Bamboo as Method | 竹子作为方法
Date: 2021.5.21-7.01
Location: Chongming Island, Shanghai, China
Co-organizers: Gallery Weekend Beijing & International Center For Bamboo And Rattan
Curator: Jo WEI
Artists:Jianhua LIU, Yi LIU, Jian YANG, Zhijie QIU, Bo ZHENG,Fan FENG, Jingfang HAO & Lingjie WANG, Yang GAO, Cheng GUO, Shuyi CAO, Shaoji LIANG, Yu XIAO, Bin TAN, Lei CAI
Production Team of Gallery Weekend Beijing: Amber Yifei Wang, Dandi Huo, Sylvie Lyu Space Design: Junyu Wen; Producer: Holly Peng, Supervisor: Hu Tao, Huang Biao, Coordinator: Deng Yayun, Meng Yufei
日期:2021年5月21日-7月1日
地点:崇明,上海,中国
机构:画廊周北京 & 国际竹藤中心
艺术家: 刘建华、刘毅、杨健、邱志杰、郑波、封帆、郝经芳 & 王令杰、高扬、郭城、曹舒怡、梁绍基、萧昱、谭彬、蔡磊
展览工作团队:
画廊周北京: 王一妃、霍丹迪、吕继亨;空间设计: 文均钰;国际竹藤中心团队:彭红明、胡陶 、黄彪、邓雅云、孟宇飞
策展人:魏颖
Short Curatorial Text | 展览前言
The concept of using bamboo as a method began from experimenting with how to plan a contemporary art exhibition with the plant without being repressed by tradition or, contrarywise, finding ways to escape said tradition. We therefore decided to look at bamboo from a myriad of perspectives, such as: Does it have any other function besides as an object of construction or cultural symbolism? Is there a way to modernize bamboo beyond its normal traditional bounds? This three-part exhibition is a result of our efforts in this regard.
Firstly, we worked on materiality. The same material in different eras can inspire experimental meanings time and again. Wu Hung once wrote when curating The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China that the problem contemporary art needs to face is how to explore traditional culture in order to strengthen its originality and experimentality. Through wide attempts to refine the core essence of traditional material culture, we hope to discover “material” for unique symbolic meaning and aesthetic quality and convert its common cultural properties into a personalized visual language.
Next, we looked at the conceptual levels. Bamboo is not only a silent object for people merely to gaze upon; in fact, it is on a level equal to human beings. It has its own “way” and “circle” of life, and it can be argued that the plant has thoughts and feelings just like anyone. We must rid ourselves of the Descartes-style dichotomy between the object and subject, start from bamboo itself, and think about the relational drive between humans and bamboo from a non-anthropocentric perspective. For instance, the other-than-human encounters in Eduardo Kohn’s How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human and relevant thoughts based on pluri-special ethnography are crucial in this process.
Finally, we ventured from the angle of technicality. The use of new media, such as interactive installations, sound art, and artificial intelligence, has opened new worlds to artists when re-considering bamboo. The popularization of biotechnology refreshes the definition, interpretation, and creation of bamboo from the most entitative molecular level, which also provides support for the renovation of bamboo’s materiality and conception in practice.
Hence, artists’ choice regarding the best way possible for them to re-create bamboo based on their inherent strengths is the question of the hour. This is reminiscent of the theory behind the study of bamboo by Wang Yangming, a Ming-dynasty intellectual who utilized bamboo as a medium to ponder universal truths and believed that “bamboo and flowers have the essence of prajñā.” How artists use bamboo therefore represents their opinions on tradition, the world, and others. For artists, bamboo can be the subject material for making art or an organic being on par with humans, but it can also be the open whole carrying the boundaries between the self and others, culture and nature, humans and non-humans, and east and west.
Bamboo as Method expands in an extremely symbolic space with three different sections: “Being Bamboo,” “Studying bamboo,” and “No Bamboo.” The architectural framework, printed and knitted via parametric design, is surrounded by a bamboo forest of nearly 10,000 square meters (2.47 acres). Sporting dozens of breeds from many areas of China, the bamboo forest is so lively and precious that it is indeed a rare sight to behold. The entirety of the space belongs to both nature and the artificial, suggesting the complexity behind how we engage with bamboo in our daily lives.
