一双：新亚裔艺术家的双重系统 | 策展人评论

“一双：新亚裔艺术家的双重系统”展览静场， 蜂巢当代艺术中心

Exhibition view of A Couple of: The Dual-machanism of the New Generation of Asian Artists , Hive Center for Contemporary Art

（点击图片浏览“一双”文章合集）

文/ 于非

“A Couple of”: The Dual-machanism 

of the New Generation of Asian Artists

Text/ Yu Fei

Philosophical speculations of the self and the world certainly did not begin with modernity or globalization, nor did it stem from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment centuries ago. It was raised as early as the Axial Age thousands of years ago. Once Socrates adviced the world to “know thyself”, and Lao-tzu revealed the truth with “the gate to all-knowing”. People have never ceased exploring the topics of identity and existence ever since. Along with the great echoes from the depths of history, as we make the ultimate philosophical triple questions our daily banter, we are now confronted with an unprecedentedly sensitive and pressing issue of identity politics. Decades ago, at the beginning of globalization, Danto stated that the world must be prepared for the fact that the art world is no different from the real one, which is proved to be indisputably true in retrospect. In recent years, identity politics has been an overwhelming topic around the art world, or, from a more radical perspective, has even over-fermented into a politically correct cliché. Since the end of last century, to respond to the call from the Western-centric art world for pluralism, the previously more marginal identities such as ethnic and sexual minorities, have been urged to undergo a sort of “centralization”. Identity has thus become a symbol and inevitably fallen into the danger of being abused.

在这样的背景下，以亚裔艺术家的身份为名所召集的展览在当下将具有怎样的指向性？随着亚裔艺术家在西方世界所得到的关注日益攀升不难看出其背后的策略性考量，即一方面围绕某个既定不变的中心打造开放多元的艺术生态，另一方面开辟主流文化之外新兴的更加年轻化的、少数族裔化的艺术市场。不容忽视的是“亚裔”一词在西方世界与生俱来的“他者”属性。而近年来身份问题被反复提及正映衬着随着不可阻挡的逆全球化趋势而四处被日益强化的边界意识。由此，基于亚洲本土对于“亚裔”身份的关注是一种有意识的主动选择。以一个有别于西方中心主义的视角探讨游离于本土的文化身份可以说极具挑战却又势在必行。此次展览的目的并不在于对地域性审美的归纳总结，抑或是某种对文化流变脉络的追根溯源。展览将直言不讳地以身份议题作为引子，但并不希望在此落脚。无论年轻一代亚裔艺术家是否拥有空前的文化自信，明确的是我们都不再需要建立一个新的中心、新的主流、新的话语权。

In such a context, what is the contemporary relevance of an exhibition convened in the name of Asian artists' identities? With the increasing attention that Asian artists receives from the West, it is not difficult to see the strategic consideration behind, which is to build an open and diverse ecology of art revolving around an established center, and develop an emerging market outside mainstream culture for younger and ethnic minority artists. However, what cannot be overlooked is the inherent 'otherness' of the term 'Asian' in the Western world. The recurrence of identity issues in recent years is a reflection of the growing awareness of borders that are being reinforced everywhere with the unstoppable trend of counter-globalization. Therefore, focusing on 'Asian' identity in the Asian context is a conscious and active choice. Taking a different angle from Western-centrism to explore the cultural identity that discrete the local context could be challenging yet imperative. The aim of this exhibition is not to summarise regional aesthetics or to trace the roots of a certain cultural lineage. Instead, the exhibition will bluntly use the issue of identity as a lead-in but does not intend to settle there. Whether or not the younger generation of Asian artists has unprecedented cultural confidence, what is clear is that we no longer need to establish a new center, a new mainstream or a new discourse power .

在宣告“历史的终结“三十年后，福山以亚裔美籍学者的身份在《身份政治：对尊严与认同的渴求》一书中重拾了身份政治在全球范围内所带来的困境与机遇。艺术世界无疑面对着相同的处境：我们应当以何种方式确立怎样的主体性？亚洲艺术本身裹挟了错综复杂的地缘政治与其间并行不悖的艺术史谱系，而亚裔艺术家在全球范围所分别投身的不同文化语境更是让这种复杂性呈几何式递增，可以说从未存在一个绝对统一的身份立场。因此从某种意义上来讲，讨论亚裔艺术家的前提是去承认一种虚拟的主体性，以及去构建一个“想象的共同体”。有关身份的标签总是必不可少的具有排他性，因此永远不具备足够的弹性，总会容易致使某种文化与身份认同上的误差。身份标签之外的不确定因素更加亟待被探索。刘瑜以《一个及所有“我们”》一文对福山的回应给人以启示：每个个体与生俱来的特定身份犹如“初始设置”，如何突破它并进行自我塑造才是人之为人的价值体现。回到艺术世界的语境当中，亚裔艺术家无疑共享着相近的身份图层，以此为起点所开展的各自相异的创作过程更是他们完成自我定义与塑造的不可或缺的关键一环。

