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Bangkok Phosphors 夜色下的魔力曼谷

September 27, 2019 2019年9月27日

Cody Ellingham’s first impression of Bangkok wasn’t visual, but literary, through Yukio Mishima’s Temple of Dawn, which takes place in Bangkok in the 1940s and 1950s. The vivid description of the city’s canals and temples left an impression on this globetrotting photographer. “I wanted to come here and see how the modern city had changed with my own eyes,” he says. “I found that the canals had been mostly replaced by congested concrete roads, but still the city had a kind of magic to it.”

环球旅行摄影师 Cody Ellingham 对曼谷的第一印象并非来自视觉，而是来自三岛由纪夫的文学著作《Temple of Dawn》，书中描绘了上世纪四十至五十年代曼谷的城市面貌，生动的文字让 Cody Ellingham 对那里的运河与寺庙记忆犹存。他说：“我希望来到这里亲眼看看这座城市的当代变迁。如今，我发现很多运河都被拥挤不堪的混凝土马路替代，但整座城市依然有一种魔力存在。”

It’s a magic that he captures in Bangkok Phosphors, a stunning portrait of the Thai capital after dark. Similar to his documentations of other Asian metropolises, such as DERIVE and Shanghai Streets, his approach to seeking out shots was largely guided by instinct. “Bangkok was totally unknown for me, as it was my first time here,” he says. “I explored. I wandered, I talked to locals, and I took my time figuring out the city’s layout.”

这样的魔力被 Ellingham 用相机记录在《Bangkok Phosphors》系列作品中，描绘出泰国首都入夜时分令人着迷的城市肖像。与他曾为其他亚洲大都会拍摄的作品类似，比如《DERIVE》和《Shanghai Streets》，Ellingham 通常会根据自己的直觉和本能寻找镜头，“拍摄的时候是我第一次去曼谷，对我来说是完全未知的状态。想要搞清楚城市的布局，要多花点时间，我会把自己沉浸在城市的街道里，与当地人讲话，不断寻找探索的机会。”

As it does in Ellingham’s past works, architecture plays a key role in this photo essay. Bangkok Phosphors juxtaposes dilapidated buildings with futuristic structures to highlight the city’s tug-of-war between modernity and older ways of life, a competition which the former is winning. His palette, which in this series consists of cobalt blues and fluorescent cyans, is another crucial atmospheric detail. These cold tones call to mind the seamy metropolises of cyberpunk fiction, and it’s by design: by drawing comparisons between present-day reality and dystopian sci-fi, Ellingham seems to be asking viewers to think about how our choices today influence the future, and whether or not that’s a future we want to live in.

Cody Ellingham is now raising funds to turn Bangkok Phosphors into a photo book. Learn more on his Kickstarter.

在 Ellingham 过去的作品中，建筑往往是主角。《Bangkok Phosphor》系列作品是一场关于现代与传统的碰撞，让破败不堪的建筑在未来感的框架中胜出。同时，钴蓝和荧光色拼凑成他的调色板，洋溢在每幅画面的细枝末梢处，这样的冷色调唤起人们对大都市赛博朋克风格的种种畅想。Ellingham 用真实写照与反乌托邦式的科幻画笔，带观者以现实角度选择关于未来的去向，引人们思考这是否是我们想要到达的未来境地。

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Website: cbje.tokyo
Instagram: @cbje.tokyo

 

Contributor: David Yen
Chinese Translation: Pete Zhang

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Website: cbje.tokyo
Instagram: @cbje.tokyo

 

供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Pete Zhang

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Who Are You Looking At? 不食人间烟火的肖像

September 23, 2019 2019年9月23日

The women in Kelly Belter‘s prints sit alone, eyes closed or lost in the distance, with a look of apathy or boredom written across their faces. Or perhaps it’s not apathy or boredom, but something else entirely—expressions that aren’t so much enigmatic as they are ambiguous, unavailable. Drawn in simple lines and with a minimal palate, the subjects offer no insight into their thoughts. They’re not there to be looked at.

A Korean-American illustrator, Belter grew up in mainly in Dallas, and then moved to Korea to teach for a few years after college. That’s where she began to work seriously as an artist. Previously art had been only a hobby, and it wasn’t until she moved to Seoul, where she had plenty of time to spend drawing, that it started to seem like a realistic career choice. She enrolled in a graduate degree program and began freelancing seriously. “I invested more time in illustration,” she says. “I started picking up odd jobs and commissions while I was in school, upgraded my work materials, and transitioned into full-time work doing corporate design and freelance illustration projects after graduating.”

Kelly Belter 画中的女人们总是孤独地坐在一旁，她们双眼紧闭，又或迷失在远方，一副淡泊是非、百无聊赖的表情挂在脸上。即便并非如此，你也会从她们身上，稍许读出几分不食人间烟火的意味。Belter 用简单的线条和审美趣味，轻描淡绘出每一位女性主人翁的心头思绪。她们就伫立在那儿，不希望被他人察觉。

韩裔美国插画师 Belter 的青少年时光大部分在达拉斯度过。大学毕业后的几年里，她移居到韩国从事教学工作，并在那里开始作为一名艺术家进行创作。搬去首尔之后，Belter 拥有大量时间进行创作，艺术对她来说从兴趣爱好转变为职业选择。随后，她进行了硕士学位的学习，并开始着手于自由职业的工作，“上学的时候，我在插画方面投入了更多时间，用兼职的钱来升级我的创作用具。毕业后，公司的全职工作和兼职基本上是同时进行的”。

At first she created most of her work digitally, using illustration software. But eventually she grew tired of relying on a computer, and in 2018 she began experimenting with alternatives. That’s how she fell in love with print-making—particularly silkscreens and risographs. “The physical process of hand-crafting each image is really satisfying. I like the visual effect of bold, bright color blocking within an image,” she says. Printing by hand also also allows for slight variations of color and texture within each work. On her website, she sells risographs and limited edition prints.

Her figures have a static, wallpaper-like quality, an effect heightened by the floral patterns on her subjects’ clothes. “Creating a more ‘flat’ image allows me to better balance details, texture, and color palette,” she explains.

起初，Belter 用电脑插画软件绘制的大部分作品还有一股数字的味道，但后来，她渐渐对电脑的过度依赖感到厌倦，于是在 2018 年另辟蹊径，陷入了一场与孔版、丝网印刷的恋曲。她说：“亲手制作每张照片的过程让人心存满足，那些大胆以及色彩鲜明的视觉效果是我的心头好。”通过这种操作手感强烈的创作方式，你会在每一幅作品中，发现不同纹理与颜色之间细微的变化。在 Belter 的个人网站上，一些丝网印刷的限量作品正在公开售卖。

她的作品总有一种静态、墙纸一般的质感，女主人翁们身上穿着的花卉图案印映而出。“在平坦的纸质上作画，能让我更好地在细节、纹理和调色之间找到平衡”。

This flatness also makes the subjects more inaccessible to the viewer. Very subtly, Belter inverts a tradition of portraiture that leaves women on display as a passive object for an implicitly male spectator.

Belter has long been fascinated by nineteenth-century Orientalist art, and especially by the paintings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), who often depicted non-European women in a romantic, exotic fashion. Belter’s work is in dialogue with Ingres, and she seeks to invert his representational conventions. “He often used the perspective of a window looking into a room of women,” she explains. “I hope to present women from a different perspective, and I’ve played with the idea by grounding the women within the room, often with a window behind them. The women I draw are self-concerned. They are looking at themselves, rather than being looked at by someone else.” While her subjects are seldom engaged in any action—they’re more likely to be gazing into space—they’re also not passively on display.

同时，平坦的纸质还会让人物看起来区别于凡尘，高贵且端详。细枝末梢处，Belter 颠覆了传统的肖像画法，以含蓄的男性视角展现女性外貌。

长期以来，Belter 一直沉迷于十九世纪东方主义（Orientalist）艺术，尤其是 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres（1780-1867）的作品，这位法国画家曾时常描绘欧洲地区之外的女性肖像，具有丰富的浪漫色彩和异域风尚。而 Belter 的作品则像是与 Ingres 的对话，对话中 Belter 尝试颠覆后者的传统绘法。“Ingres 经常能以窗户的视角望去女性角色的闺房，而我则希望以不同的方法呈现，在我的作品中，窗子往往在女性的背后。我笔下的女性，都是关注自我的。她们与自己对话，并不希望被他人看到。” 同时，Belter 的人物通常没有任何动作，她们更像在空中凝视，并不想被展示在画卷里。

The eclectic objects in each print are also the product of considerable thought. Belter wants each image to suggest a brief, simple story, and she gets inspiration from photos she snaps of odd items that catch her eye when walking around Seoul. In “Oranges and Antibodies,” for example, a self-indulgent obsession with health is visible in the choice of props: “an acupuncture hand sculpture and diagram seen in a traditional medical office, pill boxes, Korean Hallabong oranges and the filter-masks everyone in Seoul wears. I wanted to contrast that self-concern and decadence with the environmental chaos outside and our propensity to ignore it.”

