回想起平日上海的滋味；对于观众而言，这些虽是上海人的普通日常，却在当下这个隔绝期令人心生向往，因为平凡即珍贵。

Peng was born and raised in Shanghai, and his enduring love for the city can be traced back to his childhood years. “When I was a kid, I lived in a four-story lane house,” he recalls. “My grandmother lived in a lane house near Ruijing Road, where there were rows of shikumen dotting the block. Every holiday, my cousins and I roamed through those back alleys and made it our playground. I have fond memories of my time there—even my memories of thinking that the shikumen’s restrooms were haunted and being afraid to go in I look back on fondly.”

The places that Peng experienced during this time are the source of much nostalgia today, and they form his impression of the city. Take for example, a two-story restaurant called Luxing that he often passed by. It’s sights, sounds, and even smells are vivid to this today. “I remember how brightly lit it was even at nine at night,” Peng says. “The steam that poured out from the storefront, the silhouettes of customers inside, and the lively energy.”

彭凯对于上海的专情并非无迹可寻。作为土生土长的上海人，他对童年时期的生活经历还记忆犹新。“我小时候住的是四层公房，奶奶和外婆家仍住在石库门。奶奶家靠近瑞金路一带，那里有一排排石库门建筑。每逢假期，我和表哥表姐就在奶奶的石库门院子的天井下玩耍，一起在阁楼上写作业，印象中，石库门的厕所一直不敢进去，总担心闹鬼，” 他笑着说道。而曾经每次去外婆家时路过的街景，成了他对这座城市最怀念的场景，他接着说：“总会路过那家名叫‘鲁兴’的二层楼饮食店，晚上八九点仍旧灯火通明，店里飘出的白色蒸汽，食客在里面若影若现，十分热闹。”这些童年的记忆，串联起彭凯对家乡上海的初印象，潜移默化地编织着他对于上海的情结。长大后，他走上街头，用画笔捕捉上海的人情。

In 2016, Peng discovered American illustrator Jason Polan’s Every Person in New York series, and he was inspired to recreate the project for his hometown. Every Person in Shanghai is similarly pared down, depicting the city’s people and its locales in either completely black-and-white or with minimal colors. Despite the simplicity, his illustrations are vivid portraits of life in the city.

Being observant is a habit that’s stuck with Peng since his younger years, and he believes it’s essential to his work. “As an illustrator, the ability to observe and replicate my observations with my art has become instinctive,” he says. “I think people nowadays are less observant, too distracted by their phones to the point where they can’t even glance away from it while walking down the street. Since everyone lives vicariously through their phone screens, I thought my illustrations can help remind people of the beauty you miss when you never look up.”

或许是从小喜欢画画的缘故，彭凯对于身边的观察细致入微。2016 年，受到美国艺术家 Jason Polan 的《Every Person in New York》的影响，彭凯开始创作自己的系列《Every Person in Shanghai》（人人上海）。其中大部分作品虽都以黑白色线条呈现，却能把日常生动描绘，从不同人物的体态、神情、动作还有身旁的事物、街景，将观众轻松地带入生活的情景，生活中的“过客”重新浮现在脑海。他说：“作为插画师，观察和模仿能力变成了本能。我觉得现在的人观察力变弱了，走在街上也在看手机。我想既然大家都生活在屏幕上，我就把自己的插画发在朋友圈里，让你在手机里看到你错过的风景。” 通常，他没有刻意选择某个场景进行创作，而是靠平日生活中的发现与留心。老弄堂、地铁、公园或是老城厢，彭凯的创作源泉在城市中无处不在。

With Shanghai’s frenzied pace of development, the old ways of life have been cast out of sight, blotted out by the city’s skyward expansion. The southern districts of the city and Luwan district, areas that Peng are most familiar with, have largely changed over the years—though remnants of the city’s old essence still linger. As Shanghai continues to change and grow, Peng understands that the sense of community and human warmth he associates with the city will inevitably fade further away. However, he isn’t looking to his art as a way of waging battle against modernization—he simply wants to document the city and celebrate the little slices of Shanghai that remain blissfuly oblivious to the megalopolis’ unrelenting expansion. “I believe that people in Shanghai are very receptive to change,” he notes. “Even the older generations are willing to accept change, and they still remain curious to new things. They’re not shocked by modernization—they’re simply slowly digesting it.”

