展览预告｜万物与虚无——迈克尔·查莱赫斯基个展

展览信息

展览名称：万物与虚无——迈克尔·查莱赫斯基个展

All of This and Nothing—— Michael Zelehoski

主办单位：广州美术学院美术馆、当代唐人艺术中心

Organizers: Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Tang Contemporary Art

协办单位：广州美术学院国际合作与交流处

Co-organizer: International office of GAFA

展览总监：王璜生、胡斌、陈晓阳

Exhibition Director: Wang Huangsheng, Hu Bin, Chen Xiaoyang 

展览执行：陈烨

Exhibition Executive：Chen Ye

公共教育与传播：刘子瑗、杨柳

Public Programme: Liu Ziyuan, Yang Liu

视觉设计：杨柳

Graphic Design: Yang Liu

展览时间：2020年9月6日-2020年10月8日

Duration: 6th Sept 2020-8th Oct 2020

开幕时间：2020年9月6日下午3点

Opening: 6th Sept 2020, 3pm

展览场地：广州美术学院大学城美术馆

Venue: Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts

展       厅：2、4号展厅

Gallery: Exhibition Hall No.2, No.4

广州美术学院美术馆与唐人当代艺术中心合作推出的美国艺术家迈克尔·查莱赫斯基Michael Zelehoski个展“万物与虚无”原计划在今年上半年举行，因疫情影响，我们以线上方式于二月份展出，而线下展则推迟至九月份举办。

迈克尔·查莱赫斯基Michael Zelehoski，1979年生于美国，现生活工作于纽约的纽堡和布鲁克林。他分别获得巴德学院（Simon’s Rock）和Finis Terrae大学（智利圣地亚哥）的学位。查莱赫斯基的作品被世界各地的藏家与公共机构收藏，其中最著名的是其12米的巨作《打开的屋子》（ Open House）收藏于巴黎蓬皮杜国家现代艺术博物馆。查莱赫斯基喜欢用日常生活中的“拾来之物”进行创作，许多来自废墟中的现成物品经过他的解构、重组之后与空间产生了极具极简主义倾向的形式意味，同时在材料与色彩的取舍上，又会看到其中不乏古典审美的原则，他通过来自现实的材料构建了许多穿越二维与三维世界的视觉空间。

过去一百年来，运用现成品进行创作已经成为很多艺术家常用的实践方法，从杜尚到波普艺术到贫穷艺术，以现成品进行艺术创作的技法日趋成熟。艺术家如何在创作中找到契合自身的审美和探索追求，查莱赫斯基给出了一个参考案例，这个展览以丰富的材料语言与视觉呈现方式，为疫情防控期间的观众尤其是美术学院的师生们带来与国际当代艺术作品现场交流欣赏的机会。同时，广州美术学院美术馆与唐人当代艺术中心的合作，也开拓了艺术机构间合作交流优秀展览的尝试，为美术学院的教学和年轻艺术家的创作提供了更丰富的学习资源。

前   言

“万物与虚无”描述了作为本次展览核心概念的基本二元关系。阴与阳，男性与女性，光明与黑暗，实与虚。从计算机代码到生物繁殖，这些二元性构成了我们所置身的社会各个方面的基础，只要我们仔细观察便能在所有事物上清楚地看到它。《易经》是中国传统文化的经典之作，它最早将整个世界观建立在阴阳二元的基础之上。由阴爻阳爻衍生出八卦，在八卦的基础上又推演组合成为六十四卦。

木质运输托盘与八卦的六边形极为相似，迈克尔·查莱赫斯基试图在环绕我们日常生活的现成品中发掘这一密码。当木托盘在空间中折叠时，它们就像卦象运作一样。这些作品大部分可被倒置，演绎出截然不同的意义。有些物体看起来像是无透视的，被凝固于空间中，另一些物体则似乎在后退。在本次展览中，艺术家将图片平置于视错觉状态，这种手法破坏了我们客观的认知，却也将其作为具体形象呈现出来。

与展览同名的装置“万物与虚无”由每组二十八个，共六组从建筑顶部垂挂下来的木托盘组成，托盘在三个方向上用钢丝绳拉紧，形成了X、Y和Z坐标。每一个托盘都代表了一个卦，托盘之间的间隙也严格地与托盘的厚度保持一致，因为他们意指实与虚的二元对立关系，并暗含对于国际贸易存在与缺失关系的探讨。经过周密的设计，他在有限的材料和结构中获得了一种秩序性，使得意义变得丰富而非清晰。

变化的最基本的表达（易经）——实线为阳，虚线为阴——也在展览的另一个中心元素路障上有所体现。在《黑蓝交界》（Black andBlue）中，迈克尔·查莱赫斯基将这些拾得的路障编织成二维构图，召唤出我们复杂的社会结构，并邀请参与者共同探索这些富于紧张感的物件及其在社会中所承载的隐喻。展览中还有一些波普艺术元素出现，例如引用了唐纳德·贾德（DonaldJudd）的叠放的盒子和索尔·勒维特（Sol Lewitt）的画作，展现了对日常物品的挪用和极简主义特征。