画中的物品也同样是经过 Belter 深思熟虑的，她希望通过画面去呈现言简意赅的故事。每当漫步在首尔街头，她都会用相机记录下那些夺人眼球的物件。在作品《橘子和抗体（Oranges and Antibodies）》中，过度迷恋健康的心理状态被安放在了可见的道具上面，“你会看到人体和手部穴位模具，药箱以及韩国人人都有的过滤面罩。我想用这些道具延伸出一些思考 —— 自我意识、外界环境的混乱、以及人们司空见惯的态度，让这三者之间形成反差的对立面”。

With her newfound love of printmaking, Belter is eager to continue experimenting with new techniques and media. She’s now at work on a screen-printed zine, which she also plans to release as a risograph. And at least one of her prints is also available in tote bag form.

If you can’t catch her at one of the art book festivals she’s been attending across Korea and throughout Asia, you can find her prints available on her website.

在她与版画制作的恋曲中，Belter 也希望持续在作品中加入新的技术与媒介。目前，她正忙着一本丝网印刷杂志的制作，孔版印刷的打印版本也在计划之中。同时，一些作品还会被印在托特包上面。如果你没能参加她在韩国和其他亚洲地区的艺术书展，你还可以在 Kelly Belter 的网站上浏览她的作品。

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Website: kelbelter.com
Instagram: @bybelter

 

Contributor: Allen Young
Chinese Translation: Pete Zhang

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网站: kelbelter.com
Instagram: @bybelter

 

Contributor: Allen Young
Chinese Translation: Pete Zhang

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Mr. Pahinga 精诚所至 金石为开

September 20, 2019 2019年9月20日

When “Pahinga,” by Al James, became a viral anthem in the Philippines, it was emblematic of a new wave of independent Filipino rappers finding success on their own terms. As high-speed internet became readily available across the country, listeners began craving new styles and found unmediated access to local talent. Tectonic shifts followed: a new generation of artists could now find instant success, and James was at the forefront. His syrupy, sensual style was everywhere, and it was the sound of a new era.

去年，菲律宾说唱歌手 Al James 的单曲《Pahinga》在当地病毒式狂热蔓延，预示着新一波独立菲律宾说唱歌手正在以独特的方式胜出。随着高速稳定的互联网络在菲律宾全国普及，音乐爱好者们希望以更为直接的方式，发现新的音乐风格和本地新晋音乐人。同时地下音乐场景也发生了翻天覆地的变化：对于新一代艺术家来说，一夜成名不再是遥不可及的梦。而 James 便处在当地互联网音乐场景的先锋阵地，他绵密的感情色彩充斥在作品中，打造属于新时代的个人标签。

Now anyone can record their first song and become a superstar overnight. It’s certainly the case with some of today’s most popular rappers. To the majority of his listeners, James too dropped from the sky as a total unknown. He had hardly any internet presence when he uploaded “Pahinga,” the sole, lonely track on his threadbare Soundcloud and Youtube pages. But he’d actually been waiting in the wings for nearly a decade, studying the rappers before him since his school days.

放眼当下，几乎人人都能凭借一首歌曲一夜成名，时下最流行的说唱歌手中不乏这样的例子。对大多数听众来说， James 同样也算是从天而降的无名之辈。当他上传《Pahinga》时，互联网上并没有多少关于他的痕迹。这首歌也作为他唯一的曲目，孤零零的占据着他 SoundCloud 和 YouTube 页面的全部内容。但实际上，James 的蛰伏期持续了将近十年，从上学时期他便开始研究一些早期的说唱歌手。

Listen to to some of our favorite tracks by Al James below:

点击即可试听几首 Al James 的歌曲:

As a kid, James would run around to some of Manila’s cultural landmarks, like Cubao Expo and the now-shuttered music venue B-Side, both of which were incubators for the local hip- hop scene. Since he was raised near Ronac Art Center, their monthly open mic, Wordplay, was the most influential space for him. “It was a hub for creative kids, a safe space for us. Lots of people whose name you’d recognize now were coming around there. We were the little kids observing and following the older guys.” But James’s first introduction to hip-hop culture was through graffiti, and it was the glue that bonded him with some of his earliest friends, many of whom are still part of his current crew Baryo Berde. “We were vandalizing some of the same doors and stuff,” he says with a laugh while getting a haircut from another childhood friend. “It was like, ‘Oh, that’s you? What’s up!’”

It wasn’t until 2012 that James actually started rapping, standing in the stairwells at his college and “cyphering,“ taking turns rapping together. He was studying advertising at a fine arts school, but he and his friends were more interested in rap: “We were recording some tracks for fun and releasing them on Soundcloud just for the homies, basically. I was rapping under the name AJ. Our first group was called The Land Of Promise. We’d talk about Filipino history, what life is like here, and why you should be proud. Our second group was 5th Wave Theory, and we actually wrote an album.” But in their final year at school, everyone got busy, and rap took a back seat. While they’d still cypher at night when hanging out, their first jobs after school were more important.

少年时期的 James 经常跑到马尼拉一些文化地标性场地观看演出，如 Cubao Expo 和现在已经关闭的音乐场地 B-Side，这两个地方都是当地嘻哈文化孕育而生的地方。他自小在 Ronac 艺术中心附近长大，那里每月都会举行开放麦（open mic）的活动 —— Wordplay，对他的影响很大。“那是一个让小孩发挥创意的中心，也是我们的庇护所。你们现在知道的很多有名的艺术家，他们小时候都是那里的常客，而我们这帮小孩就跟在大人身后暗中观察。”但 James 第一次接触嘻哈文化是通过涂鸦。他和一些早期的朋友都是通过涂鸦相识，其中许多人还成为了他目前团队 Baryo Berde 的成员。“当时我们都喜欢在相同的几扇门附近 ‘搞搞破坏’，然后就聊了起来，‘嘿，那是你画的？’”理发时他笑着说道，而理发师也是他的另一个儿时的玩伴。

直到 2012 年，James 才真正开始说唱，和朋友在大学的楼梯间进行 cypher —— 麦克风接力。那时候他在一所艺术学校攻读广告专业，但他和朋友对说唱明显更感兴趣：“我们当时录了一些歌，还发布在 SoundCloud 上，但其实只是出于好玩，想分享给朋友听。我当时的说唱艺名叫 AJ。我们第一个组合叫 ‘The Land Of Promise’，向大家讲讲菲律宾的历史、本地的生活方式，以及作为菲律宾人引以为傲的缘由。我们的第二个组合是 ‘5th Wave Theory’ ，当时还一块做了张专辑。”但是，大学最后一年，因为大家忙碌起来，说唱的事情就被搁置了。虽然大家晚上出来聚会时还会 cypher，但对他们来说，毕业后的第一份工作显得要更重要一些。

In 2015, the Al James persona came to life. He was only popping up as the occasional featured guest on friends’ tracks, but James could smell change in the air and was acting on it. “This is around the time that rap groups like 727 Clique and Owfuck were coming out,” he tells us. “When I first saw them perform, it was like culture shock. The kids were going crazy. It was a rooftop party and the whole thing was shaking. The police came and shut it down. Before that, we were used to chill, head-bopping crowds. This was totally new.” It inspired him to start experimenting and he recorded a few new styles, trying out some boom bap and some disruptive trap. But it was the lo-fi, chill sounds of “Pahinga” that he finally chose to upload. (The title translates roughly to “chilling out.”)