展览《竹子作为方法》的构思始于这样一种实验:如何策划一个以竹子为主题的当代艺术展览,既不被传统压垮,又可以不回避传统,甚至能够开展与传统的对话。于是我们开展了对竹子的多重审视,除了成为文化符号和制作器具的材料之外,它是否能拥有更多维度的可能性?如何在传统之外为竹子辟出一条通向当代性的小径?于是,我们尝试了三种方式。
首先,可以从材质性入手。同样的材料在不同的时代中可以反复激发出新的实验性内涵。巫鸿曾在策划“材质艺术”时写到,当代艺术需要面对的是,如何发掘传统文化,以强化自身的原创性和实验性。通过广泛的实验对传统物质文化的基本素质进行提炼,他们希望发现具有独特象征意义和审美品质的物质,将其共有的文化属性转化为个性化的视觉语言。
其次,是在观念性上的转换。竹子不仅仅是一种静默的、被人类凝视的对象,同时也是一种与人类平等的生物,它具有自己的种群习性和生长周期,也和人类一样能够思考和感受。我们必须脱离笛卡尔式的主客二分体系,从竹子本身的角度出发,以非人类中心视角去思考人与竹之间的关联性(relationality),例如爱德华多·康(Eduardo Kohn)在《森林如何思考》中所提到的一种超越人类的相遇(other-than-human encounters),以及相关的基于多物种民族志的思考方法。
最后是技术性的角度。新媒介的使用,例如交互装置、声音艺术和人工智能等,也能为艺术家在重新看待竹子时打开新的思路。而生物技术的广泛使用,则将使竹子从最为本质的分子层面重新被定义、被阐释和被创作,这个层面同时也在实践上为材质性和观念性的更新提供了支持。
由此,艺术家如何选择自己擅长的方式去切入对于竹子的重新创作,是他们各自需要直面的问题。这让人联想到明代思想家王阳明的“格竹”,他将竹子作为穷究万物事理的方法,所谓“翠竹黄花,无非般若”,艺术家如何使用竹子,正好映射了他们对于传统、对于世界和对于他者的看法。对于艺术家来说,竹子既可以是成为材料的物质客体,也可以是与人类平等的有机主体,同时也是一种承接主体与客体、文化与自然、人与非人、西方与东方边界的“开放性整体”(The Open Whole)。
于是,“竹子作为方法”在一片极具象征意味的空间中展开,并分为“为竹”、“格竹”、“非竹”三个部分。使用参数化设计打印和编织的建筑主体,围绕着近万米的竹林。而竹林中则汇集了来自中国各地数十个品种的竹子,其繁盛和珍贵程度,难得一见。这片空间既是自然的,也是人工的,也暗示了我们与竹子相处时所面对的、真实的复杂性。(策展及撰文:魏颖)
Curatorial Text | 展览文章
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本届画廊周北京的公共单元会将其在798艺术区中的项目往外拓展,并和新的项目合作伙伴、非营利性科研机构——国际竹藤中心共同开启跨界公共艺术展览的合作。这一特别项目,由策展人魏颖在上海崇明策划,汇集了21组与竹(植物)有关的当代艺术作品,试图探讨着在非人类中心主义视角下,竹子在艺术、科技与生态等多重维度之中的新形象。
展览《竹子作为方法》的构思始于这样一种实验:如何策划一个以竹子为主题的当代艺术展览,既不被传统压垮,又可以不回避传统,甚至能够开展与传统的对话。于是我们开展了对竹子的多重审视,除了成为文化符号和制作器具的材料之外,它是否能拥有更多维度的可能性?如何在传统之外为竹子辟出一条通向当代性的小径?于是,我们尝试了三种方式。
首先,可以从材质性入手。同样的材料在不同的时代中可以反复激发出新的实验性内涵。巫鸿曾在策划“材质艺术”时写到,当代艺术需要面对的是,如何发掘传统文化,以强化自身的原创性和实验性。通过广泛的实验对传统物质文化的基本素质进行提炼,他们希望发现具有独特象征意义和审美品质的物质,将其共有的文化属性转化为个性化的视觉语言。
其次,是在观念性上的转换。竹子不仅仅是一种静默的、被人类凝视的对象,同时也是一种与人类平等的生物,它具有自己的种群习性和生长周期,也和人类一样能够思考和感受。我们必须脱离笛卡尔式的主客二分体系,从竹子本身的角度出发,以非人类中心视角去思考人与竹之间的关联性(relationality),例如爱德华多·康(Eduardo Kohn)在《森林如何思考》中所提到的一种超越人类的相遇(other-than-human encounters),以及相关的基于多物种民族志的思考方法。
最后是技术性的角度。新媒介的使用,例如交互装置、声音艺术和人工智能等,也能为艺术家在重新看待竹子时打开新的思路。而生物技术的广泛使用,则将使竹子从最为本质的分子层面重新被定义、被阐释和被创作,这个层面同时也在实践上为材质性和观念性的更新提供了支持。
