胶囊上海｜2023 都灵Artissima艺博会

胶囊上海荣幸于2023年都灵Artissima艺博会的Disegni单元呈现台湾艺术家黄海欣（1984年生于台湾，现居台湾）的个展“我去了意大利”。这是艺术家在意大利举办的首次个展，呈现专为该艺博会特别创作的全新纸本作品，取材于她近期在意大利旅行的经历，是对这一国度的建筑、艺术和人文景观的一次致敬。

Huang Hai-Hsin 黄海欣 | Roma 罗马 | 2023 | graphite and colored pencil on paper 纸上铅笔和彩铅 | 84 x 60 cm; 91 x 69 cm (framed 含框)

2023年夏天，黄海欣踏上了去往米兰、威尼斯、帕多瓦、佛罗伦萨、罗马和都灵等地的漫长旅途，期间创作的纸本绘画包含了各种尺寸，运用了多种技巧，更有部分是在室外完成，构成了一部视觉日记。无论创作过程是深思熟虑还是信手拈来，艺术家敏锐的洞察力和充满生命力的铅笔和钢笔笔触令这些城市及其居民的个性和奇趣跃然纸上。她往往需要付出耐心和时间来遇到能触发她想象力的场景，但她真诚的好奇和开放的态度使她能够从生生不息的人世间不断获得惊喜、灵感和挑战，从而捕捉到多数人甚少留意的城市和人物的细微纤毫。

黄海欣描绘的场景鲜活灵动，且极富戏剧性，像是电影的静帧，彼此独立又相互关联。这些情景仿佛并未在纸张的边缘戛然而止，而是将所有单个画面串联成一个更大的不曾间断的叙事。在流动的情节中，真实和虚构交叠，现实显露出其超现实的本质。

Huang Hai-Hsin 黄海欣 | Roman Rocks 罗马石雕 | 2023 | ink and marker on paper 纸本墨⽔和⻢克笔 | 25 x 35 cm; 34 x 44 cm (framed 含框)

这一点在本次展览最具野心的一件作品中尤为显著。长达3.5米、以经折装绘本形式呈现的日记按时间顺序记录了艺术家在旅途中到访的各个意大利城市。这段视觉意识流中不乏黄海欣本人的身影，交错着夺人眼球的盛装女士、在地标建筑前高举自拍杆笨拙地摆着姿势的游客、缓慢行进的贡多拉和轰鸣的汽车、批量生产的大卫雕像等古物仿制品，以及在知名建筑前摆姿势的“健美”的游客。人物身后的背景往往是近乎拟人化的建筑掠影，宏伟的楼宇在黄海欣的笔下平添了几分温驯可爱。建筑仿佛沾染了身居其中的人的情绪，这些悲喜剧的主角们进行着旷日持久的角色扮演，试炼着自身成为当代偶像的（不）可能性。作品通过表现不同的触感构建了富有节奏和韵律和视觉幻景。

展位的墙上呈现了另一组主题多样的绘画作品，有些描绘了知名或无名的场所——历史悠久的咖啡馆、教堂、博物馆、标志性的城市一隅……它们在艺术家的目光和人们的活动中苏醒。有些则展示了黄海欣在旅途中因它们的外观或内涵而收集的物件，从文化遗物和纪念品雕像，到宗教服饰和名作复制品。其中最瞩目的作品描绘了色彩万千的芸芸众生，局外人无意间成了叙事的主角，或构图的重心。浓妆艳抹的女士和身材魁梧的威尼斯贡多拉船夫散发的活力扑面而来，但在纷扰中端坐不语的老人也自有其内敛沉静。

Huang Hai-Hsin 黄海欣 | Gondola 贡多拉 | 2023 | ink on paper 纸上墨水 | 22.9 x 30.5 cm; 32 x 39.5 cm (framed 含框)

黄海欣有一种过人的能力，能够察觉到每个人不寻常的表现力，将泛泛的“类型”变成独特的个体，反之亦然。她从不将画中场景背后的事件全貌和盘托出，精简的笔触足以勾勒人物或群体的性格画像，过度阐释反而会使人物心灵的奥秘僵化受限。黄海欣最欣赏的艺术家之一是乔托，这并非偶然，他是古典艺术大师中第一位成功地通过姿态、情感和情绪的表现力来描绘人物形象的画家。在黄海欣的作品中，每个形象都有精确具体的物理特征，揭示着与之呼应的心理状态。

黄海欣凝视的目光是她创作中的一个重要元素，它扮演着多重角色。例如，它帮助艺术家捕捉某一对象的绝妙时刻，也是艺术家不断推进作品至完成的不可或缺的工具。创作者的个人视角与作品前观者的外部视角相融合。黄海欣对她的创作对象不抱有任何预判和成见，她既是娱乐者，也是被娱乐者，既在台前展示，也在幕后工作。无论她扮演哪种角色，她的创作都是对生活中所有意想不到的转折和悖论的赞美。她颠覆了社会范式以及关于“良好”和得体的教条，同时建立着自己的个人标准。

黄海欣作品的能量来源于她不急于评断的开放态度。她不批判笔下人物的缺陷，他们的痴人说梦、盲目自信或不合时宜。她描绘人物笨拙尴尬的姿态和自我期许的无意识流露，同时也对此感同身受，认识到他们所展现的，是世间一切终将消逝的生命不可驯服的意志。

Huang Hai-Hsin 黄海欣 | Wet Duomo ⾬中⼤教堂 | 2023 | colored pencil on paper 纸上彩铅 | 18.5 x 22.5 cm; 27.5 x 34.5 cm (framed 含框)

Capsule Shanghai is delighted to present I’ve been to Italy by Taiwanese artist Huang Hai-Hsin (b.1984 in Taiwan where she lives and works). This is Huang’s first solo exhibition in Italy on the occasion of Artissima 2023. Featuring a brand-new body of works on paper specifically conceived for the Disegni section and inspired by the artist’s recent journey through Italy, this series of drawings pays homage to Italy’s architectural, artistic, and human landscapes. 

