文章 | 薇薇安·格蕾文访谈
爱，是德国艺术家薇薇安·格蕾文作品的主题。在她空灵的画作中，常常可以发现从视觉和主题上对古典艺术的借鉴，即人体是神圣、美和爱的载体。对于薇薇安来说，美总是属于神圣的；而这点可以联系到宇宙间生与死的平衡。运用克制的色彩和突出的明暗关系，薇薇安的画有种通透的质感，展现了表象与形式的相互作用。她认为画布是一层半透明的膜，将表象与形式两种不同的力量分隔开来。通过流畅的笔触、微妙的色彩变化，和留白的运用，薇薇安把生气注入了画中奶白色的大理石身体中，将生命赋予到冰冷的石头肢体当中。这种具形的描绘吸引着观者去靠近，去触碰，并与画中人物之间的接触和姿态发生镜像关系。
薇薇安现在生活、工作在德国杜塞尔多夫。她曾获2016年STRABAG国际艺术奖，并且参加过美国、德国和英国等国际艺术驻留项目。她的作品以个展和群展的形式在多个国际艺术博览会中展出，包括NADA Miami，Art Berlin，和Art Cologne。
人体，从史前以来一直是艺术的主题；美的概念与之紧紧相连。当代的身体政治为人体的表现带来了非常戏剧化的转折，从古典时期的理想化风格，走向更包容和多元的身体描绘。然而，对于薇薇安来说，绘画人体是一个灵性的过程。她通过画画这种行动来庆祝宇宙中人类身体和形式的美。
Vivian Greven Photographed by Oli Tjaden. Courtesy of Art Maze Magazine.
雷拉·雷曼（Art Maze Magazine）：你好，薇薇安。作为开场，你能分享一下你最早的艺术记忆吗？
薇薇安·格蕾文（Vivian Greven）：我最早的记忆应该是六岁的时候画的一个公主。我感觉到那时的一些东西现在仍和我有着关联。我产生了一种直觉性的认知：我意识到绘画是一个独立的语言，可以表达我说不出来的东西。
AMM：你一直对古希腊罗马艺术感兴趣吗？你是什么时候开始在创作中发掘古典艺术这个灵感来源？
VG：我一直对人为创作的身体形式很感兴趣。这点在古典艺术中也能找到。我在画那个公主的时候，给她画了一个很细的腰，而且感觉很对。现在想起来或许有些残忍又迷人……
AMM：新古典主义者们总是企图去展示完美的美。这点和你的作品、还有当代的身体政治语境有什么样的联系？
VG：哈！没错。我认为这样的企图和尝试从来都是扎根在人类最深的意识当中的。我们总是在一种缺失的状态中，所以常常需要去填补它。“完美的美”这个想法是与神圣观念相联系，而神圣又跟宇宙连接的；在宇宙中，生与死是一对恋人。我觉得我们似乎已经忘记了这些，遗忘使我们痛苦并忽视自己的某些部分。现在我们谈论的身体政治就是要解决这种非常严重的缺失感。
Vivian Greven, Tru, 2018, oil on canvas, 49 x 35 cm.
AMM：可以跟我们谈谈你对描绘人体的兴趣吗？你最早开始画人体是什么时候？在创作的过程中，你对身体的理解发生过什么样的改变？
VG：从我开始画画的时候就已经开始画人体了。“我是什么”这个问题一直是我的动力。我对身体和心灵的互动有非常大的兴趣。在画画的过程中，我轻轻地把身体描绘出来。所以，我赏识身体，并且试图去抵抗现代社会对身体残忍的忽视。身体想要成为我们最忠诚的陪伴，但是我们却希望它的外观和功能都像机器一样。
AMM：你最近的作品展现了人物之间充满爱意的互动。这些作品的主题是爱吗？可以跟我们聊聊你在这些作品中探索的主旨和想法吗？
VG：是的！爱是本质。在最近的一批作品中，我讲述了埃罗斯（Amor）和赛姬（Psyche）的神话故事。这是一个古老的故事：赛姬为了见到她爱人的真身而毁灭了一段感情。当埃罗斯离开她时，赛姬变成了一具没有灵魂的肉体，最终死亡。画画的时候，我想尽可能地去接近人物的内心。比方说，在“The Area”系列中，观者可以看到赛姬在埃罗斯怀中的缓慢消逝，还有为爱奉献中的美与残酷。
AMM：你画中的人物总是无性的，你能跟我们说一说吗？
VG：我希望我的人物能够有代表人类的普世性。性别区分似乎太直白，太狭隘，太接地气了。
AMM：你的画总是同时具有超脱和性感的特质。你希望人们在看画的时候有什么样的体验？
VG：一种产生连结的感受。
Vivian Greven, )( III, 2018, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm.