由此,艺术家如何选择自己擅长的方式去切入对于竹子的重新创作,是他们各自需要直面的问题。这让人联想到明代思想家王阳明的“格竹”,他将竹子作为穷究万物事理的方法,所谓“翠竹黄花,无非般若”,艺术家如何使用竹子,正好映射了他们对于传统、对于世界和对于他者的看法。对于艺术家来说,竹子既可以是成为材料的物质客体,也可以是与人类平等的有机主体,同时也是一种承接主体与客体、文化与自然、人与非人、西方与东方边界的“开放性整体”(The Open Whole)。
于是,“竹子作为方法”在一片极具象征意味的空间中展开,并分为“为竹”、“格竹”、“非竹”三个部分。使用参数化设计打印和编织的建筑主体,围绕着近万米的竹林。而竹林中则汇集了来自中国各地数十个品种的竹子,其繁盛和珍贵程度,难得一见。这片空间既是自然的,也是人工的,也暗示了我们与竹子相处时所面对的、真实的复杂性。
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展览的第一部分“为竹”,偏重竹的“材质性”,作品主要分布在竹藤馆之中,体现了当代艺术界对于竹这一材料的传承性和创新性使用。竹子的文化象征是一把双刃剑,“为竹”部分的艺术家承担着在传统中寻找实验性的任务,从某种意义上来说,这比进入一股全新的潮流更具挑战。
艺术家萧昱对于竹子的思考由来已久,他从2010年起,就将竹子作为立与破的创作对象。他强烈地意识到竹已经被固化为东亚的精神象征,如何将其解放出来并赋予其当代的意涵,是其之后进行一系列创作的出发点。在作品《易位18号》中,艺术家使用两种气质相异的材料,组成了极具张力的一个瞬间:竹子承载着传统审美,而水泥则代表着快速发展的社会。两种材料的相遇和交缠,使得竹子呈现出弯曲、破裂的姿态,从而表现出全然迥于传统意趣的异态感、碎片感,以及犹存的坚韧感。他在展览中的另一件作品《爱》,则代表了艺术家与竹子关系的第二次重置,艺术家将竹的物质性抽离出来,采用铸铜更为准确地表达竹的视觉形态。一段被挤压、爆裂,而负担了巨大压力的竹子,却不经意间构造成“爱”的形状,并被放置在竹藤馆最为喧闹的公共区域,为观众带来了无尽言说的可能性。(插入萧昱作品)
而艺术家梁绍基则从未纠结于传统和现代的对立。“无听于耳而听于心;虚而待物为心斋。”在他心目中,流源于几千年前的老庄的思想在当代仍是最具实验性的精神。无论松涛竹风的“天籁”之声,还是人类感知生命、感知自然造化、感知文明进程时生发的激情而创造的丝竹管弦“人籁” 之声,都在一种流动、生长、异化、熵化、轮回的节奏和旋律之中。因此,作品《心罄》正是反映了这样一种可以解释为折射世界的、无声的内心乐章,生命的诗吟。
相比前两位艺术家,邱志杰的身份更为多元,他不仅是一位当代艺术家,同时也担任过威尼斯双年展中国馆的策展人,前几日三源里菜场的书法展亦是其介于白盒子式的艺术空间以及烟火气的社会空间之间的即兴之作。即使所使用的是最为普通的竹编形式,邱志杰的作品亦能在观念上有所突破。《世界观》是以纵深之姿,拨地而起生长出万物,而《细胞》则以平延之态,自然地从竹材的肌理中,如细胞般衍生出作品造型。而竹林之中的巨脚,则是《远道而来》中承载了葡萄、烟草、玉米、番茄、洋葱等外来植物。这些植物虽非起源于华夏,但却已经融入我们每日的生活。竹编大脚远处走来,容纳着这些远道而来的物种,却又自带根系。
艺术家蔡磊承担了“为竹”部分的委任作品,他在传统竹材的基础上更进一步,以其良好的雕塑训练功底,将竹钢这种新型材料运用到作品中。竹钢源自竹材,经过加固处理后坚硬厚实、声比金玉,已经运用到许多建筑场景之中,而艺术家对此所知甚少。作品《自由之外》立于水面之上,兼具二维和三维间的语言转化,以及水面倒影和物质实体的映照。而竹钢在展览之后亦可归于尘土,其可降解性和可持续性将是装置作品的一个选择,这也是传统材料在不断自我演进中的出色案例。
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相比“为竹”单元的艺术家在物质性上的反复实验和考量,“格竹”部分的艺术家则完全跳脱出去,转向了“观念性”。这部分作品竹林区域内,艺术家们倾向于将鲜活的竹子视为一种与人平等的生物,着力探究对于人与其他物种间的生态关系的思考,并引发了对于“人类世”、“人与非人”等话题的思考。
艺术家郑波长期以来关注生态性的社会实践,并进行了一系列探究人与植物关系的创作。作品《格竹》位于一篇僻静的竹林之中,进入其中的人们(不管偶然进入或者寻访前来)可以选择竹林中的一株竹子凝视、感受,并自由地选择一片叶子进行绘画,而画作则以堆肥的形式回到自然界。艺术家希望观众能在某段纯粹的时间之中,抛却喧嚣,与其他物种(即使是沉默的植物)进行“对话”,并由此和它们产生连接。