2015 年，他开始以 Al James 的身份说唱。偶尔友情客串朋友音乐的他，同时也察觉到了当时说唱界的风云突变。“那时候正是 727 Clique 和 Owfuck 这些说唱团体出来的时候。”他回忆道，“当我第一次看到他们表演时，真的是很震撼。所有年轻的小孩都快要疯了。在那次屋顶派对，我感觉整幢房子都在震动。后来警察赶到现场，中止了派对。在那之前的派对，我们最多只是跟着音乐摇摇头。所以，那次真的是一次全新的体验。” 那场派对启发他开始唱出新的尝试，并录制了全新风格的音乐，包括一些 boom bap 和一些爆炸的 trap 音乐。但最终 James 选择了《Pahinga》这首单曲中低保真、放松、舒服的曲风。

“I didn’t expect it to explode,” he says. And it didn’t at first. “Pahinga” gained traction slowly on Soundcloud. In the beginning it was mostly his artist friends playing and sharing it. But then it spread outside his circles. Although it never passed a couple hundred thousand plays on there, it was popular enough there that people started encouraging him to upload it to Youtube, where it took a life of its own. “Stuff wasn’t really blowing up on Youtube yet, but I did it anyway. It grew really organically. There were a lot of memes. People were ripping it from Youtube and adding it to different videos. Everything was happening at the same time, and it just snowballed.”

“我没想到它会这么火。” James 说。这首歌其实并不是一经推出便引爆互联网的，最开始也只是 James 的艺术家朋友会在 SoundCloud 上分享并收听这首单曲。但随后这首歌在他的社交圈以外一度被广泛传播。SoundCloud 上几十万的播放量，已经为他吸引了足够的人气，人们开始鼓励他把歌曲上传到 YouTube，从那时开始，歌曲《Pahinga》的波及范围便开始超出他的预期。“当时我在 YouTube 上也没被太多关注，但我还是上传了这首歌。它的流行是一个逐渐累积的过程。网上有很多对这首歌的改编。很多人从 YouTube 上下载这首歌，加到不同的视频中。各种因素加在一起，就像滚雪球那样。”

As he started getting booked to play shows, he quit his below-the-line advertising job. Al raps full time now, headlining festivals and events all over the country, still as independent as ever. “Some labels were reaching out, but the deals were pretty unfair. The music grew on its own, so I didn’t need them,” he shrugs. But he’s got to stay nimble. “With my newest song, ‘Latina,’ I tried a different approach. I was hearing a lot of similar vibes and I didn’t want it to deal with that saturation, so I switched it up. But the Al James flavor is still there.”

他开始受邀参加各种演出，并随后辞去了广告公司的工作。现在，Al james 是一名全职的说唱歌手，在菲律宾各地的节日和活动上表演，但仍然像以前一样保持独立音乐人的态度。“有些唱片公司联系过我，但条件都非常不公平。我的音乐本身在不断发展，所以我也不需要签这些公司了。” 他耸了耸肩说道。在音乐性上，他的曲风依然保持灵活多变的特点，“新歌《Latina》尝试了不同的风格。因为我之前听到太多相似的音乐，所以不想再创作已经饱和的曲风。我决定改变一下，但 Al James 的味道依然存在。”

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Facebook: ~/mrpahinga
Instagram: @mrpahinga
YouTube: ~/aljames

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Jilson Tiu

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Facebook: ~/mrpahinga
Instagram: @mrpahinga
YouTube: ~/aljames

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Jilson Tiu

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Sci-Fashion JIN 袍加身

September 16, 2019 2019年9月16日

You can’t just wait around for the future, you have to go out and create it. That’s the ethos behind JIN, an haute couture clothing brand from Taipei. The brainchild of Burgess Wu, JIN was born of a pure love for science fiction. The flagship store in the Wanhua district, half showroom and half event space, is a laboratory for creativity inspired by Blade Runner that regularly hosts a range of unique parties.

未来不是等出来的，是需要你去创造的，这就台北高订时装品牌 JIN 的设计理念。出于对科幻小说的热爱，创始人 Burgess Wu 打造了品牌 JIN。该品牌的旗舰店位于台北万华区，由陈列厅和活动场地构成，空间的设计灵感源自《银翼杀手》（Blade Runner）。而作为一个创意的工作空间，这里也会定期举办各种特别的派对活动。

Wu founded JIN in 2015 after dropping out of college. He was studying design but became impatient, unable to wait to start creating real things. As the son of a clothing designer, he already had a strong foundation in the craft , so he combed through past sketches and set to work building his brand: he began sourcing material and working with tailors to bring these concepts to life. When his first line, which had a sci-fi aesthetic, didn’t sell, he retreated to his home studio for some soul searching. He decided to combine his futuristic look with traditional elements, and this new approach seemed to catch on. “I wanted to offer something to society, something new for this generation,” he explains. “Fast fashion is boring—there’s no individuality. If you spend all your time following the trends, you lose yourself.”

2015 年，Wu 大学辍学后创办了 JIN。当时正在攻读设计专业的他，迫不及待并渴望能创造出实打实的作品。Wu 的父亲是一名服装设计师，在工艺方面为他早已夯实了坚硬的基础。在认真梳理了自己画过的草图过后，他开始着手打造属于自己的品牌：采购面料，与裁缝师共事，并逐渐将这些设计概念转化为现实。他的首个系列以科幻美学为主题概念，但卖得并不理想，他回到家中的工作室，反复琢磨自己的设计理念。随后，他决定将自己未来主义风格与传统元素结合起来，这种新的创作方式似乎很受追捧。“我想为社会和这一代人创造点新东西。”他解释道。“快时尚太无聊，缺乏个性。如果你一昧追逐潮流，你终会失去自己的个性。”

In Wanhua District, which is full of historic neighborhoods, it’s easy to find inspiration. “We keep our traditions,” Wu says. Nods to tradition in his designs include robes, leather headbands, silk shirts, and more. But he combines these with ultra-modern materials and tech wear details. “I travel to Guangzhou and walk around and touch the materials before choosing them. I handle them in person. I come up with the idea first and then go collect the fabrics.” He works with a well-known local tailor to produce small runs for each new line. He only releases about 10-20 pieces for each line and his customers tend to be film or design students.

在万华这个充满历史韵味的街区，灵感无处不在。你会从长袍礼服、皮革头带、丝制衬衫等设计洞见他们对传统文化的致敬，“我们要继承传统，”他说。同时，他还将这些传统元素与超前的面料材质、机能服装细节结合在一起。“我飞到广州到处寻找合适面料，选择之前都会先去用手摸，每次都由我亲自拣选。通常，都会先构思想法，再去进行挑选。”对于每一个新的系列，他都会与当地著名的裁缝师一同合作，进行小批量的生产。而一般每个系列他只推出 10 – 20 件作品，客户往往是电影或设计专业的学生。

JIN is much more than just its clothes, though. Their brick-and-mortar location is just as important, maybe more so. Underneath glowing neon signs is a working bar, which they open when hosting their one-of-a-kind events. Their central display case looks like a giant test tube. They often invite DJs to perform, and there’s even a tattoo artist with a booth set up in the back. Occasionally they bring in a sushi master, and most recently they hosted a boxing match. For Wu, the idea is to throw unconventional events that can cultivate interest with people who aren’t solely into fashion. “We want to bring people together from different scenes and make new friends,” Wu says.” There were a lot of people I’ve never met at this last event.”

但 JIN 不仅仅是一个服装品牌。他们的实体店同样重要，甚至可以说更重要。在霓虹灯标牌的下面是一个吧台，每当举办活动的时候就会派上用场；在店内中央的陈列台上放着一支巨大的试管；他们也经常邀请 DJ 前来表演，在整个空间的后面还有纹身师的工作台；有时，他们会邀请寿司师傅过来一显身手。就在最近，他们甚至还举办了一场拳击比赛。Wu 的想法是通过举办各种不拘一格的活动，吸引那些不单是对时尚感兴趣的人群。Wu 说：“我们希望将不同背景的人们聚在一起，结交新的朋友。譬如上一次活动，我就认识了很多以前从未见过的人。”

There’s still a ways to go, though. “The fashion scene here isn’t mature enough yet,” Wu complains.”People dress up for events or parties, but they don’t just dress up for fun on a regular day. I want to inspire people in Taipei to try new things. I want them to understand the value of style.”

当然，“这里的时尚行业还不够成熟呢。”他抱怨道，“人们会为活动和聚会打扮，但在平常的日常，他们不会出于有趣而特意打扮。我想鼓励台北人去多尝试新事物。我希望他们明白时尚的价值。”

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Website: www.jin2015.com.tw
Instagram: @jinofficlal

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
Images Courtesy of JIN

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

网站: www.jin2015.com.tw
Instagram: @jinofficlal

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li
图片由 JIN 提供

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Walking in a Boundless Dream 梦境之中，现实之外

September 13, 2019 2019年9月13日

What is electronic music? Is it music made with a computer, or music with an identifiably electronic sound? Neither definition fits particularly well anymore, and maybe it’s an outdated term. The newest album by Beijing-based musician Guzz, called Walking in a Boundless Dream, is entirely digital, made without any physical instruments, although you’d never guess, since it’s brimming with organic texture. He doesn’t want to be hemmed in by a genre anyway and prefers to call it simply “music.” While the album is indeed a departure from any single style, it’s informed by the continued growth of electronic music as a whole, the maturity of the technology used to make it, and the largely unrealized possibilities of music made with computers.

