What we are as kids and what adults want for kids can be very different things. As adults, we try to protect and guide children, but despite best efforts, they can be mischievous little monsters. But it’s understandable—we were all kids once and know that the most fun is had around the corner from the adults’ view. It’s something that Vivian Le knows all too well, and in her illustrations, she captures the innocence of childhood with pastel colors and a grisly slant. Resembling dolls or laboratory clones, the children who populate her art rebel against what’s expected of them with violence, profanity, and sex.
小孩的真实面目，可能与成人所期待的那样非常不同。大人不惜一切要保护和教导孩子，但是无论多努力，有些小孩依然是调皮的捣蛋鬼。但这其实不难理解，我们都曾经是小孩，所以我们都知道，最有趣的事情往往发生在大人的视线之外。在 Vivian Le 的插图作品中，她用温暖的色调陈述了阴翳的故事，呈现了自己眼中的纯真童年。在她的作品中，那些外形酷似洋娃娃或实验室克隆出来的孩子，颠覆了人们对小孩的期望，充斥着各种暴力、猥亵和性爱元素。
“I want to challenge the idea of what innocence means by portraying these adolescent figures committing comical acts of debauchery,” Le says. “It’s a macabre cuteness.” Across her works, cherubic figures with plastic limbs swarm among pink backdrops, throwing up the middle finger, and occasionally strangling or eating one another (or worse).
“我想通过描画孩子放荡的行为，挑战人们对于纯真的理解。这是一种可怕的可爱。”Vivian 解释道。粉色的背景中，有着塑料四肢的小孩挤在一起，看上去天真无邪，却又竖起中指，相互勒着对方脖子或噬咬彼此，甚至有过之而无不及。
Her choice of colors are also meant to conjure a different perspective of femininity. “People either love or hate pink, because it’s seen as ‘girly’ which can be misconstrued as ‘lesser,’” she says. “Growing up as a girl, pink was everywhere and it became a journey of whether or not it was appropriate to like pink at all. It was so feminine and I didn’t want to be seen as weak.” But by pairing red with pink, she hopes to subvert these notions. “Together they instill specific feelings of love and sensuality, conflicting with my subject matter.”
她之所以选择粉色也是为了让人们对女性气质有另一种理解。她说：“对于粉红，有人喜欢，有人讨厌；有人会觉得这种颜色太‘女孩子气’，是‘弱者’的颜色。作为一个女孩，从小到大，粉红色简直无处不在，甚至你会想，到底喜欢粉色对不对？它代表的是柔弱的女性气质，但我不希望别人觉得我太软弱。”于是，她用血红搭配粉红，希望这种搭配能颠覆这些偏见。“这两种颜色的结合令人想起爱情与性感，可以让我笔下的小孩形成一种矛盾感。”
The red also appeals to her as a first-generation Vietnamese-Chinese immigrant in America; in Asian culture, the color is associated with luck, vitality, and celebration. “I like to include details like these,” she says. “I occasionally title work in Chinese, and generally give my characters Asian features. But I don’t believe my heritage should ever be reduced to aesthetics.”
另外，红色也源于她作为第一代美国中越混血移民的身份；在亚洲文化中，红色代表着好运、活力和喜庆。她说：“我想在作品中融入这些细节，我偶尔会为作品取中文标题，画一些亚洲面孔的人物。但我认为，我身上的文化根源不应该仅停留在美学层面。”
The world Le has created is many things: for one, it’s designed to evoke fond childhood memories, allowing the viewer and artist to relive their youth. But it also challenges the notion that they were truly days of innocence and provides an outlet to escape the pressures of adulthood.
“The viewer is looking at my subjects through a filter,” Le says. “They are being looked at, therefore objectified. Being projected onto.” Although her work is about children, it’s also about the viewer, and ultimately, herself. “Often, when you see them eating each other’s entrails or eyeballs, that’s me venting my emotions.”
Vivian 创造的艺术世界具有多面性：一方面是唤起美好的童年回忆，让观众和艺术家重温或回顾自己年少的时光；另一方面，又要挑战纯真童年这个概念。更是一种逃避成年压力的手段，但又不会对童年的回忆产生盲目的迷恋。
“观众是通过一个滤镜来看我笔下的人物。它们变成一种被审视的客观对象，是被投射的对象。”Vivian 说道。虽然画的是小孩，但这些作品讲述的也是观众以及她自己。“插画里那些小孩在互相啃噬对方的内脏或眼球，这些其实是我自己发泄情绪的出口。”
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Website: www.vivianleart.com
Instagram: @levivianart
Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