郭城则将视野扩宽到“人类世”的概念。《一个被恰当重塑的过往》是他在阿姆斯特丹西北的填海造出的土地上,通过挖掘 - 筛选 - 清理 - 回填的方式, 创造了一平米的穿透人类纪地层的“无人类痕迹“的土地。这个项目制造了对于人类世地层的一种干预 (intervention)。而这一平米的存在本身,也成为了一个“没有”人类信息的时间胶囊和一个悖论。 另一件《无题》则是艺术家所设置的一个近未来的荒诞场景:在竹子占领了整个崇明岛之后,随意抛弃在竹林间的人工物,顺着竹子的长势成为其一部分,人工和自然物在这里形成了一种新的混合物种。而后人视之,以为奇观。由此我们可以联想象,在一个人类退居其次而其他物种例如植物占据主导的地质时期中,他者视角所看到人类“遗迹”的吊诡性。
刘建华的作品《落叶》则使用陶瓷制成了五千余片落叶,它们拥有几乎乱真的形状,恰与中国哲思中的 “物非物”、“花非花”一脉相承。这些“落叶”和竹林里的落叶遥相呼应,“自然”和“再现”之间形成了一个相异却又无比契合的场域,这是一个需要观众精心感知的世界。艺术家封帆的《节》以金箔包覆竹节,创造出一片特殊的竹林,并试图在竹节的生物和文化含义、古代和当代的意涵间有所徘徊和映照。
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“非竹”部分转向了“技术性”,这彻底打破了人与竹的主客二分形象,这部分艺术家多使用影像、人工智能、互动装置、声音艺术等新媒介,意在展现一种跨越文化、时空和物种限制的朝向未来的创作思路。
王令杰和郝经芳在作品《生于空》中,使用触发蒸汽的机电设备,于竹林间创造了一株“非物质”的竹子。水汽自机器中喷薄而出,形成一圈圈瞬时存在的“竹节”,向天空逐渐蔓延,最终消散于无形之中。从某种意义上来说,这是一株生于空气,散于空气、无法捕捉的“虚空之竹”,在时空之中延伸,这与竹藤园中诸多实体之竹形成某种有趣的回应。艺术家刘毅的《归隐》也是与瞬时性相关。四幅相互叠替的画面悬挂于竹林之中,竹植、动物、人类和月亮这些或永恒或短暂的意象共交替消隐复现,映射了真实世界的情状。这些画作背后是具有温控的程序和硬件,会随着温度、光线以及偶然降临的雨水而慢慢显现,复又慢慢隐去。对于观众来说,绘画本身似乎变成了“有情绪”的存在(being)。
作品《盐与鸟》始于艺术家杨健的一种尝试,他想要寻找书籍记载过的北美印第安人某种可能失传的奇特音乐传统,这种音乐把山陵的曲线视为乐谱进行歌唱。艺术家在这些区域进行了长达 1 个半月的寻找与拍摄,最终与一些部落的歌手与普通人合作演唱艺术家本人编辑的涉及广泛领域的曲线图表。该作品代表了与中国文化平行的那些传统中,对于自然的重视、敬畏与和谐相处。
曹舒怡《普遍语法》和《山石图》是对于古人对于造园和山石志趣在当代的一次重新审视。这些矿石体源自数十亿年前地球上的地质断裂,如今则是人类开采的考古遗迹。数千块石头组成了最终的数据集,其中包括了通过扫描、翻转、拉伸与剪裁制作的五百张矿石影像,以及由人工智能生成性对抗性网络(GAN)生成的虚构石头,并用于持续迭代生成新的杂交石头图像,这些虚实交织的石头不拥有物理实体,在计算网络中无限分裂、逃逸与生成。同一物体的拟像产生了多个物质实体,彼此间具有对称性、同源性与重复性。静静伫立的山石,映照出软件逻辑与人类心智如何由物体的碎片拼凑模糊的宇宙整体。
高扬和谭彬是两位年轻艺术家,加入了影像、声音装置等更新的媒介以后,竹子的意涵更加丰富。高扬的《竹林合声》通过声音交互装置,尝试让竹子这样沉默的生命体发出声音。谭彬的《凭栏者所见的都是自己的内心》所谈到的凭栏之举,貌似远眺,其实是内省式的探究。艺术家将这一悖论具象化,普通的竹栏杆中暗藏玄机。当观众走近这些栏杆时,会发现栏杆的竹筒之中安装了猫眼,透过猫眼可以看到另一个微观世界,其中包含有微小实物或者影像片段,虚实难于区分。新的媒介,为艺术家带来了更为广阔的视角和新的思维启发,媒介、技术、艺术之间互相交织、互相促进的关系是艺术界永恒的话题,竹子作为一种载体,亦可在新的世纪继续这种传承。
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Section One
The first part of the exhibition, "Being Bamboo", emphasizes the materiality of bamboo, and the works can be found in the pavilion, reflecting the inheritance and innovation of bamboo as material from the perspective of contemporary art. The cultural symbol of bamboo is a double-edged sword, so the artists of this section are tasked with finding experimentation in tradition, which in a sense is more challenging than entering a whole new trend.