究竟什么是电子音乐？电脑制作的音乐还是具有高辨识度音效的音乐，它们能被称之为电子音乐吗？恐怕以上表述都不太合适，也或许太过陈词滥调了吧。《走不出的梦境》是生活在北京的 Guzz 的最新专辑，音乐中大段的原声乐器演奏乐段洋溢着有机听感体验，让人完全想不到这是一张完全用电脑软件制作完成的专辑。无论如何，Guzz 也不希望被禁锢在音乐风格当中，他只想将自己的作品称之为 “音乐”。新专辑也同样脱离了任何单一的风格，在当下电子乐场景兼收并蓄，同时运用娴熟的电脑技术，极大地突破了音乐未知的可能性。

Listen to to some of our favorite tracks from Guzz’s new album below:

点击即可试听几首 Guzz 的新歌:

After his recent explorations of Asian identity within club music, Guzz has now left the dance floor entirely for more thoughtful terrain. His previous records combined Western dance beats with Asian compositions and instrumentation, evoking an eastward-gazing night out. Walking in a Boundless Dream still strives for a modern feel and incorporates some obviously synthesized sounds, but the album is overwhelmingly inspired by traditional motifs and instruments of Myanmar and India.

最近，在探索了俱乐部音乐与亚洲本地文化过后，Guzz 彻底将舞曲概念抛之脑后，开始探索更多意义非凡的领域。在他过去的作品中，西方电子舞曲节奏和亚洲乐器相结合，而在新唱片《走不出的梦境》中，音乐在追求现代感和合成器音效的同时，更多的体现了缅甸和印度传统音乐调式和乐器的影响。

Guzz took a circuitous path to get here, but he found the right direction. As a middle schooler, he used to buy Western CDs resold illegally in his hometown in southern China, a common phenomenon across the country at the time. This exposed him to rock and inspired him to join a band. When he was 20, someone introduced him to classic ’90s electronic acts like Prodigy and Daft Punk, and that new sound appealed to him, because he could make it alone. “I had grown bored of playing rock because you need a whole team, which is a hassle to organize,” he laughs. So he poured through Chinese forums and blogs to find text-based instructions in order to learn the software, imitating the sounds and feelings of the limited Western music he knew.

这是一条曲折的道路，不过可以确定的是，Guzz 选对了方向。Guzz 家乡是中国南部城市，高中时期的他通过购买并倒卖打口 CD 的方式了解西方音乐，这也是当时中国音乐爱好者的普遍现象。受到摇滚乐的影响之后，Guzz 开始组建乐队。二十岁的他在朋友推荐下听到了来自九十年代的 The Prodigy 和 Daft Punk 乐团，Guzz 一下子陷入其中，并希望有朝一日能一个人完成整首歌曲的创作。“我当时对摇滚乐已经感到有些疲惫，因为乐队需要一整个团队，有时也很难把大伙儿凑齐，”他笑道。从那时起，Guzz 便通过中文论坛和博客学习软件制作，模仿西方电子音乐中的味道。

In 2008, in his mid-twenties, Guzz moved to Beijing, a hub for music and entertainment. He began figuring out where he fit in artistically in a growing nationwide club scene. “When I started, no one in China really knew what electronic music was, so it was hard to find help,” he explains. But that changed quickly, and soon he was playing regularly in clubs as part of a new wave of Chinese dance music, building an audience across the country that still follows him to this day. 

2008 年，二十多岁的 Guzz 来到北京。在当时的中国俱乐部音乐场景中，他开始摸索适合自己的艺术方向。“我刚开始起步那会儿，没多少人知道电子乐是什么，所以很难获得援助。”但很快事情就有所改观， 作为中国新一批电子音乐人，Guzz 定期在俱乐部里演出，在全国范围内吸引了不少观众，追随者也跟着他的音乐时至今日。但，这样的生活方式也带来一定代价。

Yet the lifestyle took its toll. “The older you get, the more stress the club causes to your heart and ears and body. The music is also very much restricted to bass and rhythm. There’s not much else to explore,” Guzz says. “After leaving the club, a new world of music has opened up to me. If I had to define it, I’d call it something like ‘new Asian music,’ since I’m incorporating traditional Asian elements as the foundation. It’s a departure from modern pop in Asia, which is often heavily influenced by Western music. China and other Asian regions lost a lot of culture after World War II. I’d like to build a connection to those traditional Asian elements to more modern sounds to make something new.”

“随着年龄的增长，俱乐部对心脏、耳朵和身体也会带来更多麻烦。音乐也非常局限在低音和律动上面，可探索的东西也会变得越来越少。” Guzz 说，“离开俱乐部之后，我发现音乐为我重新打开了一扇门。如果非要去定义我的音乐，我会将它称作 ‘新亚洲音乐’，因为我的音乐结合了很多亚洲传统元素作为基础，区别于很多亚洲当代通俗音乐中对西方音乐元素的直接使用。第二次世界大战后，中国和其他亚洲国家丢失了许多文化。我想在传统亚洲元素与更现代声音之间建立联系，去创造新的事物。”

While he first began combining these elements through club music, he’s now taking a more eclectic approach, even traveling to Myanmar and India to experience firsthand the sounds that inspired his album. “I learned their methods through reading and watching Youtube. But I also traveled there just to listen to the music. I wanted to know the basis of this knowledge I’d learned from books to gain a stronger foundation. I went to the temples and listened to the daily performances and the various instruments they use. Religion is very present in the music, and although I’m an atheist, it gave me the feeling of connection between people and the universe.”

其实最初，Guzz 只是把这些元素与俱乐部音乐搅拌在一起，而现在，他用到更多兼收并蓄的方式来创作，他甚至亲身游历缅甸和印度，切身感受这些地域的声音，并把这些感受带来的启发放进专辑制作中，“我在 Youtube 上面学习如何将不同元素结合起来。不过，我还是会去当地聆听他们的音乐，想亲身获取 ‘书中知识’ 的要义，并获得强大的文化积淀。我会去当地寺庙，聆听他们每天的表演，以及对不同乐器的演奏。宗教对于印度和缅甸音乐的影响是很大的，尽管我是一个无神论者，但在寺庙里听他们的音乐带给我一种人与宇宙相连的感觉，这种感觉对这张唱片的制作理念有所影响”。

Throughout Walking in a Boundless Dream, you’ll hear musical cues, like a mode from Myanmar called Hkunithanci and a Southeast Asian xylophone. The album is also inspired by the melodies of Carnatic music, a style from the southern part of India. There’s even a Shamisen, a stringed instrument from Japan. But none of it is made with actual instruments—it’s all created using digital software and arranged together like an analog performance. “The previous album has a lot of samples to create the traditional Asian elements, but in this one, all of the sounds were digitally created.”

Electronic music may still be a useful category, but its boundaries are increasingly being tested. Guzz’s sound, though rooted in electronic music, is a departure to somewhere much more human.

Walking in a Boundless Dream is released now on the platforms below: iTunes / Spotify / Soundcloud / Bandcamp / 虾米 / 网易 / QQ音乐

在《走不出的梦境》中，你将会听到许多音乐风格和线索，比如缅甸的 Hkunithanci 调式，东南亚的木琴、南印度的卡纳提克音乐、甚至还有日本的弦乐器三味线。所有的这些声音在软件乐器中用电子模拟演奏的手段编辑成乐段。“上一张专辑直接采用了很多亚洲传统音乐的采样，而在这张专辑中我用软件乐器编写了唱片中音乐”。

从许多角度来看，“电子音乐” 这个说法绝对没有什么问题，但其界限正在不断被考验。虽然根源于电子音乐，但 Guzz 的创造力早已脱离其本身，让电子乐类别听起来更具人性化。

《走不出的梦境》现已在各大音乐平台上线，你可点击以下链接进入试听：iTunes / Spotify / Soundcloud / Bandcamp / 虾米 / 网易 / QQ音乐

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Weibo: ~/guzz1984
Soundcloud: ~/guzzchina

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Nathan Wang
Chinese Translation: Pete Zhang

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

微博: ~/guzz1984
Soundcloud: ~/guzzchina

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Nathan Wang
英译中: Pete Zhang

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Interspecies Utopia 和谐乌托邦

September 11, 2019 2019年9月11日

Beneath a fluorescent-colored sky, leviathans with bodies resembling Chinese finger traps tower over lakes, lime-green parakeets rock out on treetops, and rose-headed nymphs frolic from branch to branch—don’t worry, this isn’t an acid flashback. It’s the work of Angela Ho. The Hong Kong artist creates illustrations characterized by vibrant tones, noisy gradients, and dappled lines that work together to produce a retro charm. It’s an aesthetic that may seem at odds with her digital-heavy workflow.

