Barge Haulers on the Volga - Exhibitions

伏尔加河上的纤夫 Barge Haulers on the Volga

展览照片 Exhibition view

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谢燚首次个展 XIE YI first solo exhibition

展期 Opening

May 27 - July 9 2017 May 27 - July 9 2017

策展 Curator

杨紫 YANG ZI

介绍 PRESS RELEASE

对雕塑的研究和实践是谢燚实践的基本方法——创作雕塑的思维模式几乎充斥于本次展览每一件作品的制作过程，一些作品亦毫不避讳地显露了纯熟的手法和庞大的工作强度。无论形制和媒介如何，这些“雕塑”作品总透露出与古典的、理想的审美品质的暗合之处。 Studies and practices on sculpture constitute the primary method of Xie Yi’s artistic pursuit - a mind-set derived from sculpture-making almost pervades the crafting process of each single work in this exhibition, among which some pieces demonstrate virtuosic craftsmanship and tremendous working intensity. Regardless of their forms and media, these“sculptural” works indicate an adherence to the Classical, ideal aesthetics.

但是，谢燚并未因而放弃作品的“当代性”。他没有忽略那些当代艺术展展场中沉默物质的诉求——它们总是迫不及待地向观众吐露关于自身的知识和信息。艺术家宛如站在俄罗斯巡回画派代表人物列宾列宾的“现实主义-人道主义”立场（展览以他的作品《伏尔加河上的纤夫》命名），将被视为审美对象的身体、艺术史、流行文化、人道主义、隐匿于世界各个角落的权力机制，以及因全球化和都市化而交融的意识形态等冗杂的议题囊括进来。谢燚寻找到现成的“文化象征”，然后把不同的文化背景对它们所造成的“解释”编织到一个场景内。种种价值观（有时，这些价值观或许会互相抵牾）被“文化象征”物所代表，为占据物理空间的物质“加持”，试图让它们不朽（它们获得的永恒性往往是可疑的）——这也是雕塑媒介的常见功用。
Nevertheless, Xie Yi does not discard the“contemporaneity” in his work. The aspiration of those silent beings in the contemporary art exhibition space, who always eagerly communicate to the beholder's knowledges and messages about themselves, is not eliminated. The artist seems to take on the “Realism-Humanism” stance of Ilya Repin(1844-1930), the representative of the Russian Itinerants (this exhibition is named after his work Barge Haulers on the Volga), encompassing heterogeneous issues in his works, such as the body as an aesthetic object, art history, popular culture, humanism, power agencies that have been veiled in every corner of the world, as well as fused ideologies risen from globalisation and urbanisation. Xie Yi searched for existing “cultural signifiers”, of which the interpretations originated from diverse cultural backgrounds become woven into a certain scene. Various values (which may conflict with one another at times) are represented by the “cultural signifiers”, “enchanting” the substances which occupy the physical space, attempting to immortalise them (the immortality they gain, nevertheless, often remains questionable) - this is also a common function of the sculptural media.

谢燚关心“劳动”的议题。在一些人看来，劳作（创作、甚至观念的创作亦是其中的类别）是消耗生命的残酷行为，且生而为人，难以避免——列宾作品输出的对劳动的感受即是孤寂、惨淡、却悲壮的。然而，如同加缪曾在评价西西弗斯时说的那样：“荒谬的人知道，他是自己生活的主人”，谢燚了解，具体的劳作提供了他与现实“亲密接触”的机会，而并非全然“经济效益最大化”逻辑下应该逃避的苦差——当下，那些看似消耗的举动，实则起到对抗虚无的功用。或许，与其塑造“永恒”的价值，不如加速价值的更迭和混乱，以保持它的活力。以此，劳动从“过程”转化成了“目的”。
Xie Yi is interested in the matters pertaining to“labour”. Labour (of which creation or even conceptual creation is a subcategory) is regarded by some as a relentless activity that consumes life; it is inescapable being born to be a human. The sensations that Repin’spaintings convey are loneliness, misery, and yet they are heroic. However, as what Camus remarked on Sisyphus: “The absurd man… he knows himself to be themaster of his days.” Xie Yi understands that specific labour works are not thoroughly an affliction under the “maximum economy benefits” logic that oneseeks to escape from; instead, it offers him the opportunity to “intimately encounter” with the reality --- the seemingly consuming labour thus becomes functioned to resist nihilism in the present. Perhaps, instead of modeling a“timeless” value, it would rather be worth to accentuate the development and chaos of the values, so that its vitality can endure. Hence, labour is transformed from a “process” to a “target”.