逃避·必然 Cheating Dysfunction

张岱青 Daiqing Zhang（中国 China）

大部分人类只有抑化自我才得以实现其社会属性，是一种“必然”；在新冠疫情时代，人们的生活规律被打乱，是一种“必然”；太阳东升西落，河流奔腾入海，亦是一种“必然”。

“逃避必然”，仿佛是逃离一切让我们失去自我的外界事物，从而达到更接近生命本真的过程。对于艺术家来说，“逃避必然”的途径就是反思现实并进行创作。

日常是不可避免的被抑化，而艺术创造是艺术家们一个喘息的窗口，是短暂的梦幻，结束之后还是要归于日常。这样的循坏模式，给予了艺术家们一次次涅槃的机会，正如弗洛伊德关于“自我”的理论，人们平日在社会里追求的是超我和自我，而艺术家的创作正是释放本我的过程。

本次参展的艺术家分别来自澳大利亚、巴西、美国和北京，其中Dani，Daniel和Zhiwan都是在职教师，张岱青也因为疫情，延迟了在国外的学业。四位艺术家在初夏的七月，“逃避”了以学生、学习为中心的生活，来到位于上海城郊古镇旁的无题空间驻地创作。

正如此次展览的主题一般，他们在创作过程中无需思考其他任何社会给予他们的无形压力。这一个月无人打扰的创作阶段，对于他们来说，亦是“逃避必然”寻找本我的一种方式。

Artists cheat dysfunction to escape from all external things that make us lose control of ourselves, to achieve a process closer to the true nature of life. Daily life is inevitably suppressed and artistic creation is a way out for artists, a wet dream after “cheating dysfunction.” 

This cyclical model leads artists to Nirvana. Just like Freud’s theory of the “self,” people pursue the superego and ego in society, and the process of the artist’s creation is to release the id. 

The artists participating in this exhibition are from Australia, Brazil, the United States, and China. Among them, Dani, Daniel, and Zhiwan are all in-service teachers while Daiqing Zhang delayed her master studies abroad due to the epidemic. In the early summer of July, the four artists left their student-centered and academic-centered lives and came to the untitled space residence located next to the ancient town on the outskirts of Shanghai to find an escape from the daily dysfunction of life.

 Daniel.B.Dias 

Daniel虽然出生于巴西圣保罗，但他10 岁时就随家人移居到了美国。在大学毕业后，他又搬到了中国，在这里生活、工作六年。这些文化的融合与转变构成了一种多元社会价值观的混合体，让Daniel开始质疑这些文化界限模糊的身份认同感与精神矛盾。

Daniel was born in São Paulo, Brazil, moved to the United States with his family at the age of 10. After graduating from college he moved again, this time to China, where he lived and worked for six years. The amalgamation of these cultural shifts composes a hybrid of societal values. Dias questions these contradictions of identity and spirituality where cultural lines blur. 

抗议中的表现（局部）Manifestação

布面油画、丙烯、墨水和油彩

Oil, acrylic, ink and oil pastels on canvas

 150 x 150 cm

 2021

这是Daniel作品的一个局部特写，画面中的部分人物由艺术家在玻璃板上创作，然后转移到了画布上。画面里街上人群，他们或许是在尖叫、哭泣、惊恐,他们真正的思绪，我们不得而知。他们在公共空间肆意宣泄，仿佛在告知这个世界，他们要某一逃避种处于必然的状态。

艺术家自述：“我记得和我的父母讨论过，如果新冠疫情真的像新闻报道所说的那样可怕，我该做何选择。当时我在泰国，不得不考虑在 2020 年 2 月返回南京是否是一个正确的选择。看着我的家乡佛罗里达州病例正在激增，我和父母互相挂记着对方的安全。我通过社交媒体看见乔治·弗洛伊德被谋杀而引发的骚乱和抗议在全球蔓延。而我们之间一直有一堵墙。”

This is a partial close-up of Daniel’s artwork. Some of the characters in the picture were created by the artist on the glass plate and then transferred to the canvas. In the picture, the people on the street may be screaming, crying, or frightened, we don’t know their real thoughts. They want only to vent in the public space as if telling the world that they want to cheat a certain inevitable dysfunction.

 “I remember discussing with my parents what options I could take if COVID was as terrifying as the news reports stated. I was in Thailand at the time and had to consider if returning to Nanjing in February 2020 would be the right choice. I also remember watching cases spike in my home state of Florida, now worried for my parents’ safety as they had been worried about mine. I watched the riots and protests incited by the murder of George Floyd spread across the globe through social media. And all of this with a wall between us.”

 Dani Green 

Dani Green 继续探索抽象绘画的流派，在她在无题空间的驻留期间，她创作了她的第一个大型画布系列作品。她凭直觉进行创作，并拥抱由于放弃对画笔的控制而带来的魔力。她的作品并未事先计划好，但它们都有自己的色彩、可辨认的纹理和线条。

Dani 的抽象画是进入不同意识层次的门户或门道。她的艺术实践预见了创作过程中的不确定性，她倾听内心的声音并与她合作来指导艺术作品。对她来讲，绘画创作就是她“逃避必然”的方式。

Dani Green continues to explore the genre of Abstract Painting and during her Residency at Untitled Space, she has created her first series of large-scale artworks on canvas. She works intuitively and embraces the magic that comes with surrender and the abandonment of control. Her compositions are unplanned, yet they acknowledge color ， recognize texture, and honor line.