1 Translocation No.18
These two materials have different temperaments to form a tense moment in this work: bamboo carries the traditional impression, while cement represents a rapidly-developing modern society. The encounter and entanglement of the two materials make the bamboo appear curved and cracked, thus showing the heterogeneity, fragmentation, and a permanent sense of tenacity that is different from the traditional aesthetic.
Xiao Yu (b.1965) currently works and lives in Hong Kong and Beijing.
2 The Sound under the Dome
Based on the architectural dome with great national cultural characteristics, this work uses a combination of traditional bamboo weaving and modern sound installation to show the artist's thinking. When the audience walks under it, the work will sound the most characteristic music of the regional culture.
Qiu Zhijie (b.1969) currently works and lives in Beijing.
3 Cell
The work prompts the artist to rethink the shape during the process of weaving. Since bamboo has knots and patterns, the artist follows the order of principle, carries the potential of unearthed bamboo, and becomes the nature of rationality. Art should also grow according to the inner logic, so there is this series of works.
Qiu Zhijie (b.1969) currently works and lives in Beijing.
4 Outlook on the World
The work rises from the exhibition hall and generates everything on earth with different lengths following their own systems like the Chinese cosmology: glimpsing the world between a flower and a thing; pitching the universe within grass and bamboo.
Qiu Zhijie (b.1969) currently works and lives in Beijing.
5 Coming all the way from Worldwide
The big feet made of bamboo are scattered in the bamboo forest as if someone is walking on the ground. Each bamboo vessel contains a vegetable or fruit of exotic species. Each plant has a label indicating its migration to China within this installation. The artists placed them in the woven foot-shaped vessel made of bamboo, a native Chinese plant - they 'come all the way from worldwide' but with their own roots.
Qiu Zhijie (b.1969) currently works and lives in Beijing.
6 Sound of Heart
You can interpret this work as silent inner music and a poetic chant that refracts the world and life. Zhuangzi said, "You shall not hear with the ears, but the heart; purifying the existing spiritual world is the only path toward the truth." The artist believes that whether it is the heavenly sound from Pinales and bamboos, or the sound of the silk and bamboo orchestra’s artificial sound created when humans perceive life, the creature of nature, and the process of civilization, they are all in a rhythm and melody of flow, growth, alienation, entropy, and reincarnation, and transformed into "the great music with the faintest notes" under the illumination of "Shenyuan".
Liang Shaoji (b.1945) currently works and lives in Tiantai, Zhejiang.
7 Beyond Freedom
"Beyond Freedom" adheres to the artist's consistent concept: interpret spatial illusion through the sense of spatial depth between two and three-dimensional and enable the audience to experience the tension and transformation between physical flatness and real space in painting. The 2021-year edition of "Beyond Freedom" is a commissioned work using a new material, bamboo steel, originating from the earth and can also be attributed to the earth, opening a more sustainable and green possibility for installation art.
Cai Lei (b.1983) currently works and lives in Beijing.
Section Two
Compared with the repeated experiments and considerations on the materiality of the artists in the previous section the artists in the "Studying Bamboo", jumped out and turned to conceptuality. They tend to regard living bamboo in the forest as a creature equal to human beings, focusing on the ecological relationship between humans and other species and triggering issues such as the "Anthropocene" and "human and non-human".
8 Bamboo as Method
The work creates a field for the viewer who enters it: they can choose a bamboo plant in the forest, gaze, feel, and freely choose a leaf to paint, and the painting will return to nature in the form of compost. It allows people to engage more in the dialogue with other species, even the silent plants, and connect with them.
Zheng Bo (b.1974) currently works and lives in Hong Kong.
9 Jie
The word "Jie" is not only biologically characterized by bamboo but also has rich cultural implications. It refers to seasons, etiquette, rhythms, and even the joints of the human body. The artist wraps the bamboo knots in gold leaves to create a special forest and tries to linger and reflect between the biological and cultural, as well as the ancient and contemporary meanings of the bamboo knots.
Feng Fan (b.1983) currently works and lives in Beijing.
10 A Felicitous Neo-past
On land reclaimed after World War II in the northwest of Amsterdam, the artist excavated, screened, cleaned, and backfilled to create a 1-square-meter land without any human trace that penetrated the Anthropocene strata. This project created an intervention for the Anthropocene strata. And the existence of this 1 square meter itself has become a time capsule and a paradox of no human information.
Guo Cheng (b.1988) currently works and lives in Shanghai.
11 Untitled
The artist sets up an absurd scene of the near future: the artificial objects discarded in the bamboo forest of Chongming Island are forgotten by humans, and bamboo occupies the entire island. These wastes become part of the bamboo as it grows to form a new mixture of artificial and natural objects.
Guo Cheng (b.1988) currently works and lives in Shanghai.