Like Ho, many contemporary artists have furthered their creative potential through technology. Specialized software, pressure-sensitive styluses, and color-calibrated monitors allow creators to realize their artistic vision with clinical precision. Yet often, purely digital pieces end up missing a certain je ne sais quoi. This is something that Ho is increasingly wary of. Despite her reliance on digital tools, she’s looking to traditional techniques and mediums for inspiration.

在荧光色的天空下，有着类似中国棋盘手环样子的巨兽在湖面上飞舞着，青绿色的长尾小鹦鹉在树梢摇摆，玫瑰色的小鹦鹉在树枝间嬉戏——别担心，这不是幻觉闪现。这是 Angela Ho 的作品。这位香港艺术家创作了以充满活力的音调、嘈杂的渐变和斑驳的线条为特色的插图，这些线条共同创造了复古的魅力。这种审美观似乎与她的数字工作流程格格不入。

许多和 Angela Ho 一样的当代艺术家，利用科技发展他们的创作潜能。专业的软件、压敏笔和彩色校准显示器使创作者能够以精确的方式实现自己的艺术视觉。然而，纯粹的数字作品最终往往会漏掉某些东西。这正是 Angela 担心的问题。尽管她依赖数码工具，但她仍在寻求传统技术及媒介带来的灵感。

“I love woodcut printing from the 1950s, ’60s, and’70s with strong simple shapes and lots of texture from the wood,” Ho says. “This printing process gives depth to otherwise flat shapes. Texture in drawings makes them more tactile, like you can see the hand of the artist.”

Ho’s fascination with texture led her to experiment with risography, a printing method from the 1980s that’s found renewed interest in recent years. Risographs are known for producing unpredictable and inconsistent prints, and for many artists like Ho, its fallibility is exactly the appeal, as it makes the art feel more human. “I love the serendipitous nature of risographs,” she says. “I can give up some control over my work.”

“我喜欢上世纪 50 到 70 年代的木刻版画，它们的形状简单，还有很多木头纹理。”Angela 说。“这种印刷过程使平面形状的深度得以加深。在图纸纹理使他们更有触觉，就像你可以看到的艺术家的手。”

Angela Ho 对质地的迷恋，促使她开始尝试将 “risography”（意为“数字复印”）这 80 年代的印刷方法重新引起人们的兴趣。以创作不可预测和前后不一致的版画而著称，对和 Angela Ho 一样的许多艺术家来说，它的不完美正是吸引人的地方，因为它赋予了艺术更多人情味。“我喜欢数字复印的偶然性，可以让我放任一些对作品的控制。”

Ho’s appreciation for risograph printing doesn’t mean she’s shying away from new technology though. Her recent exhibition, Interspecies Utopia, held at Outré Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, incorporates augmented reality. Using the Artivive app, viewers can look through their phones to see her static prints come to life. “The AR in my show emphasized the idea of a working society, how each individual is important to it,” she recalls of the original idea. “It was meant to only function when all the characters were put together, when all the artworks were hung together in a specific formation. However, I decided with Outré to separate the animations in the overall AR experience, so that people who bought individual prints could also view the AR specific to their print.”

不过，Angela 对印字法的欣赏并不意味着她对新技术不感兴趣。她最近在澳大利亚墨尔本 Outré 画廊举办的《Interspecies Utopia》（意为“物种间乌托邦”）展览融合了现实。通过 Artivive 应用程序，观众可以通过手机看到她的静态照片栩栩如生。“在我展览中的 AR 技术增强了‘工作社会’的理念，以及每个人在其中的扮演角色重要性。”她回忆起最初的想法，“当所有的角色被放在一起，当所有的艺术作品以特定的形式挂在一起时，它就起作用了。然而，我和 Outré 画廊那边商量决定分开动画和整体 AR 增强现实的体验，使购买个人打印的观众也可以查看 AR 的具体展现。”

The illustrations in Interspecies Utopia feature the same retro aesthetic that Ho has always been known for, but the series is a marked departure from her earlier works. Rather than making standalone pieces, for this exhibition, she crafted a series with an interconnected narrative. “When my submission was accepted by Outré, I saw it as a chance to make my work evolve,” she recalls. “I’d been drawing lots of characters, often just floating in white space or on flat colors. I was beginning to work with environments and landscapes and wanted to put a range of characters together.”

《Interspecies Utopia》中的插图具有和 Angela 一惯的复古美学特征，但这一系列作品与她早期的作品有明显的不同。这次展览并不是每一幅画都是独立的作品，而是她第一次用相互关联的叙述来创作一个系列。“我的作品被 Outré 画廊选中时，我把它看作是让艺术领域向外拓展的机会。”她回忆道，“我画了很多不同角色，通常只是在空白处或平面上漂浮。我开始研究环境和风景，想把一系列的人物放在一起。”

At first glance, Interspecies Utopia seems to depict a forest sanctuary where all the animals live joyous harmony. But closer scrutiny reveals an underlying tension—it’s almost as if the place is too good to be true.

These feelings of suspicion aren’t unfounded, as the series’ core themes are partly based on racism and discrimination that the artist has faced or observed.”World events, xenophobia, and my own experiences and feelings growing up in Australia and being of Chinese and Hong Kong heritage were all influences,” Ho explains.

Ultimately, Interspecies Utopia is Ho’s way of presenting a simple but powerful message, one that she feels is especially important today: we may all be different, but a little empathy goes a long way in making the world a happier place.

乍一看，《Interspecies Utopia》似乎是在描绘一个和谐的森林，在这里所有动物在一起其乐融融地生活，但仔细观察后，它却揭示了一种潜在的张力——因为它几乎就像是一个美好得不真实的地方。

这些怀疑并非没有根据，因为作品的核心主题都是基于艺术家所面临或观察到的负面经历，尤其是歧视和种族主义。Angela 解释道：“世界上的种种事件、人们的仇外心理，以及我在澳大利亚长大时作为华人和香港移民的身份，对我都是有影响的。”

归根到底，《Interspecies Utopia》是 Angela 一个简单却很有力量的表达方式，她觉得在现代社会中特别重要：我们可能都是不同的，但是人与人之间的共情会让这个世界变得更美好。

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Website: ahoyillustration.com
Instagram: @ahoyillustration
Behance: ~/ahoyillustration

 

Contributor: David Yen
Chinese Translation: Chen Yuan

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

 

网站: ahoyillustration.com
Instagram: @ahoyillustration
Behance: ~/ahoyillustration

 

供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Chen Yuan

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Crash Course 后宫的热辣狂舞

September 4, 2019 2019年9月4日

The music of Taipei’s Sonia Calico has always been thoughtful. It draws on various styles of urban club music from around the world, like grime and Jersey club, and then blends them with Asian references in an homage to her inspirations. 

One genre that Sonia touches on is ballroom, a style with origins in black gay communities in New York that’s often the soundtrack to vogue dancing. A central element of this music is the “ha crash,” which is a cluttering and crashing snare explosion, often with the word “ha” mixed in. Sonia’s been partial to the sound for a while but only recently started working with Taipei’s vogue community after she met Slutty Pomi, a queer dance group, at a party she DJ’d.

