裴丽Pei Li｜穿梭门The portal

ArtistExhibition

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▲记录片《绿光》 Documentary“Green light"

▲海报 Poster

裴丽个展《穿梭门》

Pei Li: “The Portal”

展期：2018.06.09-08.26

Exhibition Dates: June 9 to August 26, 2018

地址：OCAT当代艺术中心西安馆

Add: Beichitou 1st Road, Yanta District Xi'an Shaanxi

▲西藏的骷髅墙  The wall of skulls in Tibet

展览最主要的作品就是“穿梭门”，起因是2016年爷爷过世。

The main piece in the exhibition is "Portal", and it's all because the death of my grandpa.

16年6月纽约个展做完，因为各种活动在美国又待了一段。回到北京就又开始惦念起爷爷，生和死。于是，16年底便又去了西藏，就为了骷髅墙。之前就听说说西藏有骷髅墙，但是相关的文献和记载都很少，网上能找到的资料也不多。

Last year in June, when my New York solo exhibition was finished, I stayed in the US for a while to take part in some other activities. Back in Beijing, I began to miss my grandfather again, and remember his life and death. At the end of the year I went to the Skeleton Wall in Tibet. I had heard that there were skeletons in Tibet, but I found that relevant literature and records are scarce. The Internet does not have much information. 

从北京飞到拉萨，从拉萨坐火车到那曲市，包车，开一天到比如县茶曲乡，一点点接近目的地思绪却有点点混乱，而看到骷髅墙的第一眼，原本的忐忑与些许的恐惧都不见了，一眼望去，看到的是蓝天、白云、雪山以及三面排列整齐的骷髅墙，内心感觉到的是无比的干净与平静。 

From Beijing to Lhasa, from Lhasa by train to Naqu, I hired adriver and car to take me on the day-long drive to village of Biru and then the town of Chaqu. The closer we got, the more confused I became. But when I first saw the wall, my apprehension disappeared. I saw blue sky, white clouds, snow-capped mountains and, below, the neatly-arranged, three-sided skeleton wall. I felt extremely clean and calm.

▲工作中的裴丽 Peili at work

展览中的主要作品《穿梭门》，是等比复制了西藏的骷髅墙，将393个骷髅描绘在104幅小画上，材质是铝板油画。铝板看起来很冷很酷，没有温暖没有柔软，但是我总能从我的画面上看到情感，很容易将我的思绪呈现出来。

The "Portal", a wall of skulls, conceived after my own fashion, contains 104 small paintings depicting a total of 393 skulls. The material here is oil paint on aluminium. Aluminium seems cool, cold. It refutes warmth. It is not soft, but I can always see emotions within my images. It is easy to reveal my thoughts.

有一天在我做装置的加工厂里，发现了在地上角落堆放的铝板，我决定尝试在上面画画。每一块铝板的表面纹理都不一样，因此也做了很多材质的测试。

One day, when I was working on an installation at a factory, Inoticed some aluminium plate lying in the corner. I decided to try using them. I have done many tests. The texture of each aluminium plate is different. Sometimes, what I decide to paint depends entirely on the texture.

作品制作的过程基本由我一个人完成，影像《绿光》记录了"穿梭门"的制作过程，一个人如何消耗一个人的时间，日复一日的重复简单的工作。整个展览从亲人的过世，又回到艺术家的身上。

I did everything I could for this work, spent all time I had tomake my “Portal”. A video piece, “Green Light”, records the whole process of makingit, about how a person can spend all his/her time doing brainless repetitive work. The exhibition began with the death of a loved one, and then, back to meagain.

裴丽 Pei Li

▲布展中的裴丽 Peili at work

穿梭门&裴丽的死亡赋格

Portal & the death fugue of Peili

2018年裴丽在OCAT西安馆的个展《穿梭门》，依旧指向当代人的生死、爱欲、孤独、虚无。她在开阔的展厅里，等比例重现了西藏那曲比如的骷髅墙。996cm长度的骷髅墙由104幅铝板构成，正面描绘了393个骷髅，反面描绘了一大片恣意绽放的鸢尾花。骷髅墙的上方放映着影像《绿光》，忠实纪录了艺术家从制作到完成这个展览的各个环节。影像分为8个章节，前7个分别是“拉砂”、“绘画”、“切割”、“开槽”、“打磨”、“装框”、“打包”，最后一个章节是“河流”。 

“Portal” is Pei Li’s latest solo show at OCAT Xi’an. It’s aboutlife, death, love, loneliness and emptiness. The “wall of skulls” in her exhibition hall, is the same size as the real one in Naqu Tibet.  The wallis 996cm long, and contains 104 small paintings depicting a total of 393skulls. Behind all the skulls there is the iris, a big size blooming iris. Beside the wall of skulls is the video work called “Green Light”, showing the whole process of making the way, which has 8 parts, the first 7 are: Abrasive, Painting, Cutting, Gaining, Sanding, Framing, Packing, and the last one“River”.