12 Fallen Leaves
"Fallen Leaves" is made of ceramics and looks almost true and is in line with the Chinese philosophy of "an object is not an object, a flower is not a flower". The fallen leaves of this work are not deciduous, but they reflect the real fallen leaves in the nearby bamboo forest, forming an abstract field and a world that requires careful perception by the audience.
Liu Jianhua (b.1962) currently works and lives in Shanghai.
13 Love
This work is a masterpiece in the artist's second reset relationship with bamboo. In these series, the artist replaces the material entirely with cast copper, dissolving the physical existence of bamboo and presenting its visual form in a more precise way. They placed it in the most central outdoor area of the pavilion, its shape of love and fragmented material sense appearing in an unintentional state create endless possibilities for the audience.
Xiao Yu (b.1965) currently works and lives in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Section Three
"No Bamboo" ventures from the angle of technicality, which breaks the dichotomy between humans and bamboo. Artists of this section mainly use the image, artificial intelligence, interactive installations, sound art, and other new mediums, intending to open new ideas toward future creation that transcend culture, time, space, and species boundaries.
14 Salt and Bird
This work began as an attempt to find a possible lost musical tradition of the North American Indians documented in books, and this music sang the curves of mountains as musical scores. The artist shot these areas in one and a half months. The final process gathered tribal singers and ordinary people singing together. The artist edited a curve chart to involve a wide range of fields to represent the attention, reverence, and harmony of nature in ancient traditions parallel to the Chinese culture.
Yang Jian (b.1982) currently works and lives in Beijing and Nanjing.
15 Air to air
Using electromechanical devices that trigger the fog, the artist creates immaterial bamboo among many physical bamboos in the bamboo forest. The vapor (fog) forms a circle of instantaneous bamboo knots that gradually spread to the sky and eventually dissipate into invisibility. In a sense, this is a void bamboo born and scattered in the air, and you cannot capture it.
Hao Jingfang (b.1985) & Wang Lingjie (b.1984) currently live and work in Mulhouse, France, and Shanghai.
16 Seclusion
Hidden in the bamboo forest is the image, which slowly appears with the temperature, light, and occasional rain before slowly disappearing, so the painting itself becomes an emotional existence. Within the four overlapping pictures of this work, the eternal or transient images of bamboos, animals, humans, and the moon alternately fade and reappear to reflect the real world.
Liu Yi (b.1990) currently works and lives in Hangzhou.
17 What the Viewer Sees is His Own Heart
The act of relying on the railing seems to be overlooked from a distance and is actually an introspective inquiry. The artist visualizes this paradox and hides mysteries in ordinary bamboo railings. When the audience approaches these railings, they will find that the bamboo tubes have peepholes, where you can see another microscopic world that contains tiny objects or video fragments. It is difficult to distinguish between virtual and real, so the viewer intends to look out at the world but sees nothing but his own heart.
Tan Bin (b.1989) currently works and lives in Hangzhou.
18 Bamboo Forest Choir
"Bamboo Forest Choir" uses bamboo as a medium for current conduction, and the bamboo forest landscape echoes and harmonizes through the touch of the audience. Bamboo is originally an extinct herb and used as a sustainable building material due to its rapid growth. People usually do not pay much attention to the appeal of bamboo as an independent life form to their living environment. And this work is through the sound interaction device, trying to make this silent life emit the sound of interaction and communication between things and self.
Gao Yang (b.1990) currently works and lives in Beijing.
19 Floating Wine Cup
This work is a landscape installation built with stone and bamboo combined with the Japanese garden landscaping technique. The floating lighthouse on the water places this graceful behavior in traditional Chinese culture in the Pacific circulation, along with the nature and ecology we care about, constitute another kind of context together.
Gao Yang (b.1990) currently works and lives in Beijing.
20 Universal Syntax
This work reshapes fictional stones through the generative adversarial network (GAN), an AI deep-learning model, and constantly iterates on the loop to continuously reshape and generate new virtual and real intertwined stones. These virtual-real stones do not possess physical entities and are infinitely split, escaped, and spawned in a computing network.
Cao Shuyi (b.1990) currently works and lives in New York.
21 Mountain Rocks
This work creates a contrast between its name and entity: the title is the elegance of the ancients, while the work is in the form of a texture map of each side cut out of a three-dimensional scan of a stone, then replayed into the physical world. The imitation of the same object produces multiple material entities, which are symmetrical, homologous, and repetitive with each other. The silent mountain rocks reflect how software logic and the human mind start from the fragments of objects and piece together the vague cosmic whole.
Cao Shuyi (b.1990) currently works and lives in New York.