AMM：你的许多构图专注于亲密接触，耳垂、嘴唇、颈窝，这些都是很私密和性感的身体部位。你在试图把焦点放在亲密关系上，还是说这种表达只是一个隐喻或别的东西？
VG：我并不觉得这些是私密的身体部位。是的，它们是对亲密关系的探讨。但并不是通过一种直接的性接触。它们更多地是关于彼此之间亲密的距离。关于信任。
AMM：你在作品中是如何去运用光影和色彩的？是怎么样让这些元素在作品中去支持你想表达的主题？
VG：我用这些绘画技巧去找到跟每幅画的本质最匹配的方式。比如说，在“Lamia”系列中，红色是很重要的。标题的“Lamia”有一个神话故事的典故，讲的是一个女人喝了自己死去孩子的血来应对逝子的创伤。这些画象征性地分析了关系中的相互给予和索取。所以，红色象征流动的爱，及随之而来的身心的温暖。
AMM：形式和表象在你的画中有非常有趣的互动。你是如何去加剧这种张力的？你想要达到什么样的效果？
VG：我把画布看作是一层膜，像皮肤一样。我可以既专注于它直接和表面的呈现，也可以专注到移动于表面之下的身体的质量。
AMM：你的创作过程是怎么样的？你会以草稿和试色展开，还是会允许画更自然地发展？
VG：通常，我创作的起点源于我对生活周遭的直觉反应。然后，我会花很多时间去做研究，收集图像和想法。我通过写和画的方式过滤、筛选出一部分素材。当我知道自己想画什么的时候，我会立刻寻找合适的构图。我的画一向先有构图，色彩是随后考虑的因素。
AMM：除了对新古典主义的参考之外，你的艺术很当代。还有什么事物、艺术家、文本或想法是你特别感兴趣的吗？
VG：我正活在当下。这意味着我正在被当下的影响包围着。这个所有东西都能通过电子屏幕获取到的时代是很鼓舞人的。因此，即便是最古老的遗迹也跟一支限量的MAC璀闪口红一样当代。时间秩序在这个时代不受用了。所有东西都是当下的。
Insane in the Membrane, Installation view, Collection Philara, Düsseldorf, 2018; photography by Paul Schöpfer.
AMM：你最近在不同形状的表面上画了一些侧面的半身像。你能跟我们说说这个新方向吗？是从你以前的想法发展而来的，还是一个全新的尝试？你用的是什么材料？这些镂空代表什么？
VG：这些半身像是我作品的一部分，它们体现了语言和意象上的权力结构。它们代表不同版本的维纳斯画像。每个画像的脸上都有一个切口，空白处是不同的标点符号。我们用标点符号创造出符号表情，是为了能在使用智能手机沟通的时候传达我们的情绪。这些半身像被标点符号污名化了。这个作品是关于对人类由内到外、刻板印象式的简化。
AMM：参与艺术驻留项的经历对你的艺术有什么样的影响？
VG：拥有开阔和坚定的胸襟对我来说很重要。这些驻留项目帮助我发展这两点：它们拓宽和深化了我的眼界。
AMM：你日常的创作仪式是怎么样的？
VG：最近，我会用一杯热柠檬水和冥想开始我的一天。然后，我走去工作室，准备一壶茶，尝试聆听寂静。感觉对的时候，就开始画画。我喜欢在下午小睡一会儿。接着我会一直画到晚上。周遭寂静的音量太大时，我喜欢听播客。到了晚上，我又走同一条路回到我的公寓。
AMM：在你的艺术中，最难去做“对”的事情是什么？
VG：一颗开放的心。
AMM：是什么让你晚上睡不着，为什么?
VG：有很多事情让我睡不着。我睡得不好。但常常是因为恐惧和爱。
AMM：你接下来有什么新的项目吗？
VG：我很期待明年，因为有许多新的挑战。我有些国外的展览，这让我很开心，因为我的作品有机会成为人与人之间沟通的桥梁。
Amore, Installation view, Aurel Scheibler, Berlin, 2018; photography by Roman März.
Celestial Bodies :
In Conversation with Vivian Greven
By Layla Leiman, winter 2019
Love is the subject of German artist Vivian Greven’s work. In her ethereal paintings, which borrow visually and thematically from Classical art, the human form is an embodiment of divine beauty and love. For Vivian, beauty is bound to holiness, which is in turn linked to the universal balance between life and death. Working in restrained colours and accentuating highlights and shadows, Vivian’s paintings are characterised by a glowing luminosity and interplay between surface and form. She considers the canvas a semi-permeable membrane separating these two forces moving within her work. Through her fluid brushstrokes, subtle colour gradients and use of negative space, Vivian breathes life into the creamy marble bodies in her paintings. Their cold stone limbs course with life. This corporeality draws the viewer in to want to reach out and touch, mirroring the contact and gestures within the paintings.