Thirty years after declaring “the end of history”, Francis Fukuyama as an Asian American scholar, reconsiders the dilemmas and opportunities triggered by identity politics on a global scale in his book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. The art world is undoubtedly encountering the same situation: What kind of subjectivity should we establish? And in what way? Asian art itself situates within the complex geopolitics and the corresponding pedigree of art history, and the complexity has increased geometrically with different cultural contexts in which Asian artists are engaged on a global scale. Therefore, there is never an absolutely unified identity nor stance. In a sense, the premise of discussing Asian artists is to recognize a virtual subjectivity and to construct an “imagined community”. Inevitably, all identity-related labels are exclusive and lack flexibility, which would easily lead to deviated cultural and social identification. In addition, the uncertain factors apart from the labels are urgently to be explored. Liu Yu provides quite an enlightening introductory essay One and All ‘Us’ in response to Fukuyama’s book: each individual is born with a specific identity which is like an “initial setting”, and how to break through it for self-shaping is the embodiment of the value of being human. Back to the context of the art world, Asian artists undoubtedly share similar layers of identity, and the creating processes that they undertake based on this are the indispensable and crucial part of their self-defining and self-shaping in particular.

此次展览所设定的主题“一双”可以被看作一条抽象化的线索，牵引出当下年轻一代亚裔艺术家的创作机制，犹如程序世界的1与0，基于绝对个性化的主体意识延展出无限可能，在各自原生背景身份的堡垒上洞开各自的出口，由此导向每个个体独树一帜的创作路径。他们的共性在于面对艺术世界能够轻装上阵，对于身份的历史、媒介的历史、图像的历史、观念的历史没有不必要的包袱与顾忌。他们每个人都身处一个移动中的坐标系，在多线程的坐标矩阵中也许彼此之间并不发生直接的交流，却在万物互联的时空介质中相互依存、紧密相连。与此同时，“一双”所企图通过每个艺术家的一对或一组作品呈现的是个体所独有的语境和上下文。如同每个细胞都会携带一个生命体完整的基因组，每个艺术家的作品集合就像是一个微缩景观，或隐或显地展示了一个艺术家的全部可能性。他们或是选择以两件作品互为补充地构成在观念上与视觉上的一个整体，或是单单以一件作品展现内部的互文关系；他们既能够以同一系列的作品进行视觉语言上的加强与递进，也可以在有视觉表达差异化的作品之间建立某种深层次的共通属性。基于艺术家们所选择的在作品之间与作品内部构成的各不相同的对话关系，其背后的创作逻辑也犹如一段视觉代码在空间中被定格与记录。

The theme of this exhibition, A Couple of, could be taken as an abstract clue that elicits the creating mechanism of young generation of Asian artists. Just like 1 and 0 in the world of programming – infinite possibilities are generated based on completely individualized subject consciousness, and there are different ways out for different original backgrounds and identities. Therefore, each individual ends up with one-of-a-kind approach to art practice. Moreover, Their commonality lies in the fact that they are able to face the art world lightly, without unnecessary burdens and scruples regarding the history of identity, the history of the medium, the history of images and the history of concepts. While each of them is in a coordinate system, they may not communicate directly with each other in the multi-threaded coordinate matrix, but they are interdependent and closely linked in the interconnected medium of space and time. At the same time, A Couple of attempts to present the unique background and context of individuals through each artist's pair or group of works. Just as each cell is the carrier of the complete genome of a living organism, the oeuvre of each artist can be viewed as a miniature that either implicitly or explicitly reveals the full range of an artist's possibilities. They can either put two complementary pieces together to form a conceptual and visual whole, or reveal the intertextuality between two parts of a single piece; they are able to reinforce and advance the works of one series in the visual language, or to establish a deep commonality between works that differ in visual expression. As the artists have different dialogic relationships formed between works or components of a work, the creative logic that underlies each is captured and recorded in the space as a visual code.

对于新一代的亚裔艺术家来说，超越地域的文化身份已然成为他们的共识与日常。现实中的艺术世界越发变得如同一场虚拟游戏。艺术家们置身其中将出场身份变成原始素材，用创作的方法论筛选并构建他们的皮肤，属性，与人设，以此作为在全球艺术网络中自由穿梭的通行证。他们所做的每一个选择都不会是空穴来风，而是与内在的自我形成时时刻刻的相互对照，就这样在这个日趋割裂与离散的时代里维系着一个不停拆分和重组的自我，并不断完成着对这一自我的维护，升级，与超越。

For this new generation of Asian artists, a cultural identity that transcends geography has become their common sense and part of their daily life. The art world in real life is getting more and more like a virtual game. The artists are in a position to turn their identity into raw material, using creative methodologies to filter and construct their skins, attributes, and personas as a passport to move freely through the global art network. Each decision they make is forming a constant contrast with the inner self. In this way, they maintain the self that keeps dismantling and reorganizing in this increasingly fragmentary and dispersive age, and never stop preserving, upgrading, and transcending it.