随着城市现代化发展的进程，许多上海老式的生活习惯随着老城厢的改造隐退在大众视线之外。据彭凯所说，他熟悉的南市区（曾经上海市辖区，包括老城厢及陆家浜、浦东上南地区等地区，2000 年后并入黄埔区）和卢湾区以前都还保留着浓浓的上海味道，但随着拆迁、旧区改造，很多老一辈的人都搬走了，人情味、烟火气正在逐渐消失。不过，彭凯并不希望用作品来对抗现代化，他只想做个生活简单的观察者，以此来致敬时代夹缝中能保持乐观的人。他紧接着说道：“我觉得上海是一个接纳度很高的城市，就算是老年人也愿意接受新事物，对新的东西保持好奇心，现代化对与他们来说不是一种‘冲击’，而是逐渐被‘消化’的过程。”

Peng is now a freelance designer and artist, and whenever he has time, he works on the series. His tribute project to Shanghai now consists of over 50 illustrations and continues to grow. He shares that he doesn’t have any concrete plans about where he wants the series to end up but simply hopes to continue sharing his love of the city through his work. Art has been a faithful companion during the lockdown, and with each completed piece, Peng has found comfort in knowing that there’s plenty more ordinary days to look forward to in the place he calls home.

创作上的没有野心，反倒让他的作品看起来真实、且发自内心。现在，彭凯辞去了工作，每日除了视觉设计的工作，便是插画创作，截至目前，《Every Person in Shanghai》已完成了近五十幅作品。疫情当下，他也没有特别的孤独感，因为他对上海抱有信心，相信这黑暗时刻很快会过去，自己便能重新回到关于这座城市和人的“平凡”创作中来。他说：“我希望在《Every Person in Shanghai》系列积累到一百幅满意作品的时候能做成一本书，我给自己的唯一要求，就是要有趣，能给大家带来共鸣。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @pkpkppk

 

Contributor: Pete Zhang

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @pkpkppk

 

供稿人: Pete Zhang

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢

Playtime Paradiso 如果把路边摊摆在展览中央

May 3, 2022 2022年5月3日

What would the world look like if you could see it again through the wide eyes of childhood? To wander expectantly through everyday life as if it were brand new, all vibrant and glittering; to feel the innocent joy sparked by sugary treats or cheap toys? Filipina artist Tyang Karyel offers her bubbly take on what that felt like with her new installation, Playtime Paradiso, which recreates slices of everyday life in the Philippines. Local staples such as a sari-sari convenience store, a palengke food market, and a banketa household goods shop all make appearances in her immersive installation. Instead of their usual utilitarian appearance, they’ve been reimagined with a candy-colored palette and wavey edges, populated with products that seem to come from a cartoon universe.

如果能回到小时候，你看到的世界会是怎样的？你是否会满怀期待地过好每一天？或者因为几颗糖果或廉价玩具就能收获快乐？菲律宾艺术家 Tyang Karyel 在她的全新艺术装置“Playtime Paradiso”中给出了生动且形象的答案。该沉浸式艺术装置，重现了菲律宾的日常，譬如当地常见的“sari-sari”便利店、“palengke”食品市场和“banketa”日用品小店，那里摆满了仿佛来自卡通世界的商品。

Across Manila, street sellers hawk items on overpasses and sidewalks—their cheap wares laid out on the ground atop a piece of cloth. Karyel pays homage to the practice at the exhibition by offering some of her own artistic takes on these products in a similar manner—items such as dust pans, heart-shaped mirrors, and packs of clothes pins are scattered across a fruit-patterned cloth.

At the convenience store, she offers exaggerated ceramic sculptures of San Miguel beer done in collaboration with Mansy Abesamis. Across the way, an ukay thrift shop displays other-worldly outfits designed by Salad Day, and a butcher stall offers cartoon-like drumsticks with smiling faces alongside checker-patterned cuts of meat. You can even play the “lottery” or sign up for her email list at the tanod stand, which are stalls where civilian peace officers hired by the neighborhood-level government usually keep watch.  

在马尼拉，街头小贩喜欢扎堆在立交桥和人行道，小摊贩会在地面铺一块布，将商品摊开出售。Tyang 以类似的形式展出自己的作品：畚箕、心形镜子和晒衣夹等等，这些物品被统统放在在水果图案的桌布上；便利店摆放着她和 Mansy Abesamis 合作完成的大号生力啤酒陶瓷雕塑；“ukay”旧货店里陈列着由 Salad Day 设计的卡通色服装；展览内甚至还有肉摊，售卖面带微笑的卡通鸡腿以及方格图案的肉块。你还可以来这里玩乐透彩票，但首先要到“tanod”摊位登记电子邮件表格（现实中，“tanod”代表当地社区政府保安人员驻守的警卫岗）。

Since Karyel’s childhood years, she has found inspiration in Filipino design. “Street snack packaging has squiggly lines with very erratic prints. They’re very unique, it’s an art in itself,” she says. “My family never understood what I saw in them until now; to them it was just the same old thing they always see, something purely functional. But they let me do what I wanted as an artist and child so I was free to explore my interests.” To this day, she still collects old packages and toys from the ’90s, citing nostalgia as a core element in shaping her identity as an artist.