第一部分
展览的第一部分“为竹”,偏重竹的“材质性”,作品主要分布在竹藤馆之中,体现了当代艺术界对于竹这一材料的传承性和创新性使用。竹子的文化象征是一把双刃剑,“为竹”部分的艺术家承担着在传统中寻找实验性的任务,从某种意义上来说,这比进入一股全新的潮流更具挑战。
1 易位18号
作品“易位18号”中,艺术家使用两种气质相异的材料,组成了极具张力的一个瞬间:竹子承载着传统的审美印象,而水泥则代表着快速发展的社会。两种材料的相遇和交缠,使得竹子呈现出弯曲、破裂的姿态,从而表现出全然迥于传统意趣的异态感、碎片感,以及始终存在的坚韧感。
萧昱(b.1965),现工作和生活于香港与北京。
2 穹顶下的声音
作品“穹顶下的声音”以极具民族文化特色的建筑穹顶作为原型,采用传统竹编和声音装置相结合的方式来展现艺术家的思考。当观众走到悬挂着的穹顶之下,作品就会响起该地域文化最具特色的音乐。一路行进,一路聆听。
邱志杰(b.1969), 现工作和生活于北京。
3 细胞
作品“细胞”促使艺术家在编织时重新思考什么是造型。正如竹有节理和纹路,艺术家循道理之“序”,携破竹之“势”,成顺理之“章”。艺术也应该依顺着内在的道理生长出来,故有此细胞系列作品。
邱志杰(b.1969), 现工作和生活于北京。
4 世界观
作品“世界观”从展厅中拔地而起,生成了万物,长短不一,自成体系。这正如中国的宇宙观:一花一物间,窥见世界;一草一竹中,俯仰宇宙。
邱志杰(b.1969),现工作和生活于北京。
5 远道而来
竹编而成的大脚散布在竹林之中,如同在地面行走。每个特殊的竹器中盛放着一种蔬菜或水果,而且这些植物都是外来物种。这个装置中,每一种植物都有标签说明其迁移进中国的历史。它们处在一种中国原生的植物——竹子所编织的脚造型容器中,从远处行走而来,但自带着根系。
邱志杰(b.1969), 现工作和生活于北京。
6 心罄
作品“心罄”可以解释为折射世界的无声的内心乐章,生命的诗吟。庄子曰“无听于耳而听于心;虚而待物为心斋。”艺术家认为,无论松涛竹风的“天籁”之声,还是人类在感知生命、感知自然造化、感知文明进程时勃发激情而创造的丝竹管弦“人籁”之声,都在一种流动、生长、异化、熵化、轮回的节奏和旋律之中,于“神元”光照下幻化为“大音希声”。
梁绍基(b.1945),现工作和生活于浙江天台。
7 自由之外
作品“自由之外”秉持了艺术家一贯以来的艺术理念,借由二维与三维之间的空间纵深感诠释阐释空间错觉的概念,使观众体会绘画中物理平面性与真实空间性之间的张力和转换。2021年版本的“自由之外”是使用了新型材料竹钢的委任作品。竹钢材料源于大地,亦可归于大地,为装置艺术开启了一种更为可持续和绿色的可能性之门。
蔡磊(b.1983),现工作和生活与北京。
第二部分
相比“为竹”单元的艺术家在物质性上的反复实验和考量,“格竹”部分的艺术家则完全跳脱出去,转向了“观念性”。这部分作品竹林区域内,艺术家们倾向于将鲜活的竹子视为一种与人平等的生物,着力探究对于人与其他物种间的生态关系的思考,并引发了对于“人类世”、“人与非人”等话题的思考。
8 格竹
作品“格竹”为进入其中的观众创造了这样一种场域:他们可以选择竹林中的一株竹子,凝视、感受,并自由地选择一片叶子进行绘画,而画作将以堆肥的形式回到自然界。作品让人更多地与其他物种——即使是沉默的植物——进行“对话”,并由此与之产生连接。
郑波(b.1974),现工作和生活于香港。
9 节
“节”不仅是竹子的生物表征特性,同时也有丰富的文化含义。它指涉时节、礼节、音律、甚至人的身体关节。艺术家以金箔包覆竹节,创造出一片特殊的竹林,并试图在竹节的生物和文化含义、古代和当代的意涵间有所徘徊和映照。
封帆(b.1983),现工作和生活于北京。
10 一个被恰当重塑的过往
艺术家在阿姆斯特丹西北部一块二战后填海造出的土地上,通过挖掘、筛选、清理、回填的方式,创造了一块面积1平米、穿透人类世地层的“无人类痕迹”的土地。这个项目制造了对于人类世地层的一种干预(intervention)。而这1平米的存在本身,也成为了一个“无人类信息”的时间胶囊和一个悖论。
郭城(b.1988),现工作生活于上海。
11 无题
艺术家设置了一个近未来的荒诞场景:随意抛弃在崇明岛竹林间的人工物被人类遗忘,竹子占领了整个岛屿。这些废弃物顺着竹子的长势成为其一部分,人工和自然物在这里形成了一种新的混合物种。
