M50 | OFOTO新展∣从宠物到动物 - 李季个展
FROM PETS TO ANIMALS - Li Ji Solo Exhibition
从宠物到动物 - 李季个展
开幕 / Opening: 2017.07.08 / 16:00
展期 / Duration: 2017.07.08 - 08.26 / 10:00 - 18:00
一个艺术 ANART 全摄影画廊 OFOTO Gallery
中国上海 莫干山路50号13幢2楼
2F, Building 13, 50 Moganshan Rd., Shanghai, China
本文节选自罗非《从宠物到动物》，若引用文章，请标注作者姓名，谢谢！
从宠物到动物
—— 有关李季的动物绘画与摄影
文/罗非
李季在20世纪90年代和2000年初因画“女郎与宠物”系列而被艺术界所知，画里是一些打扮艳丽的女郎和依附在她们身上的各种动物，他们彼此之间维系着微妙的相互依存的关系。这些画作整体带着轻微的情色、幽默和雅痞趣味。画面里的宠物和女郎并非他们自身，而是被某种文化改造后的角色扮演。并且，无论是女郎还是动物，都已经被他们的“主人”精心驯化过，他们知道如何讨好“主人”，也知道如何向“主人”展示自己柔弱乖巧的一面。只是他们的“主人”并不在画里，因为那些塑造女人成女郎，动物成宠物的，是不可见却又无处不在的消费主义、男权社会和人类中心主义。
对李季而言，除了对“女郎”——人的兴趣和思考，还有他对“宠物”——动物世界的博学与超乎常人的热爱。成长于高级知识分子家庭的他自小对各类学问表现出强烈的好奇，尤其生物学，他对母亲的生物学书籍比母亲自己还谙熟于心。他对世界各地的动物生存状况的兴趣像个心结，以至于他从小的梦想，就是去非洲看野生动物。
藏羚羊 No.2，青海可可西里
The Chiru 02, Hoh Xil, Qinghai,2015
李季的野生动物发现之旅始于2009年，那时他阶段性地结束了“女郎与宠物”系列绘画，他和太太先后多次前往印度、尼泊尔、斯里兰卡等地的国家公园、大自然保护区，以及国内的云南、西藏、青海可可西里等地拍摄野生动物。每次出行他都带回无数惊险的故事和精湛而罕见的动物图片，甚至差点几次丢掉性命。
作为艺术家，李季仍然用视觉艺术的传统来回应全球野生动物急剧消失的现状。他在2009年至2011年期间画了一系列以西方艺术史的经典图像改造的绘画，比如米勒的《晚祷》，戈雅的《1808年5月3日夜枪杀起义者》，马奈的《草地上的午餐》，这些关于人类的敬虔、英勇气概、男女生活的画面，全都成了对人类大规模屠杀大型野生动物的悲剧性场景的控诉。在这个系列里，李季以艺术史经典图像的挪用与纂改来回应这个世界自智人诞生以来的经典矛盾：人的演化和发展是否是以消灭动物（尤其大型动物）为代价的？以致更严峻的问题是，这样一种人类中心主义的不负责任的、贪得无厌的破坏，会否成为人类最终在世界历史里的谢幕表演？与他之前在“女郎与宠物”系列里那种艳俗美学和调侃态度批判消费主义不同，这组对人类中心主义的批判与讽喻在绘画风格上更加朴实，却充满深深的悲悯之情。
亚洲象 No.2，斯里兰卡
The Asian Elephant 02, Sri Lanka, 2011
在西方，自20世纪80年代以来，无论在文化研究领域还是当代艺术领域，人们都意识到生态批评成为刻不容缓的命题，艺术无法绕开人们生存的场域和文化内涵而被简单欣赏。艺术家、策展人、批评家通过生态批判、伦理批判来重新审视我们这个日渐荒漠化的环境，审视自然恶化、动物锐减与人类入侵的矛盾。今日，这种基于环境的审视与批判正在成为全球普遍的当代艺术表达议题。在这个意义上，李季的这些摄影与动物画作，将会为生态艺术的叙事提供最基础的文本支持。
丛林猫
The Jungle Cat，2016
Li Ji was known by the art world in the1990s and early 2000 for his series "Ladies and Pets", which depicted some well-dressed ladies with different animals, implying a delicate interdependent relationship between them. This series is slightly erotic, humorous and yuppie. The ladies and pets in these photos are not actually themselves but roles being shaped by some kind of culture. Besides, since either ladies or pets have been carefully domesticated by their "masters", they know not only how to please their "masters", but also how to show their soft and tamed side. However, their "masters" are not in these paintings, because what indeed tame the women to sexy ladies and animals to pets are invisible but ubiquitous consumerism, patriarchalism and anthropocentrism.
Li Ji revealed in this series not only his interest and thoughts about people - the "ladies", but also his knowledge and extraordinary love to animals - the "pets". Grown up in a family of intellectuals, Li Ji has shown a strong curiosity about all kinds of knowledge since young especially in biology. He is even more familiar with his mother’s books than herself. His interest in the living conditions of animals around the world is so strong that he always dreams of going to Africa to see the wildlife.
北非野狗
North African Wild Dogs，2017
Li Ji started his wildlife discovery in 2009, when he just completed the “Ladies and Pets” series and then photographed wild animals while visiting national parks and nature reserves with his wife in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other domestic places like Yunnan, Tibet, Qinghai, Hoh Xil and so on. In every trip he would return with countless adventurous stories and fantastic wildlife photos, even though he has encountered with the danger of life and death several times.
As an artist, Li Ji responds to the rapid disappearance of wildlife in the world with the conventional means in visual art. From 2009 to 2011, he painted a series of modified masterpieces of Western art history, such as Miller's " Late Prayer", Goya's "May 3rd, 1808 Nightmare" and Manet's " Lunch on the Grass", turning these human’s godliness, gallantry and livelihood into a denouncement to the tragedies of the large-scale massacre mankind implemented on wildlife. In this series, by misappropriation and codification to the masterpieces in art history, Li Ji responded to the world’s classic contradictions: Does human develop and evolve at the cost of eliminating animals (especially large animals) ? Furthermore, will this irresponsible and insatiable destruction of anthropocentrism be the final call of mankind in world history? In contrast to his critique of consumerism in the " Ladies and Pets " series, the critics and allegories of anthropocentrism are simpler in painting style but are filled with deep compassion.
冰面上的北极熊
The Polar Bear on the Ice, 2017
In the West, ecological criticism has become an urgent proposition both in the field of cultural studies and contemporary art since the 1980s, for people realized that art can not be simply appreciated without common life scenes and cultural connotations. By ecological and ethical criticism, artists, curators and critics re-examine the increasing desertification, and the conflict among natural deterioration, drastic animal extinction and human invasion. Today, this kind of environmental-oriented scrutiny and criticism has become a global theme in contemporary art. In this sense, Li Ji's animal photography and paintings will provide the most basic textual support for ecological art.
中国上海 莫干山路50号13幢2楼
2F, Building 13, 50 Moganshan Rd.,
Shanghai, China
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