前7个章节按照时间的先后顺序展开，没有厚此薄彼的意思。裴丽将艺术家们最引以为豪的“绘画”这一“创造性”的行为，作为工序之一插进了整体流程之中。独白的字幕伴随着轰鸣的机器、往返的轮渡、彻夜不眠的加工厂、反复的劳动、受伤的手指、流淌的颜料、无人的河流……构成了这部影像或者说这个展览的内在结构。“我觉得我和这里的工人一样，我们做的工作是无聊的，谁都可以做的。”——裴丽以刻意的谦逊放逐了“艺术家”这一身份和光环，将浮夸的标签主动剥离，转而表达了内心潜藏的一种消极和疏离——同时也是一份别样的清醒与通透。甚至，还是一种抵抗。

The first 7 parts are arranged in chronological order, averageand slow. Pei Li put the “painting” part, which should be the artist’s pride with its creative spirit, but here as a work process. The subtitles show up with the background sound, including the sound of machines, the sound of the boats, the sound of the 24-hours factories. The repetition works, the hurt fingers, the flowing colors, the sad river… all of these combined, led to the building of the inside structure of the exhibition. “I feel like myself is one the workers here in the street. our job is boring, and anyone can instead of us.” —Pei Li using her way to exile the light, with the identity of an artist in deliberate and humble. This took away all the turgid brand away off her own accord, and took her back to the negativity and alienation inside her deep heart — but atthe same time also presenting a different kind of sobriety and cleanliness, even the resistance.

▲展览现场图 Exhibition site photos

不知道是否类似于我自己对于“策展人”等名号那种萨特式的“厌恶”，我总猜想裴丽想要抵抗的，也不仅仅是今天越来越流程化的艺术工业、以及“艺术家”需要定期展示和表演的既定身份。在她持续至今的艺术生活中，有一条隐秘但坚韧的主线，就是用真实的感性力量，对抗我们每个个体贯穿一生的孤独与虚无。而这次裴丽探讨这一主题的方式，依旧使用了“并置&对比”的艺术修辞。正如2017年在Banana Art Space中展出的系列作品，描绘美国森林大火的《一道闪电一片荒》与描绘水生植物的《海芋》相互关照，用水与火、植物与闪电、生命与毁灭，来象征爱的两极。而本次展览中，画在铝板正反两面的骷髅与鸢尾，同样展示了这种修辞，骷髅作为死亡、消逝、彼岸的象征，而鸢尾花带着梵高般的浪漫情感，呼唤着生命、爱情、美，和希望。这两者如同一枚硬币的两面，截然不同，却又同属一物。

I do not know if Pei Li, like me, has the aversion feeling of the Sartre’s of the title of the “Curator”. I do always think that her attempt to resist, is not only the process of the art industry; but also the identity of being an artist, with the need to exhibit and perform on a regular basis. The secret and tough line of her art life continues today, with the sentimental power of reality to against the loneliness and emptiness inside an individual’s life. This time the “Portal” shares the very same concept of “Parallel &Contrast”. Like the works shown at Banana art space 2017, of the painting called “A lightning, to barrenness” which described a wild forest fire in America, and compared it with aquatic plant “Alocasia”. The fire with water, the plant with lightning, the life with destruction, to metaphor the two sides of love. In this exhibition, the “Portal” also has two sides, the skulls and the iris on aluminium plates in similar rhetorical methods. The skulls stand for the death, vanishing, the other shore; the iris carries the romantic feeling, which originally came from Van Gogh, calling for life, love, beauty and hope. These two sides, like the sides of one coin, completely different, but belong to one.

郑闻 Zheng wen

2018-06  June,2018

▲《绿光》视频截图  Video stills from “Green Light”

当我们在讨论一个命题的时候，很多时候不是“因为”“所以”这么简单的。就像《穿梭门》，起因是艺术家裴丽爷爷的离世引起的伤感，这种伤感无处安放，所以她走到西藏看骷髅墙，于是有了这次个展的作品。

但不止于生死。

When we are discussing a proposition, most time it’s not easy as“cause and effect”. Like the “Portal”, the artist began with the endless sorrowof her grandpa passing away. With no clue about what to do with the sorrow, she went to see the wall of skulls; so we can see the work here presenting. 

But it's not just life and death. 