 “万物与虚无”探索了物质世界中的内在系统和固有秩序，它们很多都在数千年前便已被发现，并且仍然与当下密切相关。艺术家选择的物体都是当代社会中实质性的建筑组成部分。木质路障、箱子和木托盘皆为时常被遗忘的碎片，但它们也同样构成着我们社会经济存在的基础。艺术家的目标不再是单纯地传递代码，而是在现实的结构中找到它们的体现，这是艺术家最深刻的灵感根源。

All of This and Nothing describes the fundamental binary relationships that underpin this show, not to mention our lives—yin and yang, male and female, light and dark, solid and void. These dualities represent the basis of every aspect of our society, from computer code to biological reproduction and are evident in all objects if we look at them closely. The I-Ching, a classic of Chinese traditional culture is one of the earliest implementations of this psycho-technology. The broken yin and solid yang lines come together to form eight trigrams, which can in turn be combined into sixty-four possible hexagrams.

Wooden shipping pallets bear a striking resemblance to these hexagrams and Zelehoski attempts to reveal the implicit codes in these and other found objects from our everyday lives. The pallets become de facto hexagrams when collapsed in space, acquiring entirely different meanings when inverted. Some of the objects appear isometric, frozen in space, while others appear to recede. In this show the artist subjects the picture plane itself to similar visual dislocations, revealing it as a concrete object even as it undermines the objectivity of our perception of it.

The eponymous installation All of This and Nothing is comprised of six columns of twenty-eight pallets, suspended from the ceiling, with steel cables projecting outward on three-dimensional axis. Each pallet represents a hexagram in an overwhelming context of indecipherable meaning. The empty spaces form the binary counterpoint to the physical object and reference the existence or absence of international trade. Through this careful design, Zelehoski finds order in limited materials and structures, which makes their meanings richer but not clearer.

The solid and broken lines of the I-ching are also expressed by salvaged barricades, which constitute another central element of the exhibition. In Black and Blue, Zelehoski weaves these blockades into a two-dimensional composition evoking our own complex social fabric and inviting participants to explore the subjective connotations that these charged objects hold for them and society at large. There is an element of Pop Art, as seen in the appropriation of quotidian objects as well minimalism, in reference to Donald Judd’s stacked boxes and the seriality of Sol Lewitt.

All of This and Nothing explores the underlying systems and inherent orders at play in the physical world, many of which were discovered thousands of years ago and continue to be relevant today. The objects he has chosen are the literal building blocks of contemporary society. Wooden barricades, boxes, and shipping pallets constitute similarly forgotten fragments, but they form the bedrock of our socio-economic existence. Here, the goal is not simply to relay the code, but to find it manifest in the fabric of reality, which is where the artist’s deepest inspiration lies.

部分参展作品

女武神的飞行（局部）2019年 改装路障  530 x 424 cm

回转  2019年 改装托盘及酚醛胶夹板  135 x 117 cm

万物与虚无  2019年 运输托盘 、钢管、钢丝等 (尺寸可变)

天国的阶梯 2019年 改装楼梯及酚醛胶夹板  168 x 152cm

红色物品  2019年 改装盒及酚醛胶夹板  74 x 48 cm

艺术家访谈

Q=美术馆

A=艺术家

Q: 这个展览中的作品，大多以废弃的现成品木材为主要材料，您是从什么时候开始第一次接触到这个材料，并决定用其来创作作品的？

A: 我们在日常生活中经常接触到不同的物体和材料。我们索取这些材料与物体的态度也十分理所应当。例如你坐的椅子、曾经运送过椅子等东西的运输托盘，以及日常生活中围绕着我们的一切。我的第一个目标是：作为一个艺术家、一个人，我首先要意识和了解周围的物质世界，然后试着把物质世界引入艺术领域。这可能意味着将物体变成二维的图像空间（如你在四号厅的作品中所看到的），或者通过在空间和现象学层面上激活对象创造出装置作品。

The works in this exhibition are mostly made by used ready-made wood. When is your first interaction with this material and decided to use it in your artistpractice?

These are objects and materials that we interact with constantly in our daily lives. They are also almost universally taken for granted. Think of the chair you’re sitting on, the shipping pallets that once transported that chair and everything else that surrounds us in our everyday lives. My first objective, both as an artist and as a person, is to be conscious and aware of the physical world around me. Then I try to channel that physicality into the realm of art. This can mean collapsing the object into two-dimensional, pictorial space as you see in the works in space 4 or creating installations in which the objectsare activated on a spatial and phenomenological level.