郭城(b.1988),现工作生活于上海。
12 落叶
作品“落叶”使用陶瓷制成,拥有几乎乱真的形状,与中国哲思中的“物非物,花非花”一脉相承。这里的“落叶”并非落叶,但与附近竹林里真正的落叶互相映照,形成一个抽象的场域,一个需要观众精心感知的世界。
刘建华(b.1962),现工作和生活于上海。
13 爱
作品“爱”是艺术家与竹第二次重置关系中的代表作。在这些系列中,艺术家将材料全部置换为铸铜,消解了竹子的物理存在,并将竹的视觉形态以更为精准的方式予以呈现。作品置于竹藤馆户外最中心的区域,其无意中所呈现出的爱的形状和碎片化的材质感,为来者形成无以言尽的可能性。
萧昱(b.1965),现工作和生活于香港与北京。
第三部分
“非竹”部分转向了“技术性”,这彻底打破了人与竹的主客二分形象,这部分艺术家多使用影像、人工智能、互动装置、声音艺术等新媒介,意在展现一种跨越文化、时空和物种限制的朝向未来的创作思路。
14 盐与鸟 Salt and Bird
作品“盐与鸟”始于艺术家的一种尝试,他想要寻找书籍记载过的北美印第安人某种可能失传的奇特音乐传统,这种音乐把山陵的曲线视为乐谱进行歌唱。艺术家在这些区域进行了长达1个半月的寻找与拍摄,最终与一些部落的歌手和普通人合作演唱,并由艺术家本人编辑出涉及广泛领域的曲线图表。该作品代表了与中国文化平行的那些古老传统中,对于自然的重视、敬畏与和谐相处。
杨健(b.1982), 现工作生活于北京和南京。
15 生于空 Air to air
艺术家使用触发雾气的机电设备,于竹林间的众多实体之竹中创造了一株“非物质”(immaterial)的竹子。水汽(雾气)形成一圈圈瞬时存在的竹节,向天空逐渐蔓延,最终消散于无形之中。从某种意义上来说,这是一株生于空气,散于空气、无法捕捉的虚空之竹。
郝经芳(b.1985)& 王令杰(b.1984),现工作和生活于法国米卢斯和上海。
16 归隐 Seclusion
竹林中隐藏着图像,它随着温度、光线以及偶然降临的雨水而慢慢显现,复又慢慢隐去,绘画本身似乎变成了“有情绪”的存在。在作品“归隐”四幅相互叠替的画面里,竹植、动物、人类和月亮这些或永恒或短暂的意象 [MOU6] 交替消隐复现,也映射了真实世界的情状。
刘毅(b.1990),现工作和生活于杭州。
17 凭栏者所见的都是自己的内心
凭栏之举,貌似远眺,其实是内省式的探究。艺术家将这一悖论具象化,普通的竹栏杆中暗藏玄机。当观众走近这些栏杆时,会发现栏杆的竹筒之中安装了猫眼,透过猫眼可以看到另一个微观世界,其中包含有微小实物或者影像片段,虚实难于区分。由此,凭栏者意图外观世界,而所见的确保都不过都是自己的内心。
谭彬(b.1989),现工作和生活于杭州。
18 竹林和声
“竹林和声”将竹子作为电流传导的媒介,通过观众的触摸,使竹林景观回荡和声。竹子本来是方生方灭的草本植物,并因生长迅速被当做一类可持续性的建材使用。人们通常并未更多地在意竹子作为一种独立的生命形态对其生存环境的诉求。而这件作品正是通过声音交互类装置,尝试让竹子这样沉默的生命体发出物我交互、交流沟通的声音。
高扬(b.1990),现工作和生活于北京。
19 曲水流觞
“曲水流觞”是结合了日式庭院的造景手法,用置石和竹艺构建起来的景观装置。水域上漂浮的灯塔,将曲水流觞这种中国传统文化中的雅集行为,置于太平洋环流中,和我们所关注的自然与生态,共同构成的另一类语境。
高扬(b.1990),现工作和生活于北京。
20 普遍语法 Universal Syntax
作品“普遍语法” 通过生成式对抗性网络(GAN)这一AI深度学习模型,重塑出虚构石头,并不断迭代循环,持续重塑生成新的虚实交织的石头。这些虚实交织的石头不拥有物理实体,在计算网络中无限分裂、逃逸与生成。
曹舒怡(b.1990),现工作与生活于纽约。
21 山石图
“山石图”在名称和实体之间造成一种反差:题目中的“山石”是古人所观赏的雅趣,而作品形式则是从一块石头的三维扫描中切出的各侧面的纹理地图,并将其重新放归于物理世界中。同一物体的拟像产生了多个物质实体,彼此间具有对称性、同源性与重复性。静静伫立的山石,映照出软件逻辑与人类心智如何由物体的碎片出发,所拼凑出的模糊的宇宙整体。
曹舒怡(b.1990),现工作与生活于纽约。