CLC Gallery Venture | 2025巴塞尔LISTE当代艺术博览会 | 展位23

2025.6.18 Performance night until 23: 00

“没有歌唱，就没有开花的树林”，这一题目的灵感来源是古希腊女诗人萨福的诗句，萨福作为欧洲历史上有所记载的第一位女诗人，据说她在莱斯波斯岛上建造了一所女子学校以教授诗歌的技艺。在女性史和女性主义视角的后发研究中，萨福作为一个女性主体而发出的迥异于父权制社会的声音，一直备受关注；这种声音是优雅、丰盈、婉转、细腻、自足且自豪的，并且处于浓烈的女性群体文化氛围中。德国青年艺术家Johanna Seidel的画作，正好像是这一萨福传统的现代回声，同样是丰盈、细腻而自足的。

Johanna Seidel的绘画包含了各种各样的类型，从静物、风景到人物，似乎一切都可以被她收纳到静谧而略带神秘感的平面空间中，有时也有意地结合一些装饰性的曲线和符号。她的小尺幅画作往往聚焦于一些快照式的生活瞬间，似乎是自媒体时代随手拍的日常惯性，但她通过平面化的处理和氤氲的色彩给这些瞬间涂上了一种梦幻感和抒情性；同时，这种快照式的捕捉和感知，也往往是轻盈细腻的，比如说，注目于落在手背上的一只红蜻蜓。她同时也喜爱呈现女性的日常精神状态，如游泳或安睡，这些形象的共同特征是处于一种松弛和略带喜悦、不被打扰的空间氛围中，这种氛围一方面来自于艺术家柔和的、明度不高的色彩选择、均衡而不带情绪的笔触，一方面则来自她营造的均匀漫射的光线效果。

在一种较为激烈的女性主义视角下，似乎女性为了要能够发出自己真正的声音，就只能充满紧张感地对抗父权制话语系统对女性的贬斥和挤压；而萨福传统下的女性主义者，则完全跳脱了这种对抗性，她们完全是基于女性身体感知对审美偏好进行了一种直觉化的选择，同时不加犹豫地全面肯定和欣赏这种审美偏好。尽管在另一种性别文化的视角下，这种审美偏好可能被贬斥为稚嫩、甜腻、软弱、琐碎、装饰化的、过分天真的。但毫无保留、甚至是充满自豪感地去赞颂“女孩子气（girly）”、以及源于女性情谊的联结感，在今天的历史进程和性别认知中，早已不再是什么问题，这正是Johanna 作品的当代性所在，也似乎是对遥远的萨福传统的一种致敬。“没有歌唱，就没有开花的树林”，这句诗正好恰当地展示了这种女性对自身声音和主体性的充分认同和赞美，正是她们的歌声带来了周围环境的一种繁茂景象。

Johanna Seidel 乔汉娜·塞德尔

Park Girls，2024

oil on canvas 布面油画

26 × 30 cm

“While no voices chanted, no woodlot bloomed,” a title inspired by a verse found in the ancient Greek poet Sappho, who, as the first female poet recorded in European history, is said to have built a school for girls on the island of Lesbos, where she taught the art of poetry. In later studies and perspectives on feminist history, Sappho's voice as a female subject, distinct from patriarchal society, caught much attention; a voice that is elegant, voluptuous, ebullient, delicate, self-sufficient, and proud, located amid a compelling female community. The works on canvas by young German artist Johanna Seidel are contemporary echoes of the Sapphic tradition, which are equally rich, sophisticated, and self-sufficient.

Johanna Seidel's paintings encompass many genres, from still-lifes to landscapes to portraits, as if anything can be part of her quiet and slightly enigmatic surface. She sometimes intentionally incorporates decorative curves and symbols. Her small-scale paintings often focus on snapshot moments of life, a habit that might have developed from casual photography in the age of self-media. She paints these moments with a sense of dreaminess and lyricism with flat composition and permeating colors. Moreover, she captures and perceives these snapshots with levity and sophistication, for example, staring at a red dragonfly’s brief landing on the back of her hand. Seidel is also fond of presenting a woman’s everyday state of mind through swimming or peaceful respite, where figures are commonly portrayed in a restful and somewhat joyful state, undisturbed by their environment. Such an atmosphere is rendered partially with the artist’s choice of muted, less luminous colors and balanced, indifferent brushstrokes, partly from employing even and diffused light effects.

A more radical feminist demands women to fight against the denigration and oppression of the patriarchal with a sense of tension to make their voices heard. On the other hand, feminists who have adopted the Sapphic tradition are freed from such confrontation, who make intuitive choices of aesthetic preference based on their visceral perceptions while fully affirm and embrace their choices without any hesitation. Despite of such a type of aesthetic may be criticized as juvenile, sweet, weak, trivial, decorative, and overly na?ve in other gender and cultural perspectives, unapologetic, even proud celebrations of “girly-ness" and the sense of connection that comes from female bonding are no longer an issue in today's historical process and gender perceptions. It is also the contemporary position found in Johanna's practice, which pays homage to the ancient Sapphic tradition. “While no voices chanted, no woodlot bloomed…” is a verse aptly revealing women’s recognition and celebration of their own voices and subjectivities, and their songs invigorate the lush landscape of their surroundings.