Jolene Lai | 寂静的夜晚 Silence of the Night
Beside You by Jolene Lai
在你身旁by Jolene Lai
Lighting and contrast summons a familiar aesthetic interlaced with pale figures inhabiting a scene. Carrying a bold palette of colors, intricate design, alongside seductive and grotesque elements, there is an unsettling silence felt through the works of Singaporean artist Jolene Lai.
灯光和对比度激发出一种熟悉的美感，与苍白的人物交织在一起。带着大胆的色彩，复杂的设计以及诱人和怪诞的元素，新加坡艺术家Jolene Lai的作品给人一种令人不安的宁静。
Artistic Origins
艺术起源
Artist Jolene Lai
艺术家Jolene Lai
Now based in Los Angeles, USA, Jolene did not pursue fine art until after she had an epiphany while working for an advertising company. While designing entertainment and theatrical posters for work she would talk to her artist friend whom she had gone to art school with. This friend was so passionate that he would often fall asleep, paintbrush in hand.
Jolene现在居住在美国洛杉矶，她一开始并没有追求艺术，直到她在一家广告公司工作期间顿悟后才开始她的艺术生涯。在设计广告和戏剧海报以供工作的同时，她会与以前和她一起参加艺术学院学习的艺术家朋友交谈。这个朋友对艺术非常热衷以至于经常握着画笔入睡。
“I realized I missed the feel of a paintbrush, the smell of oils and turps, and the excitement of creating short stories through them. But trying to take a detour at 30 seemed more challenging, even in my own perspective. I had to work on building enough courage and confidence to convince not just myself, but the people around me that a career as an artist is really what I am meant for.”
“我意识到我会想念握着画笔的感觉，想念调漆油和松节油的气味以及通过它们创作短篇小说的激动感受。但是，即使从我自己的角度来看，尝试在30岁转业看上去是非常具挑战性的。我必须努力建立足够的勇气和信心，不仅要说服自己还要说服周围的人：我的目标就是要成为一名艺术家。”
– Jolene Lai
The transition was not easy as she had become accustomed to working through collective ideation and group feedback which she would have to balance individually. However, through the guidance of her friend, she would begin to build her network and exposure in the art world, exhibiting her works from various spaces in the US, Singapore, Taiwan, and Australia. She is currently represented by Thinkspace Art in the US.
过渡并不容易，因为她的思维模式已经习惯于依赖集体观念和群众反馈，而她不得不自己去做出平衡。然而，在朋友的指导下，她将开始在艺术界中建立自己的人脉和曝光度，并在美国，新加坡，台湾和澳大利亚的不同地方展出她的作品。现在她的作品由美国Thinkspace Art的展示。
Painting the Silence
绘画沉默
An Evening by Jolene Lai
一个夜晚by Jolene Lai
Jolene works with oil and mixed media on watercolor paper, many works featuring female characters in different shades, exploring newly imagined spaces. Her exhibition titled A Beautiful Haunting, which references classic thriller and horror films like Psycho and Rosemary Baby was inspired by escapades during her random walks through her neighborhood at night.
Jolene在水彩纸上使用调漆油和混合媒介进行创作，许多作品以不同色彩的女性角色为主题，探索了新的想象空间。她的展览名为“A Beautiful Haunting”，其中引用了诸如Psycho和Rosemary Baby之类的经典惊悚片和恐怖片，其灵感来自她晚上在小区随意漫步时的出现的奇异想法。
Up by Jolene Lai
向上by Jolene Lai
13th Hour by Jolene Lai
第十三小时by Jolene Lai
Heart is Where Home is by Jolene Lai
心即家所在by Jolene Lai
A Quiet Place by Jolene Lai
一个安静的角落by Jolene Lai
Martin by Jolene Lai
马丁by Jolene Lai
The artist feels there is an enigma behind illuminated houses and a disorientation that follows with the muddled memory of where she remembered each house being. She finds herself lost at night despite remembering the daytime characteristics of the street. The painting titled Martin embraces this idea showing her insomnia induced observations in the still of night. Each illuminated house driving her urge to catch a glimpse of the figures standing in the light. It is as if a moment from an episode of the Twilight Zone was captured and reinterpreted into a painting.