In the summer of 2023, Huang Hai-Hsin embarked on a contemporary Grand Tour that took her to Milan, Venice, Padua, Florence, Rome, and Turin, among other locations. The result is a visual diary featuring drawings of various sizes which employ a multiplicity of techniques, some of which are realized en plein air. The images reveal the peculiarities of cities and their inhabitants. Observed by Huang’s well-trained eye, then transferred onto the paper in vibrant pen or pencil, these scenes come to life through a mixture of focused contemplation and delightful spontaneity. Huang requires significant patience and time to find the situations that trigger her imagination, but her sincere curiosity about, and openness to, the incessant flow of life allow her to be constantly surprised, inspired, and challenged, and, thus, to grasp the subtle textures of a city or a figure most would scarcely notice.

Huang Hai-Hsin 黄海欣 | Tour in Italy #1 意大利观光团#1 | 2023 | ink on paper 纸上墨水 | 35 x 25 cm; 44 x 34 cm (framed 含框)

Huang’s scenes are vital, endowed with a highly performative, almost cinematic nature, as though they were stills from a single film – independent, yet interconnected – each continuing beyond the edge of the paper, linking the drawings in a larger unbroken narrative. They are bound by a plot in which nothing remains static, fact and fiction blur and overlap, prompting the real to disclose its surreal essence. 

This is particularly true of Huang’s most ambitious work on site: a 3.5 meter long diary displayed in the form of a leporello book that chronologically records the different Italian cities the artist visited during her trip. Acting as a visual stream of consciousness in which Huang herself intermittently appears, this diary juxtaposes extravagant ladies dressed to impress, clumsy tourists with their selfie-sticks aloft posing in front of landmarks, as well as slow gondolas and roaring automobiles, or focus upon the materiality of historical simulacra – e.g. mass-produced statues of David. Also on show are “athletic” tourists posing in front of architectural wonders. These figures are often set against the backdrop of almost anthropomorphized fragments of buildings whose monumental scale is often domesticated by a dash of cuteness. The buildings match the mood of the people who inhabit them, tragicomic subjects caught in a continuous role play aimed at examining their (im)probable status as contemporary icons. They are all part of a rhythmic visual phantasmagoria conveyed through different tactile effects. 

Huang Hai-Hsin 黄海欣 | Woman in Milan #0 米兰女郎#0 | 2023 | ink and marker on paper 纸上墨⽔和⻢克 | 30.5 x 22.9 cm; 39.5 x 32 cm (framed 含框)

The other body of drawings on view is arranged along the walls and it discloses various themes. Some works portray places, both renowned and anonymous, which are activated by the artist’s gaze, or by people’s actions. They include historical cafes, churches, museums, and iconic urban corners. Others feature objects selected from among the wide variety of visual and conceptual inputs accumulated during Huang’s tour, from cultural relics and souvenir statues to religious attire and replicas of masterpieces. Among the most eye-catching works are those that depict a colorful panoply of humanity, outsiders recruited as unwitting protagonists, or as compositional lodestars. Impossible not to notice is the overwhelming energy of a group of ladies wearing heavy makeup, or that of muscled, statuesque Venetian gondoliers, but also there is a low key calmness in depictions of elderly people sitting quietly amidst the chaos of the world.  

Huang Hai-Hsin has the striking capacity to grasp the peculiar expressiveness of every individual in her works, turning a generic “type” into a unique character and vice versa without fully revealing the whole story of what we are seeing. The fundamental geometries she uses to portray an individual are sufficient to evoke the contours of a personality, or the characteristics of a social group without ultimately resolving, and, therefore, ossifying the mysteries of the human psyche. Perhaps it is no accident that one of the artists Huang admires most is Giotto, the first of the Old Masters to succeed in representing the human figure through the expressiveness of gestures, feelings, and moods. In Huang’s work, figures have a precise physical characterization that corresponds to a distinct emotional condition. 

Huang Hai-Hsin 黄海欣 | Fashion Week #2 时装周 #2 | 2023 | ink and marker on paper 纸本墨⽔和⻢克笔 | 25 x 35 cm; 34 x 44 cm (framed 含框)

Huang’s gaze is another crucial component in her work; it plays multiple roles. Encapsulating the pivotal moment of selection of a certain subject, for example, or materializing the ongoing creative process and the final fruition of an artwork. The personal gaze of the artist blends with the external gaze of the viewer. Devoid of prejudgment or stereotyping about her subjects, Huang is both entertainer and entertained, laboring behind the scenes and on stage. No matter which role she plays, her practice becomes a celebration of life in all its unexpected twists and turns, exaggerations, and paradoxes. She overturns social paradigms and canons of “good” behavior and respectability, all while establishing her own personal standards. 

The great strength of Huang Hai-Hsin’s work lies in her unresolved presence: she doesn’t judge her characters for flaws, their larger-than-life aspirations, or their irrational confidence (or awkwardness). She is capable of revealing their embarrassing poses and their unconscious desires to be whatever they want to be. She empathizes, recognizing that they constitute the untameable spirit part of the temporary collection of things that populate our world.  

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The gallery is open by appointment only. Please make a reservation at least one day prior to your visit via the mini-program below👇. Please note that no photography or videography is allowed in the gallery. Thank you for your understanding.