AIKE ｜郑梓程个展“惜别的海岸”将于3月9日开幕

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AIKE荣幸呈现郑梓程个展“惜别的海岸”。这是郑梓程在AIKE的首次个展，汇集了创作于2022年至2024年的绘画，及一件影像作品。展览围绕海洋、风俗、血缘展开，引领观众徘徊于离去与归来的情感之间。展览将从2024年3月9日持续至4月13日。

《越过了河流的游牧者》，2022，60 x 40 cm，布面油画

The Wanderer Crossing the River, 2022, 60 x 40 cm, Oil on canvas 

“离散”是一个残忍的动词，它和地理有关。潮汕——一个自嘲为“省尾国角”的地方——是郑梓程的出生地。展览以一封75年前从海边寄出的家书开始，牵扯出郑梓程个人家族所经历的历史转变、社会现实及日常生活的线索，通过个体命运的浮沉呼应时代的变迁。作品中带有地域性的元素被反复呈现，从而形成一种陌生的、疏离的叙事方式。这种陌生距离源自于“日久故乡成他乡”的无奈，而这一切隐藏在潮汕人以及很多华人群体的记忆里。

“离散”是一句诗意的表述。在南方沿海，离散是一场夹杂着海水咸味的游牧，也是风、海、日、雨型塑成的咏叹。在郑梓程的创作中，沿海家乡盛行的宗族信仰习俗像肌肉记忆般不由自主地流露出来，如同伴随岁月增长刻入皮肤的纹理。然而，艺术家无意再现过去，郑梓程始终徘徊在一个中间地带，在家族与个人、历史与情感、真实与虚构之间寻找可被触摸的、柔软的情感临界点。

如今在网络信息流中自由穿梭、在屏幕的亮光闪烁中高呼全球化浪漫主义诗歌的“后人类”们，似乎越发难以体验“未知后会之期”的愁绪。在这个安逸却多变的时代，宏大的历史或许已经被人忘却，而家族的情感会一直绵延反转在那位坐在黄金海岸瞭望对岸的老人的歌声中，在年年月月初一十五渐渐熄灭的火苗和银纸灰中，老人口中絮絮诉说的对离散亲人的祝福与思念像一根灰色的线，拉出那些发生在终南的故事。

《回音 No.2》，2022，80 x 80 cm，布面油画（局部）

The Echo No.2 , 2022, 80 x 80 cm, Oil on canvas (Detail)

AIKE is pleased to announce the opening of Zheng Zicheng's solo exhibition “The Departing Shore.” This marks the Zheng’s first solo exhibition at AIKE, presenting a collection of paintings and a video installation created between 2022 and 2024. Central to this exhibition is a thematic exploration revolving around the motif of the sea, customs, and bloodlines, intricately woven to evoke a profound contemplation on the sentiments of departure and return. The exhibition will be on view from the March 9th to April 13th, 2024. 

“To Depart” is a heart-wrenching verb relating to geographic dislocation. Chaoshan, a region colloquially referred to as "the end of the province and the corner of the country” in  a self-mocking way, is artist Zheng Zicheng’s birthplace. This exhibition, commencing with a letter sent from the sea shore 75 years ago, unfolds a chronicle comprised of the historical transformation, social reality and daily life that have shaped the trajectory of the artist's familial lineage, to echo individual destinies with the broader tides of societal changes. In these works, the regional elements are presented repeatedly, thus forming an enigmatic and surreal narrative. A profound sense of displacement and estrangement is inherent in the collective memory of those who claim their Chaoshan heritage, transforming the notion of “hometown" into a land of bewilderment, while underscoring the helplessness in their shifting identities with the passage of time.

《客从何处来?》，2023，210 x 200 cm，布面油画

Where Are You From?, 2023, 210 x 200 cm, Oil on canvas 

Departing, beyond its literal connotations, embraces a poetic resonance that finds its embodiment along the southern coast—a region characterizes departing as a nomadic experience and an aria shaped by wind, sea, sun and rain. Embedded within Zheng’s works, the ancestral beliefs and customs prevalent in his coastal upbringing have seamlessly interwoven into his artistic expressions akin to the involuntary reflexes of muscle memory. However, Zheng has no intention of recreating the past. Instead, he always hovers on a middle ground, searching for a delicate emotional threshold between family and individual, history and emotion, truth and fiction.

Shone continuously by flashy screens, "post-humans" nowadays traversing the realms of information flow while celebrating the ethos of globalization through romantic chants, become increasingly inept to grapple with melancholy of "unknown future encounters." Living in the present comfortable yet ever-changing time, the grand view of history may be forgotten by some, yet the emotions inherent to familial bonds lingers continuously in the ebb and flow of the elder’s song, sung by the Gold Coast, gazing across the river. With the flickering flames and burned ashes marking the transience of time, the old man’s utterance of blessings and yearnings for his distant relatives strings together as a leading thread, bringing out the tales that have been unfolding in the South.