来自台北的 Sonia Calico 的音乐总是兼收并蓄的。她从世界各地的俱乐部音乐风格中汲取灵感，包括 grime 和 Jersey club 等音乐风格，并融入亚洲元素，达到融会贯通的高度。这种混合风格的音乐是对多元化俱乐部音乐的致敬，在糅合全球音乐风格的基础上，呈现出极具个性的旋律。

Ballroom 是影响 Sonia 的风格之一，其是一种起源于纽约黑人同性恋社区的音乐。“ha crash” 是这种音乐风格的标志性元素，即繁复军鼓与名曲 “the Ha Dance” 人声部分采样的混搭，拥有爆炸的情绪和十足的冲击力。一直以来，Sonia 都对 ballroom 音乐情有独钟，最近，她担任台北 vogue 舞者和变装皇后派对的 DJ 时，认识了酷儿舞蹈团体波蜜坏女孩。而她最新作品的灵感，便是来自她在台北的 vogue 派对和变装社区经历。

Listen to to some of our favorite tracks by Sonia Calico below:

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“When I started playing ballroom that night, people were surprised that someone in Taipei was making this kind of music, because other DJs only played tech house or house music,” Sonia says. “People jumped onto the stage and were doing death drops every time they heard the crash. They did like a hundred death drops! The energy was so good.” (In a death drop, a dancer flamboyantly drops to the floor as if suddenly struck dead.) Afterward, she met with Slutty Pomi, who wanted her to write some music for a performance of theirs. That song and dance were the prototypes for her new ballroom-inspired music video, “Hougong Crash.”

“当我在台上播放 ballroom 音乐时，大家都很意外，没想到在台北也有人制作这种音乐，因为其他 DJ 一般只会演奏 tech house 或 house 音乐。”她回忆道，“大家跳到台上，一听到 crash 就做 death drops 的舞步。他们做了上百次的 death drops! 气氛非常好。” （Death drops 是指舞者突然华丽地倒在地上，像是被击中后的瞬间倒地。）在那之后，波蜜坏女孩找到了 Sonia，他们希望 Sonia 可以为演出带来音乐创作。演出中的歌曲和舞蹈后来成为 “后宫乱斗” MV 的原型。

 

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This video centers on vogue dancers, and it incorporates visuals from hougong soap operas, which are popular Chinese TV shows set in the palaces of imperial China and populated with concubines who plot against one another as they compete for power and influence. The experience has been rewarding for Sonia: “The dancers didn’t know too much about ballroom music producers, but they knew the famous dance houses. It was interesting to talk to them about it because we approach ballroom in totally different ways.”

MV 围绕 vogue 舞者们展开，将视觉与后宫类肥皂剧的画面结合在一起，这类剧集主要讲述古代皇宫中，一众嫔妃为争夺权力勾心斗角的故事。波蜜坏女孩负责了 MV 中的舞蹈的概念。这次的经历对 Sonia 获益匪浅，“舞者可能对 ballroom 音乐制作人不太了解，但他们熟悉经典的俱乐部舞蹈方式。这也让我们之间的话题变得很有意思，因为我们了解 ballroom 音乐的途径是截然不同的”。

This is the second music video Sonia has directed, after “Clutter Confines,” which was inspired by the struggle for same-sex marriage. Taiwan legalized it in May, but only after a pitched struggle. “The debate surrounding it was really depressing, so we tried to create something to heal ourselves,” she explains. “The four parts of the video are about different emotional stages. The first is very angry, because the whole society was split and arguing, both sides trying to hurt each other. It was really extreme. The second is very sudden, like I was speechless. Next is mutual understanding and communication. The finale is overcoming differences and celebrating life. This work is a tribute, because I got a lot of inspiration from my queer friends. I wanted to repay and support them.”

“后宫乱斗” 是 Sonia 的第二部 MV，上一部 “Clutter Confines” 的灵感来自同性婚姻平权运动，今年5月，台湾同性婚姻正式合法化。“有关这个问题的争议令人很沮丧，所以我们试图创作一些东西来安慰自己。”她坦述道，“MV 的四个部分展示了不同的情绪阶段。第一部分是愤怒，因为整个社会在分裂和争论，双方互相伤害，非常极端。第二部分是突如其来的冷静，令人哑口无言。接下来是相互理解和沟通。最后是克服分歧，享受生活。这部 MV其实是一种致敬，因为我从我的酷儿朋友那里获得了很多灵感。我想以此来回报和支持他们。”

As a straight woman, Sonia wasn’t sure how to properly address queer topics in her videos. But her choreographer, Jasmine Lin, who’s queer, suggested they seek out creatives from the community to work with—that way, the songs would connect more directly with the people they were honoring. In both her music and her videos, Sonia makes room for marginalized voices with a rare and welcome sensitivity. 

See Sonia perform at her label UnderU’s upcoming compilation release party at Final in Taipei on Sept. 27th.

作为一位直女，Sonia 并不确定如何将同性主题安排在自己的视频当中。但是她的编舞拍档 Jasmine Lin 是一位酷儿，在 Li 的建议下社区内的创作者参与其中，这也让歌曲本身与自豪的人们联系得更加紧密。在音乐和视频里，Sonia 能以亲密无间的珍贵姿态，去拥抱边缘化的声音。

9 月 27 日，Sonia Calico 所在的厂牌 UnderU 将在台北 Final 俱乐部举办最新的 “合集” 发行派对，届时 Sonia 也会参加演出。

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Instagram: @sonia_calico
Facebook: ~/soniacalico
Soundcloud: ~/soniacalico

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Huang Juntuan
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: @sonia_calico
脸书: ~/soniacalico
Soundcloud: ~/soniacalico

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Huang Juntuan
英译中: Olivia Li

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A Modern Dystopia 1984 的科幻，2019 的现实

August 28, 2019 2019年8月28日

We’re already living in a dystopia. Most people just haven’t realized it yet.

Or at least that’s what artist Ju Yong Lee believes. The Korean illustrator, who works under the name Mr. Misang (meaning Mr. Anonymous), creates intricate works that depict the corporate world in a grim light. These works, chock-full of vibrant colors and playful details, touch on dark, Orwellian themes and reflect the artist’s cynical perspective.

我们已经生活在一个反乌托邦社会。但大多数人还没有意识到这一点。

至少韩国艺术家 Ju Yong Lee 是这么想的。这位插画家以 Mr. Misang（意为佚名先生）的名字创作了许多错综复杂的作品，描绘出当下严峻的社会。这些作品充满鲜艳的色彩和有趣的细节，令人联想起英国作家乔治∙奥威尔笔下的极权寓言作品，也折射出一种他对世界愤世嫉俗的见解。

Lee’s meditation on today’s society forms the basis of Modern Life is Rubbish, a series titled after Britpop band Blur’s sophomore album. In it, he depicts a city where the populace has been subjugated by a powerful corporation. The city’s inhabitants are depicted as swarms of nearly identical men so lacking in individuality that they’ve been reduced to numbers and barcodes. Their insignificance is evident how they arrive to work: like specks of dirt, they’re simply vacuumed into the building. Once inside, the dejected workers are electrocuted and then resurrected by a Buddha-like deity into enthusiastic employees. This rebirth represents the indoctrination into today’s dollar-hungry culture, where money is worshipped as an idol. Each illustration in the series is loaded with enough details and symbols to operate as a standalone piece of social commentary, but together they form a larger warning against toxic work culture and the pitfalls of unbridled capitalism.

Lee 以自己对这个功能失调的现代社会的思考为基础，创作了《Modern Life is Rubbish》（现代生活是垃圾）系列，和英国摇滚乐队 Blur 的第二张专辑同名。这个系列中，他所描绘的城市由一间大型公司所控制，城市里挤挤挨挨的居民几乎毫无个性，千篇一律，已经沦为单纯的数字和条形码。而人们上班的方式更进一步突显了他们的微不足道：他们像灰尘一样，被吸入建筑大楼里。进去之后，这些无精打采的工人立即被处以电刑，然后被一个类似佛像的神灵复活，变成热情的员工。这种重生描绘了当今社会对人们金钱至上的这种思想的灌输，在这样的文化中，金钱像宗教一样被人们所崇拜。系列中的每一幅插画都充满着无数的细节和符号，每一幅都可单独成为一则社会评论，但放在一起，又构成了更宏大的画面，警示人们现代社会中的 996 工作制和极端资本主义所带来的问题。

Lee’s earlier works cast a similarly critical gaze at modern life. In Supersize Them, a title riffing on Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Super Size Me (2004), the artist puts the fast-food industry in his crosshairs, specifically the big four: Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, and Wendy’s. The project depicts greasy factories where workers churn out food to satisfy the appetite of each brands’ iconic character—a conveyor belt delivers Whoppers directly into the Burger King’s stomach, feeding tubes pump Big Mac sauce and McFlurries into Ronald McDonald’s mouth, frying oil from metal drums is mainlined into Colonel Sanders’s head, and Wendy Darling is being injected by Frosty-loaded syringes. Through these intentionally unpleasant images, Lee questions whether convenience should be prioritized over health.

