中國“文化游民”在紐約找到藝術(shù)綠洲

Transnational is the new buzzword in curatorial circles, aimed at artists whose cultural identity is fluid, a hybrid of the many countries where they have lived, studied and now work.

超越國界是策展界最新的時髦詞匯，主要針對文化身份變動不居的藝術(shù)家，那是由他們在多個國家生活、學習和工作的經(jīng)歷雜糅而成的。

Cici Wu, Ho King Man and Wang Xu are three such artists, who were born in China, educated in the United States and now call New York their home. In 2015 they turned their shared studio in Chinatown into an ad hoc alternative art space and impromptu residency program called Practice. Run on a shoestring budget that’s covered by their income from part-time jobs, and with no website, Practice has attracted a word-of-mouth following among young international artists who, like the founders, lead nomadic lives.

吳茜茜(音)、何景文(音)、王旭就是三位這樣的藝術(shù)家，他們出生于中國，在美國接受教育，如今以紐約為家。2015年，他們將自己在唐人街共享的工作室，改成了名為“實踐”(Practice)的特別替代藝術(shù)空間和即興駐留項目。“實踐”有限的預算來自他們兼職工作的收入，也沒有網(wǎng)站，但通過口碑相傳，它在年輕的國際藝術(shù)家中吸引了一批追隨者。和這幾名創(chuàng)辦者一樣，那些藝術(shù)家也過著游牧式的生活。

“What we are trying to do is to find a new alternative to identity politics, to put our Chinese identity on a lower level and open ourselves to something more focused on the relationship between the three of us,” said Ms. Wu, a recent M.F.A. graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art who endearingly works artspeak into heartfelt statements about their mission.

“我們想為身份政治找到一種新的替代，將我們的中國身份放到更低的位置，敞開自己，去接觸更側(cè)重于我們?nèi)岁P(guān)系的東西，”最近剛從馬里蘭藝術(shù)學院(Maryland Institute College of Art)獲得藝術(shù)碩士學位的吳茜茜說道。她以討人喜歡的方式將藝術(shù)鑒賞評語變成了有關(guān)他們使命的誠摯宣言。

Ms. Wu and her two partners now have a new opportunity to test their ideas, not as curators but as artists, at their first collaborative show, opening this week at the 47 Canal gallery. Working to the last minute to finish the installation, they are similar to many artists who have limited gallery experience, despite having run a space of their own.

如今，在他們于本周在47運河(47 Canal)畫廊推出的首次群展中，吳茜茜和她的兩名伙伴有一個新的機會，可以檢驗自己的想法——不是作為策展人，而是以藝術(shù)家的身份。盡管運營著自己的藝術(shù)空間，但他們和許多展覽經(jīng)驗有限的藝術(shù)家一樣，在最后一刻才完成布展工作。

“They are still in that very idealistic place in their practice and they have a very open-ended idea about what this exhibition experience can be,” said Margaret Lee, a founder of 47 Canal and its director.

“他們的藝術(shù)實踐還處在非常理想主義的階段，對于這次展覽經(jīng)歷會是什么樣，他們抱著十分開放的心態(tài)，”47運河的一位創(chuàng)始人兼負責人瑪格麗特·李(Margaret Lee)說。

Mr. Wang has the most developed solo career and regularly shuttles among artist residencies, a studio in Beijing and the Practice space on Eldridge Street. Yet he hardly can be described as a jet setter, coming from a modest family in Dalian, where his father was a taxi driver. Having studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and Columbia University’s graduate program in visual arts, Mr. Wang combines formal Chinese training in realist sculpture with a Conceptual bent that he picked up in New York.

王旭的個展生涯最為成熟，經(jīng)常往返于兩個藝術(shù)家駐地——位于北京的一個工作室和埃爾德里奇街上的“實踐”空間——之間。但你很難說他是個坐著飛機飛來飛去的有錢人，他來自大連一個普通的家庭，父親是一名出租車司機。在完成北京的中央美術(shù)學院的學業(yè)和哥倫比亞大學的視覺藝術(shù)研究生課程后，王旭將在中國受到的正規(guī)的現(xiàn)實主義雕塑訓練與他在紐約獲得的一種概念傾向結(jié)合起來。

He presents a contemporary version of a Greek kouros, a standing nude minus a head, with a surface of pebbly gray clay that seems as if it might disintegrate at any moment. Antique hooks placed around the body turn the work into a somewhat silly coat rack that invites interaction but diminishes its impact.

他展出了一座現(xiàn)代版本的希臘少年立像，即一座站立的無頭裸體雕塑，表面是有卵石覆蓋的粘土，看起來好像隨時會解體。掛在身上的古董掛鉤，使這件作品有點像不實用的衣帽架，讓人有與之互動的欲望，卻也削弱了它的沖擊力。

Mr. Wang’s video is more engaging, projected on an adjacent wall. He traces his steps during a residency upstate in which he lived in a hut made of wood and clay gathered from the forest. Here, his only human interaction is with the resident gardener, who creates crop circles in lush fields as he rides on a mower the size of a golf cart. In the course of the 11-minute video, Mr. Wang makes clay and fashions an oversize bust of the gardener, building layer upon layer by hand until the sculpture becomes a realistic rendition of the man before him.

