李明 《X X》展评»
Eleven videos and sporadic accoutrements litter the floor of this exhibition by the emerging artist Li Ming. A television, cast in the bushes outside the gallery entrance, screens Back Garden, 2008, in which security guards, recurring characters in the artist’s vignettes, romp around the gardens of a residential compound in unintelligible acts of “play.”
On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic, things are beginning to look red here in Beijing, deep red, like a profuse wound. On the Beijing streets, some of the visual celebratory feast residents drank in last year during the Olympics is being recreated in billboards, […]
王一凡个展“看不完”的确贯彻了“看不完”的根本要义——展出作品包含五件时长24小时的录像作品和抄写在十一幅画布上面的两万多字的小说(小说作者为王一凡),完整地看完这个展览,至少需要不合眼地“看”上120个小时以上,所以对观众而言,“看完”的可能性简直微乎其微。通过超乎寻常的长度,平凡的画面被王一凡改变,常识遭到质疑──“观看”的过程与方式遇到了一个难题──在作品面前,是不是去思考它的意义比用眼睛观看更为重要呢?
那些透过树叶撒在楼梯上的“阳光”,是王一凡于2008年拍摄的作品《安静》。水泥地面上斑驳的树影唤起了艺术家在烈日下等待的日常记忆,只有你心怀沉静、默默观察,才能够在树影中察觉树叶的微微晃动。
王一凡创作观念的成熟从“黑板”系列开始,2005年,他开始在黑色画布上书写他的“故事”。本次展出的题为《马利》的11幅作品是他这一系列的最新代表,画面上的文字讲述了主人公马利从高中到大学毕业的恋爱经历;文字由王一凡撰写,他邀请了11位朋友共同把两万字的小说抄写在画布上,于是形成了面前这番风格迥异的画面形态。
《监视时间——王一凡的钟表》是作者第一部时长24小时、固定机位、固定景别拍摄的录像作品。这部整整24小时的钟表影像本身,就成为了一个影像的钟表。从这部作品开始,24小时,成为了王一凡影像作品的通用长度,并奠定了他影像作品的基本规范。
《落泪的狸狸》是一件无限循环播放的flash动画,其实王一凡最理想的播放载体是巨大的LED屏幕,但由于各种现实的困难就选择了他的手机当播放器。狸狸是一个流泪的女孩儿,熟悉“魔兽世界”的人知道她是“Boss”——她的泪水就是她的子弹。狸狸的造型借用了早期电子游戏中的“像素形式”,构成了与当下电子游戏视觉样式的鲜明反差。
近期完成的作品《上一次展览》用诡异的投影光线复制了发生在这个展厅当中一模一样情形:它所呈现就的的确确是上一次展览的一幅画──文川绘制的《两个护士》。画作的大小与曾经悬挂的位置是完全相同的,在显而易见的无聊感当中,你需要细细体味艺术家的深意。
由三台电脑显示器同时播放的《王一凡拍摄谁谁谁》是一个系列试验性作品的端倪。王一凡身处不同的艺术家工作室,用24小时的长度,记录了他们作品的状态。这个系列的灵感与“占有”或“存在”有关,当艺术品身价飞涨的今天,王一凡用以其独特的方式,拥有了那些艺术品的“一天”;同时,在王一凡“策划”的这种虚拟展览当中,只有这种独一无二的作品“再现”的形态和被拍摄的艺术家由王一凡所决定和创造。
投影在老窗子里的录像《等候全天的雨》是王一凡拍摄的第二部时长24小时的固定机位、固定景别的录像作品,它完整地记录了北京普通六层居民楼院落中的风景,作者在镜头中窥视着这些普通人平凡的一天。而作品名字中的“雨”则可遇不可求,要想目睹这场突如其来、仅有30分钟的雷阵雨,观众也必须经历漫长的等待。
《看不完》王一凡个展在798的星空间 2009.8.8——2009.9.7
Now on display at the National Museum of Art is a rare glimpse of the museum’s folk art collection, the gifts of the devoted folk art researcher Wang Shucun, who carefully preserved and hid these items throughout many turbulent years of history. The exhibition only runs until April 14, but is highly recommended.
Its not rare […]
Perhaps artists like to think of themselves as harbingers of social change, at least think they like to imagine themselves on the vanguard of something. In China, they seem more like backseat drivers. However, the world’s fasting urbanizing nation is heaving forward in myriad expressions, and relentlessly posing challenges to the entire globe with […]
Recently re-reading Yin Jinan’s two critical responses to the Chinese art world, “Knocking on the door alone” (1993) and “Step-motherism” (2000), two books that should be noted for their critical response and theoretical interpretations on the world of Chinese contemporary art. Both books are published by Sanlian Bookstore, are in their 4th and 2nd […]
Miriam Clifford, Cathy Giangrande and Antony White, have reportedly spent four years combing through China’s hundreds of museums in a search for the most appealing to Western audiences. The result is an in-depth guide to China’s museums that opens up new territories for English-speaking audiences, presumably Western travelers, but for a special, more adventuresome set interested in witnessing China’s cultural growth from a more native perspective. “China: Museums” includes the major players, such as the Forbidden City as well as Chinese equivalents of what could be called “Roadside museums.”