东画廊 | 曹再飞个展“西西弗斯的房间”2月7日开幕

西西弗斯的房间 | The Room of Sisyphus

曹再飞 | CAO Zaifei

开幕 | Opening

2023/02/07 16:00 - 19:00

展期 | Duration

2023/02/07 - 2023/03/05

地点 | Location

上海市徐汇滨江龙腾大道2555-9号

2555-9 Longteng Avenue, West Bund, Shanghai

The Stage 舞台, CAO Zaifei 曹再飞, 2021. Oil on canvas 布面油画, 60 × 60 cm

东画廊荣幸宣布艺术家曹再飞于画廊空间的第二次个展《西西弗斯的房间》将于2023年2月7日开幕，展览持续至3月5日，此次个展更为全面地呈现了曹再飞的艺术创作，包括近年的布面油画、现成品油画以及其具有代表性的多件行为艺术作品。

Don Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of The Room of Sisyphus, the artist CAO Zaifei’s second solo exhibition at the gallery space, on 7th February 2023 and running until 5th March. The recent oil on canvas paintings, ready-made paintings, and several of CAO's illustrative performance pieces are all included in this solo exhibition, which offers a more thorough overview of the artist's output.

The Room of Sisyphus 西西弗斯的房间, CAO Zaifei 曹再飞, 2021. Oil on canvas 布面油画, 60 × 73 cm

曹再飞作品中的创作主题学是统一、完整的，均指向加缪的《西西弗斯的神话》——荒谬性与荒谬的人。在布面油画作品《西西弗斯的房间》中曹再飞以象征性手法描绘了2022年上海封控下的场景，此处西西弗斯的故事是一种隐喻与暗示，一段永恒回归的神话，山与脚下的路被置换为居住空间与社区，正如西西弗斯日以继夜的将巨石推向永远无法到达的山顶，人也在与病毒循环往复、无休止地斗争。受封控影响，因缺少绘画材料，曹再飞转而将画面直接绘制于厨房用具——锅、瓢、勺、刀、砧板之上，此处象征着被限制与禁锢的器具却承载着窗外风景；《浮》中人抱着一块圆石，站立于黑色泳圈之上，暗藏其间的浮力与重力、不稳定性与平衡间的相对张力昭示着即将来临的倾覆时刻；作品《静物》中代表地球仪的塑料球体被替换成为一颗躺在支架轴旁的西瓜，这颗西瓜或许是因其自身过熟而炸裂，而后丢失重心从轴上脱落。观者可以从曹再飞作品画面中的即有“物”读取到具有指代性且被隐藏的信息及言语，他对于工具理性的颠覆、物与人的戏剧性荒诞感表现之下，掩藏并弥散着的是具有古典敏感性与现代敏感性的哲思，是对于古希腊时期的形而上与现代人类生存困境的再思考。

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The works of CAO Zaifei have a consistent and comprehensive theme that alludes to the absurdity and absurd character in Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus. The story of Sisyphus is a metaphor and allusion to a myth of eternal return in CAO's painting The Room of Sisyphus, which also symbolically depicts a scene of the lockdown in Shanghai in 2022. The mountain and the road beneath it are replaced with living space and community, and just as Sisyphus pushed the boulder day and night to the top of the mountain that he could never reach, so too do people struggle endlessly with the cycle of viruses.

Due to the lack of materials for painting during the lockdown, CAO Zaifei turned to painting directly on kitchen utensils - pots, pans, ladles, spoons, knives and chopping boards - which symbolise the restricted and confined utensils but carry the landscape outside the window. In Floating, a man stands on top of a black swimming ring holding a round stone, the relative tensions between buoyancy and gravity, instability and equilibrium, are indicative of an impending capsize. In Still Life, a watermelon resting next to a support shaft that may be about to burst from its own overripeness before losing weight and falling off the shaft replaces the plastic sphere typically used to depict the world.