Q: 我留意到这些木料带有一定的地域及区域特征，这是您看重并希望保留并强调的吗？

A: 木头就像人的皮肤，是一种承载着生命历史、质感和伤痕的有生命的材料。我使用的原材料因其表面的标记而变得独特。托盘是通用的，但印记和标记使托盘带有本地的关联性和可识别性。由于这两种特性，它们对于中国和世界各地都是同样特别的。

I noticed that some of the wood material has its own locational or regional character, is it the reason you always appreciate and emphasis on the character of the material?

Wood is like human skin, a living material bearing the history, texture and scars of a life time. The prototypical objects that I work with, are made unique by the markings on their surfaces. Pallets are universal but with their stamps and markings make them locally relevant and identifiable. In this way they are specific to China and universal at the same time.

Q: 对这个材料的敏感是否与您的生活经历或艺术兴趣有关联？当我看到您的作品时，它立刻让我想起了路易丝·内弗森的作品。您觉得她的现成拼贴作品怎么样？

A: 我从小在树林里玩耍，很小的时候就开始雕刻木头，这可能是我倾向于被木料吸引的原因之一。另一个原因是木料在建筑环境中随处可见，还有就是像我前面说到的，随着时间的推移，它具有承载意义的独特能力。像路易丝·内弗森（Louise Nevelson ）和莱昂纳多·德（ Leonardo Drew）这样的艺术家们用木头创造出强调形式和构成的作品，但他们作品的表面纹理是通过绘制或其他制作方式达成的。马丁·珀耶尔（Martin Puryear）赞美木料本身的纹理，但对我而言，我更看重具有功能性的对象以及那些记录着使用经历过程的纹理表面。从这个意义上说，即使经过大量改造，这物体的功能更像是杜尚的现成品。

About your precise feeling towards the material, does it have a relationship with your life experience or your artistic interests? When I saw your work, it immediately reminded me of Louise Nevelson's work. What do you think of her ready-made collages?

I grew up playing in the woods and began carving wood at a relatively young age. This could be one reason that I tend to gravitate toward wooden objects. Another is the ubiquity of wood in the built environment and its unique capacity to absorb meaning over time as we discussed earlier. Artists like Louise Nevelson and Leonardo Drew have used wood to create assemblages that emphasize form andcomposition but they create their own surface textures by painting or manipulating the material in different ways. Martin Puryear celebrates the grain of the wood itself but for me it’s more about engaging with the functional object and the textural surfaces that have evolved over the course of its utilitarian life. In that sense, the objects function more like Duchampian readymades even when they’re heavily manipulated.

Q: 秩序感和平衡感在您的作品中有着特殊的表现语言，可以谈谈您对“秩序”的理解吗？

A: 作为人类，我们有一种在自然界中寻找或施加秩序的自然冲动。这有助于我们理解现实，但也可能使我们无法看清现实。通过对我们感知到的事物进行分类和联系，我们能够看到模式并获得强大的洞察力，但如果我们过度概括或错误地将推断出的模式视为客观现实，这也会限制我们的理解。所以，它变成了一个专注于细节而又不失整体，看到每个独特对象以及它如何适应事物的普遍秩序的过程。这种认知平衡的行为对我的创作至关重要，对我们的生活亦然。我希望我的作品可以给观者提供一个了解物理世界的完整框架。

The sense of order and balance enjoy a unique expression in your work, can you talk about your understanding of order?

As human beings, we have a natural impulse to find or impose order in/on the natural world. This helps us gain an understanding of reality but can also prevent us from seeing it clearly. By categorizing and correlating the things that we perceive we are able to see patterns and derive powerful insights but it can also limit our understanding if we overgeneralize or mistake the inferred patterns for objective reality. So it becomes a process of focusing on details without losing sight of the whole, seeing each unique object and how it fits into the universal order of things. This cognitive balancing act is fundamentalto my process, as it is to all of our lives. My hope is that interacting with my art can provide a framework for understanding the physical world at large.

Q: 在北京唐人艺术中心的展览和您之前的展览有什么不同吗？您希望这些作品在广州展示时还可以有什么推进？

A: 我与唐人艺术中心的合作的十分开心，我过去做过些大展但没有这么大的规模。纽约的画廊没有这么大的空间，唯一可比的是MoMA（纽约现代艺术博物馆）的空间，但我尚未受邀；）。郑先生对画廊职能有着广阔的视野，在大多数画廊为了更易于推向市场而让艺术家少做进击作品的时候，他授权艺术家做大规模项目，这让人眼前一亮。艺术应该站在实用的对位，观念可以独立于市场力量而存在。这是博物馆的主要功能，却体现在一个私人画廊里，非常令人耳目一新。在广州的展览中，我希望“万物与虚无”这个大型装置单独出现在一个空间里，而相邻的展厅展示墙上作品，这将使观众能够在独立于墙上作品的情况下享受（“万物与虚无”的）沉浸式体验。我也期待看到作品在新空间中的演变。

What is the difference between the exhibition in Tang Contemporary Art and other exhibitions you had? What improvements do you want to see at the exhibition in Guangzhou?