Lee 早期的作品也曾对现代生活的其他方面进行过批判。在《Supersize Them》（快餐胖报告）中，他引用了 2004 年 Morgan Spurlock 的纪录片《麦胖报告》（Super Size Me），批判了快餐行业，特别是四大连锁快餐品牌：汉堡王、麦当劳、肯德基和温蒂汉堡。这个系列描绘了一间间油腻的工厂，工人们在这里为各个品牌生产其标志性的食物：传送带将皇堡送入汉堡王的肚子，喂食管将巨无霸酱汁和麦旋风送入麦当劳的口中，煎炸油从金属桶中被抽入桑德斯上校的头中，而装满沙冰的注射器正插在温蒂身上。通过这些令人不快的画面，Lee 是在质问：便捷度是不是比健康更重要？

Lee’s latest project, temporarily titled Modern Life is a Theme Park, is just as charged. It takes place, as the title suggests, entirely in an amusement park. Against the backdrop of gargantuan attractions and masked carnies, he revisits several themes of his earlier works, such as the manipulation of media and the idolatry of money, and takes aim at other issues, such as the objectification of women, the rhetoric of hate, and passivity in the face of evil. “I’m not going to make bold claims about thinking my art can change the world,” Lee says, a statement that seems to be equal parts humility and equal parts cynicism. “Being able to use my work to communicate ideas and viewpoints important to me is already a blessing.”

他的最新项目同样如此，这个暂时命名为《Modern Life is a Theme Park》（现代生活是个主题游乐园）的系列一如其名，画中的背景均是游乐园。以巨型的娱乐项目和蒙面狂欢活动为背景，Lee 重新回顾了他早期作品的几个主题，如媒体的操纵性和金钱至上的理念，同时探讨了其他问题，如物化女性、仇恨言论以及对罪恶的无动于衷。“我不会自大地宣称自己的艺术可以改变这个世界。”Lee 说道，这句话听上去既像是谦卑，也似是讽刺。“能够通过我的作品来传达对我来说很重要的想法和观点，这样已经是很幸运了。”

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Website: mrmisang.com
Instagram: @mrmisang
Behance: ~/mrmisang

 

Contributor: David Yen
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: mrmisang.com
Instagram: @mrmisang
Behance: ~/mrmisang

 

供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Olivia Li

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Morbid Fantasies 用色彩对抗黑暗

August 26, 2019 2019年8月26日

The walls in Yeo Kaa’s bright Manila studio are covered by canvases in various stages of progress for her upcoming solo show in Paris. Everything here is neon and pastel, drenched in blazing pinks and purples, electric blues, and fluorescent yellows—and that includes Kaa herself, with purple hair, lipstick, and an outfit to match. But despite the color and cuteness, the content here is very dark. Her acrylic paintings are full of disemboweled characters and suicidal figures. Flowers bore her.

Yeo Kaa 在马尼拉有一间敞亮的工作室，墙壁上布满不同进度的画布，那是她即将在巴黎举办的个展作品。放眼望去全是霓虹色调蜡笔画风的作品：亮粉亮紫、电光蓝和荧光黄，就连 Kaa 本人也不例外：紫色的头发、口红和相得益彰的装束。虽然作品的色彩鲜艳可爱，但画中的内容却十分暗黑：这些丙烯画描画的大多是开膛剖肚和充满自杀倾向的人物。对 Kaa 来说，幸福快乐的主题太无趣。

One of Kaa’s current pieces, standing nearly as tall as her and twice as long, shows the body of a girl laid out on a table being dissected, with a sign listing prices for selfies with the corpse. In a world where sex and violence sell, the depiction of a disemboweled corpse as a carnival attraction forces a discussion of the exploitation of women’s bodies into the center of the room. Kaa is not shy about challenging anyone; another canvas encourages viewers to “suck her non-existent dick.” The work is transgressive and defiant but also entertaining. This Filipina artist is uncompromising, and the glowing colors and kawaii faces add a cute, almost kid-friendly veneer to what is clearly adult content.

Yeo 一幅新近的作品几乎和她等高，且两倍于体宽。画面中，一个女孩正躺在桌子上被解剖，上面放了一张和尸体自拍的价格表。在一个性和暴力被标价出售的世界里，一具被解剖的身体就一项娱乐项目一样夺人眼球，迫使人们去讨论剥削女性身体的话题。Kaa 并不害怕迎战他人。在另一幅画中，她邀请观众“亲她不存在的老二”。这是一幅越界的作品，充满挑衅，同时也充满着娱乐性。作为一位毫不妥协的菲律宾艺术家，她以闪亮的色彩和可爱的面孔，为这些成人内容披上儿童的可爱外衣。

Kaa’s paintings upend traditional gender expectations by showing that just because someone is feminine and cute doesn’t mean they can’t be dark and angry. It follows in the footsteps of Japanese artists like Hikari Shimoda and Shintaro Kago. But she’s not intentionally illustrating any kind of feminist theory, she’s just being herself; she’s venting and happens to like kawaii stuff. Her work is more visceral than methodical.

Kaa 的画作颠覆了人们的传统性别期望，看上去充满柔美和可爱的女孩，并不意味其内心不会阴暗和愤怒。她的作品令人联想到日本艺术家下田光（Hikari Shimoda）和驾笼真太郎（Shintaro Kago）的作品。但她并没有特意去申张任何女权主义，她只是在表达自己的想法；她在宣泄，只是她恰好喜欢可爱的东西。她的创作更多是遵循内心，而不是特定的创作方式。

In fact, Kaa never even intended to be an artist. She moved from the island of Palawan to Manila and enrolled in a fine arts program. After winning numerous art competitions it became clear that art was the right path for her. In the last few years, she’s landed solo shows across Asia and Europe. “My mom didn’t want me to be an artist or to dress colorfully—she’s a businesswoman and wanted that for me, too,” Kaa says. “But she’s still supportive of my art.”

事实上，Kaa 以前甚至从未打算成为艺术家。从巴拉望岛搬到马尼拉后，她参加了一个当代艺术项目。她意识到艺术这条路走对了，是在获得了许多艺术竞赛的奖项之后。在过去几年里，她分别在亚洲和欧洲都举办了个人展览。“我妈妈不希望我成为一名艺术家，也不喜欢我穿得这么色彩缤纷。她是一名女商人，也希望我和她一样。虽然如此，她还是很支持我的艺术创作。”Kaa 说道。

The darkness in Kaa’s work comes from a very real place: she suffers from mental health issues. “I used to call the suicide helpline a lot, but it’s staffed by untrained volunteers. Twice, they simply told me to talk to a pastor,” she recalls. Kaa is not religious. More recently she’s stopped calling and started filling entire notebooks with bleak sketches as a way to express her deep despair. While art offers a respite, it’s only a temporary distraction. She spends ten hours a day in the studio painting, and as soon as she stops, it’s often be a quick slide back into the depths of depression. But her friends help keep the demons at bay. They often drop by to keep her company, some of whom deal with similar issues and can lend an empathetic ear. Last year, she also got a Pomeranian puppy named Fake who she says has helped a lot.

As our interview wraps up, she has Fake do some tricks, which he’s eager to perform. “He’s such a happy, energetic little creature. It’s hard to be upset around him.”

Kaa 作品中的黑暗并非无病呻吟，她有心理健康问题。“我以前经常打电话给自杀热线，但那里好多志愿者都是没接受过培训的。有两次他们都只是叫我去和牧师谈谈。”她回忆道。但 Kaa 本来就不是宗教信徒。最近，她不再打这个热线电话了，转而开始在笔记本上画满各种风格阴暗的画，以此表达她内心的绝望。虽然艺术给了她喘息的机会，但也只是暂时的。每天，她都会在工作室画上十个小时的画，一旦停下来，她很快又会深陷抑郁情绪。但幸好还有她的朋友，他们经常会过来陪她，其中一些朋友也和她一样承受着同样的问题，所以他们可以互相开解。去年，她还养了一只名叫 Fake 的波美拉尼亚小狗，它的到来也令情况有所好转。见面快结束时，她让 Fake 表演特技，Fake 很是热衷。“他是一只快乐、活泼的小狗。有他陪伴，想不开心也很难。”

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Website: yeokaa.com
Instagram: @yeo_kaa

 

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Andrea Beldua
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: yeokaa.com
Instagram: @yeo_kaa

 

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Andrea Beldua
英译中: Olivia Li

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Local Color 如梦似幻，却又真实可见

August 21, 2019 2019年8月21日

A sweltering sun in a blue sky beats down on the yellow earth. It’s a scene bursting with pure, vibrant colors, the kind of scene that Hailun Ma, a photographer from in Ürümqi, regularly captures. The landscape sets off the figures in her photos, forming a composition that shows her idiosyncratic take both on her hometown and on traditional beauty standards. “There are two sides to my work,” she says. “One side is an in-your-face femininity, the other side is more relaxed and natural, and closer to everyday life. But where the two sides meet is in my focus on color. I’m drawn to vivid tones and ordinary people.”