Dani’s Abstract paintings are portals or doorways into a different level of consciousness. Her artist practice anticipates uncertainty within the creative process and she listens and collaborates with her inner voice to guide the artworks. By making the art, she is cheating dysfunction.

湖 The Lake

Acrylic and Wax Pastel on Canvas

布面丙烯、蜡笔

200 x 300 cm

2021

Dani以前从未到过朱家角，也对其附近的自然风景不了解，这幅画是对朱家角附近湖泊（大淀湖）的一种朦胧的表现。Dani 在驻地创作期间的第一幅大型绘画很快就完成了，她使用调色刀，将不同的色调直接混合到画布上。线条通过油画颜料的可见边缘，结合蜡笔绘制的不可预测的线条共同呈现。

《湖》中厚重的纹理是用调色刀刻画的，与画布的静态平滑区域形成对比，模仿在移动。光泽和亚光表面之间的相互作用是这副作品的关键组成部分，从一个构图中的多个透视点提供了景观对比视角。Dani同时用左右手进行绘画，以确保构图不是她“认为”它应该是什么样子的任何先入为主的观念。这一过程正如在逃离绘画中的某种必然性，她摆脱对画笔的主导权，拥抱作品中的不完美。

Having never been to Zhujiajiao before or knowing very much about the surrounding natural landscape, this painting transformed into a loose representation of the nearby lake ( Dadian lake). Dani’s first large-scale painting was completed quickly, working with a palette knife, mixing different hues and tones directly onto the canvas. Lines are created within the work via the visible edges of applied paint, combined with the unpredictable lines drawn in wax pastel. 

Heavy textures are created with the palette knife, imitating movement, contrasting with static smooth areas of the canvas. The interplay between gloss and matt surfaces is a critical component of the artwork giving the landscape contrasting views from multiple viewpoints within the one composition.

Dani uses a combination of both her left and right hands to paint and draw with, to guarantee the composition does not conform to any preconceived notions of what she “thinks” it should look like. This process is like cheating dysfunction ，She trusting the process of surrender, embracing the imperfections within the work. 

 玛莎 Martha 

四通道视频装置4 Channel HD Video Installation

2021

寓言似乎不再奏效

一只鸟一动不动地躺在办公室中间的地板上

在出口标志下方

原本生活在天空中的动物怎会发现自己被困在如此官僚主义的房间里？

从这个盒子里逃出来有那么难吗？

它的翅膀展开，仿佛还在飞行中。

它试图在何处摆脱这个狭窄空间的控制？

也许只是无处不在的玻璃挡住道

因为在这座巨大的钢筋混凝土制成的大厦中

真相和谎言变得混乱

漂浮在室内外

无形且不稳定的形式

在活动中的幽灵

寓言不会失效

The fables don’t seem to work anymore

Another bird lay motionless on the floor in the middle of the office

Underneath the exit sign

How does an animal living in the sky find itself stuck in a room of bureaucracy?

Is it so hard to escape from this box?

Its wings lay spread out as if it was still in mid-flight.

Where was it trying to go beyond the grips of this cramped space

perhaps the ubiquitous glass lay in the way?

Because truth and lies in this huge reinforced concrete mausoleum get muddled

floating between exterior and interior

A shapeless and unstable form

the ghosts of an activity

Fables do not fail

张岱青的创作实践主要围绕自我认知展开，作品通常探讨关于身体、身份与表达的话题。张岱青的作品涉及行为、影像、雕塑和装置。她将创作视为一种坦白的方式，不断试探自己坦诚的边界。

Due to personal experience and growth environment, Zhang Daiqing’s works are usually about self-recognition, identity, and self-expression.  Her work spans performance, video, sculpture, and installation. To Zhang, her artworks are various forms of self-confession, and art is a non-verbal way for her to communicate with others. She tries to push her boundary in every work, detecting her limitations of frankness.

被珍爱之物 The Beloved

雕塑 Sculpture

硅胶、镜子、粘土

Silicon, mirror, clay

2021

这个作品献给母亲——被真爱之物，像河蚌里的珍珠——粘稠地包裹，是爱最真实的样貌。

This work is dedicated to the artist’s mother. The beloved is like the pearl in a clam——thick and binding, what love is like.

关于生命的一次讨论  A Discussion of Life

装置 Installation

硅胶、弹力织物、铁钩、镜子、油漆

Silicon, elastic fabric, iron hook, mirror, oil paint

2021

这件作品展现艺术家现阶段对于生命的理解与困惑——生命起始与消亡是自然的仪式，再高级的物种也在以最原始的本能为支撑努力存在。那些存在过与正在存在着的个体，看似独立、不同甚至冲突，但以最默契地方式相互延续。

作品中使用布料与硅胶制作的“肉体”与“骨骼”造型，被以挂肉勾串联起来并悬挂，艺术家以此意象表现生命本质上的共性和重量感。金漆的运用与下方的镜子，象征着仪式与延伸。

In this work, the artist displays her periodical understanding and confusion about life. The birth and perishment of life are the rituals ruled by the nature. No matter how advanced a species can be, their living still relies on the most primitive calling. For those who have faced or are still being, though they seem unique, separated, or even conflicting with each other, yet tacitly they support one another and pass the legacy on. 

The artist hung the fleshy and bone-liked objects with the hooks to represent the common characters and weight of all lives. The golden paint and mirror indicate ritual and continuousness.