CAO conceals and diffuses philosophical ideas with classical sensitivity and modern sensitivity, considering the metaphysics of the ancient Greek period and the contemporary human life dilemma, beneath his subversion of utilitarian rationality and the dramatic absurdity of objects and people. It involves a reevaluation of ancient Greek metaphysics and the existential conundrum facing modern people.

Reading Love Poems at The Matchmaking Corner (Excerpt) 在相亲角，读爱情诗 (片段), CAO Zaifei 曹再飞, 2019-2023. Single channel video 单频影像, 3'04'

加缪描述过：“艺术作品本身就是一种荒诞现象，仅仅涉及其描述”，但曹再飞未将作品视作逃避荒诞的避难所，他的布面作品被赋予指向荒谬的路径，而后他将接近赤裸现实的行动注入行为作品之中，以此直面荒谬、对抗荒谬。在人民公园相亲角，适龄男女的个人信息被罗列在一张张A4纸上，而缺席的主人公被数据与文字代替，也就在此处曹再飞进行了长达三年的行为艺术——《在相亲角，读爱情诗》，他站立于小凳之上、穿着朗读者的服装、手捧诗歌、诵读，他将爱与浪漫重新带回这片本应属于它的地方，驳斥着看似合理等价的“物物交换”，反讽着物质与外在条件成为当代社会的物竞天择、真诚的爱成为理想主义代名词的现状。曹再飞通过行为作品尝试消解人与人之间的离异感，并将存于相亲角间的荒诞现实毫无保留的曝露在日光之下，曹再飞的浪漫情怀不仅在于赋予本应有爱的地方以爱情，还在于沉思中生出的自由，这份自由孕育了生命的激情，而激情又化为创造。

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Camus once described that "The work of art is itself an absurdity, involving only its description". But CAO Zaifei does not see his works as a refuge from the absurd, his works on canvas are given a path to the absurd, and he then injects actions that are close to the naked reality into his performance works, thus confronting and fighting the absurd. In Shanghai’s famous People's Square Matchmaking Corner, personal details of eligible men and women are listed on sheets of A4 paper, and the absent protagonists are replaced by data and words. It is here that CAO conducted a three-year performance called "Reading Love Poems in the Matchmaking Corner," in which he stands on a small stool, while dressed as a reader and recites poems while holding them in his hands.

Aside from ironically pointing out how material and environmental conditions have become a race to the bottom in modern society and how real love has come to be associated with idealism, CAO restores love and romance to their rightful place. Through his performance pieces, CAO seeks to break down barriers between people and expose the absurdity of the dating underworld to the general public. The romance of CAO Zaifei is not simply about putting love in its proper place; it is also about the freedom that comes from thought, freedom that satisfies life's passion, and freedom that ultimately inspires creation.

Still Life 静物, CAO Zaifei 曹再飞, 2022. Oil on canvas 布面油画, 33 × 40 cm

是受难者？亦或抗争者？西西弗斯是古代神话中悲剧命运的化身，是一个受难者的形象，但在加缪笔下他却成了一个与命运抗争、觉醒的人类精神象征；是受难者？亦或抗争者？曹再飞在现代的洪流中直视潜藏于暗流中的荒谬性，他承认荒谬、面对荒谬、探寻着荒谬的本源，再将自我深深的刻入西西弗斯的背影之中。

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Is he a victim? Or a resister? Sisyphus is the embodiment of tragic fate in ancient mythology, the figure of the sufferer, but in Camus' writing he becomes a symbol of the human spirit struggling against fate and awakening; CAO Zaifei looks directly at the absurdity lurking in the undercurrents of modernity. He acknowledges the absurdity, confronts it, explores its origin, and then engraves himself deeply into the back of Sisyphus.

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参观时间  |  Opening Hours

周二 Tue-周六 Sat | 10AM-6PM

周日 Sun | 1PM-6PM

地址 | Address

上海市徐汇滨江龙腾大道2555-9号

2555-9 Longteng Avenue, West Bund, Shanghai

联系方式 | Contact

T: [phone]

E: [e-mail]

ins: dongallery