王先生的視頻更加引人入勝，它被投影在相鄰的墻上。視頻中回顧了他在州北部定居的時光，他居住的小屋是由從森林里找來的木材和粘土修建的。在那里，他唯一有交往的人就是住地的園丁。園丁駕駛著一輛高爾夫球車大小的割草機，在郁郁蔥蔥的田野里開辟出怪圈。在11分鐘的錄像過程中，王先生用粘土制作了一個超大尺寸的園丁半身像，他手工一層層地疊加，直到雕塑成為眼前那個男子的現(xiàn)實體現(xiàn)。

Ms. Wu, who grew up in Beijing and studied in Hong Kong before coming to the States in 2012, has developed an intriguing vocabulary that uses electronics and machinery to surprisingly intimate effect. To create her installation “Closer, Closer, Says Love,” she sneaked into movie theaters with a device that recorded the ambient light, not the film being shown. The resulting imageless video is then projected onto a mechanism with light sensors (not unlike an automatic door) that responds by shuttling two ragged sleeve cuffs back and forth, like forlorn lovers who keep trying to meet but are ultimately yanked apart. Casting shadows on the wall of the gallery, the installation conveys the sense of watching a romantic encounter, achieved almost magically with minimal, mundane materials.

吳女士在北京長大，2012年來到美國之前曾在香港學習，她使用電子產(chǎn)品和機械裝置，創(chuàng)作了一個有趣的詞匯，達到的效果之親密令人驚訝。她的裝置藝術(shù)名為“近一點，近一點，說愛”(Closer, Closer, Says Love)，為了這個作品，她帶著設(shè)備潛入電影院，記錄下背景光的變化，而不是拍攝播放中的電影。然后她把這些無影像的視頻投影到一個有光傳感器的裝置上(類似一扇自動門)，讓兩個襤褸的袖口來回飄蕩，如同兩個絕望的戀人，不斷想要接近對方，但最終仍然分隔兩端。這個裝置將陰影投射在畫廊的墻上，借助渺小而平凡的材料，近乎神奇地傳達了觀看一場浪漫邂逅的感覺。

Finally, a spotlight on a small book resting on a wooden table invites viewers to read the words within its pages. This work, by Mr. Ho, provides an English translation of the poetry of Ren Hang, a Beijing photographer best known for his surrealistic images of naked young models in provocative poses. Mr. Ren likes to post poems to his website that are equally suggestive, with titles like “Each Time I Do Something Bad.”

最后，是一本放在木桌上的小書，聚光燈照射在上面，邀請觀眾閱讀頁面上的字句。這部作品來自于何先生。小書是任航詩歌的英譯。作為北京的一名攝影師，任先生以年輕裸模擺出挑釁姿勢的超現(xiàn)實主義照片而著稱。任先生喜歡在自己的網(wǎng)站上發(fā)布同樣具有暗示性的詩歌，比如《每次我做了壞事》。

Here, his poems take center stage — no photographs are on view — revealing to American audiences a fresh voice that in this setting can only be engaged by one person at a time. Mr. Ho, who was born in a small town in the south of China, moved with his family to the United States in 2000 and attended Fordham Law School; he is still experimenting with the possibilities of installation, not having yet achieved a fully resolved work.

這次看不到任何照片，他的詩作占據(jù)了中心舞臺，向美國觀眾昭示了一個新鮮的聲音，在這里的布置中每次只能有一個人與之相呼應。何先生出生在中國南方的一個小鎮(zhèn)，2000年與家人一起遷居美國，他進入了福德姆法學院(Fordham Law School);他仍然在試驗裝置藝術(shù)的可能性，目前還沒有拿出一件完全決意的作品。

As a whole, this exhibition has a sweet sentimentality that defies presumed notions of what global Conceptual art should look like or address. “We are attracted to work with an inner independence,” Mr. Ho has said, describing Practice’s criteria for working with artists. The phrase applies equally to the works on view, which are refreshingly free of the critiques of socioeconomic conditions and commodities that often sprout at biennials and art fairs. Everything here is brought to an intimate level, creating the sense of a conversation within a small circle of friends who happen to be participants in a borderless, international network.

整體上說，這個展覽營造了一種甜美細膩的情緒，摒棄了全球觀念藝術(shù)應該顯得怎樣、如何著手的假設(shè)。何先生說，“我們被具有內(nèi)在獨立性的作品所吸引，”概括了“實踐”與藝術(shù)家合作的標準。這樣的形容同樣適用于展覽中的作品，不同于雙年展和藝術(shù)節(jié)上的常見主題，它們沒有對社會經(jīng)濟條件和商品作出批評，令人覺得清爽。每件作品都被延伸到一個親密的層面，猶如和一小幫朋友交談的感覺，而這些朋友恰巧也是一個無邊無界的國際化圈子的圈中人。