Working with Tang Contemporary Art has been a great experience. I’ve done ambitious work in the past but nothing of this scale. No New York gallery has as massive a space. The only thing comparable is the big room at MoMA and that’s a call I haven’t gotten yet;) Mr. Zheng has an expansive vision of the gallery’s role in empowering artists to undertake massive projects, which is refreshing at a time when most galleries are doing less ambitious work that is easier to market. Art should exist as a counterpoint to the practical, in which ideas can exist independent of market forces. This is a principal function of museums and to see a private gallery embodying that is extremely refreshing. For the exhibition in Guangzhou, I look forward to seeing the large-scale installation All of This and Nothing in its own space, with the wall works in an adjoining room. This will allow the public to enjoy an immersive experience independently from the wall works. I also look forward to seeing how the work evolves in the new space.

Q: 有评论家认为您作品的形式像中国易经中的八卦图案，这是巧合还是您的艺术意图？如果这是你的意图，您如何知道易经，为什么您有兴趣研究它？您怎样看待与中国观众的交流？

A: 当我为一个展览做研究时我意识到货运托盘与易经卦非常相似。我很小就知道了《易经》，当时我在父母的书架上发现了一本关于它的书，但我从未注意到这种联系。而后，我才开始看到处处存在的联系，包括易经与当代文化之间的联系，也包括东西方文化与哲学之间的联系。

《易经》被誉为世界上最著名的中文书，中国观众可能会对于它对全球文化的影响程度感到惊讶。几百年来，西方知识分子和哲学家一直强调其内容的重要性。早在1703年，莱布尼茨就认为它证明了二进制数的普遍性，指出虚线代表0，即阴、无，而实线代表1，即阳、一。三千年后，这种二进制代码出现在我们生活的各个方面，从计算机代码到建筑代码。

Some critic said there is a similarity of the form of your work and the Eight Trigrams in I Ching. Is it a coincidence or your artistic intention? If its your intention, how do you get to know about I Ching and why are you interested in researching it? How do you see communication with Chinese viewers?

I was doing research for the show when I realized that shipping pallets bear a striking resemblance to the I Ching hexagrams. I’ve been aware of the I Ching since relatively young age, when I found a book about it on my parents’ bookshelf but I’d never noticed the connection. At that point I started to see connections everywhere, both between the I Ching and contemporary culture as well as between eastern and western culture and philosophy.

The I Ching has been described as the best-known Chinese book in the world and Chinese audiences may be surprised at the extent to which it has influenced global culture at large. Western intellectuals and philosophers have emphasized the importance of the text for hundreds of years. As far back as 1703, Leibniz argued that it proved the universality of binary numbers, noting the irreducibility of the broken lines representing 0, yin, nothingness and the solid lines, 1, yang or oneness. Three thousand years later, this binary code is present in every aspect of our lives, from computer code to building codes.

Q: 在未来，也许数字虚拟展览会越来越多地出现在我们的日常中，您是怎样看待这个问题的，您觉得怎样的虚拟展览才能达到真实展览的观看与交流感受，或者说是不是虚拟展览根本不用去模仿真实展览，而是创作一种前所未有的新的观看方式更重要？

A: 对我来说，这尤其是个复杂的问题，因为我的作品是建立在与物质世界直接联系的基础上的。毫无疑问，虚拟现实（VR）技术和增强现实（AR）技术在未来的社会中将越来越重要，但我的作品却恰恰相反。随着我们越来越多的在这些虚拟空间中生活，与物质世界直接互动并保持平衡就变得更加重要。所以我非常高兴这个虚拟展会有一个对应的认真布展的实体展览，我期待着展览真正落地的那一天。同时，我很感谢为艺术家和艺术界持续工作的你们，很荣幸能与你们一起工作。

In the near future, virtual exhibitions might be more and more frequently seen. What do you think about it? In what way virtual exhibitions can reach a similar communication level as a physical exhibition or it is unnecessary to stimulatethe physical exhibition but create a new way of seeing?

This is a complicated question for me in particular, as my work is predicated on a direct connection with the physical world. There’s no doubt that virtual and augmented reality will have an increasingly prominent place in our society going forward but my work is very much about doing the opposite. As we carry out more and more of our lives in these virtual spaces, direct interaction with the physical world will be that much more important to remain in balance. As a result, I am very happy that this virtual exhibition will have a physical counterpoint when we install the show in earnest. I’m looking forward to the day when that becomes possible. In the meantime, I appreciate all of your continued work on behalf of artists and the arts. It’s an honor to work with you.

小贴士