Growing up, Xu Guanyu wasn’t allowed to put up posters in his bedroom. But now, as an accomplished fine arts photographer, he’s finally gotten his revenge.
This vengeance came in the form of Temporarily Censored Home, an art piece that takes place entirely in his parents’ Beijing apartment, which sees every room of their home plastered with hundreds of photo printouts. “Some of these photos are family portraits from when I was around four of five,” Xu says. “There are also a lot of magazines I collected and works that I shot between 2014 and 2019.”
在摄影师徐冠宇小时候，父母是不允许他在家里墙上胡乱张贴海报的。但长居美国这些年，某次回到北京父母家中的时候，他终于如愿进行了一次墙头“海报入侵”的活动——他把几百张图片统统贴在了父母家的墙面上。
与其说是室内装置艺术，这倒更像是他的“报复性创作”。徐冠宇将这系列作品装置于北京父母家中，名为《暂时存在的家》。照片中已依稀难辨父母家中的装饰，因为照片贴满了家中的角角落落。“这些照片有从我四五岁时的家庭照片，有我十几岁时收集的杂志，也有我在 2014 年到 2019 年拍的摄影作品。”徐冠宇说。
Temporarily Censored Home is unadulterated visual chaos. The sheer diversity of imagery that appears, hung every which way according to Xu’s whims, makes every photographed room feel like a spatial collage. Maps, road signs, portraits of people he’s met, vacation photos, disparate landscapes, and more all come together in jumbled arrangements. Within the physical space, these snapshots, taken across different years, seem to subvert the notion of linear time, placing viewers in a limbo dimension where they’re able to gander at different moments of Xu’s life. Studying one of these shots for too long—with its overlapping layers of spaces and colors—can prove disorienting.
这一系列照片给人的第一感受是杂乱。它们纷繁多样、无序倒错，像是在空间里的拼贴画，被艺术家任意整合。这些图像甚至囊括了地图、路牌、旅行时的寓所、生命中有过交集的人、不同时期邂逅的风景……线性的时间被打破了，仿佛形成一张细密的罗网，把人笼罩在每一个成长阶段之中；而空间也在不断重叠，形形色色的背景环境穿插呈现在同一个房间里，让人不免感觉自我错乱。
Xu’s meticulously designed visual cacophony conveys the power of memories, and the decision to create this project in his parents’ home isn’t without good reason “It’s the place where I spent my teenage years, which was an important period of time where I formed my worldview and desires,” Xu says. “‘Home’ is also a place that’s meant to protect a teenager from the instability of their teenage years. I’m sure everyone has their own stories related to school, love, sexuality, and failures around that time.”
While the posters were put up in secret while his parents weren’t home, they’re supportive of their son’s artistic endeavors. They understand that the takeover of their home was done in the name of art. “Though they don’t fully understand the images I’m showcasing,” he notes.
在这肉眼可见的杂乱背后，呈现出的是一种回忆的张力。
将父母家设定为作品呈现的场域，徐冠宇承认是有原因的。“那是我度过青少年时期的地方，那是我形成世界观和欲望的重要时期之一。而这个地方是在青少年时期保护我，免遭所有不稳定因素影响的地方。”他说。父母所在的家，是每一个少年曾经的避风港湾，也是每个人成长过程中不可或缺的环境因素。“我敢肯定，在这段时间里我们都有自己的故事，它囊括了我们的学生时代、情窦初开、欲望萌芽和种种挫折。”
其实一直以来，徐冠宇的父母都非常支持徐冠宇走艺术的道路，也能理解如今的他把家里四处都贴上了海报是为了“个人项目”，“虽然父母还是不知道这些装置里到底有什么内容。”徐冠宇说。
With this project, Xu also hopes for viewers to consider how the meaning of an image can change within different contexts. Much of his past work is focused on gender identity and sexuality, and one of the series he’s pinned up in this project is One Land to Another, which consists of self-portraits and staged moments between him and other gay men. The series’ initial debut in America placed a spotlight on the Asian LGBTQ community, but the images—originally exploring issues around homophobia, xenophobia, and misogyny—have completely new connotations with their reappearance in this project. “Pinning these printouts up in my Beijing house, they suddenly take on a different meaning,” he says. They take on new personal thematics in this familial setting, becoming an exploration of interpersonal relationships, family, and societal values.
创作这个项目的另一面，徐冠宇是想让观众思考，当处于不同的语境中时，图像是如何改变其本身的含义的。作为一个关注于性别议题的艺术家，徐冠宇这次选用的照片有很多来自于之前的个人摄影项目《One Land to Another》，这些照片是他在美国和其他男同志一起拍的，以表达性向、种族与公民身份之间的相互关系。在欧美语境中，他的作品曾掀起轩然大波，让人直视亚裔同性群体的存在。
“可是当我在北京家里装置这些照片海报的时候，它的意味突然就改变了，代表着其他的内容。”徐冠宇说道。被置于北京老家中的摄影作品和海报，尽管内容有所重叠，但却作为全新的个人系列和理念呈现出来，它关注到个人、家庭、社会之间的种种问题，甚至连避而不谈的性别认同问题也被放置到家庭环境中去，展现出全然不同的意义。
As political tension mounts between China and the US over trade and the coronavirus, Xu has had to abandon or put off many of his plans this year. These forces outside of his control that have largely impacted his day to day are also an inspiration of sorts, beckoning him to question what “home” is. What kind of place feels like “home”? What does “home” even mean?
As he sees it, the idea of home as a sanctuary dissolving in modern times. Even when we’re home, our hyperconnected existence means everyone is still very much exposed to the dangers of the world at large. “To me, a home should be a safe place, a place where life’s uncertainties can be put to rest,” he says. “We’re obsessed with consuming content on our device screens, but if we don’t understand the media we’re consuming and their context, it can be detrimental because our knowledge and opinions can be easily influenced or manipulated.”
Xu Guanyu is the recipient of the 2020 Photofairs Exposure Award, and Temporarily Censored Home will be showcased along with the works of other shortlisted photographers on the Photofairs website between now and October 9th.
在近期经历了大流感和两国之间日益紧张的关系，徐冠宇近期的展览计划都不得不推迟或取消了。这些辗转的生活经历，也让徐冠宇半是自发、半是被迫地思考起“家的概念”来。什么样的空间会让人萌生出家的感觉？家又意味着什么？
徐冠宇说他认为的“家”，会是一个让他暂时感到安全的地方。“一个可以暂停所有不确定性的地方。”可现在电子媒体把人与人之间的距离愈拉愈近，“暂时安全的家”也渐渐变得不太容易实现了。“我们越来越多地在媒体和屏幕上传播信息，如果我们不去理解我们每天所消费的图像和它们的环境，那就会变得很危险。因为我们的知识和观点太容易被影响和操纵了。”
2020 年影像艺术博览会『曝光奖』最终获得者为徐冠宇（高台当代艺术中心），于 9月11日 – 10月9日在线上展示。
Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Website: xuguanyu.com
Instagram: @xuguanyu
Contributor: Chen Yuan
Images Courtesy of Gaotai Gallery