艺术家觉得被照亮的房屋背后都有一个谜，那是伴随着她对于每所房屋的混乱记忆而产生出一种迷失感。她发现自己会在夜晚里迷失自我尽管她想到的是这条街白天的特征。作品为马丁的画作就包含了这种想法，表明她在寂静的夜晚因失眠引发的观察。每间照亮的房子都激发着她瞥见站在灯光下的人物。仿佛像是电影《Twilight Zone 》中的片刻，被重新诠释成一幅画作。
An Exploration of Asian Traits
亚洲特质的一次探索
The Butcher by Jolene Lai
屠夫by Jolene Lai
References to Asian culture and Chinese traits are frequent themes in Jolene Lai’s works. The Allegory series takes stories of female characters from Chinese mythology and literature that shaped modern Chinese characteristics. The works themselves are bizarre, romantic, and embody a surreal environment born out of her imagination. Each painting may reference or alter different elements of Chinese stories with a sometimes humorous and eccentric aesthetic. The paintings interact with these historical tales and warps them into a novel cultural narrative.
Jolene Lai作品中经常提到亚洲文化和中国特色。《寓言》系列取材于中国神话和文学中塑造现代中国特色的女性人物故事。作品本身是奇异的，浪漫的，并体现了她凭空想象的超现实环境。每幅画都可能带有幽默和怪异的美学引用或更改中国故事的不同元素。这些画与这些历史故事互动，并将它们扭曲成一种新颖的文化叙述。
The Butcher, alludes to the Chinese story of Princess Miao Shan, who was believed to be the reincarnate of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. She escapes an arranged marriage and defies the king in many ways. The cruel king attempts to punish her and even orders for her execution, but to no avail. She retreats to the mountains and is lost to the king. The story ends with her ultimate sacrifice to save her ill father by granting him her own eyes and hands leading to her ascension into heaven. The several hands and the Buddhist markings in the painting hint at her transformation into the thousand-armed and thousand-eyed Guan Yin Bodhisattva right before her accession but with a modern twist.
《屠夫》暗示了苗山公主的中国故事，苗山公主被认为是中国慈悲女神的转世。她逃脱了包办婚姻，并用许多方式去违抗国王。残酷的国王试图惩罚她，甚至下令处决她，但也没有改变她。她撤退到山上，输给了国王。故事以她为拯救生病的父亲而做出的最终牺牲而告终，她捐赠给父亲自己的眼睛和手最后上了天堂。绘画中的几只手和佛教标记暗示着在她现代转世之前她已转变为千臂万眼的观音菩萨。
Honey Roasted by Jolene Lai
烤蜂蜜by Jolene Lai
The Concoction by Jolene Lai
调制品by Jolene Lai
A Moonlit Meadow by Jolene Lai
月光下的草地by Jolene Lai
The Playground series fuses elements of the weird and spooky with Asian beliefs and culture. The series consists of three paintings featuring recognizable locations such as the bus stop in Singapore, portrayed in Lotus.
Playground系列将怪异和鬼魅的元素与亚洲的信仰和文化融合在一起。该系列包括三幅具有可识别位置的（比如新加坡巴士站，在莲花里绘画）画作。
The female figure in these works is a reflection of Jolene’s reminiscent thoughts and feelings being away from Singapore. For example, Broken Telephone, shows clones of the same woman participating in different roles. It references the loneliness of being an only child that would only be able to play and talk to herself. She would fill in the roles, pretending and building different personalities that act and behave differently but are inherently the same.
这些作品中的女性形象是Jolene对远离新加坡的想法和感受的影射。例如，Broken Telephone显示了参与不同角色的同一位女士的克隆。它提到了一个孤独的孩子只能和自己玩耍和自己对话的孤独感。她将扮演各种角色，假装并建立不同的性格，使他们的行为和举止不同，但其实都是一个人。
Broken Telephone by Jolene Lai
坏了的电话by Jolene Lai
Lotus by Jolene Lai
莲花by Jolene Lai
Night Market by Jolene Lai
夜市by Jolene Lai
Jolene Lai is now currently working on new paintings after her recent group exhibition. Jolene Lai在参加了群展后，目前正在创作新绘画。
To know more about the artist, please check her website.
要想了解有关这位艺术家的更多信息，请访问她的网站。
Translation 翻译：Eva Li
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