TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY | ZTEPHEN LEE
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON BLACKBIRD AUTOMOTIVE JOURNAL
American artist Daniel Arsham recently partnered with Galerie Perrotin to launch his second solo exhibition “Fictional Archeology” in Hong Kong. In this exhibition, Arsham draws his inspirations from a trip to Easter Island in 2011, where he spent time observing the archaeologists that were excavating statues in the ground. Seeing the archaeologists attempting to uncover a plausible truth, it’s only inevitable that they need to invent a story. He than realized that archeology was also, in a way, a work of fiction. He could not help but asked himself, “Who knows for certain what really happened?”.
美國藝術家 Daniel Arsham 近日在香港貝浩登畫廊舉行第三次個人作品展 「Fictional Archeology」。是次展覽以「虛擬考古」作為主題，將藝術家從復活島觀察到考古學家發掘古跡的經歷融入到藝術創作之上。那次經歷啟發到 Daniel Arsham 思考考古工作中所存在的一種虛擬性，更不禁提問自己：「為了重塑古物真相，考古學家需要提出完整或局部的猜想，但誰又知道真正發生了什麼？」縱使藝術家並沒有查出真正答案，然而他卻選擇將考古學的虛擬性帶入藝術創作，用自己最擅長的方法去解答問題，以身處未來作為觀點，推斷出人們回望眼前人造古物的奇想。
Although Arsham did not come up with an answer, he decided to look further into it by infusing the fictional elements of archeology into his artwork. With the use of geological materials such as selenite, volcanic ash, chalk and sand, the “Fictional Archeology” exhibition consists of five eroded sculptures of contemporary human figures and body parts, and two installations that displays casts of modern artifacts like future archeological finds.
是次個展共展出五件受蝕人像和肢體雕塑，以及兩台像是未來古蹟的現代藝術模型裝置。這些作品由 Daniel Arsham 以古典雕像、在公元 79 年因維蘇威火山爆發時被埋藏的遇難者圖片作為靈感，並利用透明石膏、火山灰、白堊以及沙等物料創作而成。而重點則落在以模仿羅馬著名雲石像《垂死的高盧人》，打造的全新作品《The Dying Gaul Revisited》之上。藝術家替本來因受傷而伏在盾牌上的高盧戰士穿上現代服飾，重新詮釋這座經典石像。此外，Daniel Arsham 還特意把支撐身體的膝蓋與前臂留空，使這些部份磨損甚至消失，以即將失去平衡的形態來帶出作品中的張力。
Arsham also found inspirations in the images and plaster casts of Pompeian victims, who were solidified in ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Among the sculptures, ”The Dying Gaul Revisited” is reactualization of the famous Roman statue “Galata Morente”, which depicts with great realism the bare and prostrate body of a wounded Gaulish warrior down on his shield. On the other hand, Arsham’s version can be seen as a “modern reinterpretation” of the classical sculpture, with contemporary clothing covering the cast. To produce the palpable tension and add a sense of mystery, Arsham intentionally left the knee and the forearm missing from the sculpture, which results in the cast appears to be leaning.
Check out the exhibition above and make sure to drop by Galerie Perrotin Hong Kong before October 10 to see more of Arsham’s work.
Date: September 11 - October 10, 2015
GALERIE PERROTIN Hong Kong +852 3758 2180
50 Connaught Road Central, 17th Floor, Hong Kong
展覽日期：2015 年 9 月 11 日至 10 月 10 日
GALERIE PERROTIN 貝浩登畫廊 ＋852 3758 2180
香港中環干諾道中 50 號 17 樓
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