在影像《绿光》里，我们看到的更多是裴丽在广州的生活与工作状态。每天都要坐渡轮，或者开车，在厂房劳作，从拉砂到绘画到切割到打磨到装框……都是独自一人完成。手指受伤，自己去包扎，累到躺倒在地上休息……平静地述说，一切的理所当然。

In the video “Green Light”, we can see the artist’s life and work in Guangzhou. Every day, she went for the work at the factory by shipor car. She did everything alone, from the sand work to framework. When she got hurt, she’d get herself bandaged, and afterwards, go right back to work. She got tired and lay down on her aluminium plate… As she told the whole story,even so calmly and clearly, everything seems reasonable and rational.

“我也总是有意将欲望与现实混淆在一起”

“我觉得我的朋友都在忙于统治世界，然后我是相信绿光的盖茨比”

 “我好像很孤独，又好像不愿意被人发现”

“And I like to confuse desire with reality”

“I think all the friends are busy trying to rule the world”

“seems I am pretty alone, and I don’t want people to find me”

这是“生”的状态，也是艺术家裴丽的内心独白。

This is the artist’s form of “Live”, as well as her interior monologue. 

回到作品本身，裴丽以铝板绘画的方式复制了西藏的骷髅墙，就像一场生死对望。我们永远不能真正理解死亡，骷髅不过是死去信息的皮囊。从生到死，中间停放着时间的穿梭以及自我的感知。每个人都是孤独的个体，那些独自承受的等待与期望，那些无聊和伤害，无论无何也不可能与他人交换。

Let’s get back to the art work, Pei Li rebuilt the wall of skull from Tibet with her own way. Looking the both side, we can never fully understand the death; as the skulls are but a piece of info from the deadskins. During the period from the life to death, in the middle that’s the traveling time and the perception of self. Everyone is a lonely individual, to bear the waiting and the expecting, the boring and the hurt, alone, no matter what you cannot exchange them with others. 

如果说西藏的骷髅墙是匿名的个人史堆积的记忆墙，代表着轮回中逝去的部分。那么裴丽在OCAT美术馆里的骷髅墙除了个人史，还盛放了很多复杂的情感。正因为情感，使绘画里意味着死去的骷髅，带来重生的幻象，弥漫着生死交叠的气息。

If we said the skulls wall is the wall of an incognito memery, representing the past from the reincarnation, then the “Portal”in the museum is not only the personal history, but also a mixing of lots complicated emotions. Because of these emotions, the skulls on the aluminum plates stand for death, but bring the delusion of rebirth, as the space is filled with the breath of life and death overlapping.

我们总是说“大不过生死”。可除此之外，是不是处于时间的河流，我们拥有的就只能是“苍茫一片”？

却总是忘记：两两相望，依然有爱。

We always say “there’s nothing bigger than life and death”. Besides that we are in the river of time, all we have is just “a piece of indistinct”?

And always forget: stare each other, love still.

米诺Mino 

2018-06 June,2018

关于艺术家

裴丽，1985年生于江苏常州。2016年博士研究生毕业于中央美术学院。目前生活和工作与北京、广州。个展包括：“第三者——小小灰”，BANANA艺术空间，南京，2018；“大纽约”，凯尚画廊，纽约，2016；“Ms P Project”，空谷艺术空间，杭州，2014；“P计划”，798地一现场，北京，2013；“P一代”，站台中国，北京，2012；“#9裴丽”，泰康空间，北京，2010。自2007年至今，裴丽的作品被选入多个国际美术馆及艺术机构的群展中，包括：“第二届CAFAM未来展”，北京，2015；“未来的回归：来自中国的当代艺术”，密歇根州立大学布罗德美术馆，美国，2014；“ReMix”，伯里艺术博物馆及雕塑中心，曼彻斯特，2014；“一切坚固的东西都烟消云散了”, 卡布索美术馆，挪威，2013；“FAT ART”，今日美术馆，北京，2011。

About the Artist

Pei Li was born in 1985 in Changzhou, Jiangsu. She graduated from Central Academy of Fine Art to study in Experimental Art Department with a Ph. D in 2016. Currently she lives and works in Beijing and Guangzhou. Pei Li’s sole exhibitions include: "The Third Part: grey co.", Banana Art Space, Nanjing, 2018; "greater New York", Klein Sun Gallery, New York, 2016; "Ms P Project", KoGo Art Space, Hangzhou,2014; "Project P", 798 Look Art Space, Beijing, 2013; "Generation P", Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Beijing, 2012; "#9: Pei Li", Taikang Space, Beijing, 2010.

Since 2007, Pei Li's works have been seen on many group exhibitions, include: Death-head Moth in the 2nd "CAFAM Future" Exhibition, Beijing, 2015; Ms Lonely, Future Returns in "Contemporary Art from China", Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, US, 2014; "Ms Lonely, Remix", Bury Art Museum, Manchester, UK, 2014; "All that is Solid Melts into Air", Kabuso Art Museum, Norway, 2013; Isn't Something Missing? in "Fat Art: Hive", Today Museum, Beijing, 2011.

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