Tyang 从小便对菲律宾传统设计充满兴趣，创作时自然会从中汲取许多灵感。“其实街头小吃的包装本身就是一门艺术，”她说道，“对观众来说，这些都是稀松平常的事物，因此能产生极大的共鸣。成为一名艺术家让我保持童心，父母也都支持我想做的事情，让我可以自由地探索自己的兴趣。”现在的她仍然会收集各种 90 年代市面上的旧包装和玩具。怀旧，是她艺术创作的核心。

For all the love Karyel finds in these designs, there’s an element of commercialization that she prefers to avoid. Unless the items in her show are actual snacks or products used as props, she doesn’t include their brand names on her art. “I want it to be timeless, not an advertisement. I want to show my culture with my own style,” she explains. But of course, most of the designs are instantly recognizable and viewers can find that connection regardless. Pest control products, canned meats, prophylactics, cigarettes; all these items purchased on a regular basis without much thought that are in fact central to many of our lives.

创作过程中，她会尽量避免商业化元素，减少品牌名称的出现，她解释说：“我的创作不是广告。我想让观众把注意力放在文化上面，而非品牌或消费观。”当然，大多数商品的设计非常显眼，观众仍然可以一下子猜到商品对应的品牌。这不仅引我们思考 —— 大众经常购买的口罩、杀虫剂、肉类罐头、避孕用品、香烟等等日常用品，却很少想到它们在生活中的重要地位。

Most of the items on display in the shop are made from styrofoam coated in epoxy resin, which is then painted over with acrylic paint. All of the items created for the show are attached to the specific shops they’re displayed in and are not meant to be separated, including the outfits in the ukay. But certain ceramic pieces, such as the beer bottles, the Karyel-branded household items, or her artworks can all be purchased individually. 

店铺所展出的大多数物品，都用涂有环氧树脂的泡沫塑料制成，然后用丙烯酸涂料上色，再将所有商品固定到对应的店铺中，不能单独取出，甚至连“ukay”旧货店中陈列的服装也是如此。而其中的一些陶瓷摆件，如啤酒瓶、Tyang 自创品牌的家居用品以及她个人的画作，则可供单独出售。

The full installation, which was shown at this year’s annual Art Fair Philippines, took four months from proposal to finish. She asked local tricycle rickshaw drivers for carpenter recommendations, but unexpectedly they insisted on helping her themselves: “They made a wonderful installation, you never know what an individual’s potential is,” she says. “They’re real DIY guys.”

该系列在今年菲律宾艺会 (Art Fair Philippines) 上展出，从提案到最终完成花了四个月的时间。她找到当地三轮人力车夫，希望他们能帮忙介绍合适的木匠，但出乎意料的是，这些车夫坚持要亲自上阵，“他们是我的技术指导！你永远不知道一个人能藏得多深，”她说，“真是高手在民间！”

Karyel views the installation as something of a possible road map for local sellers with entrepenuerial goals. Much of the cheap plastic items are manufactured in China and shipped to the Philippines, but there’s nothing stopping locals from turning them into white-label products to give themselves a competitive edge. “It used to be that only big companies could do this, but we can do it DIY now. Mom and pop shops can build their own empires,” she says. “These hole-in-the-wall, family-owned and -operated stores can expand their businesses.” To create her own logos she uses a simple inkjet printer and acknowledges that her background in graphic design gives her an advantage over everyday shopkeepers.

Mainly though, she sees the installation as a way to pay homage to her roots. “It’s not just about where I started as a Filipino, but as an individual,” Karyel explains. “I grew up with these types of businesses and was raised in that culture. As an artist, it’s humbling to represent where I came from. And I came from humble beginnings. We have to love our country. Be in love with it despite everything that’s happening. Teach our children to love it. Because this is all we’ve got.”

与此同时，Tyang 的装置也为本地具有商业头脑的卖家提供了一个有力的参考。在菲律宾当地，许多廉价塑料商品均来自中国制造，而本地人完全可以利用这些资源、或是手头材料来制作一些白标商品，参与到市场的竞争中来。“之前只有大企业会这样做，但我们也可以自己行动起来。这样，阿妈、阿爸也能成就自己的商业帝国，甚至有机会让小店形成家族产业并不断扩大影响，” 她说道。对于她自己的商标，一台简易的喷墨打印机便可完成。她承认，平面设计方面的背景，让她比普通店主更具有优势，而这也正是市场中缺乏的环节——包装。

不过，这个项目最重要的意义还是追溯并致敬自己的文化根源。Tyang 说：“菲律宾很多小商贩特别有趣，它们就是我的童年。身为一名艺术家，一切从自身实际出发，哪怕再不起眼，但这就是我的生活。我们必须热爱自身所处的环境，不管发生什么，都要满怀热爱和希望。我以后也会教导我的孩子们，去热爱这片土地，因为这就是我们所拥有的一切。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Instagram: @tyangkaryel

 

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

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

Instagram: @tyangkaryel

 

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

You Might Also Like你可能会喜欢