在金色土地与蓝色天空之间，炎炎灿日洒在人身上，绽放出质朴鲜艳的光彩。乌鲁木齐长大的女孩马海伦（Hailun Ma）将这些场景用相机记录下来，照片上人物与景色相互映衬，浑然天成，勾勒出她对故乡以及美学标准的个性认知。“我有两面，一面是天马行空的少女气息；另一面贴近生活的自然与轻松感。但相同的是，我也很在意颜色。那些鲜艳的颜色和素人，是最吸引我的。”

Ma’s earliest sense for art came during childhood. She and her family often took nature outings, and as she looked out on green mountain ranges and majestic wildlife, an idea sprouted in her mind: she wanted to be an explorer and an artist. When she got her first camera, she’d put together all sorts of getups and dress up for her self-portraits. That’s how she developed a love for capturing the human element. At age 18, Ma moved to New York to study fashion photography and photography theory at the School of Visual Arts. The eight years she spent in the city, she says, were the most formative time in her life.

On the streets of New York, she saw people sporting all kinds of outfits. They had the courage to express their individuality, the courage to accept their true selves. Ma learned that beauty takes on a wealth of different forms, and she began to turn a critical eye to the beauty standards of China and the rest of Asia. “When I was young, I was never a pretty girl, according to most people’s ideas of beauty. But in New York you can see people of skin tones, ethnicities, and different body shapes,” she says. “You experience a more diverse beauty that takes on a range of forms. I began to reexamine the overly unified, fixed, superficial ideas of beauty I’d had before.“

马海伦对艺术最开始的嗅觉来自童年，小时候的她经常与家人一起游玩在自然风光中，那些青葱的山脉与可爱的动物，萌发了她成为探险和艺术家的想法。获得自己第一台相机之后，她时常在镜头前将自己打扮成各种造型，从此便与人物摄影结缘。十八岁的海伦带着成为专业摄影师的梦想，来到纽约视觉艺术学院（School of Visual Arts）进行摄影理论和时尚摄影的学习，在她看来，呆在纽约的八年是人生中最重要的时光。

在纽约街头，她看到了各式各样穿着打扮的人群，他们敢于表达内心，敢于直面真正的自己。海伦认识到，美的表现本应是丰富多元的，并开始用批判的视角反观国内或其他亚洲地区的审美标准。“我从小不是一个大众审美里的漂亮女孩。但是在纽约，你会看到不同肤色、种族、体型的人，你会感受到的多元化的、不同形态的美。我开始审视那些过于单一、固化、甚至肤浅的审美。”

Ma integrates this critical thought into her works. From the woman incongruously wearing a floatation device in her Pink Bikini series, to the portraits that look like Renaissance oil paintings, her works give a sense of what’s distinctive about her subjects—whether herself or another person—while blending and exploring Asian and Western cultures. Some even call to mind yishuzhao, the goofy costume photos many Chinese youth remember from their childhood.

Out of love for the land where she grew up, Ma blends traditional Xinjiang customs into her own personal style and seeks to use her camera to show faces from her hometown with a wider audience and in a novel angle. She often returns to Ürümqi, capturing the visual contrast of traditional dress combined with modern aesthetics. She sees fashion photography as a highly personal medium, one she can use to share the distant lands and cultures familiar to her. “Even setting aside the fact that it’s my home, I think Xinjiang is the subject I’ve always wanted to shoot. More importantly, it’s a very interesting place—I think there’s nowhere more diverse within China.” she says. “Maybe it’s because I grew up in a place like Xinjiang, but ‘high fashion’ has always felt very foreign to me. I think the people and styles I’m drawn to are more unaffected. But I also really like doing fashion shoots.” 

马海伦将这种批判性思考融入进自己的作品当中，从 Pink Bikini 系列作品中格格不入的游泳圈女生，再到受文艺复兴时期油画影响的肖像作品，从个人再到他人，你会感受每个主角身上明显的个人色彩，以及东西方文化的交融与思辨。一些照片还会让人联想到中国传统的艺术照，贴近生活同时又颇具幽默感。

出于对家乡的喜爱，马海伦将新疆当地的风土人情与个人风格联系在一起，希望用相机对家乡人 “面” 貌进行重塑。她多次往返于故乡，在那里记录下传统服饰与现代审美交融下的视觉冲击。在她的眼中，时尚是一个自陈其说的故事，讲述着那些不为人知的地域和文化，“我觉得新疆会是我一直想要拍的主题，抛开这是我的家乡。 更重要的是，新疆真的是个很有意思的地方。在国内，没有比新疆更让我觉得多元化的地方了。因为可能从小在新疆长大，那种所谓的 high fashion 其实对我来说是很陌生的。我觉得真实的人和风格更吸引我，不过我也很享受拍时尚照片的过程。”

Ma now lives in Shanghai, and her unstinting pursuit of beauty and character has paved the way for her success in the fashion and art worlds. “I really like Shanghai. I think in some ways it’s similar to New York,” she says. Her photography subjects have always included people from different backgrounds, from Japanese model Keisuke Asano to Chinese teen idol Fan Chengcheng, from underground musicians like Chacha and Scintii to the Xinjiang women’s soccer team. “When I take portraits, I start by doing some research, then I come up with an image of the subject in my mind.”

如今的马海伦居住在上海，那些往日里对美和个性化的不断追求，促成了她在时尚和艺术领域的成就，“我很喜欢上海，觉得某种程度和纽约很像”。她的摄影对象也不断涵盖着不同文化背景的人群：日本都市男生浅野启介、中国青春偶像范丞丞、地下音乐女侠客 Chacha 和 Scintii 以及我行我素的新疆足球女孩…… “我在拍摄人物时，会先去做调研，然后将我脑海中他们的样子呈现出来。”

It’s an approach she adheres to on even commercial projects. Ma’s recent Burberry shoot may lack the vibrant backdrops of her other works, but her pared-down palette of cool tones heightens the emotions in her subjects’ faces and captures a youthfulness rooted in the present. “Focusing on youth culture is a pillar of my work,” she says. “What I want to show is the diversity of these young people, along with the diversity of beauty and the diversity of identity.”

在马海伦最近为 Burberry 拍摄的一组照片中，没有以往丰富的背景色，单一的冷色系反而令人物的面部深情更加出神，生动地再现年轻人当下的状态，“关注年轻人和青年文化也是我作品中很重要的部分，我想要表达的，是年轻人多元化的状态，以及对美的多元化，对自己身份认同的多元化”。

For the subject, the image is a candid moment frozen in time; for the photographer, it’s an exploration of artistic concepts. Through her photography, Ma is redefining traditional Chinese beauty standards, even as she’s preserving a moment in China’s youth culture, and it’s this duality that makes her portraits so compelling.

让片刻永存，是被照相者真诚的流露，也是摄影者用艺术打造观念的途径。在她的镜头里，中国传统中关于 “美” 的标准被重新定义。当快门按下，温暖的高光、艳丽的色彩调度、当下青年视角一涌而出；灯光一闪而过，镜头里每一位肖像都楚楚动人。

Hailun Ma’s Xinjiang works can be seen at Photofairs Shanghai and Shenzhen’s Arbre Talk art space.

 

Photofairs Shanghai

Exhibition Dates: September 20 to 22, 2019

Address:
Shanghai Exhibition Center
Yan’an Middle Road., No. 1000
Jing’an District, Shanghai

 

Arbre Talk

Exhibition Dates: Opens September 7, 2019

Address:
Yuanling Xincun, Bldg. No. 74
Futian District, Shenzhen

 

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Website: hailunma.com
Instagram: @hailunma

 

Contributor: Pete Zhang
English Translation: Allen Young

马海伦在新疆拍摄的作品将会在 Photofairs Shanghai 和一树 Arbre 艺术空间进行展览：

 

Photofairs Shanghai

展览日期: 2019年9月20——22日

地址:
上海展览中心
上海市静安区
延安中路 1000 号

 

一树 Arbre

开幕时间: 从2019年9月7日开始

深圳市福田区
园岭新村74号楼

 

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网站: hailunma.com
Instagram: @hailunma

 

供稿人: Pete Zhang
中译英: Allen Young

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