Vivian lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. The recipient of the STRABAG Artaward International in 2016, she has attended artist residencies in the USA, Germany and the UK. Her work has been shown at numerous international art fairs including NADA Miami, Art Berlin and Art Cologne and in solo and group exhibitions.
The human body has been the subject of art since pre-history and notions of beauty have been closely associated with this. Contemporary body politics has created a dramatic shift away from ‘classical’ representations of the human body in favour of more inclusive and diverse portrayals of the body. For Vivian however, painting the body is a kind of spiritual process. Through the act of painting, she celebrates the celestial beauty of the body and the human form.
AMM: Hi Vivian, to start us off, please can you share your earliest art memory.
VG: My first memory might be me drawing a princess when I was about 6 years old. I felt something that is still connected with me. It is the intuitive knowledge that this drawing is a language of its own, and thus able to say things I can’t as a person.
AMM: Have you always been interested in classical Greco-Roman art? What initially drew you to this as a source for your own art?
VG: I would say that I have always been interested in the artificial creation of bodies. That might be something which is also found in Greco-Roman art. When I drew this princess I made her have a slim waist and that felt good. It is cruel and fascinating at once…
AMM: The neo-classicists sought to portray perfect beauty. How does this idea relate to your work and contemporary discourse around body politics?
VG: Hah! Yes, that is right. I think it might be something which is rooted in the deepest consciousness of human beings in general and through all times. We are in a state of lack and thus always in need to fill it. The idea of perfect beauty is connected to the idea of holiness and holiness in turn is connected to the universe, where death and life are lovers. This seems to be something we have forgotten and it makes people suffer and neglect parts of themselves. Contemporary body politics has to deal with a severe loss of integrity.
AMM: Please tell us about your interest in representations of the human form. When did you first start painting the body? How has your understanding of the body changed through your work?
VG: I have painted bodies for as long as I can think. The question: “What am I?” has always been my driving force. I am deeply interested in the interaction of body and mind. During the painting process I gently stroke bodies into existence. Thus, I appreciate the body and try to overcome its cruel disregard in contemporary society. The body wants to be our most loyal companion but we want it to look and function like an electronic tool.
AMM: Your recent paintings depicted amorous interactions between figures. Is the subject of your work love? Please tell us more about the themes and ideas you’re exploring in these works.
VG: Yes! Love is the essence. For my recent body of work I depicted the mythological narrative of Amor and Psyche. It is the ancient tale about a unity destroyed by Psyche’s desire to see the real figure of her lover. As Amor withdraws from her, Psyche becomes a soulless body and dies in the end. Through painting I try to get as close as possible to my figures’ inner psychology. The “Area” series, for instance, observes Psyche’s slow dissolution in Amor’s arms and demonstrates the beauty and cruelty of love’s devotion.
AMM: The figures in your paintings are for the most part androgynous. Can you tell us more about this?
VG: I like my figures to be representations of human beings in a universal sense. Gender distinctions seem to be too explicit, too narrow, too earthly.
AMM: Your paintings are simultaneously ethereal and sensual. What would you hope people experience when viewing them?
VG: A sense of contact.
AMM: Many of your compositions focus in on intimate gestures of touch – an earlobe, lips, the nape of the neck, which are all very sensual and private parts of the body. Are you drawing attention to intimacy itself or is this perhaps a metaphor for something else?
VG: I did not think of these parts as especially private parts. But yes, it’s certainly about intimacy. But not in an explicit sexual sense…It’s more about being close to each other. It’s about trust.
AMM: How do you use light, shadow and color in your work? How do these elements support the themes in your art?
VG: I use these formal painting techniques in order to find the strongest analogy with each painting’s essence. For instance, the color red is significant in the “Lamia” series. The title “Lamia” refers to the mythological story of a woman who drinks the blood of children to overcome the loss of her own child. These paintings symbolically analyze the mutual give-and-take in relationships. Thus, the color red signifies a stream of love and the subsequent warming of body and mind.
AMM: There is an interesting interplay between form and surface in your paintings. How do you heighten this tension and to what effect?
VG: I see the painting’s surface as a membrane, like a skin. I can concentrate on its direct surficial appearance but also on the volume of the body, which moves underneath.
AMM: What is your process of working? Do you start with sketches and color tests or allow paintings to evolve organically?
VG: Usually, the starting point is an intuitive reaction to a certain trigger of my surroundings. After that, I have a time of research. I collect images and thoughts. Then I filter and focus often through writing and drawing. As soon as I know what needs to be painted, I search for its composition. I don’t start a painting without a composition. The colors, I find afterwards.
