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2008 |
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two-way communication
Book Launch |
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Two-way Communication video of opening Book Launch |
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title: Two-way Communication http://www.kubrick.com.hk/wholesale/2008/05/two-way-communi.html
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Exquisite Bodies Pamela Kember 01/ 2008 Movana Chen’s favourite material is paper, the kind used in the production of glossy life-style magazines devoted to high living and fashion. However, instead of merely cutting or pasting these found items into collaged images, she painstakingly cuts them into long thread-like strands that are then sewn or knotted together to make sculptural forms that resemble garments appearing to cover or wrap the body and act as a textured second “skin”. They are playful, yet intricate, and complexly woven forms; ranging from body suits to Kimono-like hanging structures. Their function is formed out of their former use, and yet they are an ironic play on “dressing up”; and, with the disposability or worthlessness of fashion in some respects - and possessing a mockery or jokiness on the subject of art as commodification and the body as excess – are an ‘object of desire’. Rather than obscure or hide the physical form or object, her pieces mould themselves closely to the body where they transform into, organic-like, “living sculptures”, or are separated out into “hanging forms”. The encounter between the object-subject, is not one of detachment, or emptiness, but of engaging with the body and forms themselves. Her Two-way Communication series of work also incorporates multi-language magazines that link with the artist’s intention “to exploring art as a dialogue between visual language and also as a new way to view different cultures and allow (the) audience to look (at) things sideway(s); to discover; to challenge”; and most importantly, her request for the viewer “to be individual”. Chen’s sculptures are tactile and tempt the viewer to engage with a visceral sense of enveloping the body; folding, wrapping, cocooning the human form, yet at the same time, there is a net-like, incarceration of the figure that disguises as well as reveals the body and introducing an additional discomfort if the paper is directly exposed to the skin. There is also an excessiveness emerging in the working process - that of intensely working thousands of strands of paper to resemble shredded matter, painstakingly laminated into elongated strips of paper and then re-cycled into “meaningful” objects. Her practice is deeply integrated with her everyday life, evolving out of identification with the tradition of sculpture, yet creating a counter-objectness, as a way to provide the viewer to participate in the sensuousness of these textural forms. Chen plays on the super-strength of the material and the resilience of human flesh and with the fragility of the body, in that her living sculptures have a delicacy to them, rather than a hard-edged, wrapped form. Whether the artist creates books, body sculptures, or hanging objects, her work is able to open up a two-way communication between the old skin/the body as a vessel or container and new identities; to perform surprising encounters between the body, art and everyday life. She knits; we wait.... Her art started from an interest in (and study) of fashion, but her early wearable art work has now evolved into something much wider – and interesting; a consequence of recent fine art studies where concepts and ideas, rather than the functionality of fashion, was emphasized. Movana knits. An odd, incongruous activity in a busy and - for most of the year – hot place like Hong Kong. Using shredded magazines, she knitted clothes that could be worn and though it produced a range of unusual looking clothes, would, had it continued, been an artistic dead-end. So, she consciously changed. Movana still knits. Her recent sculptural pieces and conceptual ideas have a hint of artists such as Marina Abramovich; but, the quirky results offer a path to future art projects that will be both thought-provoking and, due to her ability to be patient and persistent, monumental. A conceptual artist’s next project or art idea is always anticipated (that’s why, I suppose, they happily allow the label ‘conceptual’). We are all waiting, Movana.
鄧凝姿 藝術創作的靈感可以來自很多方面，而日常生活中或與自己息息相關的事情就能激發更多的個人情感和對該事情的理解，亦因此能為作品帶來生命力和意義。陳麗雲的創作靈感就來自她對時裝的認識和感覺，從衣著、潮流的思考到不同文化的認知、藝術製作方法的新拓展和身體參與方面的探究，這些都反映了在藝術創作過程中，事物之間互有關連的情況及其對藝術家的影響，從而引來不斷向前推進的探索精神。 陳麗雲的作品從簡單的雜誌紙張開始，切成條狀後，再編織成各種可穿著的衣服。紙張從只供閱讀方面轉化成實用的物料，以致可以與身體作更緊密的接觸，正顯示出藝術理念中有關物質可轉移的情況；另外帶有不同文字及具不同文化特徵的雜誌紙條，在編織的過程中，互相融合，以致不能分辨，也反映藝術家對文化不同的看法和期望；此外鼓勵不同人士的參與、去體驗藝術作品的真實內容，也道出藝術可開放的一面。 當代藝術著重溝通和反省，為不同文化開放多一條可互相了解的渠道，切斷了的紙張、再重組的理想，幻化成日常生活中可體驗的物質，將藝術連結在可理解的生活層面中，讓藝術成為不同人士的聚散點，互相分享生活中各種體會。 陳麗雲的作品正在萌芽的階段，然而她的衝勁和毅力卻是令人欣賞的，作為年青的藝術工作者，這種幹勁是值得借鏡的。 |