AMM: Beside the neo-classical references your art is very contemporary. What are some of the things, artists, texts, ideas that interest you in this regard?
VG: I am living now. That means I am constantly surrounded by contemporary influences. It’s highly inspiring that everything is always available through the digital screen on the internet. Thus, even the oldest relicts of existence are as contemporary as a limited edition of a MAC glitter lipstick. There is no chronological order. Everything is now.
AMM: Recently you’ve made a few paintings of busts in profile on shaped surfaces. Please tell us about this new direction. Is it a development of previous ideas or the start of something new? What materials are you using, and what do the cutouts represent?
VG: The busts belong to a part of my work which reflects upon power structures in language and imagery. They represent different Venus portrayals. Each of them has a cutout in the face, showing different punctuation marks. We use punctuation marks to create emojis in order to represent our emotions when communicating via smartphone. The busts are stigmatized with these punctuation marks. This work is about the stereotypical reduction of a human being, inside and outside.
AMM: Having been on a few artist residencies, how have you found these experiences have influenced your art?
VG: It’s important for me to have a broad and solid mind. The residencies help to develop both: they broaden and strengthen my mind’s borders.
AMM: What are your daily creative rituals?
VG: At the moment I start with a glass of hot lemon and a meditation in the morning. Then I walk to the studio, prepare a teapot and try to listen to the silence. When it feels right I start to paint. I like to do a short nap in the afternoon. Then I go on painting often till late evening. When the silence is getting too loud, I like to listen to Podcasts. In the evening I walk the same way back to my flat.
AMM: What are the hardest things for you to get ‘right’ in your art?
VG: An open heart.
AMM: What keeps you awake at night and why?
VG: There are many things. I am not a good sleeper. But for the most part it’s fear and love.
AMM: Do you have any new projects coming up? What’s next for you?
VG: I am very excited about the next year because I have many new challenges. My work will be shown internationally and my heart is full of joy that the paintings build bridges between people.
原文出处
关于艺术家
About the Artist
薇薇安·格蕾文 1985年出生于波恩，现生活工作于杜塞尔多夫。她的绘画方法借鉴贯通了古典艺术、波普艺术，以及数位媒介的形式与主题，轻盈地摆荡在真实的再现与抽离之间。娇娆的色彩，节制的构图，形象与形态的互换与共谋，格蕾文在静谧明澈的画面中，游弋探索于身体结构、生命经验、人性与神性之间，不断演绎却自若明晰的各种样貌。对世俗经验之外的向往，在不朽与转瞬的复始之间，格蕾文希冀在她的作品中捕捉一种更为恒定的和谐。近期个展包括：Elefant，ak Raum，科隆，2019；0 V，Kadel Willborn，杜塞尔多夫，2019；air，Galerie Thomas Fuchs，斯图加特，2019；amore，Aurel Scheibler，柏林，2018；GRAZIA，Aurel Scheibler，柏林，2017；Eyes Wide Shut，STRABAG Kunstforum，维也纳，2017，及BUDUMN，Setareh Gallery，杜塞尔多夫，2017。部分群展于Philipp Pflug Contemporary，法兰克福；斯图加特艺术博物馆，斯图加特；Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois，巴黎；及Salzburger Kunstverein，奥地利。薇薇安·格蕾文将于2021年在上海Gallery Vacancy举办个展。
Vivian Greven, born in Bonn in 1985, now lives and works in Düsseldorf. She creates ethereal paintings that borrow visually and thematically from classical arts, pop arts and digital media world, sliding in fluidity between representation and abstraction. Working in alluring colors and restrained arrangements, her paintings display the interplay between surface and form with a glowing luminosity, dramatically flirting with body structure, dualism, and human existence depicted in serenity and clarity. Beauty is rooted within holiness, which is in connection with the universal balance between the immortal and the ephemeral. Recent solo exhibitions include: Elefant at ak Raum, Cologne, 2019; 0 V at Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, 2019; air at Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, 2019; amore at Aurel Scheibler, Berlin, 2018; GRAZIA at Aurel Scheibler, Berlin, 2017; Eyes Wide Shut at STRABAG Kunstforum, Vienna, 2017; BUDUMN at Setareh Gallery, Düsseldorf, 2017 and selected group exhibitions at Philipp Pflug Contemporary, Frankfurt; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart; Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris and Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria. Vivian Greven will have her solo exhibition in Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai in 2021.
V A C A N C Y
周二–周六
Tuesday to Saturday | 10:00–18:00
200002上海市黄浦区四川中路660号5楼
5F, No. 660 , M. Sichuan Rd., Shanghai 200002
+86-(0)21-62411239
info@galleryvacancy.com
www.galleryvacancy.com